A story of how i almost got ripped off for about $3000 on airbnb. (but airbnb made it right). never had a problem there all my previous trips

 it was a busy friday and saturday weekend, and prices were constantly going up. for example, if i had booked a few days ahead, i couldve got a room at the el cortez for under $100 a night, (before the resort fee and tax that is). but at the last minute close to midnite on saturday, the MGM was over $900, westgate was over $600, and even main street station was over $430. even arizona charlies was no longer available and thats often a reasonable and safe place to stay on weekends. the stratosphere used to not be so overpriced, but not anymore and their resort fee went way up. 

and i couldnt check into my free room until sunday, (where im staying now as i write this sunday and monday june 24-26.) at first they wouldve gave me a friday rate of $176 and a saturday rate of $294, including tax and resort fee, but at the last minute it was over $580. so i course i didnt go that route. 

I ended up staying at vinces house, against the wishes of his dying girlfriend whose got liver cancer really bad. it was because of her not wanting me to stay at vinces house and me losing my place to live i wrote that blog entry years ago that got me arrested and banned so many places because i was more stressed about money then that now because i was down under 15k. 

vince also had his friend Jay staying overnight who was helping him with a manual labor job he was doing for a friend. i was in vinces room on the floor, and Jay was on the couch in the living room, and vince was in his bed, and Lisa was in her own room. (the 2nd private bedroom at vinces house i one time rented from him years ago). 

but i really didnt want to do that, and wanted my own place. and i didnt want to pay the surcharge for paying just for those 2 nights instead of a whole month. also because as u know i always want a place with a decent kitchen fridge and microwave. even a shithole siegel suites has that. 

when u play poker for a living and have no other income for your disability unlike all of those who collect disability and lie to the government (such as old people do) everything in life is about the number of buyins u have and u can never run out, because being unable to ever have a job due to the nature of the disability, u will be on the street penniless and begging for the rest of your life til u die. 

so it all depends on the number of buyins u have. a buyin is $100 in a normal no limit holdem game, sometimes if u are lucky, its also the buyin for an omaha game instead of $200. the only people buying in for more than $100 are those who are heavily stuck and have no other choice, and a bunch of far left elitest snobs who think theyre better than anyone else and so they buyin for the table max. in the Bible Jesus makes it very clear how much he despises those types of people and how if they dont sell everything they have and give it to those with less, they wont ever go to heaven when they die. 

in a fair and just society, those buying in for more in $1-2 $1-3, or playing $2-5 and $5-10 would pay the rake for the entire room and the tips too. no one should have to tip who only buys in $100 and plays the smaller games, but i do waste about $15,000 a year on tips like a fool

i had over 430 buyins when i left reno, and now im down to about 290 buyins, and thats not enough to live on and survive off without a friend to live with whose got a house or a car. what i need is a rich person to donate me an RV to live out of, and to park it near a poker room somewhere in the US. 

who ever thought a guy could make it at poker with as little as 290 buyins? it cost about 30-40 buyins a month just for rent, food, transportation and misc expenses. u would go broke in about 6-7 months with this little money since u have no income coming in. 

now i do admit, that as long as u martingale your buyins, u will win over 75% of your sessions, but still the losing sessions are much larger amounts than the winning ones so its not easy. 

and with the martingale, 290 buyins might only be 29 buyins. 

someday ill probably end up back in texas, and i need Bart to still honor that stake when i do. 

but not wanting to pay all that money for that weekend, i was looking at airbnb and i tried to take a place for a little less than 2k for a month, but when i tried to book it, it said it was too late that night to book it. so i went looking at the next few places and thought id found a great deal when i seen the grandview across the street from south point for a little under 3000 for a whole month. 

i didnt bother to read the reviews of the host because i knew the grandview was a decent and nice place and i thought this will save me a lot of uber fares. but i shouldve. the lady renting it out has about 60 reviews, about 50 of them are very bad, and are people complaining they had to get airbnb to refund their money. 

i do see a few others renting the grandview for a much higher price, without the bad reviews.

and of course, once it was booked, the host never contacted me back, never told the grandview i was checking into the timeshare they own there, and neither would they contact airbnbs support line who was trying to help me check in when i got no word from the host who rented it to me. and the grandview knew nothing of it when i tried to check in. but they would hold my suitcases a few hours while i tried to resolve it. 

so i waited at south point poker room, and thats where vince met me later on and we picked up the suitcases when airbnb cancelled it for me and refunded the money, although its tied up in transit for 5 days or so enroute back to the same debit card with bank of america. 

its a good thing that money wasnt everything i had. for some people it mightve been. they did give me a $200 ticket for my troubles to use off the price of my next reservation. i dont know why they let that host still keep a listing on airbnb for her other places. 

normally, unless theyres a serious issue things arent refundable on airbnb. this is how hosts are protected from people who change thier mind. had my money not been tied up, i mightve just flown out that night but i still didnt know if i could get my refund so i hung around until vince came and by that time airbnb had refunded it when they couldnt reach the host either. 

$66 is NOT 25% of $440 minus a $4 rake.

 if anyone is wondering why im back in vegas, its because i only went as far south as Laughlin, and i didnt want to ride an 8 hour bus transferring in Flagstaff to get to Phoenix when its only a 4 hour trip by car. (by car u dont go thru flagstaff, only by greyhound). but i couldnt get lightning36 to drive up to Laughlin. so i rode back up to vegas with Bobby from twitter who drove for Uber in vegas though he lived in Laughlin, but he wont be doing so any more since he and his wife are moving to elko this week for a better paying job. 

you will surprised to hear this, but since ive got no where else to go and it looks like ill be paying much higher prices for a place to stay than i used to almost anywhere in the entire country, ive got half a mind to stay in vegas and pay $2000 for an airbnb (which is still far less than the $3673 i paid for home2suites for a month). ive run out of casino room offers in vegas, although i could get a small number of room offers again if i went to reno. 

resorts is still a great poker room to play in when u are getting about $5 an hour in free slot play on top of the $1.50 in points per hour. the reason im still getting this from the glitch in the system theyve been working on fixing is because i played slot machines a lot in August of the previous year, so the system just assumes im playing slots. and thats why 95% of the people in the poker room at resorts arent receiving anything except the $1.50 in points per hour.

there is a big difference between $1.50 an hour, and closer to $7 per hour. 

i dont know what could be causing this new health issue, but here lately ive been feeling weird pain in my upper shoulders and arms right below the neck when i turn it just started a week or 2 ago. feels like something i would guess authoritis would feel like. 

since congresswoman marjorie greene has about 1 million followers any interactions with her tweets seem to make my notifications on twitter explode, like the few hundred ive gotten in the last 24 hours since commenting on one of her posts. she is one of the political figures i most admire, others being tulsi gabbard, ronald reagan, and michelle bachmann.

i have played so little live BJ in either the D, circa, or the golden gate this month im surprised i was able to get 1 more day added to my stay but i guess since its a slow thursday and prices dont go way up until friday and saturday this weekend. i won $16 one day, $168 one day, and lost about $60 the final day. 

and even with last nights poker win of about $600 between both poker rooms, im still below $30k

i left resorts earlier than usual yesterday (about 2 and a half hours in) because i was only in the game for $100 and i had it up to $464 and after losing so much the previous day in omaha, i needed a profit desperately for mental health reasons. but being way too early to go to bed, i rode a taxi to resorts. (probably not a good idea to pay $10 so u can hit and run and sit with $100 in the long term) but if u have a tendency to no longer play your best with too many chips in front of u, it could very well be. the only reason my cab was $10 instead of $8 was because i so happy my driver didnt try to take advantage of a tourist (possibly in his eyes) by slipping out industrial to sahara to the strip and then back onto las vegas blvd, (a far more costly way) he went the right way, straight out onto las vegas blvd and right up to sahara. so i told him how much i appreciated his honesty. many drivers wouldve tried to con a tourist who didnt know any better. so i tipped him $2.35 instead of the 35cents i wouldve normally tipped on my $7.65 fare. 

the game was advertised on bravo as $5 bomb pot but actually it was $10 bomb pot and full, so i sat in the $1-2 NL instead. and i managed to win just over $100 in it before it broke an hour or so later. 

$100 to no cap is a smaller buyin than usual for $10 bomb pot game, but i sat with $100 and decided to see what i could do and knew id need a hand quickly. a small stack might have a slight edge in being able to play hands they otherwise cannot. 

i lost my $100 twice but i recovered on my 3rd $100 and eventually cashed out and quit with over $500 after a big pot. 

now to discuss the title of this blog. early on i was down to $70 preflop. (after posting my $10 ante) so there were 8 or 9 of us in for a $10 ante (not sure of exact number) and i went allin on the flop with a hand i normally wouldnt since i was only in good shape on one board. 5 people including me stayed in so the dealer who was the floorman put $350 in the main pot which meant the main pot was either $430 or $440 minus the rake of $4 (smaller than the $5 rake at resorts).

i got 25% of the pot when i rivered a full house and another guy rivered the same full house, and someone else won the other board. and first the dealer did all the side pots. some drunk guy who wasnt at all familiar with bomb pots was sitting on my right who owned a club in atlanta. he had come in to play NL. but he had a lot of money and decided to sit. and the dealer had been getting confused because he kept talking and wanted people to help him out annoying the dealer. 

after the hand was over and as the dealer was dealing the next hand, i noticed i had only $66 and im thinking surely i shouldve won something on the main pot even getting quartered. and if the pot was $440, i was supposed to get $110, and slightly less if the pot was $430 or $426. 

i immediately pointed it out and the floormans expression looked like he thought i could have a point but the guy next to me who didnt like me on the other side of me next to the dealer from texas card house in dallas who said hes been playing omaha for a living since he was 17 and had so much cash he tipped the cocktail waitress $100 swore the pot was split right, and said i was too dumb to know math. i thought he either was a big time liberal who hated me because of my political views or else hated me since i kept buying in $100. 

his friend backed him up who left the game a few hands later and bummed $100 of him, and another guy in the middle of the table said the dealer split the pot right too, but as we can see mathamatically, that would be an impossibility. the guy next to me had been telling the dealer a lot how to split the pots and tried to get the dealer to run it faster. (the floorman who was flustured). and the floor said even if it was done wrong, it was too late to do anything about it now since he was on the next hand. then he insisted we stop arguing about it or the next person to discuss it would have to go. he was also saying that to the guy on the other side of me whod kept arguing with a guy also on another hand. (told them both to quit arguing or theyd both have to go). 

with $436 or $426 in the main pot, and i get 25 percent of it, for me to get $66 is mathamatically impossible and u would think anyone at the table whod been honest wouldve recognized it instantly. and i do remember the dealer gathering up the $350 and adding it to the main pot when 5 of it put in $70 on the flop. 

here is what i think happened. seat 1 (i am in seat 8, between seat 7 and 9) who had the big end of the pot, and seat 3, who also had 25 percent of the pot, after the side pots were finished, seat 5 told the dealer to give seat 1 half, but i think the dealer had already given seat 1 half. so the dealer gave seat 1 half twice (and surveillance video couldve proved as much had gaming looked at it) which meant seat 1 got 75 percent of the main pot. so the 25% me and seat 3 both got ended only being 12.5% each. this might explain why i got only $66. although then i think id have got even less, so maybe the money in the side pots accidently got mixed in the main pot somehow and split up somehow wrongly. i wish i wouldve paid a lot better attention but everyone was talking and telling the floor what to do who isnt usually a dealer but behind the desk. 

which could mean both me and seat 3 got less than we were entitled to. and seat 1 got far more. 

tomorrow im either going to need to catch a flight somewhere or book a place to stay in vegas. maybe ill just pay big money for both friday and saturday since i do have a free room coming sun and monday at the tuscany and $25 free play there if i stick around thru the weekend. 

rooms thru airbnb with a kitchen suite are now available at the palms place over the casino for $3200 a month including all fees. i guess a lot of them were rented by wsop people and thats why they arent all full like they were the previous month or i wouldve booked one of them instead of the motel i took in June. 

and of course theyres other airbnbs too for under 2k or close to it, including one southwest a few miles of southpoint that looks safe enough and a couple closer to decatur, torrey pines and flamingo areas. im scared to book anything in the area between paradise and maryland parkway, and sahara and twain. thats a horrible area as far as apartments for rent are concerned. 99% percent of the people living in those places are probably homeless people high on drugs who do nothing but smoke weed and meth all day long. at least it looks that way walking down the street. 

Leaving Las Vegas

 well its good to finally be out of the one place i dont belong in since i cant increase my bankroll there. although maybe if i wouldnt have way overpaid $3673 for a months stay at the home2suites by Hilton at 755 Sierra vista for a month i mightve still had more cash on me today. at least i had a nice fridge and could cook in the room and they serve a large big breakfast in the morning instead of the junk some places were doing when the virus was still going on. 

also i couldve increased my bankroll a lot more had i not lost $4300 on live blackjack my first day in vegas waiting to check into my room downtown for 4 nites and $3000 in online blackjack over 2-3 sessions in my hotel room a couple weeks later. or maybe if i wouldve not lost $1700 one day on video poker in resorts. although i didnt win a lot of my poker sessions, with all these other losses and only being down about 11k of what i came to vegas with, and spending another $1500-2000 on food and Uber while in vegas, i think i won at poker. otherwise i dont think id still be over 30.

now im living free of charge, (at least until Michelle starts making me pay for rooms at my hotel) and most of my "uber" charges are $5 water taxi rides or $8 regular cab rides. and the poker NL $1-2 goes everyday now but sometimes its a bad game, and sometimes its a long wait for a seat. and sometimes it dies early a little after midnite or 1 instead of lasting til 4-5am. and my expenses basically went down to zero unless u consider the $125 Uber from vegas to here. 

i think they get more business because the other poker room in town up the road is struggling and is now closed on tuesdays and wednesdays. 

and somehow overall, im still up over $1000 on the dealers angels VBJ machine, although im down on poker here. but i still have slightly more than i came to town with. 

ive made some funny plays on the VBJ, because the other day the count just would not go positive for many shoes no matter what and i wanted to recoup some of the money i lost in the NL game up the street. so I had a bet of $1 each on 5 spots the first hand out after the shuffle and the running count hit plus 6 and the dealer had an ace up. i wanted to play my hands normally and correctly (by hitting) but then the first positive count in about 100 shoes wouldve gone away possibly. (and before i could have a chance to finally make my first huge size bet). so i stood all 5 hands so the count would remain over plus 4. i dont normally stand on totals of 6 10 11 14 and 17 against an ace for the dealer. and of course it caused me to lose all 5 hands for $5

and then on my next hand i bet $275 divided up among 3 of the 5 spots and won the bet thank God. 

the things people do when theyre counting cards at blackjack which they would never do otherwise, would amaze people. and im sure most of u wont think thats the right play. it probably wasnt to be honest. i just wanted to make a big bet was all. 

made a lot of funny plays at poker too. there is a promotion of red aces cracked that pays $150 or $300 on certain hours and less otherwise. im in a loose table and i finally get dealt 10 10 preflop. a bunch of limps and i bet $25 in late position to finally get a hand HU with a shot to win. it gets folded around and the last guy makes it $50 and i find it odd he didnt originally raise and ive got the image of a nit. 

im thinking he was slow paying aa to get them cracked and i call. flop comes all cards 9 or less and i call his bet forget the amount, i think a little under the pot size. 

turn comes 2 and again i check, and he checks along so finally i know im ahead. river comes A and he has A4 offsuit and i pay off his $50 bet. if i shove the turn he likely folds. 

and then later on ive got the same 10 10, and he has 22 and we both get it allin on the flop or preflop (i was tired by then and shouldve left but it was a wild game then. a drunk lady and her boyfriend had sat) about the best game id seen. again the flop was 9 high. and the turn and the river were 22 to give him quads. 

i think that was the night i left stuck $405. the biggest loss i had this week in that room. 

how well does anyone know the poker player Shannon violette (Cyndis daughter) and is she broke? she keeps sending me weird DMs on facebook messenger wanting money to play. i wouldnt know her in person if i seen her since im bad at faces. 

i have no idea where she lives what casino she frequents or what form of game she prefers to play. 

Lightning offered to pick me up at the bus station if i came to phoenix to bring me to my hotel or the casino, but i dont really want to make a 6 hour ride thru flagstaff and i cant find a flix bus out of laughlin or bullhead, those destinations dont come up on their website. i think id just as soon return to vegas for only $19 compared to the $38 for Phoenix. and maybe the voucher koala gave me would work. i havent tested it. at least in vegas i could fly out of the airport to texas Burlingtoniowa, reno or detroit.