Alpo's AAR
SkyKnights Con August 19-24, 2006
Holiday Inn Express and the Trump Taj Mahal
Atlantic City, NJ
Wow... what a great time. All I can say is I can't way for 2007. When I left home, there were the standard questions to be answered... "You sure you want to do this? Meet with internet friends?" Some people just don't understand.
I was especially excited to have my father along as it was nice to be able to just talk to him without all of the outside world distractions. More people should try it.
Day One - Friday afternoon
We left West Lafayette around 2:30pm. Driving my daughter's car gave Alpo a case of the lead foot and we were making pretty good time. Right up until the time when we hit Columbus Ohio at 6pm... bad timing on the mission for sure. We finally arrive at our layover in Breezewood PA at about 11:30, almost 90 minutes behind schedule. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
Day Two - Saturday
Launch from Breezewood and hit the interstate again. Pedal down and we are making great time again averaging about 75mph with pitstops included. Philadelphia is an interesting town, wouldn't want to go through it often though. Missed an exit in the traffic but managed to pick our route back up with minimal difficulty and almost no lost time. That is until we hit the Garden State. I think it's the Garden State because you can grow loads of moss on your vehicles as they sit on the Atlantic City Expressway. I don't know what was EXPRESS about it and to top it off, Baine provides me with a telephone number to his mother knowing I won't yell at nice little old lady for crappy traffic. Evidently, Philadelphia declared it "GO TO THE BEACH DAY" and was bogging things down. Oh well, we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express on Black Horse Parkway sometime around 2:00.
We settled in and headed toward AC proper (we were just outside in a town called Pleasantville). I don't know how many of you know Atlantic City, but I got such a kick driving down all the roads on your standard Monopoly board. Obviously the Boardwalk and Park Place were there, but driving down Atlantic and Pacific, crossing Kentucky, Tennessee and turning down Virginia to get to the Taj Mahal, that was really a kick for this out of towner.
Dad and I spent the evening familiarizing ourselves with the casino and I managed to get some time in the poker room where I managed a small profit of about $40.00 playing $2-$4 Limit poker. We turned in early (around midnight) as we wanted see as many casinos as possible Sunday.
Day Three - Sunday
Evidently, the inn was full and everyone had visions of the beach this day. The breakfast area was filled with screaming kids, parents with the "I'll take you home right NOW!" famous last words, etc. Dad just rolled his eyes and we grabbed coffee and it was off to Harrah's. I arrived and was not overly impressed, especially when we were hit up for $5.00 parking. I never did get used to being gouged for parking in a place I'm willing to put $100 at risk for their profit. At least VALIDATE my parking for time played or something! We soon left and we went next door to the Borgata. Once again, hit with the $5.00 parking fee... this kinda sucks by now but we are going into a better establishment. Now THIS was a nice place. Dad was still disappointed at the minimum crap bet being $10.00 (we are used to $5.00 on the weekends or less at Casino Royale in Vegas). I walked by the poker room... it was love at first sight. I told Dad I was going to play here no matter what. I definitely had my choices of games as they spread limit hold 'em, omaha H/L and stud games from 2/4, 3/6, all the way up to $500/$1000. Plus, the had several levels of no limit hold 'em. I don't know if you understand limit poker (it's not what you see on TV, that's generally no limit). The betting is structured and there is no "ALL IN" unless you are out of chips. I would have loved to have watched the high dollar action but I was called to my 2/4 table.
Players were all very nice, but the room was fantastic. Lots of room between tables so you weren't bumping into the person behind you and the drink girls... wow, they could ruin a person's concentration. How is it my table got the pregnant one?? Probably because I was on the low dollar table! I played for about 2 1/2 hours and had a profit of $60.00 and proceeded to buy a golf shirt from their store.
We left and ran back to the Taj to park for free, thanks to a special they were running for players card holders. From there, we walked to as many casinos as we could within a decent timeframe. We stopped at Caesar's. On the way back from Caesar's, we stopped off at the Sands as there no longer is a Sands casino in Vegas and I wanted to see one. This place was simply weird if you ask me. Most of the slot machines didn't have a place to sit! No chairs at all. Very bizzare. We ran back to our hotel about 1:00am to get ready for the move to the Taj in the morning.
Day Four - Monday
Fewer screaming kids at breakfast, I guess they all went back to Philadelphia or where ever they came from. Arrived at the Taj and had to wait for check in time, no problem, we played a few slots and video poker until the specified time.
Check in when smoothly and we were placed on the 16th floor. We got unpacked and the next thing I knew the phone was ringing as I had evidently fallen asleep. Denny was spending money and winning already in the Sultan's Palace (high roller room).
The Con dinner proceeded as scheduled in the Bengal room. With everyone having a great time. Dad especially enjoyed the numerous stories that were being told. We finally had to leave as they were trying to close the place around us at about 9:00. I spent a long night at the poker room playing 2/4 again and coming out about $40 up again. At this point, I had really noticed something... I could win money when playing against other people, but when I went against the Taj's machines... I didn't stand a chance.
Day Five - Tuesday
Well, after playing poker well into the night, or morning as the case may be, I spent a little time catching up on sleep. Dad had a rough night on the craps table so his enthusiasm was down somewhat but not enough to call me down for breakfast at the restraunt with Snafu. The Bengal club was only open for lunches and dinner through the week so we had to suffer through without that nice freebie. Snafu was leaving later that day as was Zooty, however Zooty was a little more of a late sleeper than anticipated as I found out when I roused him with a phone call.
After breakfast, Snafu, Dad and I decided to head outside to the boardwalk where we were pleasantly surprised to see the Blue Angels practicing (see Zooty's film from his room and picture being MUCH closer). It was a very impressive "pre-show" before the real deal Wednesday. Since the guys were leaving, I was glad they got to see a piece of it.
Zooty finally made his appearance, complaining about a domestic dispute outside his room at some unholy hour (an hour in which I was still playing cards... ya big whiner). We decided to run to the Bengal room for some lunch since breakfast had consisted of $5.00 bran muffins and $2.00 coffee... did I mention just how much the access to the Bengal room saved us??? Lunch with Zooty and Dad was a typical laugh a minute going through more stories both AH and otherwise. It was definitely a treat and I hope he can make the trip next year.
After breakfast, Zooty HAD to gamble for Lauren... now I'm not quite certain what message he was trying to drive home this year, but I'm pretty sure it was something like... "Honey, last year was strictly dumb luck, watch how fast this money disappears." Unfortunately, I was being the social director since Denny was still enjoying some sack time (I'd seen him at 4:00am still going strong), so I was chunking money into the Wheel of Fortune machines right beside him. Did I mention how little payout we saw from the Taj machines and that I should have stayed with poker?? I managed to film Zooty burning a $20 but it evidently ended up on the cutting room floor of his DVD. I can't say that I blame him... it was UGLY... I don't think he won 20 credits before the 80 credits were gone. Hopefully, Lauren learned this lesson well. We said our fairwells around 2:00pm and I retired to my room for some sack time.
Everyone who was still around gathered for another dinner at the Bengal Club. It was very interesting, Monday night they had a rack of lamb, baby carrots, beans... tonight they served a lamb stew with baby carrots and beans. Wow... just like at home!! We broke up from dinner a little earlier this evening as Seadog and Colleen were heading to other casinos and I decided to play a few more machines... just to prove to myself that I could beat one of those things. Taj 2, Alpo 0. I hit the poker room around 10pm and decided to move up the food chain to $3/6. Well I was expecting a different game with not as many suckouts, but this game was actually tight. People wouldn't go to showdown everyhand... it was honestly refreshing. Except for the fact that I was EXTREMELY card dead. Any hand I saw the flop on, missed horribly. I raked one pot and that was a suckout by me and it was really poor play for me to even be in on the hand. I even caught some trash talk from the loser which I kind of deserved but I didn't care. I was only trying to kill some time before the midnight no-limit tournament.
The tournament was the biggest I had participated in with 144 entries, paying 16 places. The play was extremely tight and it was evident that everyone was only playing the top hands unless they were in the blinds. I took a pretty bad beat about midway through the third round which crippled me and I was playing catchup from that point on. I did survive for three and a half hours, finally being knocked out in around 30th place. Man, I would have liked to played that tournament more often than I did but that's what I get for being intimidated by playing in a "big" room.
It was after my beats in the poker room that I decided to play in Denny's room. Yes, Alpo was going to play in the world of the dollar slots. Faster than you can give a "check six", all of those poker winnings from previous evenings were gone. Taj 3 - Alpo 0. Decided that Denny was just too lucky for his own good and surrendered to the power of Trump and went to bed.
Day Six - Wedensday
Well, the airshow was upon us and where was I... trying to recover from having my arse handed to me on a platter just a few hours before. Dad had experience a good night on the craps table, netting over $200, most of which was on his own roll... a definite rarity if you've ever seen the man when he's in control of the dice.
The phone starts ringing from Seadog, Dad, and even Dawn. Ok, ok... I'm up and grabbing a shower. When I'm finally ready, Dad and I call for Seadog to bring us up to Denny's room. Both of them were on one of the top floors of the hotel and we needed them to escort us up as the elevators won't allow commoners that high.
We arrive in the room (end of film number one) and proceed to enjoy a great day with Denny and Anne, Taz, Seadog and Colleen. Joey and his wife even made it up to watch some of the show. Of course, the highlights for me was probably the heritage flight of the F16, F15, F4, and the P51. Well, that and being present for Denny's masterful spotting skills which I'm sure you can enjoy in the third film. "I've got smoke." "Look at that... they are using RED smoke" and the best "Here comes the P51 again".
Denny, Anne, Taz, Dad and myself met for our last dinner together and discussion revolved around Las Vegas and 2007. Everyone seemed very excited and we are already looking at options even though it's extremely early in the process.
After dinner we adjourned to the walk way out side of the Bengal Club where group pictures were taken, and then more group pictures. The rest of the night was spent roaming the casino looking for slots that would pay off. I don't think any one got rich but some won money and all had fun.
Day Seven - Thursday
We managed one more trip to the casino floor... actually, Dad was down there trying to prove once and for all that the machines could in fact pay out. I'm pretty sure that mission was a failure as it was many times before. I had pretty much sworn off of gambling for the trip but I had instructions from a friend back home to play some roulette. Luckily, I ran into Joey there and he helped me lose the money in such a way that I didn't look like a total dolt. I understand some people can win at that game, but I'm sticking with the books... it's a pretty lousy bet in my opinion.
We spent Dad's food comps on a decent breakfast buffet... worth $25... I doubt it. Have I mentioned how expensive the food was? I can't really complain, Las Vegas meals have changed over the years as well. The $1.99 prime rib days are gone forever I'm afraid.
Dad and I checked out and hit the road soon after, as we had said all of our goodbye's the night before. It was a bittersweet drive home. I hadn't struck it rich monetarily, but personally meeting such a great group of people... I rivaled Donald himself in wealth.
SALUTE EVERYONE... See you in '07!!
