We settled into room 2460 in Ballys Indigo Tower with a beautiful view facing east. It was easy to see UNLV's Thomas & Mack Arena, home of the Runnin' Rebels basketball team and The Hard Rock with its classic huge guitar sign.
I registered for the tourney and learned that there were some 1,200 players enrolled. Play began for me at 9 a.m. on Tuesday when I was assigned to seat 2 on table 9 at the Cromwell.
Making the short walk from Ballys to the Cromwell, I arrived about 8:45 and was seated with 4 other players, all guys. The sixth seat went unclaimed. Since the top player at each table advanced to the next round, I only had to beat 4 guys to advance. Each player started with 1,000 in tournament chips - 8 $100 chips and 8 $25 chips. The dealer would deal 20 hands of bj and when it's over the guy with the most chips advances to the next round.
Halfway through the 20 hands, we were all pretty close. The leader had about $1200 and I had 800, with everyone else closely bunched. Then came a key hand. While most of our bets were conservatively $25 or $50, one guy bet half his stack - $400 - and got dealt a pair of eights against the dealer's king.
Proper blackjack strategy calls for the player to split his eights and that's what the guy did, shoving his last $400 out. On the first 8, he caught an Ace for 19. On the other 8, he snagged a 3, then a 10 for a solid 21. The dealer flipped her hole card, a 7 and the guy doubled up his chips to $1,600 taking the chip lead.
I had a whole series of poor cards. Four times I got an ace on my first card, only to get a small card on my second. Never a blackjack!
With 3 hands remaining the same guy had the chip lead. After his big hand, he conservatively bet only $25 a hand to try to keep the lead. With $700 in chips, I knew I had to do something dramatic, so I bet $400 and lost. Then I bet my last $300 and drew a 17, losing to the dealer's 19. My tourney was over.
But it was fun and I hope I get invited back next year.
I returned to the room and shared the story with Helen and we decided to visit the Bellagio Conservatory to see their Spring Display. It's always amazing to see what they come up with made of flowers and other plants. This year the highlights were birds, turtles and fish, plus running water.
On Wednesday Helen and I spent the day visiting Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile shops and relaxing in the room. One highlight was our dinner - a delicious deep dish pizza from Giordano's at Ballys. We got the small pie, plus a Caesar salad via takeout and enjoyed it while relaxing in our room
Wednesday night we went to sleep about 10 or so and I had a strange experience. I had a dream in which I was sitting at a poker table with a huge pile of chips. So tall that I had trouble seeing around the stacks of multi-colored chips. There was no playing or anything else involved, just me sitting with the chip mountains.
So when I woke up at 2 a.m., I got dressed and walked down to the poker room. Helen and I have always agreed that if I get up early, usually 4 or 5 a.m., and want to go down to gamble, I can do it as long as I return to wake her up at 7:30. So it wasn't too unusual for me to leave.
Anyway, I got to the poker room and there was one game going, with one seat available. I took it and won the first two hands I played. Within a half hour, I had grown my $50 buy-in up to about $120 or so. Things were going really well.
There was a know-it-all loudmouth sitting two seats to my left. He's the kind of irritating player who always tells you how to play the hand, whether he's in it or not. He spews statistics, percentages, pot odds and analyzes everything for everyone. Very annoying and, frankly, bad poker etiquette. When he took a bathroom break, the player to my right whispered to me ,"What a jerk!"
"You know how to deal with a jerk like him, don't ya," I answered.
"No how?"
"You take all his chips!"
And two hands later I had the chance to try. I was dealt K-K and bet $12. The Jerk called and everyone else folded. It was head-to-head when the flop came Q-5-9 of different suits. I bet $25, hoping The Jerk would call or maybe even raise. He didn't hesitate when he raised it to $50.
"All In" was my response, moving my last $90 or so toward the pot.
"I call" said The Jerk, arrogantly tossing down his A-Q
I showed my K-K and waited for the dealer to show the turn and river cards. The only way I could lose was if The Jerk caught one of 3 aces or 2 queens. That didn't happen and I got all of The Jerks chips. He stormed away from the table muttering something under his breath. I didn't catch what he said, I was too busy stacking chips!
The game broke up about 4 a.m. and I had won $256 over the two hour session. I returned to the room and slipped back into bed. I had trouble getting back to sleep, but eventually did and woke up about 6:30. Helen never knew I left the room until I told her the story and showed her the cash.
"It's like Christmas," she said. "You go to sleep and someone comes into the room and leaves you presents!"
In this case, I was Santa and the $$$$ was our presents!
We checked out a few hours later and returned to our apartment. And so our adventure continues...
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