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Mon, 15 Jan 2007
I'm back from my first pure vacation in quite some time, and boy, did I ever need one! Since my good friend Steve was headed to Vegas for a little gambling, I decided to drive down and meet him and join in on the fun. Since my brother Jack lives in Vegas I could do it all on the cheap and get some much needed R&R. I loaded up my Ipod shuffle with tunes by Ray Charles, Tom Waits and Beck, and hit the road on Wednesday morning, thus breaking my Cal Ripken like streak of new comics days.
The trip down was smooth as silk, with my trusty Subaru performing like the champ she is. I made it into time just to slide into the 3:00 no limit Texas Hold 'em tournament at the Golden Nugget down on the old strip. It was my first ever real tourney against strangers, but I managed to make the final table and finish in 8th place out of 38, so I was hungry for more action.
Unfortunately, the next day was a disaster as I lost 3 straight tournaments to bad beats. In back to back tourneys I was all in against a weak player with pocket kings, once against pocket 10s and once against ace king, and both times the other player caught their miracle cards on the flop, trouncing hours of careful play and patience with the help of Dame Fortune. I came home to my brother's house a broken man. I hated Las Vegas, I hated poker, but most of all I hated myself for getting cracked like that by terrible players.
Somehow I still managed to make it to one more tournament the next day, but was ground down into nothing with bad cards. By the time I had a somewhat playable hand (queen ten), I was all in against the big blind who called me with jack nine. Once again I was the favorite going into the flop, but once again fate smiled her cruel grimace in my direction and my opponent caught a jack. I was beaten again with the best cards, but this time I knew I had a secret weapon in case I lost: I was going to see Prince at 3121 that night!
Yes, I knew that no matter how low I might have felt, I was going to see a huge star give a great show in a very small venue. Just before the curtain opened I commented to my friends that the only time I had seen such a big name at such a small club was when I saw Maceo Parker perform at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco years ago, and it was one of the best musical performances I'd ever experienced. Suddenly the curtain opens, and behind Prince on a catwalk is none other than Maceo Parker himself, rounding out Prince's all-star band with his fantastic sax!
The show was pure dynamite, with Prince strutting around the entire club, giving face time to all of his fans. He then started pulling audience members up on stage to sing and dance, very much like Maceo's shows. The entire performance was so much fun I practically forgot about my gambling shenanigans and ended up crashing at Steve's luxurious digs in scenic Lake Las Vegas.
The next day we hit up the Pinball Hall of Fame over by UNLV. Not only was it the biggest selection of well-maintained tables I'd ever seen, they were all classics and one dollar got three plays on some of my favorite machines. I played Banzai Run for hours, bringing me back to my misspent youth at the Lil Grocer's arcade across from the Rosicrucian Museum. There was even a little comic shop in the same shopping center and I got to meet the owner who was one of those interesting Nevada characters you meet.
All in all I had a great time and I can't wait for my next trip when I'm determined to see some world-class comedy and/or magic acts, as well as getting my revenge at the poker tables!