May 12th, 2005 yoshers
It has been in the works for some time. After inviting her aunt and uncle from New Zealand last August for her mom’s surprise birthday party, Shareena was offered a reciprocity of hospitality if we wanted to go to New Zealand. It just so happens that the middle of August contains both Shareena’s and her aunt’s and uncle’s daughter’s birthdays, so there will definitely be a bit of celebration for that (in fact, it will be the day after we arrive in New Zealand, can you say “jet lag”?).
I suppose that depending on the method of travel, you have different sort of “official” date of accepting a vacation - a sort of point of very difficult return. In this case, it was pretty much the plane ticket as we were already offered food and shelter as well as a somewhat set itinerary. Shareena is further excited about touring some of the locations where Lord of the Ringswas shot, despite the fact that it will be winter in New Zealand in August. I guess this just means a better excuse to pack more.
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May 2nd, 2005 yoshers
As usual, I am a few weeks late with my latest adventure, but at least I do eventually managed to get my thoughts on the hard disk.
So a couple of weekends ago, I flew off to Las Vegas to meet with my cousins from my mother’s side to have much, much fun. After being picked up by Ken and his girlfriend, Angela; Henry; and Vivian, we hung out at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club, where we had a suite (though we did not take advantage of the kitchen, it was still quite spacious), and after my cousins (originally from Chicago) Angie, Jack and Judy arrived at the suite, we talked some more and before you knew it, there was a bet going on.
As Angie, Jack and Judy were about to leave, Judy asked whether or not anyone wanted to run with her on Friday morning as she is training for a 10 mile run. One thing led to another and before long, Angie and Ken were challenging each other to see who can run better and longer. Eventually, they settled on seeing on who can run 1 mile the fastest and I managed to sucker Henry into placing a wager for Angie with 3 to 1 odds (so I put in $20 for Ken to win and Henry put in $7 for Angie and winner takes all). Well, the race apparently did not last long and a short time after the start, Angie decided to stop and lie on the ashphalt to rest.
Besides this small wager, we had quite a good time gambling, eating, clubbing, drinking and doing all the normal Vegas things. I managed to break even (despite some pretty big ups and downs at the Blackjack table) thanks to my placing 7th (first money spot) in a No-Limit Texas Hold-em poker tournament where Albert, Stanley and Henry also entered (with about 100 players total). I must admit, things did not look very good for me at the first break as I was low on the chip stack compared to my cousins, but a few all-ins later, I tripled up a couple of times and was back in business. In the end, my luck failed at the first “opportune” time as I went all in with A-7, only to be called by the chip stack leader with A-6…and then watching as a 6 came up on the flop. So yes, there is some skill in poker, but don’t kid yourself if you think it is all skill.
All in all, I had lots of fun despite not getting very much sleep (I think I slept about 3 hours a night for 3 straight days), so I suppose I am just now getting back to normal (though it is never normal when as I sometimes come into work at 6am to restart the servers) and that’s why it has taken me so long to write this entry. Now if you believe this, then I do have a future as a poker player.
Picture from Vegas (thanks to Judy).
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May 1st, 2005 yoshers
- Allot a set amount of money to lose for the entire trip; allot a set amount per day/event/hour/whatever if you do not want to burn through your whole stash in one sitting
- Don’t play while you are drunk; if you think you play better when you are drunk, you are probably just a better loser when you are drunk
- Know that the odds are against you by default, if you come out even, then you are really ahead
- Have fun; you are there to have a good time, don’t keep putting more money in thinking you can “earn” it back
Posted in Yoshi's Advisory Column | No Comments »
