Vegas October 2021 (WSOP)

Days 1 & 2 - Drive, whisky, dinner

Last Updated: 2021-10-10 11:19:49

I wasn't going to do a pre-poker BLOG, but I did start typing a little of this up ahead of time and decided I was going to go on a bit so...

Drive was smooth as far as construction goes, we had two spots down to a single lane and knew about both of them ahead of time.

Glennwood Canyon is still recovering from the massive mudslides, and in that small stretch of northwest Arizona that I-15 cuts through there is a lengthy bridge replacement going on. But as late as we drove out there was not much of a backup at either.

What did slow us down was rain. Lots of it, all the way through the mountainous part of Utah.

But we made In-N-Out in Washington, UT around 12:45 am (drive through must have had 10-15 cars lined up, restaurant 60-70% full with high schoolers ... did I mention 12:45 AM?) and were up in our room at Aria (with the time change) around 2am.

We had very little agenda for Saturday. Dinner with my cousin Heather and boyfriend Glenn; I wanted to pick up an expensive, hard to find bottle of rye whisky I found out a shop had out here; register vaccination records with the WSOP folks; and Glenn was holding some bottles for me of some other stuff that is also hard to find, but magically appeared out here just after we left town from our June trip.

For those into whisky I was picking up a Thomas H. Handy Sazerac and Glenn was holding a Weller C.Y.P.B. and a couple of Weller 12 years. And a Willet rye but that's not as special, just can't find 'em in CO. Weller 12 is one of two whisky's I badly crave that I've tried before and loved.

The other is E. H. Taylor Barrel Proof (EHTBP), and when we went to the shop to pick up the Handy Sazerac there, on the shelf, directly above the two bottles of "Handy" they had in stock, were three bottles of EHTBP. For more than I should spend on one. Less than the Handy, but not a lot less.

In fact, I've done the math. There's a whisky bar in Arvada that sells 2 oz shots of the stuff for less than this bottle would cost me if you added up 750ml of 2 oz shots. Higher than "bar price"! You know it's too much if you can get it cheaper at the bar, right?

But ... I gotta go to the bar, there are additional costs ...

But ... it was expensive.

And I've never seen one in a store before. Well, not true, I saw one at the same price at a different Lee's liquor when we spent a day liquor hunting in June. I've seen it once before at this relatively high price. But nowhere else at any price.

We leave the liquor store with just the "Handy". Joann really can't believe we left with just one bottle in my hands. Oh, and there was another bottle of something else in roughly the same price range as both of these bottles but we won't talk about that...

One expensive bottle is enough for today. And for the googlers out there, I did not pay as much as the numbers you'll see but I did spend a few bucks for sure. Just not that much.

Over to Rio to register that we're vaccinated (they have a spectator pass for Joann to be in there while I play and one less thing for me to worry about at the buy-in cage on Sunday) and on to Heather and Glenn's to pick up my bottles and chit chat a little even tho we're getting together for dinner later. I didn't want my bottles sitting in the car and once we're at Rio it's not exactly a long drive to their house.

Oh there was also a bottle swap. Glenn had inexplicably found a Macallan Rare Cask 2018 batch 3 on a business trip to San Fran. Had sent me a pic of it, bought it for himself, but as he told me when we were at the house really had me in mind. And I had picked up a bottle for him of Macallan Edition 6 that's cheaper in CO. So Edition 6 and cash for 2018 Rare Cask.

I tell him all about my trip to Lee's on sunset in Henderson. How we can't believe we walked out of Lee's with just one bottle.

And ... after all ... if I can spend "X" on one bottle, "Y" isn't exactly a stretch.

Joann and I head back to the room. Well, that was the plan anyway.

When it was time to go left to get to Aria we went straight, got back on the highway and drove my ass back to Lee's. And again I walked out of Lee's with an expensive bottle in my hand.

The good news is I'm running out of things I want to buy.

Next to the bottle of EHTBP was a bottle of E.H. Taylor Warehouse C. $2000. Google that one...

$2000 is a bargain, but that's way out of my league. We'll see if I make a final table this trip in a bracelet event, maybe there will be another trip to Lee's on Sunset in Henderson :-)

Dinner at Triple George Grill. We ate there before, had a great time the last time. This time all of us liked our dinners but each of us also had some minor gripe. My short rib wasn't as warm as it could have been for example, but the mushroom gravy it was in was great. So it was a good meal just not a great meal.

But the company was what mattered and we always have fun together.

Then we really, really went back to the room to finally crash. I didn't sleep great our first night and was really starting to hit the wall at dinner. But I got a great sleep Saturday night so I'm all refreshed for the WSOP.

Sunday morning we'll be going to Tom's Urban to watch football with both the Eagles and Packers on at the same time. This fall WSOP thing is really messing with my football watching. But I'm playing at 3 at the earliest and the games we care about are 10am kickoffs. I'm in no hurry to buy in, I'm happy to register late and for this one I'd be good buying in at 5 or 6 pm as slow as the format is. But I'll probably be there at 3 because I can't wait to play :-)

Just gotta skip the drinking part during football at Tom's. One, two at the most, and definitely no beer. I'm planning on a long day at the poker tables. And hell, I've already spent enough on whisky. I just realized I didn't even mention the bottle I bought in Vail on the way out. It was an expensive first 24 hours. Kept it to one at dinner Saturday, gotta do the same today.

After football it will be Event #21, Omaha 8/b Mix.

Pot-Limit Omaha 8/b, Limit Omaha 8/b, "Big O" (5-card PLO8). Two cards just isn't enough :-)