Vegas, one more time

For the first time in 20 years instead of flying by myself to Las Vegas I ride with John Armbrust, last year's 18th place finisher, who has spent the last few days arranging his upcoming marriage in San Diego. Time passes quickly and easily until we find our gas gauge low in the most remote part of the trip. There's gas 12 miles ahead, but John's digital readout slips from 10 to 5 and then 0 all too quickly. It's 108 degrees out, but we slow to 60 and turn off the air conditioning to save fuel. For some reason I'm supremely confident we're going to make it; John thinks otherwise but doesn't want to bet against it. We go a full 8 miles with "0 miles" displaying before we find gas for $5.59, and put 16.52 gallons into his 16.5 gallon tank. After that, the Vegas skyline pops up as we crest the next couple of hills and we're there.

John suggests going to Binion's to pay homage to the poker days of old, so for the first time in five years I head downtown to Glitter Gulch. On the surface, not too much has changed--one addition I'd like to try is a water slide ride that takes you through a shark tank in an acrylic tube.

Poker, however, has come a long way. When I started coming in the late 80s, the players were mostly Texans and New York Jews, nearly all of whom smoked incessantly at the tables. In the 90s poker went international, and suddenly it was far from unusual to be the only Caucasian at the tables. (Interestingly, Vietnamese and Chinese love to gamble, while Japanese and Koreans rarely do.) The new century brought an equally seismic shift--Poker became highly popular on television at the same time technology enabled 24/7 play on the internet. The number of players tripled one year and doubled the next and the median age dropped from 45 to 30. At first these internet players were laughably bad, but by playing ten times as many hands per hour and with tournaments available anytime, they have quickly surpassed all but the very best "live" players.

John and I sit down for an hour or so in a 2-5 no limit game, mainly to get used to playing again with bad players. Somewhat surprisingly, the World Championship still has one of the weakest fields of any large buy-in tournament. I have another motivation for playing--two nights ago I had a disastrous night at 200-400 limit and I'm eager to put some psychic distance between that session and the start of the Main Event. John and I quickly win a few hundred each and leave on a high note.

I'm planning to retire early and watch the Federer/Nadal final at Wimbledon to rouse my competitive juices in the morning.