All Things

Fucking poker is sucking ass right now. I'm about to cash out my pissant bankroll and put it towards my credit card bills or the 30K in student loans I gotta pay back which gave me 12.5 years of college, a BS, MS, PHD and an STD or two, and a job that doesn't even pay 4oK. You might think I'm complaining, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I once read that many of us who go to grad school do so in order to prolong some romantic period of our lives where we make no money, when in fact we predominately come from wealthy families. That's a crock of shit, because myself, the people I've met, and the people that have become my lifelong friends furthered our education because they didn't see many attractive options after undergraduate studies, didn't want to start pumping out babies, and really had nothing else to do. No place else where we'd fit in. It's not like we were so fucking smart at 22 that our brains were aching to absorb 8 years of graduate school on 16K a year and 60 hour weeks. It's about lacking identity, in which case you seek to find it. I guess many of us have found it.

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I made my 6th or 7th trip to vegas about a month ago. Shacked up with 3 friends in the MGM grand. Like the other trips, I managed to end up a loser, but had some fun. We started the trip off with brunch at the Venetian, followed by a tourney at Caesars Palace which saw me bubble out when my QQ all in was called by the only person with more chips than me. He had AK and flopped an A and I was done. I win that and I could pretty much coast to a nice payday. The rest of the day was occupied by playing cheap pai gow at the Trop and imbibing several 7 and 7s. The next morning we all cab it over to the Hard Rock where I win a couple hundred bucks in an hour playing 1/2 NL. The 1pm touney wasn't so kind to me, but weetarded guy (in our group) takes it down for a nice score.

We go back over to the Trop for some cheap Pai Gow and cheap craps. I lose a bit at pai gow, and then proceed to lose 100 bucks on my charter craps session, despite getting the hot hand while rolling and builing my buyin from 20 bucks to 120. The rush of going on a hot streak pretty much made up for the money I lost, but I can't say I'm all that crazy about the game.

We go back over to the MGM grand where I buyin for 100 bucks at a 1/2 NL table. I win a bit early and then pretty much sit there pounding beers and playing tight for 3 hours or so. I go on another small win streak and sit with 200 or so when I get pocket 10s in middle position. I raise to 10 and get 2 callers. Flop comes 10c 9c As and I start to salivate. One check to me, I bet 20, get min raised by the button, which was called by the old dude who checked and I called as well. The turn is the Ac. Old dude leads out for 60 bucks, I push knowing that someone has an A and both people call. Over 600 in the pot and the river comes a Kh. Fuck me...the button, who played the hand like a horses ass, had AK offsuit. Old dude had the flush and I get up and leave. I sit at the bar and down some more beers while pissing away more money on the shitty ass video poker at MGM.

After waking the next morning, we grab breakfast at NYNY at some cafe that has a giant topigraphical map of the US on the ceiling. We play a bit of craps there after bfast before it is time to me to hop on the 4 hour flight back to ATL.