So I've managed to dodge all kinds of nefarious April Fools pranks and tomfoolery because I spent the entire day in bed. Yep, I think I slept for a good nine hours or more, and I must've really needed it because I crashed hard. I didn't even hear my phone ringing just a foot from my head, and I missed a couple of calls that came in during the day. I called to check my messages a few minutes ago, and the only person who left one was the receptionist at my insurance company calling to wish me a happy birthday.
WTF?
My birthday isn't for another month, but I give them mad props for doing whatever little shiat they can come up with to retain customers in this crummy economy. But I'm not going anywhere--I'm pretty much stuck with them. Not that I'm out looking for a new insurance agent, but I have shopped around several times over the past couple of years, and nobody's been able to beat them on price, so they'll continue to get my business.
My plan this afternoon was to get up and do some writing, then head out and get some dinner before my starting my new part-time job on the player's side of the poker tables. But when I woke up, I did a quick flyby of my daily rotation and I see that Carmen SinCity dropped me a hint in her latest blog post, requesting the services of a 'big strong man' to come help her set up and move her TV.
So I just got off the phone with her, and I'll be heading over there in a bit, once I shower and clean myself up somewhat. We didn't really talk about it, but I'm guessing we'll probably go get some dinner after the chores are done. Last night, I discovered that Sierra Gold has some great happy hour specials between 5-7 pm every night--half priced beer and pizzas--and I'd like to hit it again.
I dropped in there on my way to the poker tables, and one of my friends was bartending. I had no idea about any happy hour prices until she clued me in, so I had a couple of drafts and ordered some popcorn shrimp as an appy. It's pretty much against my code to eat pizza anywhere other than Grimaldi's nowadays, but for six bucks, I took a flyer on a small Hawaiian. It was damn good--much better than I expected, and although it isn't isn't on the same level of the coal-fired happiness of my favorite pizza joint, it was still a very respectable pie.
So my streak of never having a bad meal at Sierra Gold remains intact. It's quickly becoming my favorite all-around restaurant here in Vegas. Yeah, I know it's more of pub than a restaurant, but damn, their food sure is good, and you can't beat the eye candy that they have working there.
Making it even better is the fact that I played a little ten-cent triple-play video poker while I was sitting at the bar, and about two minutes into it, I hit four Aces for $68 (I was playing four credits at the time--40 cents a line X three lines, so it's close to playing regular quarter VP, but I've noticed that my money lasts about ten times longer on the ten cent triple play machine). I played for only a couple of minutes more and cashed out for eighty bucks, a $60 profit! That was a great way to kick off my night--It basically paid for my dinner and tip, and gave me a few bucks head start on the poker tables. Gotta love that.
My night in the poker room was a lot of fun, too. I had a great table with a lot of fun players, and the time just flew by. I never got 'stuck' either. For the first few hours I kinda treaded water--the bad players were sucking out and the good players weren't giving me any action, so it was a grind for a bit, but eventually it loosened up and when all was said and done, I racked up $270 on a hundred-dollar buy-in.
There was an absolutely crazy no-limit game going on, and I really should've gotten into it, but I was doing well in the limit game, and I was still stinging a bit from that $600 swing the other night. But one of my buddies came in about the same time I did, brought $40 with him to a much juicier 4-8 table than I was at, turned it into over $300 in just a couple of hours, then went over to the no-limit game and started feasting there. When I left this morning, the game was down to five-handed and he had almost $1300 in red chips stacked in front of him. All from a $40 buy-in! Talk about buying the lumberyard with a toothpick... He came over a couple of times throughout the course of the evening and was telling me Dude, you have *got* to get into this game! In hindsight, I guess I should've listened to him, but since today is the first of the month, that thousand dollars I had in my pocket was earmarked for a stack of bills that needed to be paid. I didn't want to risk losing a chunk of it so soon after the last train wreck.
Anyhow, that's about all that's going on here--I seem to have fallen into a routine of sleeping, playing poker, and occasionally working. It's not a bad gig, and I hope I'm able to keep it up for awhile. Because even though you can't make a living in low-limit poker, I've found a game that I can beat, and it's a great substitute for a part-time job.
Mikey
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