Things start to get weird

The third day in Vegas wasn't as profitable and fun as the second but I still continued my winning streak and I had a nice dinner with an old high school friend I hadn't seen in 20 years who was now living in Vegas. The show had run all day so I was feeling quite drained but I managed to get in an hour of poker before meeting Rob. The players again at the Luxor were quite bad. I only managed a small win of 50 dollars.

Dinner with Rob was very pleasant. I wasn't very close with Rob but I always remembered him to be a nice guy, I wish I had spent more time with him back than as he was a joy to spend dinner with last week. After he dropped me off, I went straight back to the poker tables and managed to win yet another "best hand" and an extra $100 when my Queens full of tens held up. The game itself was very wild compared to the night before as there was a very loose aggressive and drunk player present who was splashing chips and making raises with nine deuce off suit (and making hands!). I tightened up and waited and managed to isolate him in a hand and win a decent sized pot. Then 3 hands later he managed to suck out on me and hit his gut shot straight draw so I lost the money I had won from him. The real shame was when he got stacked by another player and left.

Nevertheless, I walked away a $300 winner for the day if you included the best hand win. That put me at $1800 for the trip. I felt great and nothing was going to bring me down- hahahahahahaha!!

Okay, so maybe I wasn't that manic, but it's hard to contain yourself when you keep winning. I was certainly having a good time and remained undaunted when some weird things started to happen the next day.

The next day I was waiting for the show to start so since I was in the Mandalay Bay casino, I decided to kill 45 minutes playing some stupid poker variant where you play against the casino. It was called Crazy 4 poker and despite not really knowing what I was doing, I still managed to win $220 playing it. While that in of itself wasn't weird, it did lead me to see another game that interested me called Let it Ride. I didn't play it that morning but I did make a note to come back and try it later.

That day at the convention, a man came up to my booth and started to give me a small amount of grief in a teasing manner. I immediately recognized as the man who made his straight when I made my full house and won the best hand promo and I took close to $200 from him on that hand. I nervously gave him lots of free samples and whatever I could grab to make him forget that I had taken his money. He was actually nice about it and I may have him as a customer some day. Even still, it's weird when take money from strangers and see them later in your professional life.

The show finally ended and I knew I had to wait a bit for them to deliver my crate. As a result, I made my way back to the casino and tried that Let It Ride that interested me. Again, without really knowing what I was doing, I actually managed to go up about $70. I was having the best dumb luck of my life this trip or so I thought...

Just then a guy walked up to the table. He was the sort of guy who had douche-bag written all over his face. He was dressed in a black suit with a white T-shirt underneath. He had lots of gold chains dangling from his neck and his black hair was slicked back with lots of mousse. I'm not one to racially profile but if I had to guess, I would have said that he was one of those young Iranian men who loved to go clubbing. What's weirder is that he was rolling his carry-on suitcase through the casino. He was just dropped off and fresh from landing at the airport. He almost walked completely by but stopped at our table and plunked a hundred dollar bill. He placed his bets and the amazing happened- he hit a royal flush and won $25,000.

First Goddammed hand of his trip and this lucky fucker wins $25,000. After the excitemet died down the dealer presented him with a full rack of $1000 chips. I was in awe. She also gave him some lesser denomination chips like $25 and $100- obviously meant to tip her. After all, these dealers work mainly for tips and dream of when they finally deal that big winner and get a nice pay day.

The guy takes out 3 $100 chips and give me one and one to the other 2 players at the table. "Thank you! That's very generous!" I quickly said and then he took his racks and left- stiffing the dealer. The dealer became visibly upset and was holding back the tears. Without much thought I then tossed her the $100 chip and said, "Thanks for the excellent service." The other 2 players followed suit and did the same thing. While tearing up she thanked us over and over again. I was just about to cash out my $120 winnings when the pit boss came over and told us that even though he normall can't do as such, he would comp us all for a free dinner for tipping the dealer like that when she got stiffed. I was proud of myself for doing the right thing.

to be continued...