(this happened on) Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 in Las Vegas

In Which The Clock Strikes Midnight And I Get Four Kings

The Bellagio a Stunning Place

I had a day out on my own as I wanted to take lots of pictures today and so caught the shuttle to the strip.

While I was gone Sofia had a lie in while Sasha and the girls headed out to the Bodies exhibition at the Luxor.

We have already seen it. It’s very interesting and educational but not for the feint hearted, lungs full of tar, cancer riddled organs and an abnormal foetus that looked like a frog baby are things that have stayed with both Sofia and I.

I mean while was on the strip, I took lots of pictures at The Paris and then also got a lift to the top of the ‘Eiffel Tower.’ the view from the top was wonderful and I enjoyed taking many pictures of views of Vegas I had never experienced before.

I wandered around Vegas in the super heat of the day and took a couple of hundred pictures, I really enjoy doing this, I know, I am no great shakes at photography but I occasionally take a few decent pictures.

I then headed back to the Gold Coast.

Cadillac Ranch at Town Square

We agreed to meet the girls at Town Square for dinner and grabbing the boys we caught a cab out there.

Our first stop as usual was to go to the Borders book shop.

The boys got some more books, while Sofia for a change was more restrained and came away empty handed. Whilst we were in there the Girls turned up.

They had enjoyed ‘Bodies’ but Sasha said they were tired and grumpy (great so what’s new?)

We had decided to take them to the Cadillac Ranch so that the kids could have a go on the mechanical bull riding as we thought they would find it cool.

Stefan wouldn’t do it, nor would Basty and nor would Anna, so, in the end just Sasha and Alice did it. Alice got up to level 9 and she was awesome, she does ride horses so I guess she had a head start on Sasha.

The food and service was again was excellent, in three visits this place has consistently been brilliant.

Afterwards, we checked out the cinema, but, we could find nothing new we wanted to see.

We put the girls into a cab back out to the strip so that they could see the Sirens of TI (Treasure Island), this is a free show outside of the TI where two galleons battle it out, one full of scantily clad sirens and the other full of hunky pirate types (so Sofia says). It’s a fairly spectacular show with lots of loud bangs and pyrotechnics.

The rest of us  headed back to the Gold Coast.

It was time for some Tenpin Bowling.

Everybody did pretty well except maybe me, we all had a good time and the boys are much more confident now.

4 Kings Beats 4 Tens But Add In A Bad Beat And 4 Tens Was Worth Over $15,000

Sofia encouraged me to play Poker while she played the machines.

I was having my usual bad night and was basically down to my last few chips, I was dealt a pair of Kings so was committed to the hand and intended to bet regardless of what came up as I would run out of chips before getting another hand this good.

The lady next to me was also on her last chips and in the end it came down to just the two of us. The Table was 10, K, 10, so I had a full house, then another 10 came up, and then a J and finally with just two of us in another K, giving me four of a kind, which I must confess I did not even register as i was already all in and thought my Kings and Tens full house should be enough, the lady next to me turned over four Tens and thought she had won, but I had four Kings and this would give me the win plus a bonus for four of a kind so I was happy, then somebody shouted out ‘Bad Beat’ – I had seen the signs that the Bad Beat bonus was now past $22,000 but did not really know what that meant.

It would seem that by beating the young lady, she qualified for the Bad Beat Bonus which all involved at the table get a share of, she as the bad beat winner (loser) gets the majority of the money, I as the hand winner (loser) get the other large share and the rest, share a nice little bonus.

The game was held while all the checks were made that all the cards were accounted for, enough players were in the hand and that all was above board. The lady was hugging me and crying, saying thank you and her husband who was also sat at the table was taking photos of us, I had an inkling that my share would be around $5000 and rushed off to find Sofia to tell her, she told me afterwards that my face was flushed, No Shit! – “I won” I told her,

“how much” she asked “hundreds”?

“No thousands I think” I replied.

Back at the table with all checks done play resumed with a promise that all would be payed within a couple of hours.

It was very hard to concentrate, people kept coming to the table to congratulate us and my play kind of went to shit, but I managed to keep to a small loss on my original stake.

Then the forms started coming to the table that we had to fill in and I had to provide photo ID.

The winning couple bought Sofia and I dinner (at 3:00am!) which was nice.

Poker, 4 Kings – Bad Beat, my share $5600 and It’s my Birthday (13th August)

world travel, gap year, las vegas, gold coast hotel and casino, Luxor Hotel and Casino, hold’em poker, bad beat jackpot, cadillac ranch, town square, four kings,  bodies,