CV In America

Wine Country

2006-09-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

So the Steelers bet won. Everyone won 1K except me. I was enraged last night, but I feel much better this morning, although I still hope you all get hit by buses.

OK so Sonoma and Napa. They were really nice. The resemblance to the Barossa was striking. I was going to put pics up this post, but they'll have to wait.

I had a hell of a time getting into Sonoma, but eventually I shelled out $50 and made it there at about 1:30. I headed to Sonoma Square and started working my way through the tasting rooms there. I would have tasted a lot of wines, maybe around 25. After cabbing to Napa, I ate at an awesome place called Ristorante Allegria and went to a local pub that brews their own beer, called Downtown Joe's.

The next day, I boarded the Napa Winery Shuttle. I was pleased when they announced that we would be touring Carneros, since that's the Pinot Noir region. However as it turned out, the wineries we went to weren't that great. I had a better time looking round Sonoma Square the previous day, so I cancelled my shuttle booking for the next day and spent the third day walking around downtown Napa. I went to a stack of tasting rooms and ended up buying some 6 or 7 bottles. I've resigned myself to simply paying duty when I import them, though I've heard plenty of stories about Customs officers simply waving people through.

I can't remember everything I bought exactly, but here's a brief rundown:

Mayo Family "Julie's Block" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Mayo Family "Ricci Vineyard" Russian River Zinfandel
Charles Creek "Las Sorpresa" Chardonnay
Some Cabernet Franc, can't remember the winery
Buongiorno Bros. "Old Pa's Claret"
Some Argentinian Malbec
A D-Cubed Zinfandel, don't remember the label
Robert Craig 2003 Mt Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon
Anthill Farms Pinot Noir (only 120 cases of this guy made!)

People are waiting to use this computer so I have to get going. Flight back to Australia is late Sunday night local time. See everyone then.

fdghfhgfgjfg

2006-09-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

God, I'm so angry. After the difficulties I had depositing with Mansion on the 4th, I sent them an email asking for them to call me on my mobile when the issue was resolved, with the idea that I would place the Steelers bet over the phone. The request to call was ignored and I've arrived back in San Francisco today to discover that the bet is "fully subscribed", i.e. they're not accepting any more bets. I didn't even know there was going to be a limit, or I would have moved a lot quicker. That's basically half a grand up in flames, because their fucking cashier doesn't work properly.

Also, I just looked at how much I've spent in my time here and it's not pretty. I was expecting bad, but not that bad.

Oh well.

Oh yeah - wine country was really fun. I have a box of wine sitting up in my room. Proper post on that coming when I'm not in such a bad mood.

Transport Issues

2006-09-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

I had hoped to be enroute to Sonoma by now, but it's proved a real pain in the ass getting there. Normally it would be no problem, but it's a public holiday (Labor Day) in the US today and a lot of things aren't running. I've had to sign up for a ridiculously expensive ($45) shuttle to Sonoma. On a normal day I could have done it for like 15 bucks and been able to check out Petaluma as well. Oh well.

I also can't place this goddamn Mansion bet because any attempt to use Neteller is met with "Technical problem. Please try again!".

Actually, it's even worse than that. I just checked my Neteller account and all three attempted transfers of $900 succeeded on Neteller's end. None of the money is showing up in my Mansion account. Awesome. The place must be run by monkeys.

Miami

2006-09-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

Went to Armin van Buuren last night with an English guy named Tony. We were going to take the bus there, but the girl at the hostel desk advised against taking a bus to downtown at that hour. This advice seemed well founded from what we saw driving around downtown. Here at last was the dark side of the United States that I'd expected to see in LA or NYC. Tony said very accurately that the scene reminded him of Resident Evil; a desolate, decayed urban landscape, with zombies (aka drug addicts) lurching aimlessly about the place. Frightening. We drove past too fast for me to get any pics.

Anyway, Armin was pretty good. He lost me in the second half hour by taking it a bit techy, but came back strongly in the last couple hours with some hard edged trance, at times moving perilously close to hard dance (e.g. a very tough remix of Voodoo & Serano - Blood Is Pumping, and a new hard trance remix of Legend B - Lost In Love). Space was a nice club. They had massive air jets mounted in the ceiling, and a couple of times after an epic breakdown, they would crank them up just as the track dropped back in, so one second you're on a hot, sweaty dancefloor, then the next you're in the middle of cold gale force winds. Pretty cool. Here's the club in full swing:

And here's the man himself, Armin van Buuren:

Now some pics from Miami. First the place I'm staying at:

Miami Beach:

Lastly, a disturbing one. When we got back from Armin late last night, we spotted this rat in the grounds of the hostel. This fucker is BIG, so big we initially from a distance thought it was a possum or something. Look at him in relation to the skirting board:

Ah well. I'm leaving tomorrow anyway.

Itinerary

2006-09-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

I've firmed up my itinerary for the rest of my trip:

Fri 1/9	Stay Hostelling International. Tonight, I'm going to see Armin Van Buuren at Club Space in downtown Miami.
Sat 2/9	Stay Hostelling International. No plans for Saturday as yet.
Sun 3/9	Fly to San Francisco with Alaskan Airlines 1285, operated by American Airlines 1539 (14:50 -> 17:33). Stay Union Square Plaza hotel.
Mon 4/9	Shuttle back to SFO and from there shuttle to Sonoma. Not sure exactly what I'll do in Sonoma, but there are wine tasting rooms in Sonoma Plaza, or I may join a winery tour. In the evening, get a taxi to Napa and stay at Travelodge Napa.
Tue 5/9	Tour Napa Valley with the Napa Valley Wine Shuttle. Stay Travelodge again.
Wed 6/9	Napa Valley Wine Shuttle again. In the evening, get a shuttle back to SFO. Not sure where in San Francisco I'm staying yet. Will wait and see what the Union Square Plaza hotel is like. The hostel I'm staying at over the weekend was booked out this night.
Thu 7/9	Will spend tonight at a sports bar watching the Pittsburgh Steelers versus Miami Dolphins NFL game. This is because of this outrageous sports bet. Anyone with the ability to place a large sports bet who doesn't already know about this offer needs to hit that link immediately and thank me later. Staying at Pacific Tradewinds Hostel tonight.
Fri 8/9	Staying at Pacific Tradewinds again. No plans.
Sat 9/9	Ditto.
Sun 10/9	Fly from SFO to SYD at 22:52.
Mon 11/9	5 year anniversary of September 11. I'll be in the air in an outbound flight from the US. Good luck me!

Also, a friend of Liz's, Denise, tells me she thought her Miami flight was cancelled, so she stayed in NY. I'm fairly sure it wasn't cancelled, since I flew on it, so it sucks that she was told that. Sure she's having fun in NYC.

States I've Been To

2006-08-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

Since I won't be travelling to any new states during my trip, here's a complete list of states I visited. I'm not counting Illinois, which I just had a short stopover in enroute to NYC.

Nevada
California
New York
New Jersey
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia
Pennsylvania
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Florida

The storm is completely gone here - it was a total non event. It's still overcast but - as always in Florida - warm. I'm about to head to the beach with some hostel people.

Change Of Plans

2006-08-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

Hello from Miami, Florida. Overnight I changed my flight to get in ahead of Tropical Storm Ernesto hitting Miami. I was really hoping for a low-grade hurricane, just for the experience, but it turned out to be a total non event. The storm seems to have dissipated as it hit land, and conditions here at the moment (about midnight) are quite calm, with a lot of clear sky showing. I also changed flights to get on the same flight as a TrekAmerica friend, Liz, the one from Adelaide. I saw her the night before at like 11pm and she was still going to Miami, but she didn't appear on the flight over and when I arrived at the hostel, her stay was cancelled. Wtf? I guess she got worried about Ernesto. I just emailed her now so hopefully I'll get clued in soon on what the hell she's doing. It doesn't bother me since I would have come to Miami solo anyway.

I'm in an 8-bed double hostel room, with en suite. The people in my room are all pretty cool, we have a stack of different nationalities. I'm going to head back there now and have a couple more beers in preparation for bed.

Tentative Itinerary

2006-08-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

Just when I had everything all planned out, Gaia threw a spanner in the works, in the shape of Tropical Storm Ernesto, which is threatening to upgrade to a hurricane again and descend on Miami. It's scheduled to hit town just as I want to fly in. I'm not sure what to do, but I'll refrain from booking a flight today. Below is my proposed itinerary for the rest of my trip. The accommodation in Miami is booked, but it was only like $100 all up, so I can ditch that if I have to. The Napa accommodation and tour is booked, as is my NYC accommodation. Everything else is tentative.


Mon 28th - Hotel 17, New York City
Tue 29th - Jazz on the Town Hostel, New York City
Wed 30th - American Airlines 1341 to Miami (11:05-14:30)
30th-2nd - Hostelling International Miami Beach
Sun 3rd - Fly to San Francisco
Mon 4th - Bus to Sonoma, hire bike. Stay San Francisco.
Tue 5th - Tour Napa via Napa Winery Shuttle
          Stay at Travelodge Napa Valley
Wed 6th - Napa Winery Shuttle, day 2
Thu 7th - San Francisco
Fri 8th - San Francisco
Sat 9th - San Francisco
Sun 10th - Fly home (dep 22:53)

Boston + End of Trek

2006-08-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

After Niagara Falls, we drove to Normandy Farms outside Boston. That night was probably my favourite of the trek, just sitting around the campfire drinking and chatting. The next day we headed into Boston. For those who don't know, Boston is heavily involved in the history of the American Revolution. For instance, it was the scene of the Boston Tea Party. I didn't particularly like the city, but maybe it comes alive at night. I didn't get a chance to check out the nightlife because we had to get back to camp. Pics of Boston:

The original Cheers bar:

Boston as seen from the Boston Commons, kind of Boston's equivalent of Central Park:

The next day, on the way back to New York, we stopped off at Mystic, a community in Connecticut that was the setting for the movies Mystic River and Mystic Pizza. This is a very pretty tourist town:

And that, after we got back to NYC, was the end of the trek. Here we are at camp in Normandy Farms:

Here's our fearless leader:

Here's the group:

Bottom left in that pic is Liz, who was from Adelaide. She's going to Miami in a few days. I'm going to head down as well and hang with her a bit. Also, I'm going to meet a few people from the trek at Planet Hollywood in Times Square tomorrow night.

As predicted, I liked the smaller group of the TrekAmerica tour better, and I liked the people in my group a lot. But this tour came with some problems of its own. Contiki employ a professional driver, which I think is safer. It was our leader's first tour and she had little experience driving a vehicle of that size and towing a trailer. For example, fairly unbelievably, TrekAmerica's training did not include instruction on how to reverse while towing. Instead, the recruits were simply told not to ever reverse. Brilliant, huh?

Also, I wasn't really aware that we would be camping OUTSIDE the major cities we were visiting. This is not the way to see a city, because there's no scope for individual exploration - whenever people want to return to camp, that's what you have to do. As a result, I was never able to "sample the Boston nightlife", which the brochure claimed I would be able to do.

Overall I had fun, but this type of tour would be better as a true trek - to see national parks and so forth. For sightseeing tours in cities, Contiki is a better choice.

Niagara Falls

2006-08-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

The third day of the trek was spent driving to "Bear Country", in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania countryside is very pretty. Here's a typical scene:

The "Bear Country" stop was basically an excuse to spend a night somewhere on the way to Niagara Falls. The next day we continued our journey to the Falls. Some people in my group liked them, but I thought they were a bit of a waste of time, the biggest disappointment on my trip aside from Hollywood. I'll explain why in a sec, but first here are some pics. Niagara Falls is actually two falls, the Horseshoe Falls:

And the American Falls:

Here they both are, American Falls in the foreground:

Here's American Falls from the Maid of the Mist boat. That little falls off to the right is called Bridal Falls:

And Horseshoe Falls from the boat:

Now back to why I didn't really enjoy going there. This picture should give a hint:

Niagara Falls is not a wilderness. The American side is basically a park, but the Canadian side has all manner of high rise hotels and casinos, all offering a "falls view". I read that these buildings have actually altered airflow around the falls such that mist is sucked up from the Horseshoe Falls, rendering them less visible. That isn't the only way man has messed with the Falls. In 1969, for example, the Army Corps of Engineers completely cut off flow to the American Falls to "fix" unstable areas which would otherwise hasten erosion of the falls. There are other examples. In short, Niagara Falls is now partially a manmade phenomenon. I felt like I was watching a casino attraction on the Strip.

Washington, D.C.

2006-08-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

It's pissing down in New York City today. I know this because I just walked ten blocks to this net cafe and am soaked.

Anyway, let's talk TrekAmerica. On the first day we set up camp at Cherry Hill campground, about half an hour out of Washington DC. People unfamiliar with the US often think that Washington is a big city, because it gets mentioned so much. In fact, like Canberra, it is a relatively small city. It consists of the inner city, containing Government buildings and monuments, where the rich and powerful work; then surrounding this is a very poor, mostly (75%) black community. The cynical among you may choose to view this as a microcosm of America.

Anyway, the first night was spent on a tour of Washington landmarks, which are illuminated at night. Some of these pics were tricky to take as they required long exposures. I was wishing I had a tripod.

The Washington Monument:

The Jefferson Monument:

The Lincoln Monument:

The Capitol Building, where Congress meets:

The White House. This is the less famous view of it, but actually this is the front - the White House address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and this shot is taken from Pennsylvania Avenue. I have a daytime photo of the more famous back later in this post:

The next day we returned to Washington to explore the museums in the Smithsonian and so forth. The highlight for me was going to an IMAX theatre at the Museum of Natural History and seeing a 3D presentation of James Cameron's "Aliens of the Deep". It was really good. The 3D technology worked amazingly well.

Here are some daytime pics of Washington. The Washington Monument:

The Capitol Building:

The more famous back view of the White House:

I wanted to get a photo of the Supreme Court to complete my set of the three pillars of government. After walking a fair way there, it turned out they had scaffolding all over the front. Bugger. Here it is anyway:

Random NYC Stuff

2006-08-26T20:06:00.000-07:00

Just a few random pics to finish up NYC. I loved the uncertain tone of this sign. Normally shops advertising try to sell themselves a bit more forcefully:

This next one was pretty crazy. This guy was walking around the East Village (an area of Manhattan) with this giant python, charging people twenty bucks to hold the snake and have a Polaroid taken of them. He was getting business from guys buying it for their squeamish girlfriends and so on. I have no idea if this is actually legal or what.

Oh yeah. As you can see, he also had a baby alligator. Not sure what he was doing with that. Maybe getting it to bite people who wouldn't give him twenty bucks.

Finally, since most of my photos of NYC have been landmarks and so on, I thought I'd just photograph a typical NY street. This is what NY looks like at ground level:

That wraps things up for NY. When I get online tomorrow, I'll start posting about the trek. Right now I'm going to head out on the town for a bit.

Financial District

2006-08-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Financial District of Manhattan is sometimes collectively referred to as Wall Street, even though Wall Street is also an actual street in the region. A street which looks like this:

The New York Stock Exchange, the engine room of global capitalism, is not on Wall Street. It's on an adjoining street called Broad Street. Here's the exchange:

New York From The Harbour

2006-08-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

This is the famous Brooklyn Bridge:

Here it is again, with the Manhattan Financial District in the background:

Speaking of Manhattan, here it is:

WTC Site

2006-08-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Some pics of the site of the WTC towers collapse:

They're currently building a new building there, Freedom Tower, which will be the highest building in the world. It will be 1776 feet tall, that number chosen to honour the date of the Declaration of Independence.

Times Square

2006-08-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

I'm back in New York. More about the trek in a while. I want to start clearing the backlog of pics I have first.

Firstly Times Square, a dizzying hub of lights and activity. Pics:

Right in the middle of it all, this:

I don't get it. Are people supposed to be in Times Square and think "This place sucks. I sure wish I was in Iraq"?

The NASDAQ is also in Times Square:

Finally, this sign in the middle of Times Square. I imagined it. Then I thought "Good god, no".

TrekAmerica

2006-08-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hi. I've been out of the reaches of civilisation for some time, and I have to be brief now because people are waiting to use this computer. This is coming to you from Normandy Farms, a very nice campground a little way out of Boston, Massachusetts. Summary of tour to date: too much driving, too little other stuff. The time in Washington was OK, it was nice to see all the big political buildings and so forth. I have some nice pics. The rest of the time has basically been driving, and setting up camp and pulling it down and so forth. Our tour leader is brand new and keeps getting lost, plus her driving is occasionally scary, especially at the start of the trip. My tour group is really cool and as predicted a smaller group is better. The only problem is that like half the group is under 21, meaning they can't legally drink out in public, though we are planning to drink at the campsite tonight.

OK. Everything else (all the NYC photos, etc) will have to wait as I don't have the permissions to connect a camera to this computer. Catch you back in New York, probably.

Statue of Liberty

2006-08-19T23:02:00.000-07:00

I'm skipping out of the order in which I saw things here, just because I don't have time to post everything and I really want to make this post.

The Statue of Liberty might be THE icon of the United States. It was donated by France in 1885. Between 1892 and 1924, immigrants to the United States were processed at Ellis Island, not far behind Liberty Island on which the statue stands. The great fear of most immigrants was that, having made the brave and difficult journey to the Land of the Free, they would be turned back. In fact, of the 17 million or so immigrants to pass through Ellis Island in those years, less than 2% were turned back, usually because (in those less medically capable times) of infectious disease liable to cause a public health risk.

The seven points on her crown stand for bringing liberty to the seven seas and seven continents of the Earth. The robes she wears are in honour of the Romans, who invented the Republic, and the Greeks, who invented Democracy.

You can imagine the effect seeing the Statue of Liberty - all 151 feet of it, you'll be able to see the scale in my photos - had on immigrants who had just made such a difficult journey. In those times it really was a beacon of hope. Nowadays the United States continues to take more immigrants and refugees per capita than any other nation on Earth. The Statue of Liberty bears a plaque imprinted with a sonnet by the poet Emma Lazarus, written for the Statue, called The New Colossus.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Empire State Building

2006-08-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Empire State Building is an incredible building. It was built during the Great Depression and took a mere 14 months to build. It remained the tallest building in the world for 30 years. Today, after the collapse of the WTC towers, it is again the tallest building in New York.

Here are a couple photos of the view from the top. The one of the Financial District is pretty bad. I couldn't keep the camera steady enough, even resting on something, to do a long enough exposure, so I had to up the ISO instead, which is why it's so noisy. God, I'm some kind of camera nerd now. I used to think all that stuff was meaningless. Anyway, the pic of the area around Times Square is better.

Other pics will have to wait, the upload here is really slow. I'm going to head out to the Village again.

... is a wonderful place

2006-08-18T23:49:00.000-07:00

First day in New York. This city is awesome. There's a buzz to it that there hasn't been in any other US city so far. Las Vegas had a definite pulse, but that was artificial, driven by gambling. This one is just people. Everything here happens 24 hours a day. They collect garbage here 24 hours, because it's just too big a job to do late at night. Just about everything you could want here, you can get anytime.

My hotel is OK, but I was expecting it to be a place I could hang out and meet cool people. As it turns out, there isn't really a common area, so forget that idea. The location is OK though. Today I got a haircut, then went to a thai place near here called Jaiya. Their spicy dishes came in mild, medium and hot. The waiter told me that medium there was pretty hot, so I got that in case he wasn't kidding. It turns out he wasn't kidding at all, it was about as hot as I could stand it. Good food, though, and mains about $12. The restaurant has been heavily awarded, and the menu was extensive, covering some 200 dishes, including weird things like frog legs. It struck me as similar to Regent Thai (good, uncomplicated thai food), but with Cafe Michael chilli sensibilities. I recommend it to any Adelaide travellers heading to NY.

After that I went to the Empire State Building. It was cool getting to the observation deck, but I waited at least an hour in lines going up and down. Not sure if any of my photos will turn out.

After that I caught a cab to Times Square. That place is completely crazy. The first thing to understand about it is that it isn't in fact a square. It's Broadway, intersecting with a few other streets, to create an unusually large patch of intersections. It reminded me of the Las Vegas Strip in the sheer amount of lighting strung up everywhere. My photos definitely will be OK, I'll get them up soon.

Then I jumped in a cab and instructed the driver to take me to "The Village", meaning Greenwich Village, "somewhere cool". He dropped me in the centre of the Village, near Washington Square. The Village is the home of hip nightlife in NYC. NYC is a tougher place to be alone than say Vegas, because a lot of the entertainment (Broadway shows, comedy, jazz clubs) is more geared towards groups, in the same way that you don't go to see movies by yourself in general. Nevertheless I went to a pub and chatted to 3 girls from Chicago (futures traders... what else?) while watching the New York Yankees defeat Boston Red Sox.

It's worth taking an aside here about baseball. I knew before I came here that Americans were baseball-mad. What I didn't know was how many games get played. There are 30 major-league baseball teams, and any given team plays about 6 out of 7 days. So on any given day, there are something like 12 games of baseball going. There are screens up in bars everywhere, broadcasting baseball basically 24 hours a day. Crazy.

After leaving the pub I went to a lounge called Alibi, which turned out to be majority black. It's difficult to start a conversation in a place like that, so I left after having one drink. I will say though that you haven't heard R'n'B till you've heard it played in a mostly black lounge.

So then I headed somewhere very famous - Blue Note, THE jazz club in NY and basically the center of the jazz universe. This place was beyond cool. There's nothing in the world like good jazz played live. I never listen to recorded jazz, but I love hearing it live. That applies to classical music too, but jazz is more musically playful. If, during a classical performance, the conductor just threw his baton away and said "You know what, guys? Do what you want." that would be like jazz. Listening to talented musicians play in a historic club with the audience very receptive to what they were doing was one of my top experiences in the US and I'll probably head back there tomorrow night, assuming I don't make other plans. I also got a tshirt. I got a keyring from the Empire State Building too. These are the first souvenirs I've bought all trip. NYC is just cooler than everywhere else. So far, though, I've resisted the temptation to buy an "I <3 NY" shirt, even though they're like 3 bucks each.

On the agenda tomorrow: shifting hotels, and checking out the Statue Of Liberty, and Ground Zero, the site where the World Trade Centre collapsed. Photos will have to wait till I get to a real computer - you can't hook cameras up to these internet terminal things.

New York, New York

2006-08-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Flew to New York yesterday, uneventful if tiring. Stayed last night with Ben, the 2+2er I met in Vegas, at his apartment on East 95th St on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. I'm still at his apartment now, about to shower and head out.

It's worth mentioning that in LA I never even SAW downtown (that is, the CBD) let alone went there. There's no reason to go there unless you work there, and the smog makes it hard to see from a distance. In a town like Adelaide, people converge on the city, but in LA there are 17 million people and multiple places to converge. For example, Sunset Strip, if you don't mind paying 15 bucks for a beer.

Tonight I'm staying at the Gershwin Hotel, a trendy hotel/hostel in an area of Manhattan called Gramercy (here). Yes, that is a picture of the hotel on their site. I should meet some interesting people there and if I don't, at least it's centrally located.

Saturday night I'm staying at the Beacon Hotel on the Upper West Side (here), in preparation for my TrekAmerica tour, which starts early Sunday morning and leaves from the Beacon.

City of Angels

2006-08-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Next day it was a short trip to Los Angeles, about 100km away. How many people do you think live in the greater LA metropolitan area? How about 17 million?

First stop was Hollywood. Honestly I found this a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting it to be the same kind of buzzing, glamorous place as the Las Vegas Strip. Instead it was just a kind of dirty street.

This picture requires no caption:

After Hollywood, we went to Venice Beach. In the last post I said Santa Barbara was the first thing to look like California. Venice Beach doesn't look like California, it IS California. It's quintessential. Check it out:

That was the end of the Contiki tour. Here's my tour group:

In LA I'm staying with a guy from 2+2, screen name suzzer99, real name Matt. He's a good guy. He's renting a small one bedroom, no backyard unit only a couple minutes walk from the beach in a suburb called Redondo Beach. This is apparently a steal at $US 975/month. The unit is OK, but small. The area is awesome. Here's some pics:

Yesterday we had lunch with some other 2+2ers - "microbet" (Jay), "skipperbob" (Bob) and "The Yugoslavian" (Peter). Then that night myself, Matt and Jay headed to the Commerce Casino to play some cash NL. The blinds were 3/5 and the buyin was.... no minimum, no maximum, enforced $200. 40 blinds. Great huh? The players were absolutely awful though, some of them literally didn't even know the rules.

The Commerce was quite cool. It's the largest poker room in the US and when you walk in the front door, you aren't confronted by slots or anything like that, it's just bam - straight into the poker room. Poker is the main game in town:

Here's Matt (left) and Jay at my table:

We all played at the same table and still managed to all walk away substantial winners. Matt won somewhere over $100, and Jay and myself both won $200+.

Tomorrow I'm flying to New York, so tonight I'll be sleeping at the Travelodge near LAX. My flight tomorrow is at *cough* 6:20 am, so I'll have to get to LAX at about 5. Can't wait.

Santa Barbara

2006-08-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

Phew. OK, enough San Francisco photos. After San Francisco, we headed down through the Central Valley to Santa Barbara, a hip little town on the coast. A lot of the celebrities in LA have holiday houses in Santa Barbara; Oprah Winfrey, for instance. Santa Barbera was notable for being the first place we'd been in California that actually looked how I expected California to look.

See? There was quite a bit going on on Sunday, when we were there. There's an art exhibition/market there, which is interesting, because to sell stuff in it you need to actually be the artist that created the stuff. On the other side of the wharf, there were 2,601 white crosses laid in the sand, in memory of the US soldiers who have died serving in Iraq.

Coincidentally, that day I had bought and started reading Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks. It's an analysis of what went wrong with the US occupation and how it could have been handled differently. The villains of the piece are the Bush administration, Bremer and Wolfowitz. This is a serious work though, not just a partisan hatchet job. I'm now like 3/4 of the way through it and it's really good.

What else? Next to the wharf, there was this:

Awww. I threw some spare change down.

There was also a guy who apparently is down at the beach every day. He's been on Letterman and so forth, he's a minor celebrity. He has a minivan covered in thousands of little figurines and trinkets. He just stands around the van all day, excitedly expounding on the virtues of peace and love, and charging people $1 to take pictures. I bet he makes a pretty decent living.

San Francisco, Part 5: Other stuff

2006-08-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

Not the Golden Gate Bridge. This is the Oakland Bridge, which all up runs for 8 miles, much longer than the Golden Gate Bridge. This is only one section of it:

The seals at Pier 39. They've set up camp there for years and are protected by law:

One of the famous San Francisco cable cars:

Lombard Street, the "crookedest street in the world":

Some photos from the sunset sailing cruise on the Bay we went on, in a 40 foot catamaran. It was probably my favourite thing we did all tour:

San Francisco, Part 4: Architecture

2006-08-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

One of the most charming things about San Francisco is the distinctive, very pretty Victorian architecture, which is everywhere through the city. Here are some typical examples:

San Francisco, Part 3: The City

2006-08-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

Central San Francisco:

The inner suburbs. I defy you to look at these pictures and tell me the city isn't screwed next time a big earthquake hits:

San Francisco, Part 2: Golden Gate Bridge

2006-08-15T01:35:00.000-07:00

I think this is actually my first appearance in a photo here (far right). If I look tired and sick, that's because I was.

San Francisco, Part 1: Alcatraz

2006-08-15T01:30:00.000-07:00

Yosemite

2006-08-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

First view of Yosemite, off in the distance:

A squirrel. First time I've seen squirrels. They're everywhere in Yosemite:

Yosemite Falls, from the base:

The view from halfway up the Upper Falls trail, at Colorado Rock:

A closer view of the rock called Half Dome, which you can also see in the shots above. It got that sheared-off shape from a glacier slamming through it during the last Ice Age:

San Francisco and Santa Barbara pics will have to wait till tomorrow.

Photo time!

2006-08-13T22:19:00.001-07:00

Final night in Vegas pics first.

New York:

The ugliest casino on the Strip, Excalibur:

The Luxor:

Now we begin the Contiki tour. We were somewhere near BARSTOW, on the edge of the desert, when the tour began to take hold:

(For those who didn't get the reference, it's here)

Contiki, Part 1

2006-08-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

I've been out of internet range for a few days. This is coming to you from an internet cafe in central San Francisco, where I'm using an ancient Pentium II that can barely even load Windows.

First the bad news: I've contracted some kind of evil throat thing. I just saw a doctor and the good news is it's not tonsilitis, which I thought it might be since I have no cold symptoms or anything. The doctor prescribed me some Amoxycillin and hopefully it'll be cleared up by the time I head to New York.

The last night in Vegas was fun. The Cirque du Soleil performance was really entertaining. It was in a purpose built theatre. Instead of a normal stage, it had several platforms which were mounted on powerful machines which could twist the platforms in any direction. So the performers would, say, be having a mock swordfight on the stage, and then it would twist up until it was vertical, and spikes would shoot out of it, allowing the performers to continue the mock fight while swinging around the stage using their hands and knees on the spikes to fling themselves around. Impressive.

Now to the tour. It's been OK. There aren't any assholes on board, and the gender balance is fine, but there are a few things detracting from it. Firstly, it's just too big. A few people have left the tour at San Francisco, but during the Bass Lake leg there were over 50 people on tour. A tour that size inevitably fragments into smaller groups. It is basically impossible to get to know everyone. This brings me to point two - the tour actually began at LA, but I (and some other people) hopped on board at Las Vegas. That wasn't a great idea for a couple of reasons - everyone else on tour had already made friendships, leaving us trying to break into existing groups, and everyone had just been out partying all night in Vegas and were exhausted. I wouldn't get on a tour halfway through again. The final problem with the tour is that there are too many goddamn Australians. Australians are OK, but if I'd wanted to hang out with them, I would have stayed home. In Vegas the reaction I was getting when I said I was Australian was "Oh wow!". On Contiki, it's "Oh great, another one". The tour would be about two thirds Australians. The second largest group is the British, then there are three New Yorkers, couples from Poland and France, two Japanese, two Germans and one Swiss. That's it. Like I said I'm having an OK time on the tour, but I think I'll probably enjoy TrekAmerica more.

We spent most of the first day travelling to Bass Lake, which was tiring. Also, getting up at 7 every morning is not generally my thing, to put it mildly, especially since I'd been going to bed at like 4:30 every night in Vegas. Next day was a daytrip to Yosemite National Park, which I was looking forward to. It was pretty impressive scenery, though I prefer e.g. the alpine scenery in New Zealand. I hiked halfway up a trail called the Upper Falls Trail, up to a lookout called I think Colorado Rock (about an hours hike up fairly steep terrain). From there I got an awesome 180+ degree view of Yosemite Valley. Pics will have to wait since I neglected to bring my camera's USB cable to this cafe.

Then yesterday morning we drove to San Francisco, where we had lunch at the apparently famous Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39. I'd barely heard of those places, but according to our tour guide they draw more tourists every year than anywhere in America except Disneyworld. Next came a tour of the city and across the Golden Gate Bridge. That evening we sailed the bay on a 40 foot catamaran, with close up views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Night was spent out in central San Francisco. Once again pics will have to wait.

San Francisco is an amazing city with a lot of character. It sort of feels like it's been nailed together out of a bunch of other cities. There are whole sections of the city with distinct cultures of their own - Chinatown, Northbeach (the Italian section) and Golden Gate Park/Haight & Ashbury, which was the epicentre of Flower Power in the 60s and continues to retain that hippie identity today. Despite the efforts of the city to provide facilities, the homeless are everywhere in San Francisco. Part of the reason for this is that the city attracts those unable or unwilling to live the normal American lifestyle. There are crazy people hollering nonsense outside the window even as I type this.

San Francisco was destroyed in 1906 by a big earthquake and subsequent firestorm and had to be almost completely rebuilt. A lot of the bigger buildings these days have been built to be earthquake-proof, but the city is still packed with old buildings, all jammed up cosily next to each other. When the time bomb of the San Andreas fault decides to explode again, this city is going to be in deep shit.

Today is a free day. I'm tired and sick so I'm not going to do too much. There's a group meal tonight in Chinatown, then it's up early again tomorrow to journey down the Californian coast to Santa Barbera. The day after that we're in LA, where I'll quit the tour and meet up with some guys from 2+2. Flight to New York is on the 17th. That's going to be a nightmare. It leaves at I think 6:20 in the morning, and given the recent terrorist arrests, I'm going to need to be at LAX at 4:30 or something stupid like that. I have a room in a hotel close to LAX, so things could be worse.

Next post will probably be from LA. Catch you then.

Day 11

2006-08-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

Spent the day doing laundry in preparation for the start of my Contiki tour. Exciting. Then that night, went up to Voodoo Lounge (again). I'd forgotten it was Latin night, but paid to get in anyway on the theory that I had nothing better to do. After about 15 minutes of listening to smokin' Latin beats, I realised I'd much rather head to Caesar's to play poker with Stu. I would also at that point have preferred to jump off the top of Ipanema Towers.

On the way out though, I was accosted by an extremely drunk girl, who demanded I "help her stand up". She was out with two other girls, it being the hen's night for one of them (or "bachelorette party", as they call it here). They were fascinated by my accent and demanded I repeat certain stock phrases ("Throw another shrimp on the barbie" among them). Then when they found out I was there for WSOP, they demanded I come to Treasure Island, where they were staying, and "teach them to play poker". Obviously I had no intention of doing that, but I certainly had nothing better to do than go with them.

Back at T.I. I discovered that the drunk one, who'd been clutching my hand and swaying gently ever since we met, had a serious live-in boyfriend. Heh. She wandered off to their hotel room to "get changed", which I think would have ended up meaning "pass out". The other two gave up on the idea of learning poker and drifted off to play nickel slots, but not before I witnessed maybe the creepiest pick up line of all time. This creepy looking guy slid over to the one who was getting married, who was kind of cute. He produced a jar of lip balm, opened it, and said... "WOULD YOU LIKE TO TASTE MY CHERRY LIP BALM?". I assume the punchline was going to involve a revelation about where she'd be tasting it from, but we didn't stick around to find out.

So anyway, at least I got a free cab ride to the Strip, which was my plan anyway. I wandered down to Caesar's and paid Stu a visit, and witnessed him getting crushed yet again. I was feeling very apathetic about playing, and nightlife was all closing up, so I just headed back to the Rio.

Today I booked a hotel near LAX for the night before my flight to NY. Tonight we're going to a performance of Cirque du Soleil's "Kà", at the MGM Grand. Tomorrow I'm leaving Las Vegas. Here's some final pics of some of the more famous and impressive casinos:

The legendary Mirage and Bellagio:

The Venetian:

The imposing edifice of Caesar's Palace. The whole complex is far too large to fit in shot. To the left there's another tall building like the one in centre shot, and off to the right there's the Colosseum, their show venue, which is shaped like you might imagine; and also the Forum Shoppes:

I have to be at the meet point for my Contiki tour at 7am, which is going to suck badly since I've been going to bed at like 4:30am. Blogging will probably be sporadic since I might not have the ability or inclination to get online until I reach LA.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Stu and I scrapped the idea of seeing the Grand Canyon. Bus trips to the South Rim, which has the best lookouts, are a soul crushing 14 hours, most of which is spent on the bus. Helicopter trips are a more reasonable 8 hours, but cost well over $US 300. Another time...

Also, if you're after an itinerary of my tour, it's here. I smiled at this:

This afternoon enjoy a sunset sailing adventure insane Francisco’s bay

The perils of spellcheckers.

Random photos

2006-08-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

View from Stu's suite at dawn:

My view at dawn:

My view at dusk:

Stu won too lol

2006-08-07T05:09:00.000-07:00

Stu just came back to the suite, and despite the hand given in the last post he finished up 1K. Sample hand: guy raises to 22, Stu calls deep stacked with 77. Flop 643, guy bets 25, Stu made it 75 (knows his man), guy calls. Turn Ace, both check. River 5, guy bets $50, Stu makes it $200, guy eventually calls... with K4 :)

Good game, huh? I think I'll try to play some 1-2 NL before leaving.

I fucking won!

2006-08-07T03:05:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note that in the tournament Stu and I entered in Caesar's Palace tonight, I briefly stopped sucking at poker and came 8th, for a total payout of $888 (buyin was $220). Pity I couldn't hang on a few more spots - 1st was over $9,000. Steep prize structure!

Stu lost the tourney again. Then he played 1-2 NL, a guy limped in and he raised with tens. The guy then reraised, which he'd been doing a whole heap, so Stu came right back at him and made it $200 to go. The guy called, the flop was all undercards, and Stu pushed allin for another $200 or so. The guy called... with Ace Jack :D. I think I hardly need mention that the river was an Ace. Stu sure is bad at this game.

Day 9, 10

2006-08-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

Day 9 I wandered down to the Venetian with Stu and played a little 1-3 NL, but quickly came to the conclusion that live poker sucks and came back to the Rio. Stu came back as a bit later, having lost again. We decided to head up to the Voodoo Lounge, where I hooked up with a Canadian girl. I say "girl", but actually, while she looked about 31 to me, she didn't reveal until halfway through the piece that she was in fact 36, divorced, with a four year old kid. Heh. That didn't bother me though, and she was really nice.

Day 10 I had to get up early to play the Cryptologic freeroll. There were pros playing with "bounties" on their heads - i.e. if you knocked them out of the tournament, you got money. I made a terrible fold against one of them. Frankly I don't want to talk about it, but I think it probably cost me in the neighbourhood of $750 in EV. The freeroll had 80 people playing, with 50 places paid. So what did I do? I got knocked out in 55th. I sure suck at poker.

After that I napped for a couple hours and then met up with the Canadian girl again that night.

Today Stu and I are about to eat and then head to Caesar's for a small buyin tournament, where I expect to discover all over again that live poker sucks.

Couple random photos

2006-08-04T16:55:00.000-07:00

A white tiger, on display at The Mirage:

The shops at Caesar's Palace. Note that isn't the sky. It's a giant domed roof:

Day 8: Nice driving, guys

2006-08-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

Item: Everyone here drives like huge morons. Clark County, Nevada has 204 fatal car accidents a year, 25% above the United States average. It isn't hard to see why. I went out into suburban Las Vegas to meet up with some 2+2ers including Irieguy and Apathy. The cabbie on the way out there was driving one handed while using his mobile to make an international call. The story I pieced together while listening to the conversation was this: he had a "girlfriend" in Cambodia (probably a hooker he met there, or even more likely, some mail order bride type deal) and had just wired her 75 beans so she could buy her own phone, presumably with which to converse privately. He was tearing down Flamingo Road, driving one handed while babbling things to his poor Third World lover like "I miss yoooou... I love you. Same same? Awwww". It was equal parts amusing, disturbing and depressing.

So then after meeting the 2+2ers, I was crossing Flamingo on a pedestrian crossing at an intersection to get to a servo. I'd crossed almost the whole way across the road, when there was a guy coming up in the far right lane to turn right. That's the equivalent of turning left in Australia - i.e. he can go whenever it's clear. I had my eye on him and slowed a little to make sure he was planning to stop. He came to a complete stop, so I walked in front of him.... and POW he hit the gas and slammed right into me.

I was pretty close to the car when it started accelerating, so rather than there being a big impact, it was more like someone had given me a huge shove. Not long after connecting with me he hit the brakes. I was knocked back a metre or two but kept my feet. After taking a couple more steps onto the kerb, I turned around, spread my arms, and gave him a "What the fuck was that?" look. I couldn't decipher his expression in return, mostly it looked like "Whatever dude". It definitely wasn't apologetic.

The cabbie I had back to the Strip was amused and unsurprised. "Typical", he said. "These people are animals".

I agreed and resolved to stay off the roads as much as possible.

Then that night, I went out to bars again while Stu was playing 1-2 NL at the Mirage. I tried Ghostbar at Palms, which I'd heard good things about, but they were playing r'n'b at hazardous volumes. I can't stand r'n'b, so I left and headed back to Voodoo Lounge, which I can now safely pronounce best club in Vegas. They were playing some nice tough house, although unfortunately they had r'n'b on outside. I chatted to some Korean-American girl for a while, but it went nowhere, although she did offer to show me round her home town of San Francisco.

Today I think I'm going to head to the Strip as soon as possible and play some poker. Then I plan to hit Voodoo Lounge again tonight. Maybe I can drag Stu out too.

Day 7, night

2006-08-03T03:48:00.000-07:00

I spent tonight wandering around casinos. I went up to Voodoo Lounge again originally, and it was OK but kinda noisy. I was in the mood to chat to some girls and figured my best chance would be to head down to the Strip and play some low limit blackjack. I soon figured out the fatal flaw in this plan - girls don't play table games, unless dragged there by their boyfriends. Girls play slots. Obviously chatting to people playing slots is impossible because they turn immediately into slack-jawed zombies. So I just wandered around casinos in the Strip for a while. I went to the Bellagio, the Flamingo, O'Shea's, Harrah's, Casino Royale, Treasure Island and the Mirage. Then I caught a cab back downtown to Palms, with the idea of going to Ghost Bar there. It was only like 1:30, but Ghost Bar was closed. I wandered through Gold Coast back to the Rio and went back up to Voodoo Bar, which had been pretty happening at 11:30. It was now not only empty, but closed. So I caught a cab back to the Strip and went to a club at Barbary Coast which the cabbie had recommended. It opens at midnight and runs until 7am. I paid 20 bucks to get inside and there were all of about 20 people in there, mostly couples. Then a couple of girls walked in, pretty decent looking, and grabbed a booth by themselves. I was thinking I should maybe go across and chat to them, when suddenly they leaned together and started kissing passionately.

Weak. I thought this was supposed to be a party town. Obviously not on a Wednesday night. Nothing to do but sleep and maybe try again tomorrow night.

Day 7: Photofest

2006-08-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

So I just discovered I had anonymous comments turned off. They're turned on now, so feel free to leave comments if anyone's still reading this! :D

It was actually a SunPoker only party last night, not all of Crypto. It was awesome, free drinks and food again. We had a great time but I don't feel much like drinking tonight.

Haven't done much today except revisit the Voodoo Lounge up on top of Rio and take a bunch of photos. The Strip at night from up there is one of the more beautiful things I've ever seen. I have photos but I doubt they'll do it justice. I chatted to the guy at the bar a little and he said working up there was "good for the soul", which was an echo of what I was thinking.

Photofest time! First, some photos of the Rio. Here's Ipanema Towers, which is where Stu and I are staying:

And Ipanema Beach from the air:

Here's the Strip, facing North then South, taken on the Strip (at the Bellagio).

Here's the Strip by day from up at Voodoo:

By contrast, here's a less glamorous area of Vegas:

And the Strip by night:

I have videos of the Strip by day and night as well, but I have nowhere to host them right now (I don't want to keep hassling the good folks at Planet). I'll try to get them online at some future point.

Finally, here's something pretty stunning. Who would have thought that the casino would be selling a book enabling you to BEAT THEM AT THEIR OWN GAME?!

Day 5, Day 6: Chris also = Busto

2006-08-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

What a shit couple of days. I busted in the WSOP like two hours ago. I also lost 1K playing no limit cash last night.

To the cash game first. I sat 2-5 NL deep stacked with $700. I got 33 UTG and it was limped about 6 ways. Flop QT3. I bet 20 into the 30 pot and got one caller. Turn K, I bet 50 and he made it 125. I just called with the idea of check calling the river. That way I still get money in versus two pair but I don't get stacked versus a straight. River was J, I checked, he bet 200 and I folded.

Next I had KTs on the button after a poster. I made it 20 and BB and poster both called. Flop was 922 rainbow, they checked to me and I bet 40. BB hesitated, moved the protector off his cards, and then called. Turn A, he checked again and I bet 80. He minimum checkraised and I folded and he flashed quads :)

Then I had KK in the SB. It was again about 6 ways limped, I raised the pot, and two people called including the button. Flop 884 two hearts, I bet 80, one guy folded and the button raised to 200. At this point I had about 420 remaining, so I was getting pretty good pot odds and decided to stack. He called and rolled over 89. I really hate the way I played this hand preflop, I simultaneously built a big pot out of position, and basically turned my hand face up and then gave people great odds to crack it. I should have raised a lot preflop, like at least double the pot. That will be my standard play from now on with big pairs.

So I dropped 1K, all up. Not that much fun. Then Stu and I went to Valentino, at the Venetian, and had a superb meal. It would want to be superb, costing us in the neighbourhood of $US 200 each.

Then we went out drinking for a bit and I woke up this morning ready to play day 2 of the WSOP.

First level was 250/500 with a 50 ante. First hand of interest, I made it 2K with AK in mid position. The big stack to my immediate left called (I had a terrible seat). Flop 654 two of a suit, a disastrous flop. I checked, he bet and I folded. He flashed TT.

Then the big hand where I lost most of my chips - I raised KQ in mid position and the BB called. Flop 854, two spades. He checked and I bet 3K. He called. Turn J spades and we both checked. River 3 spades. I didn't have a spade, but when he checked I bet 5K hoping to represent a hand like what I had but with a spade. He called with 53dd. I'm not sure I'm crazy about my bluff vs a good player, since he's probably correct to just call with any pair. I'm also not crazy about his preflop call for 2K when effective stacks are like 20K, not sure what his plan is there. If I'd fired the turn I could have moved him off the hand, but that's hindsight for you. Bit of a tough hand.

So now I was nursing a short stack and couldn't get anything going. A number of my steals got snapped off and it was all I could do to break even. Then I got moved tables and a hand came up that I wasn't in, but it's important later. The woman to my immediate right raised UTG and get one caller in position. Flop A42, they both checked. Turn a blank, she bet 2500, he called. River A, she bet 2500 again, he called. She showed pocket eights and he showed pocket nines. Raising UTG with eights there is a bit on the loose side, and the fact that the pocket nines flat called her down implied to me that she wasn't getting much respect, so I figured she was probably on the loose aggressive side.

I bled off some more chips calling in the BB versus an allin player, and had less than 10K when the final hand came up. It folded to CO+1 who open raised for 1700. The woman next to me in the CO made it 5,500. I was on the button with AK suited. I had a pretty solid read on the original raiser that he would fold. That means there's 3,350 in dead money in the pot (blinds 300/600, antes 75 at this point) and I'm versus a player who I suspect to be loose. I moved in and I feel like that was the right decision, but as it happened she turned over KK and I got no help and that was that.

There's some kind of party tonight for players who qualified through Crypto, so I think we'll head down to that in a sec. Also I got the freeroll date wrong, it's on the 5th and today is only the 1st. We'll probably head to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam sometime in the next couple days. More blogging then.

Stu = Busto

2006-07-31T16:22:00.000-07:00

I noted it in the Day 4 post below, but since nobody is probably reading that far down, Stu busted near the end of last night. The details are too shocking to reveal here, there might be small children reading.

Day 4 yet again: More photos

2006-07-31T00:20:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I'm told the video link I put up was returning a clipped file that didn't work. It's now hosted elsewhere and the link below should work. Thanks to Planet Software for the hosting. Buy Year View! ;)

So I was trying to take shots of the WSOP in full swing in the poker room, and it was just impossible to frame. It's too massive. Then I remembered my camera has a video mode! So I recorded a video of me standing in the dead centre of the room and rotating through the full 360 degrees. Here it is. There's some pics below for those too lazy to download the video, but I recommend you do download it for the full experience. The photos below both capture less than half the room.

Here's one of Stu in action during Level 5:

I also went up to the Voodoo Lounge at the top of Rio, which is AWESOME. I have the right settings figured out now to take pics up there, so tomorrow I'll cruise back up there with Stu and take some nice photos of the Strip all lit up at night.

Day 4 again: Photos.

2006-07-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I resized these photos before I posted them, but I just realised Blogger thumbnails them for you. Can't be bothered doing it again. But anyway these aren't representative of what my camera can do.

I just tried to take photos of the poker room again, but they keep not letting me in. I'll try to take a photo tonight, along with a night photo of the Strip from the top of the Rio. In the meantime I thought I'd put these up. Here's some photos of my suite:

And downtown Las Vegas from my window:

Here's some pics of the Gaming Life expo next door to the poker room:

This is the "Pillow Fight" at the Bodog stall in said expo. Basically I think the idea was here that you went upstairs (maybe for a nominal fee, I'm not sure) and then hot chicks beat you up with pillows while some guy took photos. The rule in Vegas is that anything is fun if it involves hot chicks and photos.

Finally, I'm thinking of eating here tonight. I don't see how it can be bad.

Day 4: Stu's first WSOP day

2006-07-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

First a couple of things I forgot to mention about my WSOP tourney. The first is a guy on my first table on the first day who cracked me up. Either he hadn't played live before or he was just really bad at it. I got involved in a hand with him where he limped UTG and I raised in late position with KcJc. He called and the flop was T95hhh. He checked and I took a stab at it in case that flop looked as scary to him as it did to me. He called. The turn was another small heart and we both checked. The river came the king of diamonds and he shook his head as if in disgust, and then grabbed chips and bet out. About three people at the table, including me, burst out laughing. (For those who don't play poker, the disgusted head shake there is a classic "weak means strong" tell, in this case comically obvious because of his subsequent bet). After ribbing the guy a little I mucked and he showed the AhQd (the nuts). He did the same thing again later after turning a set versus another guy.

The other thing is that I'm going to have some interesting decisions to make Day 2. If I bust out Day 2, then I get to play in the Crypto $200,000 freeroll on August 5th. They're expecting about 100 players, and there are going to be pros on every table with a $2,000 bounty on their head as well. My EV in that tournament should be at least $2,500. This means that towards the end of Day 2, if I have a decision for all my chips that I think will only lose me, say, $1,000, in real cash terms, then I should move allin and take that 1K loss. This is most likely to matter if my stack is very short, there's no way I should finish Day 2 with a stack that is probably only worth like $4,000 in real cash terms. So I'll be pushing a bit more aggressively towards the end.

Now to Stu's tourney. I saw Stu on his first and second breaks. On his first break he had $15,000, but on his second break he had dropped to $11,000 and was steaming a little after making a bit of a bad fold. He had KJ out of position heads up on the flop K83 and it went check/check. On the turn of a queen, he bet 1,500 and his opponent went allin for 4,500 total and Stu mucked. His opponent had AQ.

Updates to follow throughout the day.

UPDATE: Stu is now on dinner break with 16,000. Nobody at his table has busted, which is a little strange and disturbing.

UPDATE 2: This one isn't Stu related. I just remembered a couple of stories this friend of Ben's told me yesterday. He does a little sports betting at Bodog, and they had a bet offering 12-1 that the WSOP would get over 8,000 players. This guy had $50 on it. Best bet ever, I'd definitely have taken that (this is like a few weeks ago). Also, he bet $50 at 40-1 that someone would win two bracelets during the world series. It happened, and Bodog just went "Obvious line error, we meant 4-1" and made the line null :). Hohohoho.

UPDATE 3: About halfway through Level 5 (they play 6 levels) I got a look at Stu's chipstack. My guesstimate is 18.5K.

UPDATE 4: It's now the final break, one more level to play. Stu has 20,000. Blinds this level are 200/400, with a 50 ante, so he has a fine stack, even though it would be below average at this point.

UPDATE 5: He's busted.

Day 3: Just hanging out

2006-07-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty uneventful day. There were two major things that happened. Firstly I bought a digital camera, the Fuji FinePix F30. Secondly, I met a guy from the 2+2 forums, by the screen name of Hornacek (real name Ben). Good guy. Also offered me a place on his couch in New York, which I may take on the Friday I arrive there.

Stu is currently playing a warm up tournament at Caesar's Palace on the Strip. He wishes it to be known that casinos selling only Pepsi and not Coke is a travesty of justice. (At like every casino in Las Vegas, if you ask for a Coke, the response is invariably "Pepsi OK?". Not sure if Pepsi owns the whole town, or what).

Stu is playing tomorrow, and I'm going to spend my time unpacking the camera and learning how to use it. I should have some photos up on this site of my suite, views out the window, the WSOP poker room, and so forth.

Also, if anyone in America is reading this, I have discovered the reason for high obesity rates. It's not the food they're eating, it's the PORTION SIZES. Those who eat with me regularly in Australia will know I'm quite a big eater at dinner. At dinner tonight, after not eating all day, I ordered a starter and a main, and I couldn't even finish the main, let alone the starter. It's been like that everywhere we've eaten here so far.

Day 2: WSOP Main Event, Day 1

2006-07-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

Cliff Notes for those who don't want to read about poker: In Day 1A, about 2300 starting players played down to 800, and I took my 10,000 starting stack to 28,225, which is now about an average stack. I'm playing again on Tuesday, which is Wednesday Australian time.

So this is it - the World Series. The poker room, which can seat 2000 at once, has to be seen to be believed. I'll get some photos up on here at some point.

The day started with a bit of a debacle. Under US federal law, no clothing advertising a poker site can be worn. Logos are OK, but not if they say ".com", which a whole stack of them did. After dire warnings about being ejected from the tournament if you were wearing .com clothing, a bunch of people were hastily turning shirts inside out and taping over the .com in logos. Stupid really, but it's the law.

Eventually we were underway. Starting stacks 10,000, blinds 25/50. I picked up KhQh in the blind on the very first hand. UTG limped, button made it 150 and me and UTG called. Flop was K64, one heart. It checked to the button who bet 300. I checkraised to 1,000, hoping to see where I was at. The button called, which I didn't like. The turn brought another heart, however, so I now had a flush draw as well. I didn't think he would raise me with AK if I bet, so I went ahead and bet 1,500. He called. River was a black 8 and we both checked. I flipped up my hand and he flipped up... Ks8c. I lost a quarter of my stack on the first hand to a bad beat. Welcome to the World Series!

My fortunes changed a couple rounds later. There was a guy two to my left who was chatting a bit and my impression of him was that he thought no limit holdem is a simple game where you wait for high pairs and then crush people. Deep stack no limit is not like that, as he was soon to discover. It folded to me on the button and I made it 150 with 87 offsuit. He made it an extra 350 out of the big blind. With position and deep stacks this is a fine call, especially against the kind of player he was. So I called and hit the jackpot, with a Q87 flop. He overbet 1,600 into the 1,000 flop and after a little thought I decided I was best to just move in for my whole 7,000. He called so quickly that I was suddenly afraid I'd run into a set of queens, but nope, it was just him being unable to fold AA, as I suspected. My hand held up and I now had about 15,000.

Then another brutal hand. After one limper, I called in the SB with 22. Flop was a dream: AK2, with two of a suit. I led out for the pot, BB folded and the limper min raised me. I called. Turn K, I checked, he bet 600, and I raised to 2000, which he called after a little thought. River... K. For the viewers at home, my hand just went from beating everything except AK, KK, AA, to losing to any ace, any king, and any pocket pair. I checked and he bet 1,000. I mucked face up and got a little sympathy from the table.

At the end of the 25/50 level I had 12,200. I was feeling good, having invested a ton of chips while ahead in hands, and being up substantially despite two bad beats. Next level 50/100. Nothing of interest happened to me at all that level and I finished with 11,875. Blinds now went to 100/200.

I raised in mid/late position with A7o, versus blinds who had mostly been folding to me. This time the big blind called and the flop came JT9 two clubs, a disaster. We both checked. The turn was an 8, giving me the idiot end of the straight. He bet half pot, 600, and I called. River another jack and he again bet quite small, 1,200. I couldn't figure out a hand that he'd play like this that I was beating, so I mucked.

Then I busted a short stack with jacks. I only mention this because he was the only guy I sent packing all day.

Then I had 9d5d in the small blind. After 3 limpers, I topped up and we saw the flop 5 handed: 876, two clubs. I led out for 800 into the 1000 pot and the big blind minimum raised me. When it came back round to me, after calling his raise the pot would be 4,000 and I had about 10,000 left. With such a dangerous board, I decided I couldn't afford to give him a cheap card, and if he had T9 I was definitely going broke. I therefore just moved allin for the whole 10K, hoping he'd think I had a big draw. After some thought he folded two pair.

Now I shifted tables. There was an aggressive guy on the table. I saw him have a river bluff snapped off and his posture was aggressive as well. After a while he raised to 750 from mid position and I picked up AK offsuit in the SB. I flat called and the flop came Jxx. We both checked. The turn was a 9 and I led out for 1,000 trying to pick up the pot. He called. The river was a very welcome Ace. This was also a great card to give my aggressive opponent some rope on, so I checked and he bet 3,500, about the size of the pot. I was already intending to call, but this bet was also very suspicious. With a good hand I think he would have bet less, trying to get a call. I called and he said "You got it" and folded.

I finished Level 3 with 19,875 in chips. Next level was 100/200 still, this time with 25 antes.

This was a big level for me. First up, I picked up QQ and after it went raise, call to me, I reraised and they both folded. Then a really big hand came up.

I had KQ offsuit in mid position and raised after a limper to 900. The big blind and the limper both called. Flop was AJ8 two hearts, I had no heart. They both checked and I took the free card. Ten of diamonds on the turn, DING DING DING. Now the blind bet 1,500 and the limper called.

This is where I made I think my only mistake all day. In these situations it can get tough. You're in the biggest tournament in the world, holding the immortal nuts, with a giant pot brewing and a bet and call to you. The adrenalin was singing in my ears and I was trying to think about how much to raise. Flat calling was out of the question on this board. I wanted to make sure I didn't let them draw cheap if they had something like a K and a flush draw, where they would have 9 outs and then 2 more for the split. I raised to 8,000, which was way too much, but at the time I couldn't think straight. They both folded. I think they might have folded anyway even if I'd raised less.

My third big hand in this level was AdKd in mid position. I made it 800 and the big blind called. Flop KK3 rainbow and he check called. Turn 4 and he check called again, a substantial bet this time. At this point I thought he must have at least a king. River was a Q and he checked again. I seriously considered checking here. KQ and 33 were both possible hands for him and I was dubious I'd get a call from much. Even a hand like KT should probably fold in the face of the strength I'm showing. Also, if I get checkraised, I will probably have to lay it down, which would be painful, and there's some risk I would be laying it down to KJ or something if the guy is a bit dumb. Eventually I bet like 1/3 of the pot and he folded. When I was moved to a new table shortly afterwards, he said he had a medium pocket pair. I'm still not sure whether betting was right or not.

At the end of Level 4 I had about 29,000. Next level was 150/300, still with 25 antes. Only hand of note was TT. A guy who was fairly loose raised in early position and I called in the cutoff. Flop was JJ9, he bet 1,500 into the pot, which was about 2,400. I called. The turn was a blank and he bet 1,500 again, a weak bet. I didn't feel like he was trapping. I thought I probably had the best hand, and that he might even lay an overpair down if I raised him strongly here. I made it an additional 5,000, throwing in some Academy Award winning hand-shaking as I put the chips out (shaking hands normally means a big hand). He folded quite quickly, so I think I had the best hand.

I finished Level 5 with about 32,000. We had no been playing for like 11.5 hours and I wanted to die. One level left, 200/400 with 50 antes.

Early in this level things were going well. I ran a few steals and reraised a guy with AK and he folded, so I was picking up chips and cruised all the way to 37,000. Then things started to go wrong. One of my steals was reraised and I had to fold. Then the next round, I picked up QTo in the cutoff and raised. The button and both blinds ALL called the 1,500. Pot was about 6,500. Flop came KQT, two diamonds, giving me bottom two pair. The small blind led out for 6,000, almost the pot. The big blind folded and it was up to me. I'm happy that I was able to think this hand through clearly after about 13 hours of poker. My QT was just not that good a hand here. I was getting crushed already by KQ, KT and AJ, all fairly likely hands to call my steal raise. And on the flipside, I wasn't beating anything very solidly. A hand like KJ wins on any ace, nine, king or jack, which is 13 outs. That makes him about 50/50 with me. And that's before I factor in the flush draw, which is going to cause me big problems if it hits. Plus there was another guy to act behind me still. This was not a good spot to invest money and I folded. The button raised allin, the small blind called and they both turned over AJ, the nuts. So I dodged disaster, but I still bled chips off on the preflop raise.

My raises by now weren't getting the respect they had been, so when I raised in mid position with AK the guy to my immediate left flat called again. The flop was Q55. I hate these spots because a pocket pair will probably flat call a bet and see what you do on the turn, but betting the turn again is a disaster if they have AQ. But check/folding seems really weak. I thought I had better take a stab, figuring he'd give up with stuff like 44 and AJ. I bet 2,500 and he called. Turn was a blank and I checked and he bet 4,000. I said "You have AQ, don't you? That's really sick." and folded. He flashed AQ at me. Nice flop sir.

And that was the end of my day. The hands at the end of that level bled my stack back down to 28,225, which is about average at this point in the tournament. I'm happy with that, and I think I'm playing well. I wandered back to Stu's suite and chatted to him about my hands for a while as we drank complimentary Californian "champagne". Then, at about 5am, I went and crashed out. I'm glad I don't have to play poker again for a few days.

Day 1: Vegas, Baby!

2006-07-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

I was due to fly out of Adelaide at 9:40, but when I arrived at the airport, I ran straight into Stu, who had arrived quite a bit earlier than me, for his 11:00 flight. I figured we'd try to change onto the same flight, so I asked the people at the Qantas desk whether that was possible. They said yes, so we transferred to the early flight. When we went to the checkin desk, the lady said "Passports please" and... yep, you guessed it, a panicked look spread over Stu's face. At first I thought he was joking, but he really had left it at home. I ran back to the Qantas desk to change us back to the late flight, while Stu made some phone calls to Kelly's parents to get them to pick up his passport and bring it to the airport. We sat down to wait for them, when Stu, digging through his bag... yep, you guessed it again. He actually had his passport. He called Kelly's parents and told them, but we stayed on the late flight as I think the guy at the Qantas desk would have punched me if I'd tried to shift back to 9:40 again.

We flew to the US with United. I'd heard bad things about them and they didn't disappoint. The in-flight entertainment consisted only of an antiquated projector type thing for displaying movies. Also, the one in our area was broken. Nothing to do but read, chat and listen to music for 12 odd hours. I managed to get 2 or 3 hours sleep, but Stu got none at all. We arrived in San Francisco and I had the odd experience of everyone around me suddenly talking in American accents. It kind of felt like I was on TV. Then we went and got on our connecting flight.

The Nevada desert is a scorched, barren dustbowl, seemingly unfit to support life of any kind. Then, slap bang in the middle, what looks like a crashed alien spaceship looms through the dust. Las Vegas, Nevada. Principal imports: hot women and truckloads of cash. Principle exports: Nothing. I could almost see the rivers of money swirling down into the abyss. Gambling is everywhere. There were pokies in the airport and video poker on the table in front of us as we ate dinner.

We both have suites in the Rio, a big hotel/casino in downtown Las Vegas. The suites are great, very spacious. Photos to follow.

We wandered down to see the guys from SunPoker, the site with which we both qualified. They told us to re-register for the tournament and then come over to the Cryptologic party that evening (Crypto is a network of sites that includes SunPoker). When I registered for the main event, I received a shock as I was told I was playing the next day - Day 1A. I was told over and over that I would be playing Day 1C. I think there have been a few screwups like that.

Anyway, after a bit of time at the Crypto party (which was awesome - free drinks, great free food) we were both exhausted, so we retired to our suites and I set my alarm to get up and start playing the World Series of Poker Main Event, which started at noon the next day.