Birthday poker in Sin City: Vegas Day Four

Our final day in Vegas was short.  We had a noon plane to catch and Katie was overly concerned about getting there in time.  We’d seen a long line at Security on the way out of the terminal on Sunday morning and we were eager not to miss our flight because of it.  We went down to the Sahara poker room about 7am and started playing $2/$4.

Sahara
The morning game at the Sahara at 7am is pretty much the people who have been up all night.  It included a drunk off-duty dealer, William, an overweight black woman who had chips but didn’t like William and refused to return to the table, a married older woman who smoked a cigarette for every five hands, an old guy in a fishing hat, a young kid who left quickly, and myself. 

The dealer, Josh, worked with William and was tolerating him for no obvious reason except that he’s a really nice guy.  William was so extremely drunk that when it was his turn to put in his $2 blind, he would simply reach into Josh’s tip cup, pull out $2, and put it out.  This apparently went on for quite a while before Josh realized it and moved his tip cup over to my side of the table.

William was playing every hand and a few minutes after I sat down, Katie called.  "Get down here quick, there’s a drunk giving away money."  She hurried down as William was finishing the last of his stack and left a few minutes later.  The young kid was gone and that just left the old married smoking lady, Fishing Hat, Katie, another very sweet off-duty balding asian dealer, and myself.

The Balding Asian was an excellent poker player.  When he raised he usually had something.  However he’d call and draw to anything because the table was so short-handed.

I noticed that aggression was working well, and so I began raising heavily, whenever it was just me and the Big Blind.  I stole a number of pots this way, and finally when someone played back at me with Ace-Jack, I called them with Ten-Five of diamonds.    My opponent hit a Jack and proceeded to bet every street to the river in exactly the same way, with exactly the same pause before betting.  Since nothing changed, I assumed his hand was the unimproved.  I hit a Ten on the river, though, and raised.  A long pause and then a call and I had the entire table grumbling.

By the time we were forced to leave I had made up most of the money I had lost earlier that morning with second best hands by stealing small pots or playing hands that drew out on the river without odds.  We got up and headed out to the airport.

Sahara total: -$32

Trip total: +$44

Total play time: 26 hours (+$1.69 / hour)

Departure Coda
We were on our way to the airport, looking back longingly at the Strip, when Katie asked me the question.  "How long do you think you could do this?"

I pondered the life.  Waking up, working out, going to the casino and playing poker.  Coming home some days with lots of money, and other days with very little, or even less than when I left.  Having no coworkers, nobody to talk to.  I’m a borderline extrovert, and would eventually find myself talking the ears off of people at the poker table just to have someone to become friends with.

"A week", I said.  "Maybe longer.  It seems like a lonely life."

We both looked longingly at the backside of the Strip as our plane took off.

Before the plane even leveled off, in my head I was making plans for the trip to Atlantic City.