Late night Friday

Got a text message that the others were done with their steak dinner. Headed down to Mandalay Bay. Stopped by the Caesars taxi line and got discouraged so I hoofed it. Noticed the cars and buses that had passed me are now behind so I'm making better ground speed than vehicles on the strip. Crossing Tropicana Ave I saw what was probably the reason, a car wreck in the middle of the intersection of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard a.k.a. "the Strip"...on a Friday night. Quite possibly the worst time/place for a car wreck. No CSI personnel visible on the scene. Anyway, met up with the fellas at Red Square in Mandalay Bay and had some drinks. Then we took the tram back up to the Excalibur then took the overpasses to MGM for cards or to Hooters for craps, depending on which was preferred.

Spent $200 on "recreational" poker because I got seated at a loosey goosey table. Then got moved to a real table, the mythical Table 9 at the MGM. This was the same table that I sat in on back in January where a completely different brand of poker is played. I don't understand the rules or the insider protocols but the money ends up kinda being irrelevant in a way. It is more about aggression and making proper reads. A guy sat down next to me from another table and said that they were playing the 2/5 style on a 1/2 table. Some hands would be limped in and basically checked down on all streets. Others would be jammed with a three way $60 pre-flop raise. Sometimes there would be $5 flop bets other times $75 then check the turn and river. I sat and posted blinds there for about 8 hours fascinated by the style of poker being played. Nothing like High Stakes Poker or WSOP play that you see on TV. It is other-worldly.

Oh and you can add Pocket Aces as another hand that I got stacked by. Made it $20 to go pre-flop and got called by a gal who wanted to "keep me honest" with KTos. I put the rest ($30 or so) in in the dark. She flopped a Ten and rivered trips. I also ended up in a hand where my pocket Fives notched pocket Fours and tripled up. Cashed out $153 or down $247 for a grand total of an even $1500. Yeesh. Gonna take a little while to build this back up.