Photography, Travel, and Freedom

Downhill, downhill, downhill…

Where should I begin? Being told I answered all four of my wake up calls today (the final two resulting in my missing half of the Blue Man Group show)? The broken clock and phone in the room – the latter of which I unplugged for them to replace, only to be told when the service man got here that the problem was the phone was unplugged?

How about an hour and a half for room service? Or calling at 6pm on Thursday to have my room cleared, only to come back at 4am and nothing has been changed?

Maybe my key being demagnetized and my sitting in the hallway in front of the room waiting for someone to come up with a new key?

How about $8.95 for two Tylenol?

How about playing a $600 hand of blackjack only to have some asshole play a $25 hand, sit on 16 against the dealer’s King, dealer has a 16 and pulls a 5 (next card, for the record, was a 9) and beats my K/J?

The only bright spot here is Tao (Beach and Club). I’m quite certain I’m done with my clubbing days, but last night was quite fun. Being slapped around really was a lot of fun…hope that happens again sometime…

Actually, one other thing – Wayne Brady was terrific. See him.

If I ever do come back to Vegas, it won’t be to the Venetian.

Update: The manager of the hotel has called me a liar. He says that his people confirm they spoke to me on four separate occassions TODAY for four wakeup calls…never mind the fact that the bedside phone was broken and it was impossible for me answer from there. Apparently, I am a somnambulist. I got up, out of bed, walked down two steps, answered the phone on the steps, went back to bed, and did it again…not once, but twice…today….within six hours.

Calling for a boycott of the Venetian. You’ll get better service elsewhere – guaranteed.

David :: Jul.28.2008 :: gambling, holiday, liberty, travel :: No Comments »

Wanted to apologize, loyal readers, for not posting so much the past few days. Tomorrow is my thesis defense and I’ve been quite busy preparing for that.

Just wanted to toss that out there for you guys. After I’m done, I’m off to Vegas through at least Sunday – perhaps longer, not quite sure yet. So, figure for the next week or so, posting will be light. I’m going to do my best to get a rant in later tonight and a good post tomorrow summarizing how my defense went and a wrap up about my program. I know you guys are looking forward to reading that – and I’m looking forward to writing it.

Stay safe!

David :: Jul.21.2008 :: Photography, gambling, holiday, travel :: No Comments »

It was quite the July 4th celebration.

We arrived at Foxwoods around 4:30pm with the expressed intent of visiting their wold famous poker room. I haven’t played poker for money since the 7th grade, but one of my fellow car club members had been talking about it and I wanted to try it out.

We stopped at the craps table first to build up a stake and boy did that work out well! I had not one but TWO 25+ rolls and was hitting Yo left and right (unfortunately, unlike my good friend Eric Richenstein, I don’t bet on Yo). I was hitting 5s though, which is different for me, I usually am a 4/10 guy, but no matter – we were making a bankroll to finance a foray into the poker room.

Now, a word about casinos. Casinos are frequented predominantly by older folks (hopefully with more disposable income and not gambling away the mortgage) and Asians. Foxwoods even has an Asian site. Being a frequent visitor to Macau, this is not unusual for me to see, but I’m more likely to be at Mohegan Sun or the Borgata because they are closer than Foxwoods which generally have a different demographic (Foxwoods is also the largest casino in the world, so that may prove the difference).

Anyway, my point before you all accuse me of being xenophobic (which would be ridiculous, I spend more time in Asia than I do in the US), is that walking into the Poker Room at Foxwoods, the demographic shift was undeniable. Mid-20s white frat boys dominated the scenery – it was unlike anything I had seen before. From the energy and excitement of a craps table to a quiet puissance in the air of the poker room.

Sat down at a “2/4″ table which means the low bet is $2 and the high bet is $4. I had never been in a poker room, as I had mentioned earlier, and it was quite overwhelming, but I was sitting next to a woman called Phyllis who was a regular (and a Met fan to boot!) and she held my hand while taking some of my money. It was great fun and I look forward to learning the finer aspects of the game and returning in the future.

(Allow me to digress a moment into the finer details – I had pocket A/K suited and flopped a flush – best hand on the table, no doubt. I check through as some bozos are piling up the money. At fourth street I come over the top and go head to head as the pot keeps getting larger and larger. River comes and the pot is high as the sky – I’m thinking about that Alpa I’ve been wanting for so damn long – and the motherfucker pulled a full house out of his ass. This would be my first bad beat [of two on the day], and it hurt.)

I will be posting a follow-up post quite soon about the trip back to Manhattan that was equally worthy of a blog post.

David :: Jul.05.2008 :: gambling, travel :: No Comments »