After all the talk at AVP on the Venetian, I decided to have dinner with the wife at the Canaletto Restaurant that is on the main plaza inside so I made reservations for 10 pm on a Thursday evening. I figure about an hour or so of poker then the wife can bail me out and win or lose I'm out of there with an excuse. We get to the poker room and the host puts us on the list and I ask for a player's card for my wife and I which they take care of no problem. My wife goes to the slot pit and I buy in for at least 35 times the big blind or $300. The table is a mix of tourist, locals and pensioners. Right away, I hear grumbling about my buy-in by the pensioner who says to the person next to him: " the minimum buy-in is $40, what's he trying to do? buy every hand?" I let it go because short stacks will always complain about everything so when they bust out of a hand someone/something else to blame. By the way, when he did bust out within that hour he pulled out another $100 bill. Anyway, I win a few hands here and there and people are careful when I'm in hands since I have this wall of $1 chips to back me up. The one Arabic woman to my right has been laying low but now goes on this ferocious run where she's hitting the board hard--getting starting hands, hitting flops and showing downm, which is what you do in no foldem holdem, showdown. The one hand I'm in with her she checks, I'm ready to bet at the river and I see her ready to call and I say: " I check too." She wins that one also and now I'm really freaked out about her run. She takes a break from the table and I think I'm down $70 or so towards 10pm when our dinner reservations are scheduled. I want to leave up and hope for some good cards. Earlier, this Arabic man sitting to the woman's right folded AK when another player acted out of turn and was betting. He said he did this because the woman hadn't acted and he said he knew something but the player who won, who had acted out of turn teased him about it saying: "don't blame that woman for folding your hand, I had you beat." At that point, he was on tilt for the rest of that hour which led me to my hand later-- AJ suited. The flop was an Ace and I said to myself, "screw it you're gonna pump this mother up till you run out of chips." I'm leading the betting early and the Arabic man who was on tilt and had position on me smooth called me all the way down, I wasn't too worried because he hadn't raised me at all and I thought my Jack kicker was enough to beat his Ace rag. Finally the river came and it was a Jack giving me two pair and at the showdown he said: " Buddy, only way you're beating me is if you have two pair as he showed his Ace Queen." I look over and said, "OK, two pair." He grumbled some more about having the best hand but...
That pot got me back, I saw my wife waiting and I cashed out, less a few but glad I didn't lose more. At dinner, by the way Canalletto Restaurant had the best homemade pasta and salads, we had a terrific table on the patio and it's great dining al fresco (pseudofresco). After telling my wife the story, she told me she had won $500 on a dollar slot machine, it made for a wonderful night at the Venetian.