When in Doubt, Whip it (them) Out

There really hasn't been much to write about lately.

One day blends into the next. Deal the cards, deal the cards, deal the cards.

Oh well, that's what I do.

Today on table 2 there was a grumpy old man in seat 7. Within two hands of my down his cards were coming in fast and landing in the box. As I wasn't in the argumentative mood I simply ignored it. The next hand the cards again came in fast and he said something like "Murph your dealing really sucks", or something to that effect. Of course he was talking about the cards he was getting not my mechanics. I honestly don't remember exactly what he said. My reply was a jovial "Yeah, I've been told that before".

He just grunted and I kept on keeping on.

A few hands later Mr. Happy actually won a pot. As I was gathering up the cards and moving on to the next hand he throws me $1 and says "That one's for the pot". He then threw me $2 and said "those are because you said the right thing when I was complaining before". He continued with something about that "comment" would have had the last dealer red-faced and in a huff. Really? Perhaps.

That day the nits had no power over me. That's the way it should be. Let them stew in the slop that is their discontent. I'll stay out of that quagmire, thank you very much.

*****

The past few days have found me golfing and swimming in 70-80 degree temperatures. Back East in Maryland it's cold and they had about a foot of snow a few days ago. My mother and nephew took advantage of the white stuff and built a snowman. I wonder how many years it's been since I built a frosty. many many years for sure.

By all accounts my little buddy is doing great in kindergarten . Here is his interim progress report.

I'll be planning a trip home in July to celebrate his 6th birthday.

*****

Linda has posted several updates on the progress of MGMMirage City Center. You can check out her pictures here.

The scale of the project is impressive as is the price tag. The announced budget for City Center is $7 Billion.

The first residential units to be offered for sale are in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and the sales figures are staggering.

The Las Vegas Advisor Question of the Day addressed City Center and reported:

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the most expensive of the hotel-condos, will have a 400-room tower and 227 condos; units start at $1.5 million for a 600-square-foot studio and top out at $12 million for a 4,100-square-foot penthouse; the Residences at the Harmon will have roughly the same number of units. The Vdara will be a 1,543-unit condo-hotel, while the Veer Towers are a pair of 37-story condominiums with more than 2,000 condos and no hotel rooms. MGM Mirage is now selling the units at the Mandarin and Vdara. The Mandarin went on sale first; MGM

Mirage has announced the first-month sales results for Mandarin.
* 200 units sold out of 227 (90%)
* $613,000,000 in sales from Mandarin residences
* $1,584 average-square-foot price

WOW

*****

An incident happened on a $2-5 blind NL game the other day. The 1s went all in for about $440 into $400ish pot. The 5s called. I ran the cards out. The 1s tabled his hand and I started to push up the board cards to indicate his hand. In the mean time the 5s tabled his hand. The 1s had the best hand. For unknown reasons the 1s reached out and turned his cards face down and pushed them a few inches toward me before I killed the 5s hand. The 1s misread his hand and thought he lost. In a split second the 1s grabbed his cards back and turned them face up again. The 5s had a fit and started yelling that the 1s mucked his hand. I started to tell him that once the cards were tabled I was obligated to read the hands and push the pot to the winning hand. It didn't make any difference what happened to the cards AFTER they were tabled and read my me(and the camera for posterity).

He was having none of it so I called the floor. Of course the floor told him the same thing I did. He was pissed but really didn't have an argument. The cards had been tabled and as they say "Cards Speak".

The 5s lost another $500 or so on the next hand and then racked up and left in a huff.

When in doubt, table your hand!

*****

I've needed something for my walls since moving in here. I couldn't find anything that I liked. Fate to the rescue.

Gary and Marie recently acquired a second condo unit at Casablanca just East of center strip. (I'd put their view of the strip up against any other mid-rise view in town.....what a view) It was fully furnished but not to their liking so they are in the process of cleaning out/gutting it and starting over. Consequently they have been making a lot of trips to Goodwill. Their need to get rid of stuff converged with my need for wall art.

Goodwill's loss was my gain. Thanks Gary and Marie!

Voila.