swinebag's blog - proof that teachers have too much time on their hands!!

[WYoung83]

 Nice read Rob, i decided to save it, and read all at once. just finished it last night. Makes me wanna go there now evan more than before.  Especially the photos of you and paul sitting infront of them gods on the wall.

Anyway, the tipping story of the guy whistling for the cab does not surprise me. its like that in Mexico. I can remember wlking to the toilet of a resturant, and this waiter notices me, he runs past me lightning quick to open the door for me, he waits for me to have a piss, and then as im washing my hands, he grabs a handfull of paper towels and shoves them infront of my face while the tap is still running. So anoying but funny at the same time.

And you missed megan fox.....gutted for you.

[Swinebag]

Nice read Rob, i decided to save it, and read all at once.

Still got one part to go, Will
Though that is the hardest bit to write, as its the homecoming. :"( :"( :"(
Glad you enjoyed it

And you missed megan fox.....gutted for you.

I was more gutted for her tbh

[AMRN]

And you missed megan fox.....gutted for you.

I was more gutted for her tbh

loooooool

cant wait for the final chapter - this is better than waiting for the next episode of Corrie!! lol

[Swinebag]

[APAT]

Great read Rob, looks like you boys had a whale of a time.

[AMRN]

really good write up Rob.....  I gotta go soon - if only to meet this Mr Powers that Paul liked so much

[Swinebag]

Well, I dont know what happened to me in Vegas, but I"ve been on fire in November since I got back.
I won 10K by winning one of the daily biggies on PartyPoker. I then  won 1K+ by finishing 3rd in a $33 rebuy and was dominating the FT when I had my connection cut twice at crucial stages.

December has started well also. I qualified for the monthly million on Party and despite various efforts, found myself having to play in a $640 comp WTF!! I finished 161st from 1600 runners cashing for the minimum $1300. Not a bad return on a $70 sat but was really gutted. Without wishing to sound conceited, the standard was very average considering the buyin. A quick peek on OPR and I could see that most of the field were qualifiers and it was amazing how easy the bubble was to abuse with most on my table looking to just cash. So I was gutted when having doubled up without showing a card during the bubble period, that I went out soon after with a QQ v KK cooler.

The APAT 6 max was awesome fun. I was peeling more flops than I can ever remember, missing or hitting marginally and soon found myself down to half stack. I then did something that Stewart has never done and won with AJ v JonMW"s AK. the betting went raise by MW, reraise by me OTB, call by MW. Flop TQK for the nuts. MW paid me off with his TPTK and I never looked back after that. (i.e. kept getting them in bad and winning!! ) Poor Dewi doubled me up when he got funky with T8 v my KK flopped a T then turned a T. I obviously stacked off with my overpair much to Dewi"s delight, only for a steve redfernesque 2 outertastic K to hit on the river and send me into the top 3. I also bust mary who was v ul to limp in with SCs and hit a very disguised 2 pair holding 56 on a 56K board v my 47 in the BB. I raised the SB, mary min reraised which gave me a good price to chase (ok I fished it ) and hit my 3 on the turn. Money goes in and my hand held. I eventually got busted AT v 99 in a 4 handed button v SB battle to finish 8th for a little return and more importantly 2 points in the rankings to put me second (I think). I surely cant run this good for another two tourneys but why not??

Lastly, I have deposited a "reasonable" ammount of my BR into Paddy power poker with the express aim of qualifying for the irish open, which is being played over the easter weekend, meaning I will be able to play this. I always check the GUKPT and EPT schedules when they come out and am exasperated that both these tours know when the school holidays are because they never fecking organise a tourney during one FML!! At least the Irish open should have a record number of teachers playing in it!! SO far  I have a "less than reasonable" ammount left in my account as the result of a load of donked sats. still plenty of time to qualify for this though.

Anyone else fancy this? (apart from Dewi, who I"ve already clocked at the tables)

[AMRN]

[CrizzyConnor]

I just came across from the link to this in the advent calender and glad I did. Great trip report, it has me wanting to go back to Vegas more than ever! I even just looked up flights and hotels for next summer and txt some mates asking if they"d be up for it Maybe getting a bit ahead of myself though as I think i"d have a bit of trouble getting that one round the missus considering she"s already agreed to let me go travelling at the end of next year for 3 months (if I can somehow get the money together). Maybe she"ll let me go for 4 or 5 days

The next thing is the customary tipping that happens in America. The one thing I hate tipping for is for services that I am perfectly capable of doing myself. The best example of this was getting a taxi from hotel to hotel. I mean, you would stand at the "line for taxis here" queue and the only way to get a taxi was for some bloke in a smart suit to whistle for a taxi that was parked 15 yards away LOL. No way was I tipping for that!!

I had an amazing time in Vegas 2 years ago when I was there but ended my trip on a bad note due to the above. We had an afternoon checkout but our flight to San Francisco wasn"t until night time so we went to put our bags into the "free" luggage locker provided by the hotel. We were waiting in the que to put our stuff in and I nipped to the toilet, when I came back the missus told me she had asked the luggage guy about tipping and he had told her for our 2 cases and holdall it"d be something like $15 (memory"s a little foggy). Despite being told it was free I wasn"t too bothered by this because we had a few hours to kill anyway and our stuff would be safe...

When I came back to collect our luggage we were a little late, the luggage bit was right next to the taxi que and I could see our luggage sitting there. There was only one guy there at the time though and he was "manning" the non-existent taxi que so I showed him our ticket and asked could I grab our bags because we were in a rush. He told us to wait a minute until his partner got back and I was like "WTF there is nobody in the taxi que and I can see my bags?!?!" He refused and then me and the missus were looking at each other like "is this c*nt serious?". So a few minutes later his buddy comes back and he grabs our bags then whistles for a taxi. We say thanks and the taxi driver proceeds to put our bags in the boot. The luggage guy then sticks out his hand (for a tip) and I"m at the end of my tether so ask if he"s serious which is met with a surprised/angry look, I tell him I already paid $15 to keep them there and I wasn"t paying him for the pleasure of keeping me unnecessarily waiting then wheeling my case all of 2 metres. By this point a small que has formed behind him and he very loudly starts "thanking" me for my "generosity", I was a little embarrassed and getting looks from the people in the que so I told him to "**** off and get a real job" and closed the taxi door. Not the best I could have handled the situation maybe but it left me fuming at the end of what had been an otherwise amazing trip. Luckily we had a great time in San Franciso and forgot all about it quickly. I have absolutely no problem regularly tipping in America but like you said, tipping for things I am perfectly capable of doing myself and I haven"t asked for really gets under my skin.

[Swinebag]

Just bust out of an irish open qualifier finishing 6/121 for sweet FA. Top 4 paid. 1 seat worth $7200 available then three prizes from $3K down to $1K. I"ll do a bit of a TR later for this, as there was a twist  (quite literally) in this tale. Off to bed now......to cry!!!

[Swinebag]

Paddy Power Irish open satty

Buy in was $80 (1500 chips), rebuys were $40 (2000 chips) and addon was $40 (3000 chips). I decided to rebuy straight away and play like a rock for the first hour. I managed to increase my stack by 1000 chips so was sat at the first break with a nice deep 7500 stack. No real hands of note in the first hour or for the next 45 mins. Exits were slow. I finally got my money in with AK OTB v C/O raiser. This was called by the BB (whoops!) and C/O folded. BB had AA. Board ran out 23456 for a chop. Weeeeeeeeeeeee! what a luckbox!

I said there was a twist to this tale.

Well the twist was a horrendous pain that suddenly started gripping my stomach. Luckily (!) I knew what it was. It was an old gall stone problem (I had been indulging a bit in the Xmas spirit - so this was not a big surprise). I then spent the next two hours writhing around on the floor in agony, occasionly looking up to play the odd hand on my lappy. I spent the breaks in the bath (The only way to sooth the pain). This was a nightmare!!

there was no point going to hospital. There was no point going to bed as I couldn"t sleep through the pain. AND there was no way I was giving up on this tourney. Especially as I was now about to hit the FT. top 4 paid. 1st gets the package, 2nd gets $3K, 3rd $2K and 4th $1K. I also felt that this tourney had my name written on it..... During one particular uncomfortable cramp, I looked up to see an EP raiser all in. I had KK in MP and was about to reshove when my hand was folded...damn too slow!!! However, the SB woke up with AA and EP had JJ. I may have sucked out here but most of the time I"m felted. I really felt lucky as we hit the FT and I was 7th in chips. Break time and bath time again!!

I overstayed my welcome in the bath to find myself 8th from 8 in chips on my return. I managed a few resteals and then the pain started to subside, so I was feeling super confident now. A few more exits. I"m running 4th. I pick up AK in LP, shoved and was called by the BB with 88. No help and I was gone in 6th. All over just like that....gutted

I then got about 4 hours sleep. Next morning, it was straight to the Docs. I felt fine but needed checking out. He"s refered me to a gall bladder specialist surgeon, but to be honest, I just need to take it easy over Christmas.....everything in moderation I say.

Anyway, I"m just off to Manchester Piccadilly to test out how our transport system is coping. The Plan is to go to London tonight then take the eurostar on the monday to Brussells. Its Laura"s birthday present for me so will be gutted if this gets stopped by the weather. TR to follow!! I do Intend to visit the Brussells casino again...It is my birthday after all

[Mikeyboy9361]

Anyway, I"m just off to Manchester Piccadilly to test out how our transport system is coping. The Plan is to go to London tonight then take the eurostar on the monday to Brussells. Its Laura"s birthday present for me so will be gutted if this gets stopped by the weather. TR to follow!! I do Intend to visit the Brussells casino again...It is my birthday after all


Good luck with the Euro Star Rob!

[Waz1892]

hope you found alternative route.  

[Swinebag]

Got to London yesterday, no probs. went to St Pancras where there was no info (or staff) regarding monday. Oh well! Went to meet my brother, who gave me Matusow"s book for my birthday. Had a few scoops then went back to the hotel where we found out that Mondays trains were also cancelled!! FML!!

After trying the availability of numerous options, we gave up and have just got back now. We really did exhaust all possibilities and at one point had a plan that involved a train to Birmingham, flight to Dusseldorf then train to Brussells. However the flight to dusseldorf was full!! Another reason for giving up was that we were worried about how we"d get back.

We"ll get our money back for the train, we lost one nights accomodation in brussells, but we have just had a nice email from the guest house we were staying at in Bruges that has said they will keep the deposit for a year to go towards a future booking. Every cloud and all that....

[Mikeyboy9361]

Sorry it didn"t go to plan Rob, did you manage a trip to the Vic? And Happy Birthday