On the Saturday I landed back from LA I had two options; go to sleep before my early morning flight to Vienna the next day, or go out to see my favourite band, Children of Bodom, who were in town. Of course I chose the latter, because one must never turn down a good party. So off we went for all the noise, speed-shredding and sweep-picking I could've hoped for (if you don't know, don't ask) and then at midnight we bundled off to the after-party to meet some of the band, which was even better.

So in short, by the time I got home from the whiskey-fuelled party it was a case of turning straight around and heading back to dear old Heathrow airport which I'd just arrived in from LA some twelve hours before. This , combined with 9-hours worth of jetlag equalled some significant head-pain. However, I had a job to do as I was to be the lead presenter of the European Challenge II at the Concord Card Casino in Vienna, starting that night. Oh dear.

The first thing that hit me about Vienna was the smoking. Now I'm all for the casino and pub-culture, but I'm also a vehement anti-smoker and since the smoking ban in London had all but forgotten what it is like to be in a room where the smoke to air ratio is 4:1 . Therefore for the first few days of filming I had a voice like Pat Butcher and the red-eyes of erm, a red-eyed thing.

However, the filming generally went well, with plenty of interviews and one-take openers and closers, so I must have been doing something right! The town of Vienna has some very beautiful parts, and the people were very friendly despite our clear Britishness when we descended upon their various drinking establishments around 4am.

Despite being completely surrounded by poker I only got chance to play once the whole week, and that was on a €2-€4 NL cash game surrounded by the loosest playing hoard of tobacco fiends ever, who of course were puffing away at the table. Fortunately I had been told we were leaving in half an hour so when I found Jacks in mid position I made it €15 to go, got 4 callers (of course!) and was relieved when the board came 10 - 6 - 2 rainbow. I bet 3/4 the pot and the loosest of the loose boys ends up calling me to the river with A-10 off, doubling me up nicely.

Sadly the late nights and jet-lag (if one can still get away with this excuse a week later) made me miss my flight home, so the money made in the cash game went straight into British Airways' back pocket. Marvellous.

1 Comments:

 zonetrap said...

Its great to see you writing for AP! Congratulations on a great blog and I'll continue to read of your travels, poker, and smoke induced dazes.

March 24, 2008 7:48 AM  

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