I’d been to Las Vegas before on business but rarely done anything cool or vaguely scandalous. Some years back I played a little blackjack at the Showboat (so off the strip, you might not know the strip existed) and was so nervous and clueless that I didn’t enjoy it. I’d gone to a nice dinner at a steakhouse once on a biz trip, and gone swimming once with Kat. Most of time I’ve been there for meetings or conferences or trade shows and I was just focused on business.<\/p>\n
Midway had an event this week and I went to get the scoop on their upcoming games. After the demos and the parties, I went to the Luxor to finally play poker for real. My local card room is a little expensive for my tastes ($3\/$6, which means you kind of have to buy in for $100 to be competitive) and both times I’ve gone, I didn’t enjoy it at all. I was assured that Vegas was more relaxed, more fun, and more drunk.<\/p>\n
All in all, it was good. I did not come out ahead. In fact, I was $100 down after two $50 buy-ins, and with the second one, I was all-in and pulled a straight to win a $40 pot, which kept me playing for a good while longer. But I enjoyed playing poker in Vegas for several hours, so I know I was buying the experience more than anything. That win just bought me more time.<\/p>\n
I saw the kind of play I expected on a low-stakes table ($1\/$2 limit), which is to say “reckless and hoping to catch a card on the river, which happened to me once and everybody else a lot.” I mean, I can’t complain because at low stakes, some people literally play any two cards and see what happens. Tonight, they won a lot — lots of unsuited, disconnected cards took the pot. One of the Mandalay Bay employees said he felt 60-70% of limit games were decided on the river, and that held up at our table. And like I said, some of the play was just horrible so you find yourself going “You’re kidding, THAT won?” But again, that’s poker, and lousy play\/crappy cards being rewarded sometimes is part of the game. A lot can happen in seven cards.<\/p>\n
The only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth is when a few side conversations were struck up in Spanish. I don’t mean that to sound xenophobic, but I’ve read a book or two on poker cheating at casinos, and collusion is the number one way to cheat. Speaking in a different language is the easiest way to do that. Mandalay Bay’s rules actually explicitly prohibit table conversations in any language but English for just that reason…but I wasn’t playing there. So when these chats en Espanol showed up at my table at the Luxor and were not addressed for a very long time, I did get a little put off. I kind of stayed around longer because I wanted to take some of their possibly-ill-gotten chips, so I might have quit a little earlier if the rule had been handed down. Then again, maybe not. And maybe it’s not a rule at the Luxor, but the third or fourth dealer in did finally say something, so I have to believe it’s common across all the casinos. It didn’t help that one of the Spanish-speaking guys said “Talk, talk!” when I casually struck up a conversation with other people. And then he changes his seat to be right next to his buddy? It all just seemed suspicious.<\/p>\n
That said, my mistakes were still my own, and many times I simply didn’t have the cards when someone else did. I was victim to a lot of overcards. I played pretty smart overall, though I did chase a few things I shouldn’t have, and I probably was not aggressive enough (or consistently aggressive). In the end, it was $100 of education. I’d do it again. But when I do, I’m gonna bust out some Latin or something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’d been to Las Vegas before on business but rarely done anything cool or vaguely scandalous. Some years back I played a little blackjack at the Showboat (so off the strip, you might not know the strip existed) and was … Continue reading