Happy New Year TwoPlusTwo!
So as promised in my last post, after Christmas a few of the Vegas crew and Harry the Beluga met up in Leeds (UK) for a couple of nights of nice food, CCR, drinking and poker - or, as I like to call it, "The Vegas Warm Up!" As this is a Las Vegas thread I'm not sure everyone will be interested so I'll keep the post relatively brief.
I arrived in Leeds on the Friday around 3pm and headed straight to Beluga's apartment as he'd been living there over a year and I'd never had chance to visit before. During the quick tour of his penthouse pad we find a large red foam dice laying around on a table. Always one for a gamble, he picks up the dice and says "let's roll, and whoever gets the lowest number pays for the first round of drinks tonight." I snap call and roll the dice across the floor and of course, without fail, the dice lands on one! (I always run terrible at prop bets!). The Beluga rolls the dice just for the 1 in 6 chance we chop but he obvs rolls a six, GG. Not long after this we're doing a double or nothing roll. I pay on low, he pays on high... It’s a 3 and I’m down two drinks. Not long after that we head out to meet Dan, Joe and the late addition to the team, Pete at mine and Dan's hotel. As we're heading out of the apartment Harry the Beluga picks the dice off the counter; "this may come in use later" he says as he puts it in his pocket.
We meet the others at the hotel and head to a local bar call Roxy. It was a really cool bar with beer pong, table tennis, pool, shuffleboard games. The Beluga pulls out the dice from his pocket for the first round of drinks and each person is assigned a number (Me 1, Joe 2, Pete 3, Dan 4, Beluga 5 and 6 being a reroll). He rolls the big red dice across the busy bar floor and rolls a 5, justice! Drinks on the Beluga, though as I'm already two drinks down from the apartment roll I take the cost of two of them off his round. We finish our drinks off fairly quickly as we're waiting for a pool table to open up and go for another roll for the next round. This time it lands on the 4 so Dan heads to the bar. Soon after this the pool table opens and we head over there and start racking up. We decide to roll the dice to decide how much money each person has to put into the pot and a 5 is rolled so everyone puts £5 on the line for a game of Killer. I'm a fairly terrible pool player and against Beluga, Dan and Joey I'd put my EV in a £25 pot at less than £0.50 haha.
Killer is a game where each person has three lives and we take turns to simply pot a ball, losing a life if you miss. It was pretty obvious that with only 3 lives me and Pete were fairly outmatched and soon it was only Dan, Joe and Beluga left in. Dan goes on to win and Beluga rolls another 5 to lose another round of drinks. As it was pretty clear at this point that me and Pete were burning money playing against these pool sharks I negotiated that us two should get an extra life each which seemed to even things out a little. But alas, the Beluga went on to win this game and I lost the dice roll for drinks again! At this point our 1 hour time slot was running short but we start another game. I was playing a lot better on this final go and Beluga and Pete were out pretty quickly. It was down to me, Joe and Dan with all fairly even lives when the pool assistant came over and told us our time was up and we had to stop. To decide who won the £10 pot from Beluga and Pete we roll the dice (Joe is 1 and 2, Me 3 and 4 and Dan 5 and 6). We roll a 4 and like a miracle I somehow break even playing pool with the hustlers! The pool table for an hour was £12 so we roll the dice again and the dice decides Dan is the one paying for this and unluckily for him on the next roll his number comes out again so he’s also paying for the next round of drinks as well! As I said in my last post the Beluga is unable to attend Vegas this time because he just started a new job and doesn't have the vacation days. However, we almost convinced him at this stage of the night that if he rolled a 5 on the dice that he would have to snap book Vegas and figure out later a way of getting the time off work. I could see the temptation in his eyes as they glazed over with thoughts of craps and the ****ing Mirage but unfortunately he folded the 1 in 6 Vegas roll.
After this final round of drinks we head out of Roxy to a nice steak restaurant that Joey had lined up for us. Sorry I didn't take any pictures until this point but the steak, sides and wine were all great. After a fairly heated debate about UK politics and Brexit it came time to pay the bill. It was decided that Credit Card Roulette would be the way to decide who pays: I know it's an equal EV game but I have run terrible in the past in CCR and just decided the pain of paying for a £300 dinner isn't worth the £50 I would save if I won, so after some mega peer pressure I decide to bow out of this one. I pay my part of the bill with some added "Nit Tax" on top and as the only one not taking part I'm assigned as the credit card picker. I take everyone's card and shuffle behind my back. We decide that the top card is safe which happens to be Joey, I shuffle again and Pete is safe this time, it's left to Dan and Beluga and the CCR gods select Beluga as the chosen one this time. Admittedly, he does seem to run very bad at CCR lifetime. After dinner we head to the next bar.
Photographer Pete proposing to 5 girls
In the new bar the gambling gods instantly punish me for being a CCR nit as the dice of doom rolls a 1 for my round and then straight after another 1 pops up to decide who pays the £18 for the hour of Shuffleboard. As we're waiting for the Shuffleboard the Beluga who is still pretty tilted from losing the dinner CCR pull out his mobile phone, opens an online casino site, instantly deposits the max he's allowed due to self-imposed deposit limits everywhere (£50) and goes all in on one hand of Blackjack. He gets dealt a 12 vs the dealer’s 10, hits, gets a 6 and sticks on 18 and the dealer busts. Positive start… next round he goes all in again and bets two £50 hands. One hand he gets 11 and the other hand gets a backjack! Dealer gets a 5. He hits on the 11 and is given a King for 21. Dealer busts and just like that he's up £175 which was basically the cost of his dinner CCR. The Beluga has had a Belugaette (girlfriend) for the last 11 months which has really reduced his gambling but that has come with some wisdom, such as the amazing line: "gambling when you have girlfriend is no good, you have to tell her you've lost a tenner when really you've dropped a bag and half." (1.5k)
Shuffleboard opens up and we take it in turns playing against each other for £5 per game.
Shuffleboard with the Dice of Doom
The stakes increased fairly quickly and before anyone knew it the average bet per game was £20. At one point two girls came over wondering how to play and after a little coaching session from Pete and Joey the guys were betting £20 on the girls against each other rather than playing themselves! Beluga won about £70 playing shuffleboard so it was justice when he lost another roll to pay for the next round.
After an hour of shuffleboard we head of the casino for some poker. Back in my student days I played a lot of poker in Leeds but never before in this the new casino which opened up in the city centre a few years ago. After a drunk Joey detour around the city we eventually arrived at the casino which was very very nice (on the level of a Vegas casino I would say). The poker area was totally rammed due to a tourney series which was running. Luckily, me, Dan and Joey all managed to get a seat next to each other starting up the £1/£2 cash game. Beluga and Pete who weren't very keen on playing poker anyway took this opportunity to go for some more drinks in a karaoke bar nearby.
Good luck Joey!
Slightly disappointingly the poker wasn't as exciting as I had hoped and no major hands to report on. Joey's raising arm was well and truly oiled though and at one point he must have raised 6 hands in a row and seemed to be playing well. After an hour or so he was getting quite a lot of pressure to join Beluga and Pete in the karaoke bar so he left for a sing-song about a £100 winner. Me and Dan played for another hour. Dan played a great hand against a guy where he made super thin value bet with 2nd pair on the river which literally melted his opponent’s brain. The villain in the hand was still talking about it 30 mins later haha. A bit later we were both getting quite tired when the following hand happened:
Fish UTG+2 opens to £10, Asian guy who was SUPER loose and was already down 5 or so buy ins ships it in for £85 on the BTN. Dan looks down at A
K
from the blinds and reships for about £300. Original fish raiser covers Dan and calls fairly quickly. Someone on the table says "someone must have Aces" to which Dan responds "Well I at least have one of them" and the Fish responds "I have two" ... Gulp, board runs out rags and fish did indeed manage to wake up with Aces and Dan is felted. Rather than Dan rebuying we decide to call it a night and I cash out my £24 profit from the session (at least one of the many dice rounds of the night was paid for). Me and Dan head back to the hotel and call it a night around 2am. The next day we were meant to be going on a little drive and walk with the Beluga fairly early in the morning but as he was steaming drunk when he left us for the karaoke bar and no doubt was still out partying and drinking I thought there was little chance of that happening.
Amazingly we wake up to a message saying that him and his Mrs will be ready in an hour and we should head round to their place. Joey had decided the day before that he wasn't coming and Pete was hungover pretty bad and had to get a train mid-afternoon anyway so also decided to bow out.
(To clear up the spoon part. At 6am in the morning I felt something metal in my bed which turned out to be a teaspoon which Pete had planted there the day before.)
Anyway, we meet up and go for a nice walk around Fountains Abbey which is one of my favourite places in Yorkshire. After that we head for a pub lunch.
The Belugas, Me and Dan
Has to be Fish & Chips
We get back to Leeds around 5pm and after a little chill in the hotel room me and Dan meet up with Joey to watch the football (soccer) in a pub. We watch the game, have some more drinks (equal rounds this time). After the football we have a few games of Jenga in another close-by pub and get pizza for dinner. After the nit abuse from the previous night I decide to go in for this CCR this time, I actually had a really good feeling about it. Joey was the first to be saved so it was between me and Dan which I obviously go on to lose! For those who have been keeping count, out of the possible nine rolls Joey has been in over the weekend he's yet to lose one! Total sunrunner!
I pay the £35 bill and we head out to the other casino in Leeds for some more cash games. It isn't long until we're all sat down at the same table again.
Here we go!
Even though it was only a £1/£1 game, this session was a bit more entertaining. There was one older drunk guy who was splashing around and at one stage was raising almost every hand and being very aggressive. He'd already had a few trips to the ATM when he raised CO to £6. Joey calls BTN and I decide to peel one from the BB with the mighty K
5
. Flop comes out K
J
5
. Checked to the drunk guy who cbets £10, Joey flats and I make it £32 to go. It doesn't take the drunk guy long to put me all in for around £170 total. Joey makes the fold. I call fairly quickly (though Joey did say after that it was a nitroll haha). The drunk guy turns over AKo and we hold, phew.
About an hour and a few drunk-guy rebuys later Joey raises UTG, I flat with 22 UTG+2 and it's folded round to the drunk guy in the BB who just ships all in for about £85 total. Looking for a bit of a gamble Joey decides to make the call with 5
6
lol. Drunk guy turns over JJ and board runs out T5342, nice run Joey is having this weekend! Drunk guy wasn't happy about that but fairly quickly heads to the ATM for another rebuy. Joey played for abit longer before deciding to call it a night and leaving me and Dan again.
Me and Dan battling (I lost)
About an hour later me and Dan are getting pretty tired and as the BB is coming round we decide to play one more orbit rather than leaving straight away. At this point Dan is about £300 in profit so has got all losses back from the first night and more. Literally two hands after deciding we're staying one more orbit, the drunk guy who had built a bit of a stack back up at this point raises from MP. Dan 3bets from the BB and drunk guy just 4bet ships for the lot (about £300 total). Dan snaps with his KK. Board runs out QQxxx and drunk guy fairly quickly turns over AA
Pretty unlucky for Danny, getting coolered against Aces in back to back sessions just as we were leaving. We play a few more hands and decide to call it a night once the orbit is up. All said and done, I finished £165 up and Dan finished about £30 up after the KK v AA 15 minutes before.
We meet Joey the next morning for possibly the best pancake breakfast I have ever had.
We decide to CCR for the bill. Joey wins his 10th CCR over the two days with no issues, instantly saved when his card is the first to be removed for no sweat. So it's down to me and Dan again. Legit thought if I lose this then I'm retiring from the CCR business but thankfully Dan takes the hit and I get some free pancakes.
Dice & CCR Stats:
- Tom – 2 drinks, 2 rounds, 1 hour of shuffleboard, dinner, my own dinner plus nit tax
- Beluga – 3 rounds, expensive dinner
- Dan – 2 rounds, 1 hour of pool, breakfast
- Pete – Nothing
- Joey – Nothing
There was talk during the night of having a "Dice decides" day in Vegas with a skydive as one of the numbers lol. Think something like that would be fun.
Me and Danny say our goodbyes to Joey, next time we'll see him will most likely be at Gatwick Airport on the way to Vegas! I take the train to Manchester airport to catch the plane back to Tbilisi and the office
Been a class two days though and got me even more excited for Vegas. 40 days to go!
Some guy at the airport thought it would be a good idea to bring a leaky pint of milk on to his flight....
Next post from me most likely when in London the week before Vegas! My plan for January is to hit the gym pretty hard and get back to some poker study leading up to Vegas.
P.S. I said I would keep this brief but totally didn't, apologies!