Las Vegas Day 2
I must say that there is no better feeling than waking up in the morning and not only feeling cozy while wrapped up in four blankets, but also being able to bask in the fact that you are up money in the gambling capital of the world. I awoke the morning of Day 2 feeling like I was walking on air. I felt ready to greet the day and wondered what sort of adventure today would take me on. I knew that I would have a lot to do today, what with going out for my birthday celebration dinner and going to the Fab Four Beatles Tribute Show at the shops at Planet Hollywood. Little did I know, however, that today was the kind of day that would show me the high points and the low points of Las Vegas life.
My shower that morning lasted at least a half an hour. I had never experienced a shower quite like it. Not only were the jets coming out of the top powerful, but there were also two jets shooting horizontally out of the wall that almost cradled your body. I felt consumed and surrounded by water at every turn and it was both relaxing and energizing at the same time. That coupled with the bitter orange scented soaps provided by the Venetian left for an extremely wonderful way to begin each day.
Kevin and I went out to the Venezia pool and laid out for a little bit. I was able to take advantage of one perk of wearing huge aviator sunglasses by partaking in some phenomenal girl watching. Girls from all around the world flocked to these water holes in desert and wore next to nothing. It was a glorious concept. I also took notice at this time that there was not a single cloud to be found anywhere in the sky. This certain lack of any form of condensation reminded me of where I was. I was sprawled out in an oasis of perfection.
The previous night we took notice of a Chipotle located past Casino Royale so we decided to head there for some relatively cheap and definitely filling eats. While dining on my double steak and barbacoa burrito, Kevin and I decided to head across the street to check out the Mirage. Upon arriving there we registered for players cards and were informed about the new player slot tournament. A slot tournament is an interesting concept. I hardly find the term "tournament" fitting because to me that implies that some sort of skill is necessary in order to progress on. I think a more fitting term would be "button pressing marathon". They literally give you a five minute timer and you must hit the "Spin" button on a slot machine consistently and hope to hit and score as much as possible. That's it. How this can be exciting I'll never know. Kevin and I tried to turn it into a competition between the two of us and he ended up winning after hitting the top scoring reel combination about four times. He was offered $75 in free play and I was offered 2 meal comps at the Mirage's buffet. However, in order to obtain these rewards we had to rack up 1,000 players points, which is MUCH harder than it sounds. Forty dollars later I was only around 36 points and decided to give up on that. No buffet comp was worth that. We left the Mirage feeling a little disappointed but hell, what did I care, I was still up money.
We were in Treasure Island for all of about 8 minutes when we decided to head back to the room and get changed into our suits. We had the show at 4:30 and dinner reservations at 8 which left little time to swing back to the room in between so we donned our suits then. I purchased a new suit just for this trip and had yet to wear it. That being said, I was pleasantly shocked at how good I looked. After that experience I'd really enjoy finding a career that would require me to wear a suit every day because I enjoyed it thoroughly even in the 90 degree dryness of Las Vegas.
We sat second row for the Beatles tribute show thanks to my Grandma's outstanding timing of purchasing tickets. The show was beyond incredible. It was literally like sitting at the front of a live show for the Beatles. These men sounded exactly like them, had three costume changes that took you through different eras in Beatles history, and played everything live. I couldn't have asked for a better experience as a birthday gift and I was floored by the end of the performance.
From there we headed over to the Las Vegas Hilton which is located off the Strip and behind the Wynn and Encore. We were a bit early for our reservations so Kevin and I split off from my Mom and Grandma and wandered the casino looking for low limit. I had been doing poor on luck games so far and I was getting a little disappointed that I had yet to sit down and play some poker. I wandered to the roulette table and slapped $20 on black. It came red and I sulked away cursing the world. That little jolt of action was enough to keep me away from anymore games until dinner.
I've enjoyed the cuisine of two hibatchi steakhouses in the past, but they both pale in comparison to Benihana. The Las Vegas Hilton has the largest Benihana in the world and the architecture of the two story restaurant is absolutely breathtaking. You wander down a little bridge as you are taken to your table and overhead view LED fireworks going off over the Asian themed pond. Once there you enjoy a bajillion course meal that includes such wonderful menu items as onion soup, salad, the best fried rice I've ever had, vegetables, and shrimp. It was incredible. Then, as it was my birthday, I was treated to Hibatchi steak and lobster. It all came together to create the best meal I've ever enjoyed. I want so bad to return to Benihana so my taste buds can go for a joyride once again.
Upon returning to the Venetian I could not take it any longer. The itch to play poker was slaying me and even though I was wearing a suit I still felt the need to sit down at that instant. I advised Kevin not to play as his bankroll and poker skills were most definitely not on par for the 1/2 NL game at the Venetian. As he wandered doing the casino doing who knows what, I bought $160 in chips and sat down in seat 7 of a table. I was getting strange looks from some of the players being that I was playing in a suit. I replied it was my 21st birthday and everyone said congratulations and were rather jovial with me from that point on. It put me in a great mood. The thing about being in a great mood however is that I was so focused on my own happiness that I wasn't playing that well. I was limping too often and I really didn't mind that I was virtually giving away my money. The guy in seat 6 made it 15 to go and I popped him up 25 more when I looked down at two red kings. It folded back around to him and he folded TT face up. It was at that point I realized that my game was definitely not where it should be to compete and I probably should have gotten up. I couldn't control myself during this session though. I was unable to let go of the fact that I had been in Vegas for over 24 hours and I had only played an hours worth of poker. I continued to trudge on to no avail.
I knew I was playing poorly so I didn't allow myself to pad my stack with more money while at the table, so when I was knocked down to about 60 I decided to just really wait for a hand and shove. A guy popped it up to 10 from mid-position and it folded around to my button. I looked down at 97s, my favorite hand. I honestly thought if I raised the rest of my stack I'd be able to push him off of it and the blinds would have to wake up with something huge to make the call from their position. I shoved the rest of my stack in and the blinds shot their hands into the muck at warp speed. The original raiser pondered, then made a rather loose call. My heart sunk when the flop came blank for me. K62 no spades. Not even a remote chance of this helping me at all. Another deuce turned and the Ace of Spades rivered. I was out for sure. I didn't even want to flip up my hand out of sheer embarrassment. However, the other player did not want to show his hand either. We had an awkward stare at each other for a while and finally the dealer made him turn up his hands. He said "It's yours" and showed....97d! Split pot! I couldn't believe it and frankly no one else at the table could. It was rather absurd. He offered to arm wrestle me for the pot and I replied that I was built like my grandmother so that would be idiotic on my part.
About six hands later my fate was sealed when seat 6 raised and I insta-shoved with TT. He called with AJ when it folded back around to him and a J pealed off on the flop. I said hasta-la-pasta and headed back to my room, rather dejected. I knew I was playing bad but I couldn't get over the fact that I should be playing good. I prepared for this trip mentally so much that I was astounded that variance decided to strike me down now. It was rather disheartening. I was down for the day and for the first time down on the trip. I knew that in the morning I'd have to wake up and play in the tournament at noon so at about 2:30 AM I decided to call it a night and somewhere between thoughts of anger and shame fell off into dreamland.
My shower that morning lasted at least a half an hour. I had never experienced a shower quite like it. Not only were the jets coming out of the top powerful, but there were also two jets shooting horizontally out of the wall that almost cradled your body. I felt consumed and surrounded by water at every turn and it was both relaxing and energizing at the same time. That coupled with the bitter orange scented soaps provided by the Venetian left for an extremely wonderful way to begin each day.
Kevin and I went out to the Venezia pool and laid out for a little bit. I was able to take advantage of one perk of wearing huge aviator sunglasses by partaking in some phenomenal girl watching. Girls from all around the world flocked to these water holes in desert and wore next to nothing. It was a glorious concept. I also took notice at this time that there was not a single cloud to be found anywhere in the sky. This certain lack of any form of condensation reminded me of where I was. I was sprawled out in an oasis of perfection.
The previous night we took notice of a Chipotle located past Casino Royale so we decided to head there for some relatively cheap and definitely filling eats. While dining on my double steak and barbacoa burrito, Kevin and I decided to head across the street to check out the Mirage. Upon arriving there we registered for players cards and were informed about the new player slot tournament. A slot tournament is an interesting concept. I hardly find the term "tournament" fitting because to me that implies that some sort of skill is necessary in order to progress on. I think a more fitting term would be "button pressing marathon". They literally give you a five minute timer and you must hit the "Spin" button on a slot machine consistently and hope to hit and score as much as possible. That's it. How this can be exciting I'll never know. Kevin and I tried to turn it into a competition between the two of us and he ended up winning after hitting the top scoring reel combination about four times. He was offered $75 in free play and I was offered 2 meal comps at the Mirage's buffet. However, in order to obtain these rewards we had to rack up 1,000 players points, which is MUCH harder than it sounds. Forty dollars later I was only around 36 points and decided to give up on that. No buffet comp was worth that. We left the Mirage feeling a little disappointed but hell, what did I care, I was still up money.
We were in Treasure Island for all of about 8 minutes when we decided to head back to the room and get changed into our suits. We had the show at 4:30 and dinner reservations at 8 which left little time to swing back to the room in between so we donned our suits then. I purchased a new suit just for this trip and had yet to wear it. That being said, I was pleasantly shocked at how good I looked. After that experience I'd really enjoy finding a career that would require me to wear a suit every day because I enjoyed it thoroughly even in the 90 degree dryness of Las Vegas.
We sat second row for the Beatles tribute show thanks to my Grandma's outstanding timing of purchasing tickets. The show was beyond incredible. It was literally like sitting at the front of a live show for the Beatles. These men sounded exactly like them, had three costume changes that took you through different eras in Beatles history, and played everything live. I couldn't have asked for a better experience as a birthday gift and I was floored by the end of the performance.
From there we headed over to the Las Vegas Hilton which is located off the Strip and behind the Wynn and Encore. We were a bit early for our reservations so Kevin and I split off from my Mom and Grandma and wandered the casino looking for low limit. I had been doing poor on luck games so far and I was getting a little disappointed that I had yet to sit down and play some poker. I wandered to the roulette table and slapped $20 on black. It came red and I sulked away cursing the world. That little jolt of action was enough to keep me away from anymore games until dinner.
I've enjoyed the cuisine of two hibatchi steakhouses in the past, but they both pale in comparison to Benihana. The Las Vegas Hilton has the largest Benihana in the world and the architecture of the two story restaurant is absolutely breathtaking. You wander down a little bridge as you are taken to your table and overhead view LED fireworks going off over the Asian themed pond. Once there you enjoy a bajillion course meal that includes such wonderful menu items as onion soup, salad, the best fried rice I've ever had, vegetables, and shrimp. It was incredible. Then, as it was my birthday, I was treated to Hibatchi steak and lobster. It all came together to create the best meal I've ever enjoyed. I want so bad to return to Benihana so my taste buds can go for a joyride once again.
Upon returning to the Venetian I could not take it any longer. The itch to play poker was slaying me and even though I was wearing a suit I still felt the need to sit down at that instant. I advised Kevin not to play as his bankroll and poker skills were most definitely not on par for the 1/2 NL game at the Venetian. As he wandered doing the casino doing who knows what, I bought $160 in chips and sat down in seat 7 of a table. I was getting strange looks from some of the players being that I was playing in a suit. I replied it was my 21st birthday and everyone said congratulations and were rather jovial with me from that point on. It put me in a great mood. The thing about being in a great mood however is that I was so focused on my own happiness that I wasn't playing that well. I was limping too often and I really didn't mind that I was virtually giving away my money. The guy in seat 6 made it 15 to go and I popped him up 25 more when I looked down at two red kings. It folded back around to him and he folded TT face up. It was at that point I realized that my game was definitely not where it should be to compete and I probably should have gotten up. I couldn't control myself during this session though. I was unable to let go of the fact that I had been in Vegas for over 24 hours and I had only played an hours worth of poker. I continued to trudge on to no avail.
I knew I was playing poorly so I didn't allow myself to pad my stack with more money while at the table, so when I was knocked down to about 60 I decided to just really wait for a hand and shove. A guy popped it up to 10 from mid-position and it folded around to my button. I looked down at 97s, my favorite hand. I honestly thought if I raised the rest of my stack I'd be able to push him off of it and the blinds would have to wake up with something huge to make the call from their position. I shoved the rest of my stack in and the blinds shot their hands into the muck at warp speed. The original raiser pondered, then made a rather loose call. My heart sunk when the flop came blank for me. K62 no spades. Not even a remote chance of this helping me at all. Another deuce turned and the Ace of Spades rivered. I was out for sure. I didn't even want to flip up my hand out of sheer embarrassment. However, the other player did not want to show his hand either. We had an awkward stare at each other for a while and finally the dealer made him turn up his hands. He said "It's yours" and showed....97d! Split pot! I couldn't believe it and frankly no one else at the table could. It was rather absurd. He offered to arm wrestle me for the pot and I replied that I was built like my grandmother so that would be idiotic on my part.
About six hands later my fate was sealed when seat 6 raised and I insta-shoved with TT. He called with AJ when it folded back around to him and a J pealed off on the flop. I said hasta-la-pasta and headed back to my room, rather dejected. I knew I was playing bad but I couldn't get over the fact that I should be playing good. I prepared for this trip mentally so much that I was astounded that variance decided to strike me down now. It was rather disheartening. I was down for the day and for the first time down on the trip. I knew that in the morning I'd have to wake up and play in the tournament at noon so at about 2:30 AM I decided to call it a night and somewhere between thoughts of anger and shame fell off into dreamland.