New Years Weekend Trip Report

THURSDAY 12/29:

I was planning on heading to Vegas on Friday AM, but of course, I left early! Bill gave his blessing and after having dinner and some dancing with our friends, the Van Pelts, I headed for Vegas, arriving in time for the 2am tournament.

I was able to make the final table, but ended busting out in 7th place, with only 5 places getting paid. However, I did make the final table! For those who haven't played at Binions before, their final table is set on an elevated "stage" with a lighted area on the table between the felt and the edge of table, where players can put their chips, etc. Anyways, I managed to put the table on "light" tilt, as they ALL wanted the light turned off, but because I objected, it stayed on.

Hey, gotta get the lights, camera, action feeling whenever and however I can, right?

So, I headed over to Plaza next and ended up sitting at a 2/4 table getting drunk and just trying to have a good time. It worked for an hour or so, then the resident table asshole decided to show his true colors. When I first sat down, I was the only female in the room, with about 25 people playing, milling about, etc. I started joking around with everyone, as I always do, including him. (I'll call him DS for dipshit.) Anyways, DS decided to start with the sexual comments and innuendos and at first, I gave them right back to him as I know that being a woman in this situation, I need to give as good as I get or I'm toast. I'd end up as a babbling brook and then I'd REALLY look like a woman, and what female wants that at a poker table? I want to be seen as a poker player who happens to be female, not as a female poker player.

Anywho, DS ended getting into it with a local named Phillip, who I just met that night, but I liked him. He was in his 20's, having fun, did some shots with me, we're just having a great time! Then DS decides that we're talking too much so he turns into an asshole and continues the sexual (very, very inappropriate) comments towards me. Phillip tries to stand up for me, so then DS and Phillip get into and Phillip got a little too carried away and was kicked out of the poker room. (He made some racial comments to Lewis, the floor manager, after Lewis threatened to kick Phillip out, but never made a threat or comment to DS, so that just pissed off Phillip and myself) Keep in mind that I agree that Phillip overstepped the line and was tossed out on his ass, which I agreed with, but DS should have been kicked out as well.

So, I continue playing for about 5 mins, then DS purposefully moves over to the seat to my left after being across the table all night long. He's now sitting between myself and the other floor manager (can't remember name, but he was just playing in the game to keep it going) and started making comments again. I got very, very upset and racked up my chips, not saying a word until I got to the cage.

Then, all hell broke loose.

The floor man who was in the game, starts telling me to come back, play, have fun, and then Lewis got into it too, telling me to stay, everything's OK, etc, Phillip's gone, we'll just have fun, etc.

HELLOOOOO was I the ONLY one hearing the shit that DS was saying to me? I was livid. Furious. This is a casino (The Plaza) that I frequent every single time I go to Vegas. This is a casino that I bring conventions to (ITH Baby!!), this is a casino that I pimp all the time about on RGP and they are going to treat ME better then some fucking dipshit tourist who was insulting one of their biggest supporters/gamblers?? I don't think so.

I calmed down, in a scary way, and used the phone at the cage, with Lewis right there, called the Sales/Convention manager (it was about 8:30am now), and told her that I wanted her to ignore the request I made for a quote for the ITH 2nd annual convention and that there was no way I was going to bring back a convention to a casino that allowed players to treat me the way I was treated that night.

She immediately went into PR mode and had me go see her up in her office on the 3rd floor. So, I went up there (because I like her, and I knew that if anything was going to happen, she would do it) and spoke with her for about 30 mins in her office. We then went back downstairs, she spoke with Lewis by herself, and then came over to me with him. She said that she spoke with Lewis and that he would take care of me and then left. Lewis said, "OK, Tanya, before we start, give me a big hug" and I did, because I liked him, I just didn't like how the situation was handled, however, in his defense, he had no idea what was going on, it was the other floor that was at the table hearing the comments, not Lewis.

I told Lewis, "Bottom line. He either gets kicked out right now, and I continue playing, or you call over head of security and I file a sexual harassment claim and I never step foot in this casino again."

Lewis took it a step further and banned him from the casino for 6 months. Woot. Ahhh...the power!!! So, I sat down and continued playing for another few hours and left satisfied. SIDENOTE: While all this was going on, I was drinking, but was no where near drunk and as my other blogs/posts will admit, I know when I've had too much or when I've overreacted due to alcohol. This was not one of those times AT ALL.

FRIDAY 12/30:

My sister Corrie's flight arrived around 1:30pm, so I headed to the airport to pick her up. Got there about an hour early and hung out at my favorite Las Vegas bar while waiting. Ran into the head engineer of the Hoover Dam Expansion, and had an interesting talk with him regarding the project. I can't wait until it's done, it will cut my drive down by almost 30-45 mins!!! Met a few other people and I tell you, every time I hang out at this bar, it's amazing the different people you meet and how friendly everyone usually is. The bar/Vegas combination is awesome.

So Corrie arrived and we headed back downtown in order to play the 2pm tourney, didn't do well there, but then Corrie and I just hung out waiting for Mom and her friend Lonnie to show up. They ended up not getting to Vegas until almost 7pm, getting caught on the Hoover Dam with traffic/construction for almost 3 hours. Wow, sucked for Mom, LOL.

Can't remember doing much from 7-11pm, just gambling and hanging out with Mom, Corrie, and Lonnie but then by 11pm, I had to crash from lack of sleep and overconsumption, so I headed to bed leaving them to fend for themselves.

SATURDAY 12/31:

Nothing much to report for Saturday day, downtown was getting geared up for their Freemont Street Experience, I played the 10am and the 2pm with no good results and then we decided to have dinner at Tony Ramos around 7 pm, then start partying on Freemont Street. We picked up a loner who had come to Vegas by himself from Denver, and let him hang out with us, I think his name was Chris, anyways, the cost was only $40 for a wristband and the talent was Cheap Trick, Gin Blossoms and another band that I can't think of, but was pretty big name IMO.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT: I was able to work my way up to the front row while Gin Blossoms was on and handed my cell phone to the bouncer. He then took the phone to the lead singer (see, don't even KNOW his name, but I LOVE him now) and he sang into MY phone (and the microphone) TO Bill for almost 5 minutes. I think he did it because I made eye contact with him and threw up the ASU Devil sign with my fingers (tuck your ring finger into your palm, with your thumb holding in down, then your 1st, 2nd and pinky fingers are held up in a pitchfork like manner) since they are from Tempe, AZ, they KNOW what that means and took the phone from me because of it. WOW, what a rush! That was one of the two coolest things I experienced this weekend, 2nd one was on Sunday, will talk about that later.

So, midnight rolls around, the party continues on and it was just a super blast. Everyone was friendly and kissing everyone and the dancing continued with a local band at the other end of the street, was a LOT of fun.

Around 1:30am, we get this BRILLIANT idea to join the 2am Binions tourney. Everyone. Mom, Lonnie and Corrie included. Lonnie and Corrie have never played a hand of HE in their lives. LMFAO.

18 people entered and not a SINGLE one of us made the "final table", LMAO. We were TOASTED!!! Took a taxi home and the night was over.

SUNDAY 1/1:

The Binions TOC started at 10 am and I was feeling fine, although I could tell that I was starting to lose my voice from the yelling, screaming, smoking, drinking, etc. I sat down at the table and started to play. I played one hand and noticed that I was on table 20, which is usually reserved for the 10 am tournament. I said, "No 10 am today, huh?" and no one commented but they all looked at me weird. 2 mins later, turns out I was sitting at the normal 10am tourney at table 20, when I was suppose to be at the TOC tourney at table 30. LOL, and I wasn't even drunk!!! Lordy me.

So I made my table change and played the TOC. There was about 102 entrants, so my prediction about players not coming out was way off base. A few key hands that I remember.

I'm in the SB, blinds are 100/200, and EP raises to 600. He gets 4 cold callers behind him, and I look down to Js 7s, so I figure, what the hell, and call, the BB folds. One of the biggest reasons why I called was because I wanted to beat him, the EP raiser, with a really bad hand as I know that that would put him on tilt, because he was one of those players that berates other players for the hands they play EVEN WHEN they lose to him and double him up. A real piece of work.

The flop came 3s, 5s, 8s. Tee hee.

I move all in. The EP raiser immediately calls and everyone else folds. I know what he has, and yes, he flips over As Ac and gives me this look that would kill when he sees my made flush. Of course, no other spade came and he was on tilt like you would NOT believe.

However, he still lasted longer then I did when my K, K all in move got called by Ah, Jc and the guy hit runner runner hearts on me. Ces La Vie, IGHN, busted out in about 64th place.

Next we go shopping, we all head over to Fry's Electronic and I buy Mom a new computer since her's crashed. She was very appreciative, but I loved being able to do it. Spoiling her and Corrie (the daily "allowance") was cool as Mom and Corrie have always tried to help me out in the past, when I was a single Mom, loaning me money, helping me out, etc. A little payback for the past is all, and it felt good doing it.

So next we headed to the strip, I particularly love hanging out at Harrah's and there is this really neat outside bar with a band, D.J., and bartenders that do tricks. It's right between Imperial Palace and Harrah's, and I've always wanted to go there, but never had anyone to go with. Now that Mom, Corrie and Lonnie were with me, that's where we went. Had a GREAT time, the band was playing a lot of 70's and 80's music and we were just having a ball, getting drunk and dancing our asses off.

This is when the 2nd coolest thing happened.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT: I walked outside the club/bar area, so now I'm on the public sidewalk between the two casinos, and I'm just chilling, cooling down, smoking a cigarette, etc. I'm sitting on the edge of a planter, and there are two girls with a guy sitting next to me. We start talking and joking around and a good song comes on, so I start dancing a little while sitting, and they encourage me to get up and dance, so I stood up and we all danced a little bit on the sidewalk.

So a guy, who can dance very, very well walks over to us and starts dancing near me, but not with me, thus producing his challenge. (A challenge is when the first person dances, then stops and the other person dances and it goes back and forth while the crowd determines the "winner" It is never verbalized, only motioned and only people who dance would "get it") I, of course, accept and we get going.

Next thing I know, there is a HUGE crowd surrounding us, pretty much blocking the foot traffic (as keep in mind that we are in the public sidewalk area) and I am LOVING IT. I get a lot of cheers, probably because I'm female, but he was definitely better then I, IMO, so I conceded to him. Once I conceded, he left, and I kept going, so then I got 2 more challengers and those two, I was able to beat. What a rush, I've mentioned before that I love attention and really, if you're reading my blog, YOU KNOW THIS. So I was in my element, for sure. I love dancing and always get compliments and comments on it so I was loving life until the cops showed up. LOL

Turns out since we were blocking foot traffic, they had to break up the circle and that was all she wrote, so I went back down into the bar/dance floor area. WHAT a night. Awesome.

MONDAY 1/2:

I wake up with a very sore throat and NO voice what so ever. We pretty much just hung out and gambled all day, didn't even feel like drinking, I was feeling pretty bad. LOST my ASS gambling, couldn't win a single thing to save my soul, but spent what I took, so even though I didn't come home a winner, or even, I lost what I planned on losing, so it was the cost of entertainment for the weekend. Mom and Lonnie took off around 1pm and Corrie and I hung out, we did go back to the club from Sunday night, but it was pretty dead. Then tried to go over to the basement club at Barbary Coast, but it was closed. So I headed across the street to Bellagio and decided to play some 4/8 with the drunk college boys.

Turned out there weren't any at my table, so I decided to play the drunk college girl and ended up going from $100 to $460 in about 30 mins (LUCK. BOX) then lost it down to $60 over the next 3 hours. LOL. Gotta love the ups and downs of poker.

TUESDAY 1/3:

Woke up around 11am and felt like SHIT. I could tell that there was something more wrong with me then just losing my voice from talking, screaming, smoking, drinking...so I decided to leave early to go home and see my doctor. My throat hurt so bad, I couldn't swallow, I just knew I had strep throat, plus I felt like I had a fever and I was just feeling crappy in general. So, I, the Vegas lover that I am, left Vegas almost a whole day before I was suppose to. You KNOW I had to be feeling bad to do THAT. LOL

Got home, saw the Dr., got some antibiotics and Lidocaine to gargle with and have pretty much just hanging out, trying to sleep, getting rest, etc. I'm feeling a lot better now, but still feel pretty crummy. Only got about 2 hours of sleep last night from coughing, so I have another prescription of cough syrup with codeine coming my way today. Woot!! I love codeine. Tee. Hee.

So that was my weekend/trip, had a great time. Lost money, but made up for it in entertainment and in the company I had.

GOOD TIMES, GOOD TIMES.