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Published: August 6th 2007
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11/04/07 - 12/04/07 Viva Las Vegas!
My hands weren’t exactly shaking as I sat down at the Poker table; cause the stakes weren’t that high but I was extremely nervous. The table was a Texas No Limit Hold ‘Em table with $1 and $2 blinds. Minimum $100 buy-in and max $300 but the cash tables run all night so I sat down with players holding hundreds of dollars of chips.
This means that you invariably join as the short-stacked player and so need to make some kind of early move to stay at the table. After losing a few dollars just to see flops with reasonable hands, I finally moved all in with $60 pre-flop holding a suited Ace, Jack of diamonds. I was instantly called and saw a pair of 8’s in my opponents’ hand. Fortunately I paired the Jacks on the river and took the pot to stay at the table.
During the course of an hour and a half, I went about $100 up and $50 down from my initial $100 of chips and finally decided it was time to call it a day sitting about $60 down, opting to see some free cards and
leave the table before posting my next big blind. Jacks were my cards again, as I was dealt a pair for the last hand I intended to play. I made a small bet, which my opponent called and the flop handed me another Jack as well as an Ace. My opponent bet and I re-raised. As long as he wasn’t holding pocket bullets, I should be OK. I’d seen another player lose $300 to pocket Aces when he thought he was home and dry holding two pairs, Aces and Eights. I was called again, and sure enough my 3-of-a-kind Jacks held up. I left the table a mere $20 up but importantly I had survived my first live poker experience and in THE place to play Poker - Las Vegas!
2 nights in Sin City were everything we expected. Glitz and glamour. Monster themed hotels, New York, New York, the Belagio, MGM Grand - all the famous names along The Strip. We stayed at the Venetian (previously The Sands) an all Suite Hotel (No rooms - just Suites) where our car was valet parked and we headed out to see the sights. The indoor shopping mall in the Venetian
is on the 2nd floor. This sounds unremarkable until you see that the whole floor is modeled on Venice, complete with a mini St Marks Square and canal running through the centre with operetta singing Gondoliers pushing people through the water. The ceiling is painted blue with clouds simulating the sky. It’s a very strange experience when you remember that you are on the 2nd floor inside a hotel!!
Walking down the strip, we came across Paris with its half size Eiffel Tower replica (allegedly as high as the CAA allows!) and headed up for a view of The Strip and the Belagio light and water show. It turned out we’d missed the last one of the night but the views down the strip were spectacular; the Green of MGM Grand and the flashing pink neon of Flamingos just some of the bright lights.
We played the Blackjack tables with the lowest minimum stakes and happily left up on our original stake. It was satisfying cashing in the black $100 chips for crisp $100 bills, knowing that the only money we’d paid the Casino/Hotel was for our room!
In Vegas, Celine Dion and Elton John play regularly
as does Prince, playing every Friday and Saturday night at the Rio, with a huge Gold Prince symbol against a purple background on the side of the hotel. Cirque De Soleil have 5 permanent shows in Vegas alone. We opted for Ka at the MGM Grand. I can honestly say that it was the most spectacular show I’ve ever seen. The set, the choreography and the acrobatics were all breath taking. The hydraulics behind the set allowed the stage to turn 360 degrees as well as move from a normal horizontal stage to a vertical rectangle where the tumbling acrobats climbed, slid down and sometimes dived and deliberately fell from great heights down into the swirling dried ice smoke below the front of the stage. The adverts for Ka say “ You hear it, You see it…but you won’t believe it!” and it’s true!!!
As we passed New York, New York I heard the screams of the riders on the Manhattan Express roller coaster and saw the yellow cars passing on the winding track high up above the strip. I can’t turn down thrill rides so we had to nip in and soon I was up side down on
Looking down the Strip
At Paris and the Belagio the loop the loop and corkscrew with a different view of hotels.
New York, New York was showing ‘Zumanity - The sensual side of Cirque du Soleil’ and there were still tickets for the 10:00 show, so we figured why not - we’re in Vegas and splashed out on 2 shows in one night!!
We’d gambled, we’d been to shows, we’d looked in amazement at the huge hotels with their themed interiors, we’d seen topless dancing girls. We hadn’t woken up with any unplanned tattoos or married to strangers after shot-gun weddings at themed chapels (phew), though we had seen plenty of brides in their wedding dresses wandering the casinos.
All in all, we were content. We’d done Vegas!
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Baron Von Bonnethausen
non-member comment
Good effort
Well done guys - Vegas sounds a hoot, shame you didnt do a shotgun wedding by Elvis witnessed by Maralyn. Call me old fashioned but thats how a wedding should be - none of this English church stuff, dunno what women see in them - ha ha ;-)) Take care out there fella and fellerette.