A Coffee Crisis and a Full Day of Poker

It was still dark when the first crisis of the day hit our apartment. Around 5 a.m. (I'm still an early riser) I flicked on the coffee, then hit the bathroom. When I came out a few minutes later, no coffee... apparently Mr. Coffee passed away quietly during the night. Our condolences to Mrs. Coffee and the little Coffees, but darn, I need my morning caffeine.

So by 6:30 or so, I was on the road to pick up another coffeemaker. First stop, our nearby Target. No luck. It opens at 8 a.m. (I thought LV was a 24-hour town, but whatever...) Quickly drive 7 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart, which DOES stay open 24 hours. Snatch another Mr. Coffee that is marked down to the bargain price of $14.88. Almost makes me want to buy 2 or 3, but I resist the investment.

Go home, fire up the new java maker and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. My plan is to go play poker on the Strip today, while Helen relaxes at home and decorates our Luther Tree.

By 9 a.m. I am down at MGM Grand and checking out their only $1-2 No Limit game. I grab a seat and play for about 90 minutes, racking up a win of $120. So I take a break and visit the nearby sports book where I enjoy a coffee and fine cigar and play a slew of fb bets for this weekend's games.

After about an hour, I check back at the poker room, but it's jammed now and there's a line of about 6-7 players ahead of me. I decide to walk to the Monte Carlo and check out its poker room. No problem getting a seat there, but my luck is nothing but bad. Poor starting hands and never made anything. The best hand I had was two-pair...no sets, no straights, no flushes. Tough to win anything, but I did bluff at a couple of pots that kept me going. After about 3 hours, I was down $70 when I left just before 4 p.m.

Walked back to the MGM and fought my way through the Strip traffic to return to the apartment where Helen had decorated the beautiful 3-foot Luther Tree with red apples, white ribbons, white roses and white lights. It's beautiful and is our only holiday decoration this year.

That's our report for today. Tomorrow we're planning to stop by a Linens N Things store that is going out of business and catch a movie at the Red Rock Casino theater...