Day 21 of the life of a Las Vegas grinder
Jul. 6th, 2015 05:56 amA day of three sessions, at Flamingo, Bally's and Flamingo again, for a net gain of $0. Yes, $0.
As I was heading to the car for the stressful drive to Downtown for what turned out to be an excellent and entertaining meal with Kevin O'Leary at Le Thai (he really is a charmer – no wonder staff remember him) I pondered the three-week cost of coffee and dealer tipping.
Neil Channing didn't tip at the Vic and explained to the dealers why this was the case, but said that he would try to make up for it by encouraging others to tip.
I can't follow that route. I just don't have the heart, the courage or the charm to get away with it.
However, let's hypothesise that I win a couple of hands an our and tip a dollar for each on average. That's $2 an hour. I probably also tip an average of $5 a day for coffees. That would mean I have tipped dealers about $150 since I got here, and cocktail waitresses about $110.
My net profit for the three weeks is $27. So, if (and this is hypothetical, because it isn't going to happen) I did not order drinks from the cocktail waitresses (I know poker players who do not) and I didn't tip dealers (not a good EV move, by the way), I would have been $287 up.
When you are about $1,500 up the $260 seems less important than when you are scrambling around breaking even.
Now, let's suppose I played for a year. That would translate into roughly $3,900 a year in tips. That isn't small change. But it is a necessary part of the equation. And, t of course, you do get 1,250 coffees out of it.
Today's play was staggeringly uneventful. I tried a bit of aggressive play early on with Ad 7d, raising in late and betting into an opponent for $11 and then $37 on a flop of Qxx two diamonds and a turn of Kc. I put him on a weakish Queen (in fact it was Q6 of clubs) and hoped that the turn would force a fold. I only had another $45 behind, so I couldn't see myself pushing him off the river. No diamond or ace came to save me.
I then lost the rest with AQ vs QJ all in pre-flop.
I doubled back with AQ, which I three-bet to $24 and got the original raiser (tired, drunk, on my right) to call. Board came A Q x rainbow, which made my decision to call opponent's all-in rather easy.
Finished $34 down.
At Bally's I just built up my stack relatively slowly. It included an aggressive couple of raises on the button and, in one case, an aggressive shove on the flop. But I think the most profitable hand was the ever-exciting Ace-six suited on the button, with which I limped and called a small raise from the small blind. Board of Axx elicited a $15 bet from small blind and a raise from me. He called and we checked down turn and river. He showed pocket queens.
Finished $115 up.
SB in question was the father of Flip Schultz, who had been headlining the comedy set at Harrah's. Nice guy who had flown in from Florida to see his son.
The third session at Flamingo was jst one of card-dead, missing any sets or improvements with suited connectors. Played for two hours and lost $81.
After some mix-ups I found Kevin, and we got to the restaurant on time. You can choose heat ranked 1 to 5 and Kevin said that three was bloody hot. So I erred on the side of caution and chose a '1'. This was quite tasty, but appears to equal "no chili at all". So perhaps level 2 next time round.
But the various chicken and beef dishes were yummy, especially the sticky rice.
Finished about 8.30pm and drove back to apartment. Checked in online.
Tomorrow I'll check out of the apartment and drive to the strip to play for five or six hours. I'll also try to spend my Total Rewards points (I've got more than $35 to get rid of somehow). Then it's return car to rental depot, get shuttle to check in, read book for a while and attempt to get some sleep on the plane.
As I was heading to the car for the stressful drive to Downtown for what turned out to be an excellent and entertaining meal with Kevin O'Leary at Le Thai (he really is a charmer – no wonder staff remember him) I pondered the three-week cost of coffee and dealer tipping.
Neil Channing didn't tip at the Vic and explained to the dealers why this was the case, but said that he would try to make up for it by encouraging others to tip.
I can't follow that route. I just don't have the heart, the courage or the charm to get away with it.
However, let's hypothesise that I win a couple of hands an our and tip a dollar for each on average. That's $2 an hour. I probably also tip an average of $5 a day for coffees. That would mean I have tipped dealers about $150 since I got here, and cocktail waitresses about $110.
My net profit for the three weeks is $27. So, if (and this is hypothetical, because it isn't going to happen) I did not order drinks from the cocktail waitresses (I know poker players who do not) and I didn't tip dealers (not a good EV move, by the way), I would have been $287 up.
When you are about $1,500 up the $260 seems less important than when you are scrambling around breaking even.
Now, let's suppose I played for a year. That would translate into roughly $3,900 a year in tips. That isn't small change. But it is a necessary part of the equation. And, t of course, you do get 1,250 coffees out of it.
Today's play was staggeringly uneventful. I tried a bit of aggressive play early on with Ad 7d, raising in late and betting into an opponent for $11 and then $37 on a flop of Qxx two diamonds and a turn of Kc. I put him on a weakish Queen (in fact it was Q6 of clubs) and hoped that the turn would force a fold. I only had another $45 behind, so I couldn't see myself pushing him off the river. No diamond or ace came to save me.
I then lost the rest with AQ vs QJ all in pre-flop.
I doubled back with AQ, which I three-bet to $24 and got the original raiser (tired, drunk, on my right) to call. Board came A Q x rainbow, which made my decision to call opponent's all-in rather easy.
Finished $34 down.
At Bally's I just built up my stack relatively slowly. It included an aggressive couple of raises on the button and, in one case, an aggressive shove on the flop. But I think the most profitable hand was the ever-exciting Ace-six suited on the button, with which I limped and called a small raise from the small blind. Board of Axx elicited a $15 bet from small blind and a raise from me. He called and we checked down turn and river. He showed pocket queens.
Finished $115 up.
SB in question was the father of Flip Schultz, who had been headlining the comedy set at Harrah's. Nice guy who had flown in from Florida to see his son.
The third session at Flamingo was jst one of card-dead, missing any sets or improvements with suited connectors. Played for two hours and lost $81.
After some mix-ups I found Kevin, and we got to the restaurant on time. You can choose heat ranked 1 to 5 and Kevin said that three was bloody hot. So I erred on the side of caution and chose a '1'. This was quite tasty, but appears to equal "no chili at all". So perhaps level 2 next time round.
But the various chicken and beef dishes were yummy, especially the sticky rice.
Finished about 8.30pm and drove back to apartment. Checked in online.
Tomorrow I'll check out of the apartment and drive to the strip to play for five or six hours. I'll also try to spend my Total Rewards points (I've got more than $35 to get rid of somehow). Then it's return car to rental depot, get shuttle to check in, read book for a while and attempt to get some sleep on the plane.