Well, hello there.
I just got back from Vegas (and boy are my.. nm), and we had an absolute blast. My friend James came with me and we basically burned ourselves to the ground with typical Vegas pursuits (read: eating, drinking, gambling, and fully-clothed clubs until wee hours of the morning).
We arrived on Friday and I was raring to go: Dinner with Greg. Annabelle and Lindsay arrive. James arrives. Everyone meet up. Gambling and drinking all night.
On the first Saturday, we got ourselves gussied up and headed to the Miss America pageant, where we were rooting for Miss South Carolina for the win (pictured below). Unfortunately, she bungled her ‘talent’ piece, and was demoted to runner-up, though I can’t imagine that left her too upset. Our tickets weren’t bad, only about 20 rows from the stage, but we were put far stage right in, what we later discovered to be, the ‘comps’ section, where they put all the high-rollers and friends-of-house. This was originally quite displeasing to me, as I was hoping to be sat next to Miss Hawaii runner-up, or Miss Teen USA’s older sister, but turned out to be very necessary since the only two people that appreciated my disdain for tap-dancing as a talent or the answer “I believe marijuana should only be legal for medical purposes… and recreation” were my friend James seated on my left and the half-drunk high-roller to my right (who’s wife got progressively more and more upset with him as time went on). When last year’s Miss America came out, the crowd stood. I asked James why people would stand for her and he intelligently informed me that this was America’s Queen. I realized it was true, felt sick, and sat down again. That’s about when I gave up and started hoping someone would fall.
After that entirely-too-wholesome debacle, Johnny Soporno’s event started and I got to catch up with some very good friends and make some great new ones. Bravo came out from Arizona and we spent a good amount of time together, which I am and was very thankful for, as he’s always such a great guy to hang around has infinite wisdom packed into his speaking events. Most of the time, we just met the students and had long talks over meals. I spoke on Friday and it was well-received, though I did waste quite a bit of time talking about the importance of suiting up. While it is something I heartily believe it, I looked down at my watch and realized I had wasted about 45 minutes on the subject and quickly changed course, turning it up a notch and speaking for about 3 hours in total. Word on the street is that the video equipment went haywire, but I’m sure I’ll be able to find some recording, however brief, to share with you.
Speaking at Johnny Soporno’s Event. Clearly ranting.
In the midst of the week of madness, my friends Ben and Mike came down from Los Angeles with some girls and we all went out for a typical evening of amusement and leisure after James and I ate at my favorite restaurant in Las Vegas – Mon Ami Gabi. We slept well into the next day and only got to see them and say goodbye briefly, which I regretted, but it certainly was good to see them.
Once that weekend with Johnny was over, fond goodbyes were said and hugs passed around. As it always is after a conference of that length, everyone was emotionally drained and mentally burned-out, so a big recharge was necessary, though I still had two days left in Vegas (out of a total of 12). We did what any right-minded gentlemen of leisure would in that scenario; we started gambling.
Everyone needs a good sex life which ultimately leads amerikabulteni.com viagra in the uk to erection woes in the bedroom. As in all forms of cipla tadalafil price medication, individuals can experience mild side effects when taking the medication. More sensitive to aged people, this can cause some side effects, but these effects are mild which viagra ordering on line takes a few hours earlier. If you encounter with such problems, then you amerikabulteni.com buy cialis cheap might as well go the all-natural route. My system on Baccarat at $5/min tables downtown had bust us earlier in the week, but the math was milled over and our system was rethought, deciding that it could be done, so we took our best James Bond faces to Rio and sat down at $10/min table leaving after about an hour up $600 (I think). We felt like a million dollars and off we went to Flamingo (a casino I love) to do it all again. We had good luck for a period of time and then ran into a run of bad hands. I went bust after 6 losses (which is practically unheard of) and the whole crowd drew a heavy sigh when the final blow was dealt, with the exception of the old Chinese man that had been betting against me the whole time. After a run of 6 losses, I needed $1300 to put me back in the green and James, with the devilish twinkle in his eye, pulled out his money sack (the burlap one with the big dollar-sign on it) and threw down. The people started to gather around the table as the dealer counted out the chips and I stacked them into the middle to bet the entire amount on the player.
Was I really betting $1300 of my friends money on one hand? Yes, of course I was.
In Casino Royale (sorry about all the Bond references, I was gambling in a tux – what do you want?), Bond famously plays Baccarat against dreaded villain Le Chiffre (yes, they changed it to Texas Hold ‘Em in the Daniel Craig movie). In it, Le Chiffre draws the second best hand you can achieve, an eight for the bank (“Huit à la banque”), he’s so certain he’s won that it isn’t until Bond reveals his nine (the best hand you can have) that he realizes he is beaten to the tune of 32,000,000 old francs (Something like $800,000 today… I think) and slumps over, heartbroken and ruined. Here’s the original exerpt:
“‘Huit à la banque,’ said the croupier. As Bond sat silent, Le Chiffre suddenly grinned wolfishly. He must have won. The croupier’s spatula reached almost apologetically across the table. There was not a man at the table who did not believe Bond was defeated. The spatula flicked the two pink cards over on their backs. The gay red queens smiled up at the lights. ‘Et le neuf.’ A great gasp went up round the table, and then a hubbub of talk. Bond’s eyes were on Le Chiffre. The big man fell back in his chair as if slugged above the heart. His mouth opened and shut once or twice and his right hand felt at his throat. Then he rocked back. His lips were grey.”
This is one of my favorite scenes in any book and is almost exactly the opposite of what happened on our last hand.
Both my hand and the opposing hands were dealt the worst hands possible, zero, (the point of the game being to get as close to 9 as possible), and my last card dealt was an ace (with a value of one). The table sighed, knowing it was virtually impossible for me to win unless my opponent was dealt a face card or a ten. The final card was slapped down and the dealer made an attempt to flip it over, but flubbed. The card was lifted a bit and then fell back to the table, compacting the tension and excitement, but I had been watching so closely and intently that I had been in the pin-point focus of a silent world. Remembering it, it was like I had binoculars on. The card was flipped a half an inch off the table and I saw the top of that beloved jack and shot up out of my chair about one second before the crowd saw the hand and there was an eerie quiet as I triumphantly shook my fist. Then the rumble came as the card was revealed fully and the black lady next to me loudly told me she knew it would be a jack because she had prayed. I thanked her and tapped in to my years of theatre to conceal my beating heart.
After that, we decided drinks were appropriate and we met Jason in the lobby of the Luxor to while away the hours before my flight back to the cold east coast. He’s amazing company and a friend I’m proud to introduce to others, which I believe is how all friends should make you feel and how I hope I make my friends feel. To finish up the trip with two great friends drinking scotch (courtesy of the hotel) was a perfect wind-down and an end to a great trip.
Many thanks to Annabelle and Lindsay for coming down from Los Angeles so I could see their beautiful faces, Mike and Ben for throwing an entertaining party at the most pleasantly-strange club I’ve ever been to, Dave Phillips for sending me a massage courtesy of his delightful self, Johnny Soporno for trusting his always excellent judgement as well as having me at his conference, and my friend James for both believing I could win and supporting me when I didn’t.
Until next time,
-GRMJ
