Edit: PLACE IS LOCKED UP.
My plan was to hold off on making another post until I absolutely, positively had a place to stay locked up. And while I haven't met that 100% threshold yet I still believe I'm at least a 95% favorite to hold in this particular life situation and too much other weird and cool shit happened tonight for me not to write anything right now while it is still fresh and some adrenaline is pumping.
I had pretty much resigned myself to taking this crappy place far up north in Miami Beach between 60th and 61st street. I entered desperation mode, (it's what happens when your optimism bar drains to zero) saw something that was still available on Craigslist and set up an appointment to meet the woman who was renting it the next day, Saturday. So I make my way up there and as I dejectedly note that there really aren't any grocery stores or laundromats or anything really in the area I remind myself that I will take it for just one month while I look for something better. I got there a bit early and for the fuck of it I decide to look over the Craigslist sublets in Miami where lo and behold someone had just posted a sublet less than a half hour before in the heart of South Beach for an extremely reasonable rate. I obviously call this guy as fast as possible and tell him that I want to see the place asap and that there is an extremely strong likelihood that I will take it. He doesn't get off work until 5 but after that I can come to see it. Perfect. I go upstairs to look at the place I had agreed to look at and it was even worse than I expected. The building is half-hotel half-condominium renters and the room was billed as a "studio". I think it should have been billed as a closet. There is no delineation between the kitchen and the bedroom, no couch, one crappy table and basically no space to move around. The small wrap-around patio with a view of the bay is nice but there aren't even any curtains on the windows!! LOL. A true travesty when you consider the 1k/month that they were asking. I say thanks but no thanks as I laugh my way out.
I saw Ben's (the guy who's ad I responded to) place later that day and it's pretty much awesome. A true studio in a nice area with plenty of room, a couch, a separate kitchen, a few closets and on premises laundry as part of a little 2 story condominium square thing is well worth the $900 price tag. The plan is for me to move in on Monday (hopefully) and to keep it until the New Year. It's on 7th street in South Beach although I won't tell you the cross street because I don't want one of my single digit readers stalking me. You can't make this shit up; me checking Craigslist as I am waiting to see the place I was probably going to take 10 minutes later only to stumble upon something that is perfect...serendipity.
So I left the hostel and I'm now staying in a hotel for a few nights in Coral Gables. The casino that I intend to put in most of my hours at is in the Flagler/Coral Gables area and is 1.1-1.2 miles from my hotel. I checked in to the hotel and was ready to laze about and just go on the internet but honestly, I'm here to grind and I desperately need to put in a lot of hours playing if I am going to make this whole trip worth it, not that it isn't already awesome just living in Miami and going to the beach and what not, but still. I made my way over there via the friendly airport shuttle guy and arrive around 9:35. I got on the 2/5 waitlist and around 9:50 they call down a new game at table 9 which is always the coldest table in the room. Awesome. Anyway the table is super good and I flop the nut straight and manage to "cooler" the lower straight. I say "cooler" because he played it so fucking bad but for a fish it's a cooler. Right, the night is young and looks like it could be awesome. At 10pm the floor announces they are going to do the "hot table" thing. I have no idea what it is but it sounds like free money so I'm down. They spin one of those metal baskets that bingo numbers come out of and one of the floor men reaches in to get one. My table is going absolutely bonkers screaming "Nine!! Nine! Nueve! Nueve! NINE!!". Obv they draw a 9 and half the table goes crazy fist bumping and cheering. I still have no idea what is going on. Basically they deal a hand face up to the table and the winner of the hand gets to spin the wheel for some prize that is not clear to me. I'm in the small blind for the weird one and get dealt T9o. Somehow I fade 8 other hands (Magic City Casino games are 9 handed which is ship-it-holla-balla awesome) on KT3cc7K and get to spin the wheel, BINK. The wheel consists of all the hearts in a deck (2-A, why hearts idk it doesn't matter) arrayed evenly around and which ever one it lands on you get 100x the value in cash with the face cards having their blackjack values of 10 while the Ace is special and pays out 2.5k. I start my spin with a hard pull and watch it go round and round. Eventually it starts to slow down and goes slower and slower as it rolls through the Ace, King, Queen, barely getting past the Jack and just when it looks like it will stop at the Ten ends up on the 9. So I win $900 for doing nothing, pretty fucking awesome. I mean really it's rakeback which still works for me, I've definitely never hit anything like that in a poker room before but I hope this is the start of a constant tradition. By the way, I did the extremely easy equity calculation and the equity of a spin is $838. So I'm running good and still up even after I tip the dealer what I believe is the standard 5%. Okay, I'm a bit cheap and gave him $44 but fuck white chips. I also was a small winner on the day at cards which gave me a very easy 1k day.
It had gotten pretty late by the time I pick up which meant I needed to walk back from the casino because the shuttle has stopped running. But I'm from New York, land of the long walkers, so I am not intimidated. I begin my slow and steady march (judging by New York speeds anyway) and as I round one of the first corners or whatever I hear some rustling in the bushes (it's a fairly suburban part of the city). Two animals then streak out with one chasing the other. At first I think they are feral cats but after they stop running I get a much better look at one of them especially as it walks out into the light. My next thought was hyena but I obviously dismissed that out of hand once my brain started functioning again. It looked like a very large cat with a bushy tail and a small mean face. I really had no idea what it was but after serious consideration I have decided that it was probably a fox. I snapped a hazy picture that I will upload tomorrow for your appreciation and perusal. I also eagerly await your sympathy and concern. I didn't get a chance to take any good pictures because it started walking towards me at a very slow pace while it would surreptitiously (can animals even do that?) look at me as it walked in my general direction. I slowly started backing away while facing it (lol is it a bear? that's just what I do) and, as it didn't seem to be stopping, I started backing away a bit faster. It finally stopped after staring me down a bit. I decided that going to the other side of the road was better than getting mauled by an animal and having to get rabies shots. Before I can even get to the other side I see another wild animal. This one is definitely some sort of rodent. It had a tail like a rat, hairless and a bit thick, with an absolutely pure white face with the second half of the tail white as well. For some reason my mind automatically flickered to armadillo but I can't remember ever seeing an armadillo or looking at a picture of one. So I decided walking down the middle of the street was better. It was kind of late anyway and no one goes out in this area so it wasn't too bad.
One side rant. When I was reading some of the Wiki articles about Miami I found a link to a list published by a group that evaluates which cities are the most walkable in the United States. I'm sure they have some complicated or else incredibly dumb algorithm to figure it out although what it could possibly be escapes me at the moment. Miami ranks 8th on this list. Do you know what this tells me? The United States is absolute shit when it comes to walking friendly cities. Seriously, walking here sucks and that isn't just because of the heat. It's just spread out. Sure if you never leave the central area you can get around on the "MetroRail" or whatever they call it which is the retarded half-brother of a subway with these ridiculous little cars. But if you aren't rich it pretty much sucks. And I wonder who is less likely to own a car, rich people or poor people. Lots of things are ass backwards a lot.
I need to play a lot in the next few months. I need to be growing my bankroll to move up because wasting time grinding out 2/5 for the next year+ just isn't a good life plan. I also don't know anyone down here so it really shouldn't be a problem! I also have yet to adopt the local fashion, that is to say, shirtless. So I need to go to the gym. Waking up early, hitting the gym, eating better and grinding a shit ton. Life goals go. As soon as I can move in to my place, the grind is on.
I consider poker war. A controlled bloodless war where the only casualties are money and ego, but war nonetheless. To paraphrase Shakespeare: Release the dogs of war.
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