I took the train down to A.C. on Monday night.
Once again I have to give a big thumbs up to Amtrak. Comfy chairs, outlets for the laptop at every seat, clean bathrooms, smooth rails... really a great way to travel. For $13 I got to center city Philadelphia in the same time as driving, with no tolls, no parking headaches, NO GAS, and I was able to watch a movie.
N.J. transit was a little behind the times and their trains are pretty old school, but I caught a nap and for another $7 from Phila-A.C. I found myself on the boardwalk.
I played $2/$4 limit for a while and picked up about $80. Then took a nap for a few hours to wake up for the 5:15 AM !!!! tourney at the Trop. That's typically a game for the dealers getting off their shift to play against the dealers starting their shift and the results for me was about a well as expect...meaning awful.
After a nice brunch we rolled over to the Borgota to watch the pros play from 36 down to 6 for the World Poker Tour. It was pretty neat to watch and stand with the guys you see on T.V. The top players definately have a alpha-male confidence that permeates the room. I found them intimidating and I wasn't even sitting at the table. Some short observations:
* Two wheelchair bound players at the final 2 tables. No comment other than I found that notable
* I saw an amateur player call an all-in with QQ. His ladies held up to the suited AK. When the hand was over he was shaking so badly that he could not stack his chips and had to leave the room to compose himself. Seeing as the difference between getting busted at that point and winning was $16,000 to $1.1 million, his nervousness was understandable. I saw a couple of the pros make play for twice as much money multiple times with the demeanor of a man reading the newspaper with his morning coffee.
* At my $2/$4 game I was seated with a family of Greek senior citizens. In the middle of the game an arguement broke out. While it was heated and loud, it was entirely in greek. The only word in English that i could understand was BANANA BOAT which was being screamed over and over again. I have no idea what they could have possibly been arguing about, but I wouldn't suggest saying "banana boat" if you ever find yourself in Crete.
3 comments:
Yeah, Amtrack rocks - just take a few billion every year from people who don't care to use the service or who don't live anywhere near a rail line, and and you can have yourself a nice "affordable" train ride.
NPR and public television are great, too.
The east coast corridor division of Amtrak is profitable.
Not that any of that has any relevance to my story
So why don't they sell off the profiable portion of the buisness, close all the non-profitable (and taxpayer subsudized lines), and get the friggin' gummint out of the Train Business?
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