WSOP
2003 Days 22, 23 & 24
For
the last couple of days I've been taking
a break from poker to do some touristy
stuff. One of my best friends was in town
to play an event (he was out early, no
doubt after taking too much advice from
me) and also trying to win a super (which
he did on his first try, I take full credit),
so he'll be back in a couple of weeks.
While he was playing his event I played
a satellite, got heads up and split the
money for a nice $600 profit, not enough
for another event yet (I'd love to play
the 3K limit and 3K pot limit) so I'll
need to play a couple more, but so far
I haven't had much time to do that.
Then
another best friend arrived and we have
been having lots of fun doing Vegas stuff.
The highlight was finally making the trip
out to Valley of Fire (VoF), this is a
national park about an hour's drive from
Vegas, $5 for a carload. VoF has been
the location of several films, including
Star Trek Generations, because being here
is like being on another planet, the rock
formations and different colors are simply
amazing. There is a road that goes right
through the park (make sure to drive all
the way through) so you could easily just
go for an incredibly scenic drive, but
much better is to do what we did and go
for the day. We arrived around 3 p.m.
and hiked a couple of the well laid out
trails (about 2 miles total), much of
it walking through pink and red sand with
assorted lizards and other wild life.
One trail is called Mouse's Tank, the
other is White Domes Trail, with a little
fairly easy rock climbing thrown in we
spent about 5 hours here. If you come
out to Vegas for any amount of time I
highly recommend this excursion to get
a reality check away from the bright lights.
Another thing I've always wanted to do
is the Race For Atlantis ride at Caesar's.
It's a 3D IMAX, a bit like the Back to
the Future one at Universal Studios. It
was $10, not worth it, maybe worth $4,
the ride was pretty weak and no comparison
to others I've done, I've had scarier
rides in Vegas cabs.
I was going to write this trip report
last night but at 5 a.m. after a night
of going to the movies to see Spun (drugs,
depravity, drugs, sex, drugs, poop, drugs,
and drugs), then back to Tom McEvoy's
to watch bikini week, I mean World Poker
Tour, followed by a DVD (Rat Race, much
funnier than Spun), then back to Golden
Nugget for too many bloody marys and back
to Binions where the famous line "one
more player for this $175 satellite" (pays
$1,600, graveyard special so 1,000 chips
instead of 600) beckoned and I ran for
the "last seat", which usually only leaves
about two or three more "last seats" before
they get going. Down to four my AJs lost
to A8o when a $1,600 8 flopped, and at
7 a.m. I finally got to sleep.
Today
I watched my buddy Diego at his second
final table get caught up in several rough
hands and he was out in 4th. place (congrats
to Daniel on the bracelet), then I went
off to eat at the Bellagio buffet, fantastic
as always. Back at Binions bumped into
some friends and hung around chatting
for a long while, then off to Golden Nugget
to get our free $60 drinks at the video
poker bar.
Sleep,
I don't need no steenkin' sleep.
Paul Westley
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