Vegas day 1

I am not a big fan of airports and airplanes. They seem to be a place where the selfishness of the individual rises to an extreme high. People take their time picking up their personal items or putting on their shoes after passing through security instead of grabbing their stuff and getting out of people's way thereby holding up the entire line. Groups of people blocking walkways. Skipping in line. Getting on a plane and finding your overhead bin already stuffed by the fat ass two rows down. The lady behind you who gets up out of her seat every 20 minutes and needs to grab the top of your seat to get her fat ass up. The people who try to get off the plane before the door is even open. The guy who needs to readjust his luggage right outside the plane door instead of walking up the ramp into the concourse.

In society today, it is always me me me. I guess that is why I go to Vegas. I enjoy myself there and put the asshats behind me. These dickweeds mentioned above a just a minor blip to a good time.

The flight out was delayed by a family of 5 that had their flight delayed. It meant a 15 minutes wait. It also meant the pilot thought he would be a comic and tried to entertain. Thankfully I could turn on the music and ignore him.

I watched Dupree and Me on my DVD player. What a shitty movie. It really made no sense and wasn't even funny. At least I had a row to myself and could spread out.

Once I got into Vegas I was stuck behind a big dude who moved like a turtle. Got around him and just missed the tram. Shit! Valuable drinking and gambling time would be lost. Got a cab right away and was zipped off to the Rio. Checking in was a short wait. I was entertained by the bitchy lady who wanted to know why there wasn't a diamond lane for her to check in. For those who are not familiar with Harrah's Rewards system, a diamond card is valuable. It basically means you do not wait for lines at any Harrah's property. Want to eat? Get in the diamond line and flash the card. Taxi line is 20 people deep? Get in the diamond line. I have friends who have a diamond card and it helps on a Saturday night.

Got up to my room and quickly washed up. The room itself wasn't spectacular. Just like any other nice room I have stayed in. I don't get why it is called a suite. To me, that means the bedroom would be separate from the main room.

From there I headed down to the World Series of Poker. My hope was to find Pauly, Otis, or BadBlood and get some drinks. On my way, I stopped at the hooker bar to get a beer. It is a long walk to the convention rooms where the WSOP is held and I needed a drink to get me there. I entered the massive room and just walked around a bit. It is a sight to behold seeing all those tables and people sitting around tossing chips and cards. I could care less if I saw any named pros. That doesn't do anything for me. I was there to find my friends.

I wandered a bit and then saw Otis at a table. He was watching someone so I stopped on the rail just around the corner and watched as well. That is when I saw BadBlood was playing, all serious and stuff. It was down to 3 people. Winner would get an entry (actually tokens worth an entry) into one of the other events. I stayed inconspicuous for a bit til Otis saw me. He came over and gave me the lowdown. Soon enough, Badblood would look up and then take down the tournament, when he had his opponent outchipped and they cut a deal.

Once Blood collected his tokens, we figured out what we would do. Otis suggested we could head downtown to Binions to play the 2 am tournament. Sounds good to me. We piled into a cab and went to play some poker. Since we had some time to kill, we started at the blackjack table. It wasn't too kind to me and I was the only one who left on the downside.

The poker tournament wouldn't be much better as I finished like 22 out of 33. Thankfully, we hit the Pai Gow table before leaving and I made up what I had lost in blackjack and then some.

By now it was around4:30 in the morning and we decided to head back to the Rio. There I decided to play some slots for a bit while the others crashed. I bounced around from machine to machine just trying to hit a bonus. About 20 minutes later I called it a night after hitting up a Wheel of Fortune machine and an 80 dollar win.

I knew Thursday was already going to be a long one. Hell, it was Thursday already and I had gotten in about 5 hours of beer and bets. Later I would be checking out Metal Skool.

After sleeping for about 4 hours, I was up and about at the hooker bar once again. I had a call in to Falstaff to see if he was around the Rio and wanted to do lunch. He would be there but had to cab over from the Orleans. That meant I would kill some time drinking Makers and ginger as I played some video poker. As I played one lady over asked what I was drinking. I told her and she smiled a bit. I gave her the once over and though she didn't look all that hookerish, I still believe she was. No offer came my way so I can't tell you for sure. I had two drinks before I saw Falstaff and it was off to lunch.

We met up with Blood and lunch before going to check out the WSOP action for the day. I knew of one person playing and I had promised to watch a bit. But watching poker and playing poker are two different things. Soon we had the itch and had to go play at the MGM. It was fun for a while though I couldn't win to save my life. People were getting lucky on me. Plus I was more focused on drinking so I wasn't playing my best game. I wasn't playing badly but not my best. I soon found myself stuck and decided it was best to walk. I wanted to head across the street to Hooters to play some Pai Gow. Falstaff decided to join me while Blood played on.

The Pai Gow at Hooters was filled so that plan was soon scrapped. When we checked out the Hooters poker room, we found two seats available. So I hopped into the no limit game. There were two big stacks and a bunch of small ones. I figured them out rather quickly when I watched a for a while. I knew who I could tangle with and who I should avoid. After an hour or so there, I made back about half of what I had lost at the MGM. Better yet, I had won me a rubber duck! But the duck was taken by Falstaff when Blood and I headed out to the Hard Rock to catch Metal Skool.

At the Hard Rock, I would have my first big win of the trip. As we headed inside, a greeter looked at us and said "You guys want to see Metal Skool? Here are some free tickets." Score! As Blood would say, it was like winning the lottery. The one act we wanted to see and we were given free admittance. The only way it would get better was free drinks. But that wasn't going to happen. $8 dollar beers and $10 martinis awaited us. We had an hour to kill once inside so we chatted up some metal chicks. We then moved in front of the stage and waited for the show to begin.

It is hard to explain Metal Skool. I was expecting just a cover band. I didn't know it was also a "show". Their bit is to act like they are an 80s metal band. Thus they played up their egos and fought while on stage. Whether it was the squabbling between the lead singer and the guitarist, the putting down of the ever preening bass player, the insulting of each other, the embarrassing things they would do behind their backs, whatever it was, it was simply hilarious! They would play a song and they bicker and then play another song.

We were right in front of the bass player. His bit was to be the idiot. After every song, he would pick up his mirror and check his hair. Then he may jump into the conversation with something stupid. Everything they did cracked me up. The crowd was loving it too. It was great show. The only way I could describe it was beyond awesome. It was more that I had expected.

After the show was over, Blood had another idea. We could head to the Orleans to meet up with some people at a bar, or we could head out to the Spearmint Rhino....