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Taylor Caby: Poker Blog
Last night was a fun time. It's funny, I've become so used to the Vegas lifestyle that when contemplating blogging about the night before I thought to myself "nah, probably not blog worthy," when in reality it was pretty damn fun and I should blog about it so I can remember it thirty years down the road when I'm old and my memory is fading.
We started off the day by hanging out, playing bball, and just chilling at the house. Nothing too exciting, I won a couple hundred in our bball game which means I'm only slightly down prop betting this summer (lost 1k in a brutal 3-point shooting day a week ago).
We headed down to MGM because we were going to see Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood in concert. I had tickets but was having a quarterlife crisis of sorts and felt like just going home after dinner and sitting around and moping a lot. I don't know why but lately I've had my fair share of mood swings and haven't felt all that great about life in general. That's probably a story for another day but I'm going to start back up with the therapist I saw a few years ago when I was quite emo after graduating college.
So we had dinner at Pearl at the MGM Grand. Pretty good meal, I got some Schezuan Shrimp and a chocolate banana dessert that was excellent. I always have a great time going out to dinner with my Vegas roommates and for some reason this year we just haven't done it very often. I'm lucky to be staying with a great group of guys because it can be hard to find that in the poker world.
After some good conversation and a few beers I was feeling less quarterlifecrisisy and decided I'd go to the Clapton/Winwood. We walked over the show, got some more beers, and headed to our seats at the perfect time as the show was just starting.
I didn't know what to expect about this concert as I knew they would only be playing songs from when Clapton and Winwood played together and this was way before my time and I'm not really into whatever it is the music is called (is it classic rock?). That being said, I know Clapton is one of the world's most talented guitarists and I've always enjoyed Steve Winwood's stuff so I just went and figured I'd see what happened. This is also a good time to remind myself again that I've never gone to a concert and been like "I shouldn't have gone to that concert" afterwords.
This show was no exception. I didn't know most of the songs they played but these guys could really rock even into their 50's or 60's, however old they are these days. Watching Steve Winwood on the piano makes me pretty glad my parents forced me to take lessons for 8 years. At some point in my life I'm looking forward to getting back into the piano, probably won't be any time soon!
As an aside, my favorite Steve Winwood song is:
After the show we considered going to Studio 54 at MGM but decided we were clubbed out from recent days and instead went to the Hard Rock to play some blackjack and drink before seeing where the night took us. I have to give places like the Hard Rock and Planet Hollywood credit for putting in the blackjack tables that have smokin' hot dealers in skimpy outfits dealing. It's pretty brilliant because they jack up the table limits a little higher than most are comfortable with (in this case, $25 per hand at the Hard Rock) and they also pay out only 6:5 on blackjack which is flat out robbery. To the casual tourist though I'm sure they know nothing of this and decide to play for more money with worse odds than they normally would.
I bought in for $400 and decided to not do anything too crazy because I only had $80 more in my pocket to last me the rest of the night and cab fare home could be $25 or more. Well, I got up to about $700 pretty quickly and started to "ride the rush" and bet $50 per hand. I quickly lost a million hands in a row to a very hot new dealer and chalked it up to negative variance. Half of the group was ready to go home by now so my friend Stevie Ballgame lent me $500 so I could keep playing while we decided what to do.
An hour or so later we were starting to get tipsy and all having fun. We didn't really know what we wanted to do but we knew playing more blackjack was a bad idea so we decided to go "all-in" on the last hand and make large bets relative to the stakes we had been playing. My "bankroll" was at $800 so I for some reason bet $575 and hoped for the best. This is when it got interesting.
The dealer had a five showing and I had two three's. Right as I said "hit it," Andrew reached over and stopped the dealer and said "that's a split." I said, "ah crap, really?" The table agreed and I obviously had to go by the book and split it with money I didn't have.
So the dealer splits them and rolls off another three. Okay, time for another split. I borrowed money from Scott and split it once again. Now there is $1725 riding on this hand. Hmmm.
First hand I get a 6, so I'm showing 9 vs. a 5. Oops, that's a double. I borrow $575 more. I hit it and get an 8 and stay at 17.....meh.
Next hand, I get a 6, so I'm showing 9 vs a 5. Again, oops, that's a double. I borrow $575 more. I hit it and get a 5 and stay at 14...not good. I now have about 3k riding on this hand.
Last hand, I hit and eventually stay on 18, not too bad but not great either.
At this point the whole table is going crazy and across the five of us there is probably about 6k spread across a table where there is typically no more than $300 in action at any given time. The dealer turns over her card and it's a 4. Not good, dealer has 9 so if the next card is a face card I just lost 3k and we probably don't even have money to go out because we had to pool the rest of our money to play this hand out.
Next card is a 3, dealer has 12. Good, not great. Next card is a 4, dealer has 16, nice little sweat! Next card an 8, dealer busts! There is a lot of yelling and double checking/counting and we are all paid out.
I pay off my debts and now I've turned a $400 loss into something like a $2500 win. Sweet.
At this point we do the only practical thing which is to walk across the street to whatever mediocre strip club is close to the Hard Rock. The stench of BO at this place was a bit overwhelming but all in all we had a good time. Drinks were on me that night thanks to my good fortune at the tables. At about 4:30 we headed home and stopped at Jack in the Box only to find out one IRock's friends left to go to hooters and came back with 100 wings.
I fell asleep a pretty happy guy, all in all it was a fun night. Okay got to go, going out to dinner with Cole, Larissa, and the roommates. Peace.
Jun 29, 09 03:59:54
Blackjack. The game that makes you bet a lot more than you ever intended to.
Jun 29, 09 09:56:19
Great story! There's no other way to end the night than Strippers and Jack n in the Crack! Well done!
Jun 29, 09 10:54:46
doubling at 9..what a rookie mistake....
if u get a deuce , ur sitting with eleven like a yo-yo.
no offense, but BJ is the biggest suckers game out there.... You bust, the dealer bust , yet you lose ur cash....
You want fun...go shoot craps!!!
peace
Jun 29, 09 23:49:09
They never bust in that spot for me.
What happened to all the wings then?
Jun 30, 09 01:24:57
tipped the waitress who was bringing us drinks \$50 and the dealer \$50..we'd been tipping pretty well over the course of the whole night, too.
Jun 30, 09 19:32:05
as an aside my favorite is higher love. agree w/ hawkeye563, more blog posts pls!
Jul 1, 09 11:42:44
100% typical vegas night, so unoriginal :P hehe sounds like a good time
Jul 1, 09 19:04:18
The blackjack pit outside PURE at Caesars has hotter dealers + dancers, normal limits, and normal rules. GO THERE.
Also, the dealer/dancers change shifts every 30 min (I think) and the walk to the dressing room goes straight thru the poker room, so action stops for a couple minutes every time there is a shift change. GOGOGO.
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Taylor Caby: Poker Blog
Taylor
chicago, il
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