Unlucky in cards...

I'm posting this from my room in a hotel in Bacolod's Golden Fields compound called Kundutel. Golden Fields is an odd place; inside, there are a couple of hotels, a casino, the city's hottest night spots, a couple of pizza places, and a cluster of beerhouses and KTVs. There are even pimps running around in the street just outside the hotel. It's hard to describe, it's... actually, when you think about it, it's kinda like Timog. The only difference would be, Timog has gay bars.

Anyway, I arrived in Bacolod last night, and after checking into my hotel, met up with Luz for dinner. She's been here for the past couple of days for a turn at the Bacolod branch of the animal hospital she works for. After dinner, we were looking for a cafe, but the only cafe that was open was a place called Nice Cafe, and from the outside we saw that they had a videoke screen going, so it was probably not the type of place we were looking for. We ended up just hanging out in my room, where we took in a movie (Kahit Konting Pagtingin on Cinema One, if you must know). She had never seen the film before, and was pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed it. I told her she didn't know what she had been missing.

Luz had to leave after the movie, but I wasn't ready to call it a night yet. I checked out the bars, but I didn't feel like staying, even for a couple of beers. I decided to go to the casino to play a couple of hands of blackjack, with a firm budget in my pocket. When I got there, the lone blackjack table was half-full with a fat jolly guy doing the dealing. Shortly after I took a seat, a bunch of Koreans filled up the table.

I kind of felt like the jackass who was taking up their cards, because everyone else at the table were playing two- and three-thousand-peso hands, while I only kept betting the minimum. I was still treading water at this point before they changed dealers and this stoic guy came in to deal.

The rest of the table cleared slowly as everyone started losing money. I started going on a mini-run, all the while trying not to get too worked up about it because stoic wasn't showing any emotions either.

Then it was time for another dealer change, and fat guy was back. It started well enough, with me splitting kings and winning big, but it went all downhill from there. I ran into a spate of bad hands, and to make matters worse, the dealer started being vocal and reacting to the play--the fat fucker was feigning sympathy when I got shitty cards while the house got 21.

There were a couple of hands that, before I started playing, I'd told myself I'd get up off the table if I encountered them. In the first, I had an ace and a nine, with the dealer showing a king, so naturally the dealer drew an ace for a blackjack. In the second, I had a king and a jack, and the dealer drew a six (nice!), a four (shit!), another six (yeah!), and a five (motherfucker!).

I'm also annoyed because when I had to get up, I also had to give up ogling the hot chick who was playing five-card stud at the next table. When I was on a mini-run, I'd had visions of me carrying off my pile of chips and her being impressed and joining me back up to my hotel room. Of course, we'd probably end up watching CNN and talking about Obama's surprise win in Iowa, but whatever.

There's also a joke here I'd been meaning to write, but I'm afraid this post is dirty enough as it is. Ah screw it, here goes: if I'd known that I was getting screwed tonight anyway, I'd have kept half that money and just paid for a handjob.

(I really don't know why I'm still so annoyed; I mean, I came in there with a budget, knowing that I could lose that money. It's probably because I'm hungery and I only have enough cash on me to take a cab and the nearby ATM isn't working so I've had to order in room service. I'm such an idiot.)

So yeah, I got cleaned out again, just like a couple of nights ago at poker. But I guess I could just take comfort in what they say, "Unlucky in cards,..."

(In my case, the adage would continue, "...unlucky in cards!")

Anyway, I'm off to explore Bacolod while the sun's still up. Luckily, I'll still be hanging out with Luz tonight, but she'll be going back to Iloilo tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to find something better to do (and I won't end up losing my shirt). Fortunately, Pon will be flying in tomorrow as well, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up and I'll have some company for the next couple of days before I go back to Iloilo.

Labels: bacolod, longvacation

- posted by jaemark @ 1/05/2008 12:46:00 PM