It’s Vegas, baby!
Yep, I’m back in Vegas. Flew down last night to be ready to play cards at 9 am with Mike Rippey–we’re here for 3 days of intensive card play to get him the silver points he needs to make life master.
Things have started out well:
Nothing like seeing your names on the top of the sheet
The qiuqiu online tournament is at the Flamingo Hotel–the one that Paul Soloway’s family used to own 5% of, before the mob made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. It turns out that Bugsy Siegel was Paul’s cousin.
People are complaining incessantly about this hotel, which is somewhat justified (the carpeting in the halls is loose and wrinkled and some of the worst I have ever seen), but after last week at the Las Vegas Hotel, this place is a paradise.
Our plan was to play in the KO’s and try to get into the second bracket. It almost worked–we were the last team in the first bracket, and that isn’t good. The top team (of 6, these are only 3 session KO’s) had 80,000 masterpoints. We had 8200. I don’t like those odds, and just what you would predict happened.
Tonight we played in another side game, had 55% and must have scratched, but we didn’t stay to see the final results.
Dinner was at a Mexican place just across a small mall from the hotel, but the wind was just howling and it was a struggle to get there. I had the most incredible slab of sesame crusted seared Ahi you could imagine.
Playing 3 sessions a day doesn’t leave much time for sightseeing, and the chill winds make walking up and down the strip inhospitable anyway. I guess I’ll turn in and try to play as well tomorrow.
Totally Unauthorized 
Sounds like you’re having fun! G’luck!