22 Aug 2010
Le Sirenuse – Positano, Italy
Last year while in Positano we stayed Il San Pietro, considered by many (including us) to be one of the best hotels in the world.
Being somewhat adventurous (or is it nuts), we changed this year to Le Sirenuse, which is also considered one of the great hotels.
If anything, we like it better. The location, ambiance, cleanliness and service are all spectacular.
Often, in very high-end hotels, the personnel are a bit aloof. There is none of that here.
They have so many lovely areas, all built for the view. There is the Oyster Bar, the regular bar, the beautiful restaurant and lovely pool area.
Our terrace trumps them all though. Most of these photos were taken from there.
We had one small problem. The wireless Internet did not work in the room, although it picked up on the terrace. Even though it is Saturday and their normal technology company is closed until Monday, they contracted an individual to come out. The hotel paid retail for the proper hardware and had him install the device in our room (which including significant wiring) so that we would not be inconvenienced.
As if that were not enough, they insisted on buying us dinner in their gourmet restaurant tonight. I considered turning them down (for about 5 seconds), but for these prices, what the heck? It was magnificent.
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21 Aug 2010
Europe – Summer, 2010
Hi everybody. JetSetWay is back with more travel adventures, as we will be in Europe for seven weeks this summer.
I will do my best to give interesting snippets of the trip with the ever-handy aid of Allyn’s photography.
Destination one is Le Sirenuse on the Amalfi Coast, in Positano, Italy for five nights. It is one of the great hotels in one of the great cities.
After a long day of travel from Las Vegas, we popped down to Max, one of the great restaurants here and then crashed till about 3 a.m. Our bodies are confused.
These days the best way to get to anyplace in Europe from Las Vegas seems to be either Virgin Atlantic or British Air because they both fly nonstop to London daily.
Our flight was 25 minutes late. That’s ok because we accounted for it. It’s a bit frustrating though because we knew from our research that they are late half the time and average 40 minutes on the tardy side.
As a constant traveler over the last 45 years, I can assure you that generally these days delays are more a function of the airport and weather than the airline. London is very busy and planes leave late. In turn that makes them late to return.
You may want to factor that in when choosing an airport. Be careful of Chicago in the winter. Places like San Francisco and Seattle often have winter early morning problems when the marine air creates fog problems.
Flying is a pain, but traveling is great. That is why often we opt for long trips and cruises
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12 Jul 2010
World Series of Poker – Update
Although about 2/3 of the field is gone, Allyn and I are still in. Unfortunately Happy, who had a stream of bad luck, went out late in Day 2.
7,319 players paid $10,000 each to play in this year’s event. The prize pool is about $68,000,000 (after fees and other costs). 747 people will “make the money” ranging from about $19,000 to almost $9,000,000 for the winner.
The field was so large that the first day took four heats and the second day took two.
The remaining 35% of the field will return Monday to play day 3. It will take eight days of play to eliminate all but the final nine players who will return in November for the final table.
More later.
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12 Jun 2010
Men Playing in World Series of Poker Ladies’ Event
A few men used discrimination law to force their way into the WSOP Ladies’ Event. Nobody dislikes discrimination more than I do. These jerks made a mockery of this needed legislation.
The real issue at hand is whether there should be ladies only events. The general theory against it is that poker can be played on a level playing field. There is merit to that argument, especially for professional and other experienced ladies.
More compelling though is that these type of events are good for poker. Ladies represent only about 5 – 10% of the normal tournament population. This event attracts over 1,000 women, many of whom have never played in a tournament before, let alone the World Series.
Poker is very intimidating for anybody the first couple times out. Women just feel more comfortable with women in uncomfortable circumstances. The Ladies' Only Even allows women to comfortably enter the community and grow along with it. Certainly, we will see many of them entering more live tournaments shortly.
Besides, there is extra camaraderie, and it is extra fun for them. That is exactly why I enjoy Senior Events.
If we had a way of verifying entry legitimacy, I would be a fan of having a tournament just for people who have never entered one before. I would be extra lax on rule enforcement, and even encourage the players to ask questions about rules during the event.
By the way, even though I feel so strongly about allowing these special events, they do not qualify for Card Player’s Player of the Year points. Since they are not open to everybody, that would not be equitable.
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01 Jun 2010
World Series of Poker Happenings
The WSOP is off and running. Ty Stewart and his team are to be commended for making it a much smoother and pleasant operation this year.
Happy and I had a TV shoot with Norman Chad, ESPN’s WSOP announcer.
It will be on prior to the showing of the first event this year. It was great fun hearing him refer to poker in 2009 as “The Year of the Shulmans.”
The guy in the picture with me is Randy Couture. We have a lot in common. We both were raised in the Seattle area, and both now live in Las Vegas.
Unlike me, he went on to become the state high school wresting champion, and a college All American.
He is a five time UFC Champion (Ultimate Fighting Championship), and is generally credited with bringing mixed martial arts into the mainstream of American pop culture and sports.
He has a firm handshake.
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