Well I’m back home from the ANZPT event on the Gold Coast and it didn’t go so well. I can’t really remember ever playing a day of poker where I’ve been so card dead. I don’t think the loosest player around would’ve found much worth playing from my assortment of cards. Eventually I got it in with KK to A9 of hearts though and lost that.
It was actually the first time I’ve been in the gold coast since a boys trip after graduating in 2004. As fresh faced 18 year olds it didn’t take us long to find the $5 blackjack tables and with some beginners luck we went on the sickest rush I’ve ever been on at a blackjack table.
We managed to take them for a bit over $600, a lot of money to us at the time. The casino’s changed quite a bit since then and even after they suffered their ‘big loss’ in ’04 they seem to have recovered nicely and put together a very swank new poker room.
The Fawlty Towers of Restaurants
I went to an Italian restaurant for dinner on the first night. It literally was the Fawlty Towers of restaurants. I should’ve known when I waited for 10 minutes to be seated despite plenty of tables being available. Then as I sat down an elderly gentlemen was exiting the restaurant and ‘discreetly’ placed his dirty napkin on my table. I just started laughing and the table next to me also thought it was the funniest thing in the world.
Anyway, that wasn’t the restaurant’s fault but it kind of set the scene for the meal. After getting through a fairly pleasant dinner, I asked for the bill from one waiter, then waited, then from another waiter then waited. The third time was the charm though and the bill was brought out.
Then I put my credit card in it and left it on the table and the waiter told me he would come back in “1 minute” to get it. 5 minutes later I asked another waiter, who took the bill. 10 minutes later I asked the first waiter where my receipt and credit card were. He then had a go at me for not waiting for him to come back to pick it up initially and went to see where it was.
He then informed me they had ‘misplaced’ it. Anyway after another 10 minutes of searching through all the black leather bill folders they eventually found it. He came back with a huge smile on his face and returned it to me. Obviously they hadn’t charged the card yet though. Thankfully, it only took a couple more minutes to sort it out and leave the restaurant after that.
‘A Homeless Guy Stole My Soup!’
It reminded me of another funny experience I had when I was 16 and playing a tennis tournament up in Darwin. My dad and I were eating dinner and I had just started on my minestrone soup when a homeless guy walked into the restaurant and headed straight for our table and picked up my bowl of soup, put the spoon on the table and skulled the entire thing in 2 seconds flat before heading out the door! My chin was on the ground for the next 5 minutes in astonishment. I think that still takes the cake over the old guy with the napkin and the inept waiter staff.
Anyway got the Victorian championships at Crown in a week’s time to look forward to and then straight onto the WPT London from there. So hopefully I can put up some decent results.
