Giddy...

7/27/08

Feel like a Japanese Schoolgirl...heehee...

A couple days back, my buddy took me to a new sushi place his friend opened up on Sahara, just off the strip. The place is called Wayne's Sushi, it is just west of the 15 highway, past Palace Station. If you make it to Vegas, you have to check this place out. His rolls are the so called "bomb". If you like sashimi, it is darn fresh. I had a plate of halibut, salmon,tuna, abalone, crab and other sea faring raw fish that was excellent. I also had my usualof salmon skin roll - gooood as well. Another roll that caught my palate was a tempura sushi roll, with seared tenderloin on top, fucking good.

Last I night hooked up with one of my buddies who has been living in Vegas for the past few years. The original plan was to hit up one of the casinos to play some poker. I told him about the sushi place on Sahara and we decided to make a pit stop. Even though the sushi was the shieet. I decided to just get a couple of beers, as I was pretty full from eating dinner earlier that night. It was already about 9 pm, and I try not to eat past 7 or 8 pm. Anyway, my buddy ordered a couple of the rolls and was amazed at Wayne's creations. You don't even really need to mix up wasabi, soy sauce and ginger. Wayne usually tops off his rolls with his own secret jalapeno hot sauce. It's almost perfect. Wayne also hooked up some tuna and octopus poke'. Again excellent, as Bill and Ted would say. After an hour at the sushi bar, I finished up my 2nd Asahi. We then went on our way out to the Strip.

Unfortunately, the poker rooms of the strip were not in our fate tonight. My buddy wanted to check out a strip club. As much as I like going to strip clubs, I've been getting kind of burned out on them. Since I have been in Vegas (approximately 5 weeks, this Tuesday), I have been to strip clubs about 5 times. 3 times to Spearmint Rhino and twice to Cheetah's (I just hit up Cheetah's the day before with another buddy, it was for happy hour, so lap dances are $10.00 bucks till 9 pm, half off domestic beers and no cover - if you wanted to know). My buddy wanted to check out Little Darlings, which is a full nude strip club. We got there, his admission fee was $10.00 as a local and they were going to charge me $25.00 to get in. As I said, I am kinda burned out on them and didn't want to pay the door fee that night. We then decided to check out Sapphire's instead (a topless only strip club down the ways), as his admission would be free and I was thinking maybe $20.00 bucks for me (I'll make the sacrifice, for friendship, hehe). I had the mindset of just budgeting $70.00 for the strip club. I don't want to get caught up in giving more donations to the independent contractors from LA. I thought that should be enough for admission, a beer and a couple of lap dances (I was going to be discretionary - they got to have personality and dance talent, no ordinary run of the mill blonde from the OC). Anyway we got to the club, and what turned me off this time, was that it was a Saturday and the place was packed. Next thing that pissed me off was that the cover charge was $30.00 bucks. Dang, nowI only got enough for 2 lap dances and no drinks. That is also money that I could be using for poker. Lol. I pouted to the cashier girl about paying, as I am sort of a LasVegas resident now - but of course they needed valid ID. After I paid, she gave me a couple of VIP passes to assuage the pain. When we got into the main area of the club,I was like wow - again Vegas must have the top 2 percent of genetically perfect women of the world - this town is too plastic sometimes. But hey, you gots to love it. The plethora of bebots, kind of calmed my initial pessimism. We decided to sit down at the stage closest to the rear of the club. This is where each stripper would make their rounds before going out on to the floor of the club, to swipe twamps and benjamins off of unsuspecting horny fools. I'm proud of myself, I went a whole hour and a half without getting a lap dance. There was so much temptation. I just spent the time, watching each new dancer make their rounds onstage, putting a discretionary dollar on the stage if they did something out of the ordinary - you know like some type of crazy gymnastic move on the pole or giving me a sultry eye. I didn't even order any drinks. Discipline baby. I finally bent down to temptation when this stripper of African American heritage stopped by my chair to talk. She was pretty cute in a Tatyana Ali sort of way, you know the little sister from the tv show, The Fresh Prince. She didn't push a dance off the bat. We talked for a while and she told me that she was from Sherman Oaks. She was a bit bougi, I guess being from Sherman Oaks, but it made her cuter. She didn't come at me like Craig's ex-girlfriend from Friday, "You ain't gots to lie Craig, you ain't gots to lie!!!!"....She was trying to make about $3,000.00 that night and was up to only at about $1,000.00 at the time. She said she got a fat mortgage payment, and it's due in about a week. I kind of laughed, cause I know she didn't expect me to help her out. She asked me what I was doing in Vegas. I told her that I'm out here, just seeking a change of pace out of the Bay Area, and also seeing if I could actually make it in poker. I told her that it has been hard leaving family, friends and my girlfriend in the Bay. She seemed pretty cool, so I decided to get a lap dance from her. I think the song playing was that "Dangerous", with Akon on the hook. Not bad, bougi and ghetto do mix together. After the dance, we hung out a bit talking - her concern at that time, was that she was not getting enough business that night. She wanted to know if the quality of her dance was not up to par. I told her that it was cool. There's just not enough brothers in the club that night. It was mostly filled with caucasian and asian dudes - who are usually not attracted or scurred of black women. Those types of guys usually go for the cheerleader types or me so hornay' gurls...She thought that was funny, but I said it's the truth. She knew that. I told her to approach the whiteboys and tell them not to be scurred, as she most likely lived in a more affluent community than they did (Sherman Oaks, remember). Lol, I should be a the Walter Conkrite of stripper interviews.

Anyway, I finally caught up with my buddy (where in the hell was he anyway), after about another hour and a half of chillin' at the stage. I'm proud of myself, after 3 hours I only spent a total of $65.00 bucks in that place. I went under my budget of $70.00 bucks. Who's the big winner, Scotty is!!! We decided to call it a night. I didn't really want to play that night. You get exhausted just kicking at the strip club sometimes...

Sunday, I decided to hit up poker tournament, as I did not get to play poker the night before. I did some research on the Net, to find out where the best small buy in tournaments were being held that day. I decided to check out the $65.00, $40.00 rebuy No Limit Texas Holdem tournament at the Golden Nugget at 3 pm. I got there about 45 minutes before it was to start and paid my buy in of $65.00. I read Card Player and did my bad habit of smoking my cigarettes to kill time before the tournament. At 3 pm the tournament started and all the players started with $2,000.00 in chips, with an optional rebuy/add on for $40.00 bucks, which you can pay off the bat. I didn't elect to pay the extra $40.00. I will leave that for later if needed to. If you know me as a player, I usually do not like rebuys or add ons, because it keeps players that should be out of the tournament, in the tournament. One good thing about it, is that it pumps up the prize money. I was embroiled in playing a very tight aggressive style as you really did not start off with a lot of chips and the blind periods were only 20 minutes each. If you raised a hand, you may be pot committed as you would not like to get short stacked for the next blind period. One thing that annoyed me during the tournament was this drunk ass white older guy who played to my right until he busted out. The dealer, I or other players would have to instruct him on what to do when it was his action. I just wished that I was the one to bust him out. But alas, another player got him to commit all of his chips with Jack high - the other player had pocket Aces. The board did not help anyone and the drunk ass guy busted out. I happened to trump along with at least 10 to 15 big blind bets throughout each round. Short stacked, that's my steeze, hehe. Only the top 3 were to be paid for this tournament. When it got down to 6 players, I asked the table to see if they wanted to work out some kind of chop. I had a medium stack of about 22 blinds, soI was not in desperation mode at that time. I just thought it might be a good suggestion at the time. No one at the table agreed. I did have a couple of breaks along the way thought. Namely when I shoved all in on Ace/Seven OS from midposition 6 handed. I got called by the button player and the small/big blinds folded. I was up against Ace/King OS. I was severely dominated. But, whattaya you know, flop came jackpot for me - Seven/Seven/Six. Blanks hit the turn and river. Wheee!! What a double up, they feel good, almost like the sex, hehe. Anyway to make a long story short, the last 4 players (including me of course) decided to chop the rest of the prize money. $500.00 went to the chip leader, 2nd/3rd/4th places got $350.00 each. Cool, a net profit for the day.

Since it was still early, I then decided to go to the Orleans for their $105.00 No Limit Texas Holdem tournament that starts at 7 pm. I have about an hour until it starts, so why not? I like Orleans poker tourny formats - you would start out with $5,000.00 in chips, blinds for the first hour were 20 minutes long, then would be 30 minutes thereafter. The Orleans Sunday night tournaments usually field about 100 to 150 players.Tonight it was short of that, with only 71 players. The top 7 players would be paid, with first place taking a little over $2,200.00 bucks, not bad for a days work.

I played my game and grinded it out to the last couple of tables. There were about 21 players at that point. There was this key hand that I had at the time. Blinds were$1,000/$2,000.00, with a $50.00 ante. Before any bets, there was $3,350.00 in the pot. The under the gun player bets out $25,100.00 all in. Two players fold and the bet comes to me. I have about $28,000.00 in chips at that time. I peeled my cards up and see Ace/King OS. I was having a problem in putting a range of hands on him. What would this guy have to go all in like that. Obviously, he didn't want to get called. He must have a low pair or maybe Ace/rag (which I'm hoping for). He doesn't have a pair of Aces or Kings, maybe Queens, but would he go all in like that? I told the dealer to put a clock on me. Usually other players would put the clock on another player. After contemplating, I decided to call - hopefully I have him dominated. The button, small and big blinds folded. We were heads up and he flipped up pocket Jacks. Ok, a race, I really wish I was dominating him. Blanks on the flop and turn for me. God, let me hit a King or Ace. Wheeee, again...Hit me a river Ace. A nice double up. I could breath for awhile. I'd rather be lucky than good. But yo, it was a coinflip - you have to win these to get to the money. By the time we got to the final table of 10 players, I had a decent chip stack and knew that I was going to get to the money table of 7 players. There were 3 short stack players still left. I could probably just fold out until they each got picked off. When it got to 9 players, the table decided to give the 8th and 9th places their buy in of $105.00 back so they wouldn't leave the tournament with nothing. I totally agreed to that, I hate busting out just short of the money, when you've played for a good part of the day. I could have been next, you know.

The dominant chip leader was this caucausian guy in his forties. I had my ups and downs at the final table, but eventually got to in position to at least grab 3rd place money of $720.00. The chip leader pretty much took out the last 5 players. I had about 1/6 of the chips in player, the other player had 2/6 if the chips in play and the chip leader with about 3/6 of the chips in play. I had work to do. In this certain hand, the chip leader folded his button, the small blind raised the bet up to $14,000.00. I had $4,000.00 in the pot with my big blind. With antes at $500.00 each, the pot swelled to $19,500.00. I peeled my card and saw Ace/Five OS. I looked at my chips and saw that I had about $25,000.00 left. I told myself that it's now or never, but you're probably behind. I went all in was quickly called, the other player had Ace/Ten Spades. I'm in bad shape. I'm hoping for a chop. I called for the Five'sky, which the dealer obliged when the door card on the flop revealed a beautiful Five - followed by a Two and an Ace. Damn top two pair on the flop, please no Ten. The turn brought another Ace, I got a Full House Baby, again no Ten! The river was a beautiful Two. Both of us got Full Houses, but mine is better kid, wheee!!!

The chip leader finally bounced the other player. This guy is lucky. He had about a 4 to 1 chip lead on me. I need to win some pots. After trading a couple of all in's back in forth, I had a 1 to 3 chip deficit still. I then looked down to Ten/Five OS when I had the dealer button. I kind of acted as if I was contemplating a raise preflop. After my Oscar Award winning performance, I completed the bet to $6,000.00. The chip leader checked his big blind option. The flop was dealt Ten of Clubs, Two of Spades and Six of Clubs. I should have a monster hand heads up, top pair is pretty good. The chip lead led out with a pot sized bet of $15,000.00.I contemplated for a bit again, but I knew I was going to get some chips in this pot. I had about $50,000.00 in chips and decided that I was going to ship them in. I declared all in at that point, which shuddered the chip leader a bit. I know I got him. He decided to fold. We played back and forth for the next 10 minutes, not really getting anywhere. I asked him if he wanted to chop the pot. He counted out his chips, which numbered about $180,000.00. I counted my chips out to $167,000.00.We were pretty much even. I offered him 50% chop, he agreed and we both got about $1,600.00 each. We even qualified for the monthly freeroll.

Like I said giddy as a Japanese Schoolgirl....