Around the World in 150 Days, Day 16, Wednesday Night Miracle
April 22nd, Las Vegas: I awake with only a minor hang over. My water drinking attempt was clearly a great success. I call my friend and ask him if he plans on grinding today, as Wednesday is the second best tournament grinding day of the week. He tells me he'll be grinding all afternoon and evening and I can stop by whenever.
The girl and I go over to the Bellagio so I can get changed. I take a shower and change into more casual wear, jeans with a dark button up French cuff shirt, an apt opportunity to try out the new cufflinks. They are difficult to insert. I consider cracking a joke to that affect when asking for her help with them, but decide it's probably a bit early in the morning for that. We stroll down to the Bellagio café and order the standard Vegas 2pm breakfast. My pancakes have many berries on and in them.
Afterwards we return to Panorama tower to hit the pool and hot tub with friends. I go up to their room first and they are already grinding. They tell me the tournaments I want to play start at 4pm and not 5 like I thought, meaning that I've got about 20 minutes for the hot tub. I think things over and take a big hit off the piece. I ask if they don't mind covering for me for the first 15 minutes or so. My friend agrees.
I join the girl and her friends for a quick afternoon dip in the hot tub. She says she'll cook dinner for us tonight in their apartment while we're grinding. I tell her that's awesome, but then get paranoid about what time it is
"How long have we been in here guys?"
"I don't know dude, like 10 minutes?" says the friend.
"God, feels like longer."
I hang out for what feels like hours but is actually about 10 more minutes, then start rambling about how I'm going to be late and need to go up to the room and grind. I return upstairs in my wet suit, grab a towel from the bathroom and wrap it around myself, settle into the couch, thank my friend for covering, then get into my session by registering for everything I can.
We hang out for a few hours in mostly silence, occasionally discussing various spots and what we think the optimal range is for various preflop situations. Around seven the girl comes upstairs with pasta and starts cooking for us. It has seafood in it and is quite delicious, though difficult to eat while attempting to manage 14 tables on a laptop at the same time.
Near the end of the session the apartment starts clearing out as people bust tournaments. Some go to hang out with friends before we're all to meet up at a club in 'The Venetian' for Lacey Jones's birthday party. By the end of things it's just me and the two guys living in the apartment hanging out while one of them finishes his session, obviously doing way better than I did again.
His tournaments finish up around 11 and we take his car over to 'The Venetian'. We're both playing the $2500 at the same casino tomorrow, so we agree to take it easy tonight. On our way up to the party we pass a cigar store, and decide that this event clearly warrants buying two.
Upstairs in the club the party is a who's who of Las Vegas poker. There are even people like WSOP top man Jeffrey Pollack, who upon seeing I remark to my friend "Hey man Jeffrey Pollack is here, I should go introduce myself by telling him maybe if he steps it up next year he can be pokers best dressed man." Seeing as he's never met me before he would likely not realize that I was joking and I'd come off incredibly arrogant. My friend demands that I do it anyway if I wind up talking to him.
Because I'm a responsible young man the night before a tournament I don't drink much at all. After my first vodka and orange juice I switch to straight orange juice, and then stand around chatting to the girl I've been hanging out with recently. At some point I suggest to my friend that we whip our cigars out, and after lighting then everyone at the party decides they want some too so we start passing them around. At one point two girls are puffing on them and one accidentally ashes down her dress
"AH! IT BURNS!" she yells and starts slapping all around her dress and fanning it trying to put it out. There's a circle of people around her laughing their asses off. She crams some ice down her dress and tries to fan out the ash. Bringing the cigars was clearly a good decision.
Although I don't drink much I still manage the occasional party foul, such as accidentally elbowing Maria Ho in the face while chatting to a friend, though I imply to her that her face moved forward much more than my elbow went back. She seems pretty cool about it, particularly as I've never met her before. Everyone at the party seems quite cool actually, though as is the case with any social circle there is quite a lot of people discussing each other in hushed tones, though because it's in a club it's actually yelling into each other's ears.
A bit before 2am I tell her that we need to head out because I have to play tomorrow. The night is truly a success, because I have stayed sober and left early from a party with free booze. It's a Wednesday night miracle.