Day 3
Oof! The Tokyo Tea and Red Bull is hitting me something fierce. It combines to give me the most fluorescent/green urine I've ever seen as well as a nose bleed in the middle of the night.
Maybe not the brightest combo of drinks. I get the nosebleed while taking a piss and then just pinch my nose since Mike is a light sleeper and I don't want to turn on any lights. Laid in bed pinching for 15 mins and by morning the amount of blood on my leg and in the bed was minimal lol. I'm sure they've seen much worse in Vegas and I always tip the housekeepers well.
I guess I haven't had a jammer or gone in to Afib though. One of my other doctor friends managed to get himself into SVT from Red Bulls one Vegas trip, but he just had to Valsalva a few times and got himself out of it. He kept going in and out of it for a few hours, but eventually he converted for good. Don't need a wallet biopsy by going to a hospital while traveling. Also, can't waste those hours in Vegas.
After looking at the hockey schedule for the day, and having won the previous two days, we think we're some kind of sports betting wizards. Boston has got to be the lock of the day vs. Buffalo, right? Not so much, as Buffalo will spank them later that night. Why didn't we take Buffalo at +340. Manage to get 4 of 5 teams right on two different 5 bet parlays, that also sucks. In one, we have Columbus and New Jersey in the under and Columbus puts up 6 goals, WTF.
This is the point where all sports bets go awry for 24 hours. Manage to get a little bit back when Edmonton and San Jose score 10 goals for the over, but otherwise a bad day.
We head over to Momofuku in Cosmo for lunch and grab some banh mi as well as the brussel sprouts dish. Having been to Ko and Ssam Bar in NYC, I think that Ko is definitely a really great restaurant. Ssam bar and the Momofuku in Cosmo are more casual restaurants and target a much lower price point that Ko, but I find that they are a bit more of a place to be seen for the millennial food blogger (haha, I'm one of them), rather than really great restaurants. David Chang is a bit of an ass and the food should be better overall IMO.
The Brussel sprout dish was definitely the best as it had a good balance of heat and acidity and the mint adds a very nice flavor. The banh mi are on the heavy side and with both the shrimp and pork belly are lacking in acid to balance the fattiness. I found the same with the mushroom one last time as well. Also, the pork belly was even more fatty than normal and the outer fat had a distinctive piggy/gamey taste which was not good. I may give this place one more chance with a different menu section, but after a few times here and Ssam bar, I'm not eager to go back.
Brussel sprouts
Shrimp banh mi
Pork belly banh mi
From here we head back down to TI for some more blackjack. Mike has won both sessions so far this trip, blackjack is so easy. The $10 tables are either full of people smoking or guys who are playing completely terrible strategy so we decide to just play the $25 double deck in the hi limit room. It is amazing that TI has this in the hi limit room and even better, the dealer stands on soft 17. Pretty great. We decide to team gamble $250 each and split the profits which ends up working great since I am getting absolutely crushed in the 1 hole. I go through $500 myself over a couple of shoes, fortunately Mike is continuing his sunrun. I think he won about 80% of the hands he played including every split or double. On a 13, he'd hit an 8, on 16 it was all 4s and 5s. It was amazing. After about two hours we are up about $800 so decide to head over to the Wynn and watch some of the hockey games in the sportsbook.
On the way to the sportsbook I have to get a little TDB in on Leon's machines, so put in $100 just for fun. I then pick up this...
AND...
Mike is super psyched about his blackjack winnings and is basically content to lock up a win for the trip. How I wish to go back to the time when this would be a big win and get me super pumped. It's nice, but would be a lot nicer if we had been playing $100+ per hand
After watching Columbus put up 6 goals and ruin one 5 team parlay, and Minnesota shut out Chicago 3-0 to ruin the other, it's time for dinner. Chada Thai doesn't have any open tables for an hour, but Chada Street is ready to go now, so we head over there for some delicious Riesling and Thai food. Chada is awesome for thai food and I think better than Lotus. The wine list is also excellent, although since Bank Atcharawan left to open Patio, I think they're basically just selling stuff off and unlikely to replenish it like before. Maybe I'm wrong, but Bank was previously the wine director at Lotus for years and once he left, their list fell off as well. Sad.
The other crappy thing is the service has really gone downhill. I've had the same server the last two times, young asian guy, shaved head, no personality and has no idea about the menu, the wine or anything else. He is the nut low server.
The good news is they still have some great Riesling for retail price or less and the food is still solid.
Chicken satay with peanut sauce and cucumber - Excellent
HOR MOK PHUKET - Steam fish curry in banana leaf. I really like this dish, it's like a thick gelatinous fish with thai basil.
Fresh oyster with chili paste, fried shallot, seafood sauce - Great combination of flavors and just the right amount of heat.
Duck panang curry - So delicious, must have item.
Pad Kra Pow - Ground pork with chili, garlic and thai basil. Very good.
Wines were a 2005 Hexamer Spatlese and a 1997 Von Othegraven Berrenauslese. Both of the wines could use a bit more acidity, the Hexamer was particularly low in acid for a Spatlese from 05. More like an 03. Fortunately, super sweet and viscous wines pair great with the heat of the food. Thai food and Riesling is definitely an all time great pairing.
After dinner we go back to TI for Mike to play one last blackjack session and his sunrun finally ends. We end up down a couple hundo and he is ready for bed. It's only 11 PM and the last night in Vegas so I am definitely doing nothing of the sort.
I drop him off and then head over to Aria for a little Saturday night poker. I initially look at the $2/5 game with a bunch of backpack wearing grinders. No thanks, I'll play drunken $1/3. The game is decent and gets better when Slim (Arthurbach on 2+2, go read his awesome TRs) and his friends make an appearance. I say hi and hope he sits in the game, but it's not to be as he is with a girl and heading back to PHo. Two of his other female friends do play for a while and bring some decent action along with them.
I have a couple of lovely hands when I manage to have overpairs on boards of 4474 and 666 and lose to quads both times. Both hands were raised preflop and called by random garbage that connected. Fun. Fortunately losses were less than $150 each hand.
I also manage to stack one old man with AQ when I turn a boat, and get a decent amount of chips off a young grinder when I river the nut flush with AQcc. Overall it's a fun and profitable session, and I end up around $750 from $300.
I decide to grab a slice of pizza from Five Fifty at Aria, not as good as Cosmo secret pizza, then head over to Cosmo to donk off a bit at the VP. I manage to punt off $900, but take three of the magical Cosmo hi limit cookies to bring home for wifey. These cookies are super tasty and at $300 each, a relative bargain. They also remind me of the #1 poker degen, TJ Cookier.
Five fifty pizza - Leek, potato, onion, sausage. Good but needs some acidity to balance it. Creme fraiche would work nicely.
$300 cookies from Cosmo brought home for wifey. Reminds us of...
TJ Cookier. We call these the ultimate degen rungood cookiers!
The next morning we grab some Carl's Jr. at the airport and back to snow central. I also pick up some Auntie Annie's pretzels for wifey, she is carb loading hard tonight.
Hot Carl
Not sure when the next trip will be, but hopefully March. I realize that low stakes NLHE are still incredibly profitable, mix games are just so much fun though. Next time will be with wifey again and maybe do some fancy French food like Robuchon or Guy Savoy, though not totally sure. I'm sure there will be Kabuto as well and was also looking at Sparrow and Wolf. If you have any suggestions for food or the TRs in general, lemme know.
Thanks for reading.
TF