JUNTO BOYS ENJOY VEGAS

We watched some action during the first day of the World Series on Saturday. We were even in the building as it was announced that defending champion Chris Moneymaker was beaten. All of the online winners were decked out in advertisement for their respective online site. It was interesting to see what some of the people we play against look like. Later that night we were already playing against the defeated online guys in side games at the Excalibur. As players, they didn’t seem any better than us.

A funny moment came when Dude was telling me about the hand Chris Moneymaker was knocked out on. He must have gotten the story when I was watching another table. We were standing at the rail around table 40-something and one of the players in the game turned around curiously to listen to Dude's story. He then asked Dude some specifics. It was hard not to laugh because the whole World Series is such an event that you stop thinking of players as people but actors on a stage. The guy talking to Dude broke the 4th wall. Sitting next to the guy at the table was the British lady that has made at least 1 final table on the World Poker Tour. You may have seen her episode last season. She also turned to listen to the story and even laughed with the other player as Dude produced some of his unmistakable brand of humor.

The food was pretty expensive at least at the big hotels. I was told that the food use to be such a good bargain it was attracting people to Vegas who would never put a dollar in a slot machine. They would just come out and shop and eat for nearly nothing. The upside is that playing poker in a casino diminishes hunger. We'd eat a big breakfast buffet around 9 or 10am and not eat again for 10 hours. The first day was breakfast ($14) and dinner ($26) at the MGM Grand. It was good. We tried Mandalay Bay for Breakfast and dinner also and it was a few bucks cheaper at dinner and a little better than MGM. I did the Excalibur for breakfast alone one morning when I was anxious to play poker and the others were in slumber. It was only $8, but it ate more like a Shoney's. The extra $6 for breakfast means turkey sausage, breakfast steak, poached eggs, make-your-own breakfast burritos, quiche, crepes and the freshest fruit you're going to find. The dinner buffets were full of seafood which I don't eat, but they also had the carving stations that I love. Prime Rib is an automatic. But they also had lamb and turkey at both places. The Mandalay Bay dinner offered real thick pieces of asparagus. It's such a favorite that I ate something like 12.

We couldn’t resist sitting down at NL the first night we were there. We arrived our first day and met up with Dude around Midnight late Thursday. We played some Pai Gow and Blackjack at MGM Grand and New York New York before seeing the Poker Room at the Excalibur.

The poker room at the Excalibur turned out to be our headquarters most of the trip. They offered Hold’em $1-3, $2-6, $4-8 and $100 No Limit. I play no-limit tournaments with some modest success, but a regular no-limit game can be a bit intimidating. I’ve had great luck in pot limit games, but the two are very much different as far as strategy.

We couldn’t resist though and bought into $100 No- limit at what must have been 3am Friday morning. There were some tired players and some gamblers at our table. A particular player was throwing big raises at every pre-flop.

I waited until I had AK under the gun and checked to him. He bet $17. Sean called. I should have fired a big raise right there to $50 or $60, but I knew I had the guy and figured I’d let betting be his idea. What I didn’t plan on was that Sean may have a hand. The flop came KQx. I went all in and drove out the guy. Sean called with his KQ and I was broke. A pre-flop raise would have chased him. I may even have gotten the original raiser’s money. Luckily the same player fired at me later with a $50 raise. I went all in. He folded his $50 to me without seeing the flop. The night only cost me $50. Sean made enough on me and others that night to pay his hotel bill for the weekend.

Friday and Saturday were the days of bad beats. Whereas people were pretty short stacked on Thursday Night, by Friday afternoon there were some pretty hefty players. The same table had three guys by 1pm with stacks of more than $500. It’s tough coming into a game against such big stacks, because they can play more hands and bully you out of pots. A guy who has $700 can still have $600 remaining if he forces a $100 stack all-in and loses. If you’re the $100 you are afraid of every all-in because you know you could be out of the game or digging. It’s very tough to choose your places against big stacks. All you can do is pick your places by getting the best odds.

I realized on Friday my only way to compete with the big stacks was to slowly increase mine against the other players who had equal footing with me while avoiding the big stacks against all but the great hands.

I was down to about $60 on Friday afternoon when I drew 88 under the gun. The $700 stack bet $15 pre-flop and I called with another guy. The flop came 226. I went all-in and both guys called. The original raiser had two face cards and the caller had 44. Nothing helped them and I was able to triple my money to just under $200.

The next hand I played was QT hearts on the button. Two hearts came on the flop and I called every $10 or $20 bet against 4 players until I saw the 5th heart come on the river. I was unfortunately up against AJ hearts and he took a big pot. My stack was back to around $100.

I slowly worked it back up to $150 and got 56 on the button. The flop came 347 rainbow giving me the nut straight. Under the gun bet $40. I couldn’t believe my luck. I decided I wasn’t fooling around and went all-in. He asked if I had 56 and I smiled and nodded in a way that suggested “wouldn’t you like to know?” He decided that I had an overpair and called with his 34. He had two pair against my nut straight. I was an 82%-18% favorite in the hand. He winced. I didn’t give the 56 away at all. Only 4 of 45 cards left in the deck could have helped him and he drew one of them on the river – a third 4. I was that close to having a stack of over $300 in which to whittle away at the other guys with. As a stack of $300 I could have played them in any pot because suddenly I represent the possible loss of half their stacks.

But I didn’t get my big stack after the crushing defeat put me out of the game. I had only lost $100 and knew I could get it back, but after losing a flush and a straight to the same guy I knew I needed some time for reflection. Luckily Kevin had brought a fine bottle of Bourbon from LA and we were able to spend a few hours enjoying it before dinner at MGM.

That night I played some $2-6 and won around $60 and gave it back before I was called to NL. I played the same way waiting for my time to come. Finally someone made a big pre-flop raise and I went all-in with KK. He turned over AK and gasped. Again the player had only 3 cards out of 48 to beat me with. I’m a 70%-30% favorite, but he hit an ace on the flop and my stack died an untidy death. Later that night I called a small $10 raise with KQ and flopped a King. The original bettor bet and I raised. He had me all-in with his AA. I figured a small raise meant 99. Most people bet bigger with bigger pairs. This guy wanted to break one player and he found him. He was a big favorite against me 75-25% and I didn’t get the luck my opponents found. I quit the night upset that I ran into aces and that my kings didn’t hold up.

Having gone to bed earlier than the gang, I woke up and had breakfast by myself and got into another NL game. The morning crowd was much more quiet and the stacks not so big. I worked mine up to $150 despite having lost with pocket aces once.

When I came across AA the next time I called an original bet of $10 and the guy behind me raised to $50. Another guy called and original bettor called. I went all in with my $140. They all knew I had aces and called anyway. The original bettor (and only big stack of around $600) had 33. The raiser had KK and the other guy called all that money with QT for some reason. I was a slight 55% percent favorite over the entire field. The flop came Qxx making me a 62% favorite and moving the calling station into second place with 17% chance. The turn was a blank. I was now a 77% favorite over the field. KK hit a set on the river to bust me. His chances were a mere 5% against the field at that point. The miracle once again happened for someone else. I was out and went back to the hotel to meet the guys for our trip to the Hilton and Binions.

The World Series of Poker was something to see. 2600 entrants were scattered on every floor of the casino. Hardly a word was spoken among the players. Even the onlookers were pretty quiet. All you could hear was the musical rattling of chips. It was like a bunch of crickets that hadn’t learned to synchronize. Since there were more than 200 tables the chip rattling was really quite loud and since no one said a word it was more like voyeurism than spectacle. I got the impression that the players didn’t even consider our presence. When the loudspeaker broke in with Chris Moneymaker being defeated, it was a real jolt. Human voices seemed to be absent beforehand.

We had tried to find the celebrities that were playing but we didn’t see any. We saw Ben Affleck on Friday Night when we went to the Palms. I never would have noticed Affleck, but Dude spotted him with his back turned to us. The bouncer bodyguard should have been a giveaway. Unlike celebrities that don’t want to be bothered, Affleck appeared to be seeking attention. Although his back was to us he was always turned profile talking to the player next to him. He was so animated you got the impression that he was playing to the crowd. He sure wasn’t trying to be incognito. The Palms was nice, but they were packed unlike any other casino we saw during our visit. We got on the list of players for $2-4 but it looked like it would take a long time to ever get to us. We wanted to play no-limit anyway so we went back to Excalibur in time for my KK beat by the AK.

Back to Saturday night and Dude, Sean and I are all playing at the same NL table. I was going through a big draught. I didn’t get any cards all night. I played for 5 or 6 hours and only lost $80 because I didn’t get anything worth playing. AA equals a big loss, but K3 is an easy fold and the night cost me little. Dude said that I was playing too tight and needed to be in more hands to get action. I would have played little connectors or even 1 gapped, but I wasn’t even getting dealt 75. I had Kx 6 out of 8 hands in a row.

Two days was enough for Steve who wasn’t playing No-limit with the rest of us. He’s always enjoyed the social aspect of home poker more. We had seen the Star Trek experience at the Hilton on Saturday afternoon before Binion’s and Steve was out of things to do. We had talked about seeing the Eagles or even Dennis Miller while in town. Steve and Sean discussed seeing Cirque du Soleil but none of that ever happened. Kevin, Sean and I were such hard core poker players that we forgot about nearly everything else. It was easy to go 10 hours between meals.

When we got back to the hotel late Sunday morning Steve was packed with the surprise news that he was going home two days early. He had already decided he would go home Monday morning instead of Monday night in order to see Dylan’s pre-school graduation, but the news that he was leaving immediately was a shock to us all. In fact, Kevin didn’t even get to say goodbye. He was playing blackjack machines in the Excalibur.

Sean, Dude and I began to think independently that we made the trip too long. When one of us expressed it the others readily agreed. The absence of Steve somehow made the final two days seem like work to get through rather than fun yet to be had. We were all down poker wise and a lot of stuff that would have been fun with Steve was now gone to us.

We toyed with seeing more Binions on Sunday or finding a tournament, but we wound up back at the Excalibur for No-Limit. It was a little bit of a wait and we played $4-8 in the interim. I went on a crazy rush and hit 4 of a kind twice in just a few hands. I ran into triple queens and a straight that paid me good and well for my trouble. I also got to spin the wheel. Excalibur has an interesting wheel of fortune and you get to spin for prizes if your pocket AA is beaten or you get a straight Flush or Four of a Kind. I got to spin 4 times. Both times for the aces were within 20 minutes and the quads came one after the other. The aces brought me $25 and $35 on the wheel. The quads brought $20 and $50. After the second set of quads the no-limit table opened. I knew that my luck at this particular table was going to go dry and now I had $300 extra between spins and pots to almost play for free.

The NL game was the craziest table I had seen yet. Leading the way was a guy from Orlando named Josh. He would play anything and we saw him bust our three separate times. Yet when you would look over at his chips he almost always had $400-500. He would just build it up that quick. Josh was hilarious and joking the whole way through. It made the whole experience quite entertaining. At least half the guys at the table could be counted on for playing any two cards.

I never got going that night. I tried playing a nut Flush draw with AQh. I was up against Dude’s QQ which made me a 47% underdog. If he had JJ, I would have been a 54% favorite, but since I could only improve on one card I became an underdog.

I had actually tried my best to avoid confrontations with Sean and Dude. The only reason we were both in this hand was the original raiser was a madman and notoriously played crap. Dude and I both stayed. I went all-in as a way to tell Dude to get out because I was going to win. He couldn’t fold an overpair. I never improved. He suddenly had a big stack. It must have been as much as $700 at some point in the night. I didn’t mind losing to him since he was down more than me on the weekend and I thought I could buy-in again and double my stack and take down some of the madmen.

I had my big chance when my QT saw the flop brought a T and babies. I went all-in and got a caller with a nonsense hand that saw him catch two perfect runners on the turn and river to beat me with a straight. At that point I left the game with money in my pocket unspent deciding that Vegas was just going to be one bad beat after another. I would go back to the room, read a magazine, and plan on touring (not playing) the other casinos with Sean on Monday.

It wasn’t 30 minutes later when Dude arrived back at the hotel having lost the big stack to a lady that might have been a man at one point. Her hands screamed linebacker. Our Monday breakfast conversation boiled down to whether she had an extra chromosome or became a chick by the knife. Either Dude or Sean made the deduction that her ratty Simpsons T-shirt would make one think that it was leftover from a time in which she dressed more like a fella. It must have been Sean that made the Simpsons theory, because I believe Dude brought forth the extra chromosome possibility. In the screenplay it’s always best to divide the conversation between the main characters. You can’t just give one guy all the good lines. So Sean gets credit for the Simpson’s deduction and Dude becomes the guy who knows genetics.

I was sorry to see Dude back on his way to LA. It was only the third time I’ve seen him since he moved west in 1999. The closest he has been to Orlando is Gulf Breeze last summer. I’ve been to LA once and now Vegas.

Sean and I began our plans to collect poker chips from the different casinos along the strip. We checked out the poker room at Mandalay Bay after breakfast there and it was a nice one. The Luxor was nice also but very small. Only Excalibur seemed to have No-Limit. When we got to the Excalibur Sean suggested we see what kinds of games were going on although we had decided not to play. It was dead on a Monday morning. Three tables were open. $1-3, $2-6 and the same No-Limit game from the night before. There was actually a guy from last night still in the game. That would have put him on something like 14 hours. Okay, we’re going to play anyway.

I had $160 in cash. It was only enough for one buy-in. Sean said he was happy to play $1-3 and I gave him the $60 and I played the $100 as one last shot. It was geographically the same table, but hardly the same game. The guys were quiet and no one was pre-flop raising. At the far opposite end from me was an old guy they called Mississippi who was missing 4 fingers from one hand. This was an observation that I never made myself. I just look at eyes. It took Sean who was sitting behind me later in the afternoon to point it out.

Mississippi was a wild player among tame beasts. He would fire and fire at pots and then turn over his pure bluff after he won. This would cause riotous laughter from him and him alone. The guy to my left was seething. He vowed that he would take this old jerk down. And that old guy was jerky. The guy to my left wasn’t the only one sick of him.

Playing on Monday was a last minute decision and I only had $100 left and I made a vow that I wasn’t going to bust out. I hit a couple of pretty good hands and was up to nearly $300 when I ran into Mississippi. I played 46 on the small blind and flop came 356. I had top pair and top kicker with a straight draw. I bet $15 and Mississppi called. The river produced another 5. I bet $30. Mississppi had about $300 in front of him. He raised me all-in. It was a tough decision. My all-in experiences had been unkind, but Mississippi would play anything and I had a ton of outs. I turned over my 46 and said, “I have a great draw here. I can make a straight or a full-house and you sir are a notorious bluffer. But I’m not going to let you break me. I’m going to keep my stack and break you later.”

This Mississippi caught me as some kind of hell-raiser in his youth. He could no longer engage in a bar fight, but he still had the spunk that started them. He answered back laughing, “You’re not going to break me.”

I rejoined, “You just wait.”

Unlike his bluffs in which he showed his cards to laugh at a player’s expense, Mississppi didn’t show me his bluff. I’m pretty sure he had trip 5s if not a made hand.

With over $250 in chips I started taking gambles against other players. A quiet guy in seat 1 made a $15 pre-flop raise and everyone folded but me who called with 89. The flop was 886 and I checked under the gun and he bet $25. I called. He obviously had a big overpair. AK probably would have been a $15 bet. The turn was a blank and I checked again. He bet $50. I raised him all in about another $50. This time there was no miracle river card, but even if there had been I wouldn’t have lost my whole stack. He had kings and I had three 8s.

After my laydown and speech to Mississppi and the broken Kings I got a tremendous table image that put me over $400. At this point I could afford to play anything. I played 63 in the small blind after a $7 raise by a loose player. The flop contained two 3s. I checked and the raiser bet $15. I called. The turn was an ace. I figured he probably had one with a good kicker so I bet, representing one myself. It was exactly the kind of trap he was trying to set for me. He came back all-in figuring I was pot committed to my ace. He only had about $60 to bet but he wasn’t any happier to see my trips. He never improved and I won again. It was getting to be a habit.

Sean had quit playing $1-3 sometime after my speech to Mississippi. He saw the nearly $500 and suggested that I leave lest what happened to Dude befall me. I felt so good in the game that I didn’t want to go. Other players feared me and I still had my confrontation with Mississippi to settle. Mississppi had fallen to under $200 trying to make plays on people after his image as a bluffer was well-known.

He made a $15 pre-flop bet and I was hot and called a 54. The flop came Q36. The player to my left was on a shortstack and bet all-in $35. Mississippi called and so did I. The turn was a blank and we both checked. The river was a deuce. With his shortstack I decided to lead the betting and threw $50 in the pot. He was already pot committed to my thinking and needed to double up. Since one player was already all-in I thought my bet was designed to make him think I wanted a fold so that I could play heads up with the other guy. He didn’t come over the top like I had hoped. He folded and saw my hand call the all-in guy. Somebody at the table said, “You had the nuts.” I said, “I was waiting for my buddy down there to come back at me.” Mississippi was smart avoiding that confrontation.

A hand not long after saw me on the button with a mess of cards that gave me two pair and a possible straight draw for Mississippi if he were in the habit of playing anything. I bet $30 on the turn and he called. He checked to me on the river when it seemed like a blank, but something didn’t set right with me. His call on the turn seemed more like restraint. I checked on the river and Mississppi turned over a made straight at the river. He asked why I didn’t bet my two pair. I said that I wasn’t going to chase his straight if he didn’t have the decency to chase mine. Our confrontation would await.

The new dealer was a mess. He told a player that he would have to wait one turn to enter the game because he couldn’t come in on the button and then he dealt to him anyway. After that misdeal, he dealt that same player a hand the second time. Then a few hands later a new guy in seat 1 raised the pot $15 and Mississppi called. I had every intention of calling with my 99 looking for a set. Only before the action got to me, the dealer mucked Seat 1’s cards. The dealer blamed the player, but the player had just bet. How could the fool muck a guy’s cards when he led the betting? Since he couldn’t get his cards back which were KK, by the way, the dealer offered to give him his money back. That seemed fair enough to me and even to the player who was still peeved about losing his hand. The dealer wanted to continue the action after Mississppi, but I chimed in that Mississppi shouldn’t have to call a $15 bet that was now never made since the player got his money back.

Mississppi was still angry about the first guy getting his money back and vowed to quit the game if the ruling stood. The floor manager came over and the table agreed that everyone would get their money back and we’d deal a new hand. Mississppi stopped with the threats of quitting.

A few hands later Mississippi made a motion that the dealer took as a check, but Mississippi said that he was just looking at this cards and had made no check motion. This time Mississppi was pissed. He banged his good hand on the table and his and other player’s chips were scattered. The floor person came over again and calmed nerves and a hand later the dealer was rotated. Mississppi started playing emotional and his chips had fallen to around $100. He tried to get me all-in once. I said, “This is just the situation I was looking for.” Then I folded and let him have it.

Next, I was playing T8 when a flop came K87. Mississippi led the betting with $15 and I in no way gave him credit for top pair and called. The turn came with a Queen and Mississppi threw out $25 and I was still sure that he didn’t have one. The river was a blank and he bet me all-in. This time I didn’t have much of a hand, but it wasn’t a big financial risk either. Mississippi was obviously short-stacked and trying to buy it in my opinion. I called and he turned over 98. My T8 out kicked him. He was busted out. I said, “I told you it was coming.” He smiled and acknowledged the defeat.

The very next hand I played AT to Mississippi’s raise. The flop came KJ8 rainbow. I had a gutshot and gladly played it for another $15 with the implied odds being his new stack of $100. The turn came 7 and Mississippi bet $35. I was ready to fold the hand before picking it up and realizing that the 7 gave me a double gut shot. I remember Dude saying that when he had a double gut shot he says the two cards to himself so when one hits he won’t react. It’s a way for him to automatically bet. So here I am saying to myself Q-9 Q-9 Q-9 Q-9. I called the $35 and the miraculous Q comes on the river. Without even thinking about it I gave my best acting job of the day. I subtly made this little wince with my eyes and said check in a resigned fashion as if I didn’t hit the card I needed. Mississippi must have picked up on it because he threw all of his red chips in the middle leaving the white ones by his hand. I smiled and said, “I want those white chips too. I bet all-in.” He called and showed me his set of kings. All the while he was ready to break me with his full house once it arrived and to do so he foolishly kept me in the hand long enough to draw out on him.

He must have really wanted to break me on a personal level because his all-in at the end was a foolish bet because he would most likely only get a call if he were beat. My frustrated check got the best of him and I think he wanted the added satisfaction of chasing me down. He never considered that he might be beat. He just kept thinking that maybe he’d get a caller to his no-lose hand.

But the action wasn’t over. He’d get another chance. Mississippi bought in again and we were immediately on another hand together. I played J9 and the flop came 7TJ with two spades. I had top pair and a gutshot so I bet and he called. The turn was a 6 of spades. I bet $20 and he raised to $40 and I called. The river was the 8 of spades making me a straight but also a flush with my jack of spades. I would have had a straight flush if not for the 9 being a club. My worry was that the Q, K or A of spades would beat me, but I bet all-in just the same and this time Mississippi didn’t chase me. He went from boastful braggart to humble pie in a few short hands.

It was 7pm by then and I played my last hand KJ and flopped both. My bet drove everyone off and I decided to leave my scary table personality to see the Bellagio and Caesars with Sean before the flight. As I was racking my chips, players were vying for my hot chair as if anything but the determination to beat one player was the secret of my success.

I cashed in $720 nearly making up for the bad beats all weekend long. I decided I liked the weekday crowds much better. Had I won the nut straight or the pocket aces earlier in the trip I would have been a big winner. Losing those two hands cost me $500 in the short term but probably a lot more because I would have had a stack in which to make moves on people. But almost back to even wasn’t a bad overall experience for having never played no-limit in a casino.

After Holdem, Sean and I walked from the Excalibur down the Bellagio and saw poker like you wouldn’t believe. There is a special high stakes area where only players can venture. It was so packed that guys playing with $1000 chips were made to play in the regular area. We went to the back to buy a souvenir chip from the cashier and there was a guy at the table with a sack spilling $10,000 bundles of cash. It was no exaggeration to say that he had a couple of hundred thousand in cash on the table not to mention the numerous chips in front of him. The Bellagio games looked full of World Series defeats what with their online poker site jackets and hats. We played with a few of them ourselves during the weekend at the Excalibur. Their Excalibur luck didn’t seem any better.

A heavy-set guy next to me Monday was downright arrogant and he was only there to watch his brother play in the tournament. The idea that dollars don’t equal sense is no better examined than looking at the number of people that actually paid $10,000 to enter a World Series tournament they have no chance of winning. We met a few like that.

Someday the Junto Boys will head to Vegas to play in the World Series. But we need to win a satellite like Chris Moneymaker. Who wants to spend $10,000 when you can spend $10. Just the thrill of competition to get into the World Series would be a load of fun.

We encountered the only bad service experience in the Tropicana Hotel before heading to the airport. We had what we figured was 20 minutes to eat before leaving and we waited 10 minutes for a waiter who never came. Although we drank their water and ate the table bread we got fed up and left. Quiznos in the airport was fine enough.

The Tropicana was cheap and it was once a great hotel, but it’s going to be torn down and they’re not spending much money on upkeep. The room was actually really nice. We were on the 20th floor overlooking the south strip. We had a great view of Mandalay Bay, the Luxor, Excalibur and the mountains.

Before we got on the plane we saw a confrontation between security and a smashed passenger. As the story goes he was so drunk he threw up on another person but he had no memory of it. He sounded like an eight year old boy trying to remember where he was going and what he was doing. They told him that he could fly out in the morning but that he was barred from our flight. He kept saying that he just wanted to get home. A friend of his wandered by and suggested the authorities arrest him and throw him in jail. This weak attempt at humor coupled with his own drunkenness should have gotten him barred from his own flight going somewhere else.

Another drunk approached Sean and me as we were getting on the plane. He swore that he knew both of us. He had the vaguely familiar face of someone we could have played poker with, but he insisted that we were playing 2 and 4 blackjack with him at the Hard Rock Casino. Besides never having been to the Hard Rock and never having heard of 2 and 4 blackjack it could have been us. I told him that we didn’t go to the hard rock because they play the devil’s music there (a quote I heard Michael J. Fox say on Family Ties once). This confused him even more and he thought we were joking with him. We walked past hoping the conversation would end and it did.

I slept maybe an hour on the flight that was only 4 hours total. It’s about an hour quicker to come back with the tail winds in our favor. Delta Song turned out to be a great airline choice. You have to buy your own food, but each seat has a TV with satellite hookup and a great music selection. I read some and watched a little TV.

Las Vegas is such an escapist vacation especially since we were sleeping little and playing poker much. It seemed like we were gone a much longer time than we were. The garbage in the kitchen certainly agreed. It stunk like the dump.

On Sunday it had seemed like the trip was too long. On Monday Night after the win it seemed the trip was too short. The key is having a big enough bankroll to balance early losses against later victories.

It was the first time I had seen Las Vegas as an adult. I don’t intend it to be the last. I had to have been ten when Mom took us to Circus Circus to play the carnival games while Dad played blackjack underneath the circus net. Now I’m playing the blackjack (or in this case, poker) with my pals. It was nice of Cindy, Marci, and Trish to let us have our fun.

Now if I can just get my body back on Eastern Time.