My New Favorite Hobby

Back in May I took a trip down to Vegas to meet up with some friends. Over the course of the trip I did pretty well at the tables which was mostly due to luck. When I got home I decided to get the blackjack books off the shelf and give them another read. Since then I've been trying to make trips every weekend to play. Part of it is nice to get out and drive to places I would never otherwise go. And to be honest, I'm doing pretty well. So when one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go camping this weekend my first thought was 'how can I make this into a gambling trip'. On Friday afternoon I withdrew $1,000 from my bankroll, packed up some gear and drove out to the campground. We were camping in the Olympic National Forest which is only about 40 minutes from where I live. Staying up late drinking and then sleeping on the ground isn't probably the best choice for accommodations the evening prior to a gambling junket, but why should I let my 'second job' get in the way of my life.

Actually, that brings up a good point. Why should I let my first job get in the way of my life? Wouldn't it be great if I could just quit my job and spend my life driving around the country playing blackjack and visiting my friends. I have about 100 friends and family spread out across this country so I could visit each for 3-4 days a year and live on the road playing Blackjack for gas money. To do that I'd need to A) be good at blackjack and B) have a serious bankroll. Neither of which I have yet achieved.

So I woke up this morning and packed up my tent and hit the road. First stop was straight down US 101. A neat side note about US 101 is that since it hooks around the Olympic Peninsula the to get to the northern terminus of the road, you actually have to go south for the last 100 miles or so. But that last part is some of the most scenic. The road hugs the foothills of the Olympic mountains and runs right along the Hood Canal. You can stop at oyster stands along the side of the road of some fresh ones right from the source.

I continued inland towards Shelton - A lumber mill town that appears to have seen more prosperous days. I stopped at the Safeway and bought an apple and a peach to eat just outside the store. There were lots of people just loitering around looking shady. I decided to keep moving, I had to get to the tables.

The first casino I stopped at was Little Creek casino about 10 miles south of Shelton. Somewhat in the middle of nowhere, this Indian casino resort was the nicest I went to today. It was just remodeled last October and has opened a championship golf course this year. The only bad thing may be that a girl about my age died there last week.

Little Creek Casino

My strategy was to attack 4 casinos on today's junket. I'd planned to walk into each one with $400 and walk out with either $200 or $600. So even if I had terrible luck at the first three, I would still have $400 to win it all back at the last stop.

My luck didn't start out so hot at Little Creek. The 80 year old gentleman who was chain smoking next to me seemed to be getting all the good cards on his $5 table minimum bets. The smoking didn't bother me too much, I already smelled like a campfire. After an hour or so I was down to $200 and ready to leave.

I had stopped there because it was on the way to the better casinos. The next casinos wouldn't be as nice, but they offered better rules. I'd rather sit in a basement and double my splits than have to endure not hitting 9's against dealer 6's. So onward.

To get to the next joint I had to travel to the end of US 101 which terminates in Olympia, our State Capitol. It was exactly 2 years ago today that I arrived in Washington on my move out to the Pacific Northwest. I spent most of that drive listening to Rancid sing about being on the highway back to Olympia, WA. Today, I cranked that up as I made the wide turn and the Capitol building came into view.

I drove through the (pretty cool) city and decided to visit the capitol. I present the dirtiest rotunda in the union:

I also found out that instead of a state supreme court building, Washington chose to go with a "Temple of Justice" which I insist is as silly sounding as it is impressive.

After my short sightseeing trip I continued up I-5 and to a place called Hawk's Prairie. I settled in at a decent table with two other patrons. The first was a lady who bet big and probably spent $60 an hour tipping the dealer. The other guy was wearing a MMA shirt and was an Atlanta Falcons fan. We seemed to get along pretty well and it was a pretty fun visit. But it was about business too. The first hour I was pretty much even. The second hour I started to hit some big hands. I got a good lead going and kept riding it. By the time I decided to move on I was up $300 at the joint. But after my poor showing at the first place it meant I was really up only $100.

At this point I'd like to note that I have asked without luck at every casino I have been to for a Coors Original. So far most cocktail waitresses act like they've never even heard of the Banquet Beer. I always grudgingly settle for the Silver Bullet.

The next casino was a micro-casino in Tacoma. The non-Indian casinos in the state aren't allowed to have slot machines and most of them aren't much bigger than a couple of pits, a bar and a cashier. This one tends to get most of their business from soldiers stationed at the nearby army base. The other main customer base is the Vietnamese. For whatever reason the Vietnamese love to gamble. Seattle with it's high Asian population has a large contingent of Asian gamblers. The funny thing is that only the woman seem to really gamble a lot, the men usually aren't even around. And the Vietnamese are notoriously superstitious. Since many of them gamble lots of them end up working in the Casinos. That's the interesting situation I found myself in at my third casino.

I'm sitting at a full table of me and 6 middle aged Vietnamese women. The dealer is as a Vietnamese woman, they are all speaking in Vietnamese and I'm right in the middle. It was an interesting sight, but I was sitting there first and at the time the cards were pretty hot, so what was I to do? I kept playing but the cards tapered off. I hit a $125 payout on a lucky ladies side bet that invigorated me but in the end I found myself walking out the door with $200 less than I walked in.

In the 6 hours after I had left the campground I had managed to lose $100. This was pretty dashing to any hopes that I could turn blackjack into a career path. But I had one last trick up my sleeve. I actually had to pass my next casino on the way to the last one. I had purposely done this because I knew no matter how bad things were I could make money at the last casino.

Since I hadn't lost much so far and this casino had slightly higher table minimums I decided to take $500 into this last casino. I found my usual table empty and proceeded to make it my proverbial bitch. I think I won $250 in my first 20 minutes there. Things slowed down a little after that but one thing remained constant: me winning. There are two reasons why it is so easy to make money at this casino. The first is that the deal nearly every card in their double deck games making it easy to predict what cards are left in the deck at the end. The second is that they have some of the best rules of anywhere around. After my second Coors light the cards got hot again. Before the pit boss could notice my chip stacks rising I quickly colored up. As the dealer counted out $1,020 in chips the pit boss quietly stated "I'm going to be in deep shit for this one". I had to keep a straight face until I was out of the casino. With those winnings I was up $420 and ready to head home. But not before I had a victory Jimmy John's.

Another interesting side note about the last casino. It is also staffed mostly by Vietnamese but the ones at this joint have terrific names. I had a dealer whose legal name is "Mom" and another whose name is "Dong". Just another reason to play there is getting to yell "HIT ME DONG!"

It was a pretty great day but even though I made money I don't get to go out tonight and spend it all. Everything goes back into the bankroll but the feeling of getting to drive home a winner and rub $100 bills all over myself makes it worth it. So 200 miles and 26 hours after leaving home I made it back home from a successful outing. I'll leave you with a map of my trip.

My favorite business card

I hope that when I'm a parent I'm as awesome as their parents must have been.

Putting down roots?

Every summer for the past 6 years I've packed up everything I owned and moved. I found that a yearly move pretty much shaped my mindset on materialistic possessions in two ways. First, everything I owned had to fit into the back of a car. Second, I couldn't ever become attached to anything. Everything I owned was temporary and I only owned what I needed.

This is the first summer since I was 17 that I won't be moving. It's a strange feeling knowing that I can purchase furniture and expect to still own it in 5 or 10 years. In my parents house they still have furniture that my dad owned when he was in college. It's a little bizarre thinking that some of my possessions could follow me that long.

I think that at a certain point people become so bogged down by what they have that they can never escape. It's more than just furniture and shit on the walls. When people stop moving and settle into a house, a job, and relationships they eventually become bound by the same things that make their lives comfortable. Item by item, paycheck by paycheck, date by date they slip into the routine.

What scares me is that I can see myself slowly falling into this settled down life and it scares me. Yesterday I bought an ice cream scoop. I don't even have any ice cream in my house. It just makes me think of a scene from the wire where Dennis "Cutty" Wise goes to The Deacon. He sits down and says "I've had this feeling for a long time and it's like I'm standing outside myself watching me do things I don't want to do." Now he was probably talking about murdering people and whatnot. But I see my life falling in this rut where 20 years from now I'm sitting in the same office, driving down the same roads home and wondering how despite all having everything I want, why I still feel like my life was a little too predictable.

Before Cutty says that line above he starts out the conversation by saying "The truth is I don't know what I want. I know I'm looking for something but I can't even tell you what it is." In a certain way that's how I feel. I have a good job, lots of nice things and a pretty awesome girlfriend. So it bothers me that I feel like I'm not living this life to the fullest. Last weekend when Dave was here he told me that I'm going through a quarter life crisis. I don't know about that but I think I need to keep mixing it up before it's too late.

Baseball Cities

I've always lived in cities with AL baseball teams. I prefer AL baseball and there are some great cities with AL teams. I've been thinking the past couple of days about which division in baseball has the best cities in it. If for some reason I had to choose one division in baseball and I had a random chance of living in any of the cities within that division, what would be at the top of my list? I went through and ranked them all based on my perceptions of each city as a place to live not considering being a fan of baseball.

6th - AL Central (Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis)

The AL Central is hard to rank last growing up a Tigers fan, but straight up there are a few cities in the AL Central that I really wouldn't want to live in. Kansas City is lifeless, Cleveland is Cleveland, Minneapolis in nice when it's not 10 degrees outside. I grew up near Detroit but it's still not a city that I would be excited to live in. The only great city in the AL Central is Chicago.

5th - NL Central (Milwaukee, St Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Houston, Chicago)

With 6 teams the NL Cental is nice if you like manufacturing cities located on rivers. None of these cities would be horrible to live in but most of them lack the glamour of a great city. The only cities I'd be excited to move to are Houston and Chicago.

4th - AL West (Dallas, Seattle, Oakland, LA)

In contrast to the NL Central, the AL West only has 4 cities making it a bit easier to rank. It seems like nothing good ever happens in Oakland. Dallas still strikes me as a city stuck in the 1990's. LA is LA, and as much as I hate to admit it would be a really cool city to live in. I live in Seattle so I know that it's a fine place but I honestly feel that it's lacking the character of some of the better cities in the US.

3rd - AL East (NYC, Boston, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Baltimore)

The AL East has 4 cities that I would totally jump at living in. NYC, Boston and Toronto are amazing cities and Tampa is really nice too. But the AL East also has Baltimore. Baltimore really drags it down the list. Maybe I've watched too much of The Wire, but no one wants to live in Baltimore.

2nd - NL West (San Francisco, San Diego, LA, Phoenix, Denver)

There are some great cities in the NL West and I like all of them. The last time I was in Denver I didn't really get a chance to appreciate the city but what I hear/read about Denver is that it's pretty decent. All the other cities I really love. Beautiful cities with great weather and lots of fun things about them.

1st - NL East (Washington, Philly, Atlanta, NYC, Miami)

The NL East really has it all. Each of these cities have been great places every time I've been. I've driven around Philly, but I haven't ever spent the weekend there. The other 4 cities I've been to a fair amount and they are all terrific. There isn't one city on this list that I would be unhappy living in.

I guess I hate on the midwest but with the exception of Chicago most of the cities are depressingly banal. From the view of a 24 year old LA and NYC beat out Milwaukee and Cleveland. Another note, whilst compiling this list I realized that the only MLB City I haven't been to is Toronto.

What do my readers think? Agree, disagree? Just a reminder to keep the comments reasonable. With all the comments on my last few posts I guess I need to remind you guys to not go overboard.

5 Reasons Why Safeco Field is Awesome

In my 2 years living in Seattle one of my favorite activities has been going to Mariners games at Safeco field. There are a lot of reasons I like watching games at Safeco. The good views of the city, the retractable roof, legalized scalping, the airplanes flying overhead to land at SeaTac, the sounds of the trains rumbling outside the stadium. All these are nice but as I continue heading to games I've found there are a few other things that really make going to Safeco enjoyable.

5) No Bad Seats - I've sat in every part of the stadium and so far I haven't found a spot with a crappy view. The cheap seats are still close to the action, and the outfield bleachers are at the perfect height to see the game. There is a great mezzanine level that features a full-service bar which I find to be quite special.

4) Park Location - Safeco is a 15 minute walk from the heart of Seattle and 10 minute walk from the Ferry terminal. It is on the south end of one of the prettiest neighborhood in the city. Right outside the stadium are bars and brewpubs. The stadium is only a couple of blocks from the International District (The PC term for Chinatown). For people not familiar with Seattle taking a walk to Safeco can highlight all the best parts of Seattle.

3) The Beer Garden - In center field there is a terrific beer garden right at field level. Often when the opponent was terrible we would purchase $8 bleacher tickets and just spend all game hanging out in the beer garden. Essentially those games were like going to a decent bar with an $8 cover which by the way happened to have a live baseball game going on inside of it. Like any stadium though you have to mentally get past the fact they you will pay $9.75 for a 20oz Microbrew.

I stole this picture from someone's Flikr. Fair use or whatever.

2) Fan Giveaways - The Mariners organization has typically provided great giveaways. Everything from a Franklin Gutierrez Fly Swatter to free compost (keeping Seattle one of the greenest cities in America). Yesterday was Irchiro replica jersey night and today is Felix Hernandez knit cap night. But every team does giveways. What makes Safeco special is that you can go into the stadium, pick up the free giveaway and then leave the stadium with it. In most stadia fans who arrive early enough for the giveaways resign themselves to waiting in their seats for an hour before the game. At the Safe fans can get the giveaways and then leave the stadium and go drinking before the game.

1) Food - Safeco has always had really good stadium food. The Garlic Fries make the entire concourse smell vampire proof and the Seattle Dogs (dog with cream cheese and grilled onions) are legendary. But that's not what makes food the number one awesome thing about Safeco. The number one thing about Safeco is that you are free to bring in any foodstuffs that you please. You can literally walk into Safeco with a shopping bag full of food. Usually I walk in with a completely unconcealed Jimmy John's sub in my hand. I've seen a guy bring in a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jelly and makes sandwiches for his entire family inside the stadium. I have no idea why they let people do this, but I'm not going to ask any questions. Letting people bring all the food they want into the stadium is totally awesome and is the biggest reason I love Safeco Field.

This amused me

Every once in awhile they send out these security newsletters at work. They are usually filled with stuff warning us about terrorists and shit. Whoever puts them together is either a 40 year old lady who wears Mickey Mouse shirts or a really high 17 year old sailor. Usually the last couple pages are filled with LOLcats, 90's clip art and random crap. I have no idea how they get sent out via official Navy Channels. The last page of the one they sent out today was simply this:

The image of a drowning sailor whose final thoughts before being consumed by the bosom of the ocean was someone blogging. Now consider all of the levels of irony that comprise this blog post.

Vegas

I spent Memorial Day weekend down in Vegas, doing Vegas-y things. It was about as much fun as ten 24 year old men can have in Vegas. Most of the trip will stay in Vegas (like how I came back missing a toenail), but I did want to share the events of our first night.

Right after dropping off our bags at the MGM we went right down to the casino floor. As a matter of tradition I put $100 on black to test my luck for the weekend. Sure enough it landed black and so it began. We gambled a little bit and drank at the MGM and then went off to dinner at 9 Fine Irishmen in New York New York. We ate a big meal and had a couple of rounds of Irish Car Bombs and Guinness's. Afterwards I think we went back and drank some more in our rooms before deciding to head out. Our destination was O'sheas, for the midget bar pour. In was the first of a fresh weekend tradition where we had to drink beers every time we walked down the strip.

We drank for a couple hours at O'sheas and before long it was 3AM. Being our first night in Vegas, Dave and I went to go gamble for a bit at The Flamingo before calling it a night. Everything after this point is pretty much a blur. At some point we decided to head across the street to The Mirage, and I remember it was still dark. We found a great dealer, and settled in for the long haul. We drank and gambled for hours and at some point decided it was time to go home. When I cashed out I was up $1200. I was elated as I walked out of the casino. I really didn't have any idea what time it was until I went out side and it was sunny out. We grabbed a cab back to the MGM.

I think at this point it was about 7AM by the time we got back into the MGM. Still feeling the high from the big win I thought it best to let the heater ride. I convinced Dave to join me and we spurned sleep to keep gambling. I can't recall how we decided it was a good idea to keep gambling but I'd like to think that it was because we could keep our 14 hour drinking bender going.

Dave and I spent the next 4 hours having the dealer push money across the table to me. I started switching from Red Bull based drinks to Irish Coffee's, Mimosas and Screwdrivers. I can't really remember many of my bets but Dave said at one point I put $350 up and won. By now I was up another $1600 and Dave was starting to get hungry. I started asking the Pit Boss if I could get some breakfast, and really started hounding him to comp me a Bacon Buffet. It was all I talked about for like half an hour. Eventually the pit boss comped Dave and I a meal at the buffet and suggested that I get some sleep. I couldn't argue with him as I was a hungry/wasted/sleep deprived mess. I finally colored up and the dealer gave me a $1000 chip and a handful of $100 chips as well.

On the way back to the room I had so much cash on me, I kept thinking it would fall out. I burst into our hotel room where everyone was sleeping and made it rain. By the time I collected it and counted it, I had cleared over $2800. I wouldn't eat or sleep for another 3 hours and then only a small nap before starting to drink for the next night.

Needless to say, that night in itself was pretty trip defining. I managed to hold on to what I made and came home with a free trip and a few extra bills in my pocket. And that was just the first night.