OK, let's sorta' Poker....

Saturday morning started with a tradition of sorts for Peb's and I. Breakfast at Bellagio. Now I know it's not the procedure, but damn it's a fine bit of grub to start the day!

We headed over to Caesars to get registered and after the now infamous 'ass-grab,' we met up with everyone around the Poker room. We had about 45 minutes or so to catch up with everyone and hear the stories from the night before. I do know one thing, 45 minutes was nowhere near enough time for those stories! We would have to wait for all the recaps.

As I sat down in seat #2 of table #54, I began to wonder what the hell I'd bought into this game for. I mean I'm no NLHE player and honestly, I felt a bit intimidated by the group sitting around the same table. There was Maudie, The Mark, Dr. Jeff and several others that are pretty high up in the rankings of Blogger NLHE play.

When you don't see the fish at the table....

Second hand into the game, it folds around to my SB. I make a standard 3x raise and get insta-called by Alyssa in the BB. Crap! That's both what I said and what I was holding. But then the flop hits my crap and I have to believe I'm good. I see the opportunity to get a few more chips into the pot and do so without hesitation. Call again. Hmmm.... The turn brought an Ace that could've helped to a low straight draw and also made the four-flush possible. We both checked. Then the river put the third club on the board, that also made a straight a very good possibility. I was totally OK with checking it down and showing my crappy two-pair. Alyssa hesitated and stared at her stack. Then she threw in a bet of 2/3 of the pot. Holding back the urge to grab chips and glub-glub my way out of chips so early, I tossed my cards into the muck. She said that she flopped an open-ender on her defense of her BB and honestly after seeing a few of her plays later, I have to believe her.

Then it came on in full force for me. Although I personally think it's hilarious that the 9-3 off-suit is called The Bammer by so many because of the number of times it gets dealt to me honestly, seeing it three, four and even five times in a row in a game, can get quite disgusting. I had lots of opportunities to show whoever was sitting on my right the hands, making for some rather funny comments during the game. The best of which I think came from someone I didn't recognize at my first table.

"Seriously! Are you letting go of those things when you muck them?"

That's when I heard a large moan and saw Pebbles stand up at her table.

I know that look and if you know anything about Peb's, it's not good. She was a cross between pissed, embarrassed and in shock. The red glow of her cheeks always makes a small hole in my heart. It was only Poker so there wasn't any tear alert needed, but it looked damn close! Peb's had just been coolered by Derek. Her pocket Jack's ran into Derek's pocket Aces and both of them managed to make a pretty good pot pre-flop. Then the flop of all flops came out, giving both of them their sets. Now Derek had just busted DRIZZ with pocket Aces a hand or two earlier, so there's no way she puts him on that hand. I don't know how she gets away from that hand and certainly, I don't see it as a bad play on her part to bust out there. But what do I know?

Shortly after that, there was a table break. I pull a seat between STB and AlCantHang. GREAT! At least the chat will be fun, I thought to myself. There was also Al and I struggling to decide who would tip the server. I'm pretty sure we broke out fairly even, as we'd each fumble for anything below a ten spot to tip with.

Besides Al giving me a courtesy double up on what he decided was a "pretty loose call," I don't think I played that many hands there. I did manage to suck out while holding A-K against J-J all-in pre, but the stacks were both so short, I don't know how the chips don't go in at that point. The blinds had escalated to ginormous by that time, and I knew I needed chips to go any further. "Let's gambool!" was all I could say. That's when I won a bounty that was re-bountied.


~Photo courtesy of Pauly

I won some "beer-goggles" brought to the fun by April.

It seemed like a few hours into the game when we busted down to the final two tables. I was actually in a small state of shock at that prospect. What the hell was I doing in the final 18?

That was about the time that the few Scotch and Dos Equis I did have, managed to make it deeper into my system. In a good way of course! I gained a small amount of confidence. My decision to make final table from that point on, was set.

If you know anything about me and NLHE, you'll know I do not have a Poker face. But I do like to talk it up a bit, so I used that to my advantage. If I kept up the inane banter at this table, who the heck could tell if I was bluffing or nutting? It actually worked out pretty good as a strategy. I dragged a few pots here and there when I played hands and/or otherwise, I shipped my cards into the muck. All the while, maintaining the "happy plays Poker" routine as my Poker face.

I had what I thought was one great opportunity to really get a stack going, after I re-raised a pre-flop raise from Change 100. I certainly thought she was going to jam it into the center for a moment there and I was certainly hoping. When she finally mucked after a pretty long thought process and several icy glares in my direction, I decided that showing my Aces there would be a good thing for my table image with this crowd.

We got down to six-handed at our table and I think the other table had six as well. (it might have been seven?) The blinds were astronomical and I was now sitting on 8x the BB. No one had a monster stack exactly and that could only mean one thing, jam or fold for almost everyone. I had folded down to those 8 BB's due to seeing nothing spectacular or even half descent on the way there. At that point I was honestly hoping for a hand on hand violence situation from the others, or a monster hand for myself. At least it was pretty easy Poker!

There was an early position jam just ahead of me and I looked down at Cowboy's. What do you do? You can make final table most definitely, by folding the next two or three hands. OR! You can go for the win. I took a few seconds to hash out the rational in my head and said "fuck it. I have to be ahead and these chips will give me the chance to do something that no one in our little circle of friends would have ever thought possible!"

I announced "all-in."

I could see that I was covered by a few chips and knew that my tourney life was on the line. Question : Was this a stupid play?

I flipped up my Kings and waited to get confirmation that I was up against a small Ace or even better, a smaller pair.

YAHTZEE! Ace friggin' King!!!!111!!!oneoneone!

Right or wrong, I got incredibly pumped up about my opponent only having a 3 outer. Then I heard the words that I think I'm supposed to love in this situation, "I'm Sorry, I folded A-5 off."

"Luckily I had total crap with a 2-8 off." was the only other hand I heard anything about.

Two-outer Bam-Bam!
Just a two-outer, that's all you've got to fade!


Uber-Tilt followed naturally, as the two-outer came immediately on the flop.

As DonKaaa would say, "death by unga-bunga."

So I pass my bounty over as I stare at the most painful board I think I've ever seen in my short NLHE experience. No final table for me, as I bust out 12th. I think. (maybe 13th.?)

I Made it to the other side of the table before I let the pressure release with a pretty loud "FUUUUUUUUUCK." in the middle of The Caesars Palace Poker room. I then apologised for being such an asshole to our Tournament Director, who happened to be standing right next to me.

"Sir, THAT was a bad beat. Happens all the time." he said, while putting a hand on my shoulder and smiling a smile of consolation.

So the good was I played some OK Poker.
The Bad was, I played some crap Poker.
The ugly was I folded J-J at my second table, to two raises pre-flop and found out my J-J was Gold.

Analysis = I suck at NLHE.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

We may be strange, but those Cowboy's....

Occasionally we see things that make us shake our heads in disbelief and wonder. Sometimes the scene is one of horror, say a car crash or a miss-treated child. Sometimes the scene is one of humour, like blooper shows on TV or AlCantHang dancing in the aisles of the IP. Whatever the case may be, these scenes also have some type of addictive quality to them. You know you really should look away but somewhere deep inside you, there's something stopping you from turning your head.

After Golf Friday, Peb's and I got cleaned up and headed out to the MGM for the fun. That was where we came upon one of those special moments where we both knew we should just look away, but neither of us could avert our eyes from the spectacle.

The spectacle that was, Table #16!

A $1/$2 table that at that point in time, had approximately 4,500 - 4,800 dollars in play on it. It was The core G-Vegas crowd and a few select others, including IGGY and DRIZZ. Stacks ranged in size from massive to minuscule and one thing seemed evident right from the start, every hand could generate a monster pot and most likely, probably would.

I did my best to pay attention to the play, despite also wanting to spend a little time chatting with the likes of Waffles, Rooster, Derek and others. As good as it was to see everyone and get a few moments to get caught up with each of them, the table drew my eyes back to it repeatedly.

"All-IN."

"CALL."

"The HAMMER."

"The NUTS."

"Two pair."

"Quad Ducks."

"Boat."

"Nut Boat."

"Ace high."

"You're good."

"Rebuy on #16"

Followed by the roar of laughter.

I can't be positive but I am fairly certain that as I was talking to Waffles, I think I saw one hand played totally blind. But not your standard deal it out and we'll see what happens blind. More like an entire table betting on their blind hole cards based on the flop, turn and river kind of blind!

I think one of my better quotes of the weekend happened at this table, when I noticed BadBlood was sitting next to Otis' monster stack. BadBlood's stack may have contained five or six chips at that point.

"I want a stack and a story!" I exclaimed.

At first it was a joke of course but not being an actual part of that game, I'd love a little insider view of what was actually going on.

As the folks of our WPBT crowd came and went like the surf lapping up onto a warm beach, the dynamic of the area around table #16 changed incredibly. With each wave of new bloggers to the area, came new stories. There were new ideas of what to do next and most certainly, new laughs and smiles with the meeting of friends old and new. If there is such a thing as joyous electric AND eclectic, it was happening on the border of the MGM Poker room.

At a lull in the action both at table #16 and in the general area, Peb's and I snuck out the back door for a little one on one time. Just enough time to shake out a few cobwebs from the early am. cold, but hopefully not enough to miss out on anything too terribly special that might happen. $20 should do it I thought to myself. "Let's go grab a Penny slot and a drink or two Peb's." I said hoping to see that grin. Well I didn't even get the word slot out, before she'd grabbed my hand and smiled in that way that makes me melt.

She'd found her Lobstermania game and almost immediately after dropping the $20 bill in the machine, our drink orders were in and we were well on our way to laughing like idiots. I've said it a thousand times I know but I still have not clue one, how the hell you win anything at Penny slots! When betting 15 lines, a line of 5 seagulls pays you 4 credits. Yet with the same bet and the seagulls scattered all over the bloody screen, the damn thing chimes off 150 credits to the good for you. The only thing I do get on this one particular game though, is the Lobster fishing BONUS part. Pick the traps and hope for biggin's!

As I was sipping on an exceptionally good Scotch, (to me for $20 into a Penny slot, a 15 YR. old Glen anything seems like gold!) and Peb's was spinning her magic, I saw Doc Chako and The Wife heading right towards us. NICE! I looked around for Julia, (The keeper of the over-poured and under paid for Scotch) to order a quick round. The couple-Chako appeared to be in no rush as they were meandering down the aisle, all the while making simple moves together to avoid the staggering masses in a rush to somewhere important to them.

"They make such a great looking couple don't they hun?" I asked Peb's.

Too focused on the line of crap that seemed to be paying her 400 credits at the time, she replied "Who does?"

"The Chako's."

She finally took her eyes of the screen in front of her and must have noticed the direction I was focusing towards.

"OH. They do look great don't they!" I heard her say.

That's when it happened. They just strolled right on by us, oblivious to our presence before them.

"OH NO THEY DID NOT JUST DO THAT!" I exclaimed. I jumped out of my seat beside Peb's and ran after the two of them with a purpose. But what purpose? "What do I do when I catch them?" I actually said out loud, to no one but myself. And that was the moment that I made what could have been a pretty dangerous decision.

I grabbed The Wife's ass!

At the very last second, I found myself ducking in preparation for the soon to come right cross to the jaw. What was I thinking? The Wife is a farm girl at heart. Sure she's all executive and shit but deep down inside, she has to know how to protect herself. As she spun around in shock, I saw the partially formed fist that came natural to her. Thankfully and mercifully for me, we made eye contact before I needed an excuse for my newly minted black eye! And then we laughed. We laughed a lot! The old saying "what comes around goes around," certainly came to life for the two of us, as The Wife paid me back completely and in full, as I made my way to the Poker Room on Saturday morning. Right there in the main aisle of Ceasar's Palace and in front of a packed bar of spectators, The Wife grabbed my ass and made me practically jump out of my skin. Fine then, we're even! (until we're not anymore!) :)

After parting ways with both Chako's, Peb's and I cruised back to see the wrath of Table #16. A quick count of the stacks I could see, revealed that the table was now holding somewhere around six large! INSANE!

We made our way around the sportsbook and right there in the middle of a bunch of crappy slots, sat my baby from my Vegas days gone by.

The Electronic Horse Racing machine!

If you haven't ever played on this thing, you MUST! It used to be just outside of Gilley's place at The Frontier. You grab a roll of quarters and bet anywhere from one of them to all of them, on any combination of two out of the five horses in the field. Odds are given early and you have about 30 seconds before each race to bet. It's a riot on it's own but considering that there's room for around 12 players to play in every race, it really lends itself to a social atmosphere unlike anywhere else in the town.

Picture if you will on one side of the machine, it's four deep in Cowboy's. The other, four deep in drunken Brit's. At the far end there was a small group of twenty somethings blasted out of their freakin' minds and on the other end, me and my Peb's. Let the battle begin!

$20 in quarters, a very rough count of a half dozen scotch, at least the same in beer and I think Peb's managed to scarf down somewhere between 5 and 6 Rye and Gingers later and we had what Peb's would call all day Saturday, "A SCREAM!" Anyone that saw me early enough on in the day Saturday will attest, I was all "SCREAMED" out!

I made money on Cowboy's betting both with me and against me. Folks were dropping $10 bills over my shoulder and challenging me to win again. In many case I lost a quarter on the race itself, only to then pick up the $10 and shove it in my pocket because I "lost." Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The one weird spot however was as I was in the Men's room doing the beer reduction process, a stranger showed up behind me and stood there.

"What size are your feet?" I heard from his general direction. I looked back and asked, "Excuse me?" "Your feet. What size are they?"

Now I'm so freaked out, it's just not funny.

After apologies for disturbing me and some of the really freaking weird dissolving from the situation, it turns out that he was making me an offer to trade his boots for my shoes.

Cowboy's in Vegas are really, REALLY fucking strange!

That's it for now.
Let's try and Poker in the morning, shall we?

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

The hooker, the golfer & the laughter....

Friday started like just about any day in Vegas should start. We were sitting at the Denny's just up the road from the IP, waiting for our Slams to arrive and sipping on some really bad coffee. Pretty much par for the course, unless of course you count the hooker sitting next to us.

Words cannot describe the way she was sitting there next to Peb's, in her electric banana yellow mini-dress that was hiked up just above the business end of well... her business I guess! With her hands shaking from whatever self medication she happened to be juiced up on at the moment and the poorly applied make up from the night before practically dripping down her face, there she sat eating the T-Bone Steak & Eggs protein platter. That naturally became an instant conversation starter for yours truly.

"I see you're not getting enough protein in your system lately?" I said as we made our first real eye contact.

"Sign of the times around here." She replied.
"But it's my birthday too, so I thought I deserved some real meat in my mouth for a change." she finished with a chuckle.

Typical for the tourist in most sitting around the general vicinity, the neck snaps as they all looked away in disgust could almost be heard in unison. I on the other hand, wished her a very happy birthday. What the hell right? I figure if you can't garner a little good karma from being nice to a half naked working girl eating breakfast at a Denny's packed with people that are disgusted by her, when can you? But maybe that's just me.

After breakfast, we were scheduled to meet up with our ride out to The Las Vegas National Golf Club. It was finally the day for our inaugural Bloggers, Booze & Balls Golf outing and fortunately for us, F-Train was kind enough to offer us a ride. We would be riding along with DRIZZ and JJOK as well. Besides the hooker, this was a pretty good crowd to start our day off with!

DRIZZ showed up wearing the prescribed khakis that were, "not denim." But all he had on to cover the top portion of his giant frame, was a regular polo like Golf shirt. At a whopping 38 degrees at the time, I thought that this might end up being an issue! F-Train was next to arrive and as a group, the four of us waited for JJ. And waited, and waited, and waited! Joe Speaker arrived in the Valet area, as he was supposed to be meeting Schaubs there as well. So we waited together. And waited, and waited, and waited some more. I went in to make the cattle calls. On the second call to JJ's room, I finally got in touch with him. He was on his way down. Then Speaker got a text from Schaubs, he was headed in the right direction too. We were on our way soon enough, straight down Flamingo Boulevard. Only one issue though, LVNGC is NOT on Flamingo! F-Train's internal GPS, was apparently not reacting well to the cold. Silly thin-blooded locals. :)

The teams had been set and went off the tee as follows;

1) Dr. Chako, his buddy C, Katkin and Astin's pal N.
2) Schaubs, Speaker & Astin's pal M.
3) F-Train, Pebbles, Astin's friend E and J.D.N.
4) Myself, DRIZZ, JJOK and rast minute surprise guest CK, who just managed to make it out for the fun after all!

We each threw $10 into the pot for a winner takes all purse and off we went to Golf. From the early trash talk at the practice range to the banter at the first tee, you could tell that this was going to be a great day for everyone. I can only really talk about our group on the day, but I am hoping for a few stories out of the others when they get the chance.

For team Bam-Bam, one thing remained throughout the entire competition. Holy shit did we laugh! From my rental club tilt brought on by several of the clubs in the bag having different flex shafts, to DRIZZ's nearly hypothermic state for the first 9 holes of play, something always had us in stitches along the way. A lot of the times I was laughing so hard that it hurt, came from Astin, the designated photographer for the day of fun in the sub-arctic conditions. Not many can make me laugh the way Astin does. Sorry to say for him, I just get his sense of humour and timing. That has to be scary for the poor kid!

Moments of hilarity included but were not limited to, CK winning the first closest to the pin contest. Man she stuck it close! But there's an old saying that 'there are no pictures on a scorecard,' so we won't mention exactly HOW the ball ended up that close to the pin. I personally see nothing wrong with utilizing all of the facilities available to you on the course. Maybe that's even why they put that concrete barrier around the pond in the first place? :)

I rode the entire 18 holes with DRIZZ. If you don't find yourself laughing out loud after just 10 minutes with him, you'd best check your pulse my friend. As we approached the 18th. tee, DRIZZ looked over and thanked me for the fun. ME? I replied by telling him how much my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing all along the way. When we arrived at the green for the hole, we were met by Joe Speaker and his great big smile and laugh. That was when I gave Speaker credit for the quote of the weekend so far, despite already having 1000's to choose from.

"What are you laughing at?" He was asked.

"I don't know. There's just something about seeing you that makes me... happy."
~Joe Speaker~ Dec. 11, 2009

It's this kids humble opinion that in that one short sentence, Mr. Speaker manages to sum up what the WPBT is really all about.

This game also had a long drive competition on one of the holes. Something I'm pretty sure that almost everyone was willing to concede to either DRIZZ with his powerful softball rip at the ball, or Schaubs, the designated golfer in the crowd. After a few holes of play, I was also thinking that JJ could fit into the mix for the power hitters in our group. He hit a few a ton! When we got to that particular tee, we saw the long-drive marker being brought back by a cart out in the group ahead. Obviously, they were the first to hit the fairway. DRIZZ's power failed him at the least opportune time, (despite finally buying a coat at the turn!) and JJ, well JJ apparently liked the looks of the other fairway over to the right a lot more. AND I MEAN A LOT MORE! :) I did manage to hit the center of the fairway but with very little roll after it hit the ground. No long drive for me. CK then took her shot at the trophy but sadly, she also came up a bit short. We got to the marker to reveal the name of the biggest power hitter of us all, only to find ourselves rolling on the ground at the thought of getting to use the line, "Don't mess with 130lbs. of fury!" F-Train had bested us all!

There was also another closest to the pin contest held, one that my beautiful wife managed to stick not too far away from the hole. So that left out group in total hysterics, as the three winners were CK, Peb's and F-Train. It was nice to see all of the girls that played, get a prize of some sort! :) Something that did not get wasted on the entire group of us, as CK made the announcements back in the clubhouse. Sitting here typing this, my cheeks are beginning to hurt once again. Holy crap I laughed a lot that day.

The big winners were Team Chako. Although the whole "bring a ringer to golf day" issue, is still under review by the committee. ;) Team Schaubs finished just 2 shots back of Chako's group and Team Bam-Bam, just one shot off of that pace. The power hitting and pin seeking Team F-Train brought up the rear, but seemed to have an awful lot of fun along the way. I think their score may have been attributed to the not one but TWO 20 minute visits with the beer cart. If it wasn't that, it had to be the bad ju-ju they deserved for sending the beer cart away from us, just before we managed to get to it. SAVAGES !

Speaking of the beer cart, I can't begin to tell you what a trooper April was through all of this. It was beyond cold for Vegas and the wind was cutting to say the least. Your support for all of this fun in some pretty crappy conditions, was really quite incredible! The same goes for my friend Astin. He really had no reason to be out there with us at all, yet there he was. All 18 holes and covering all four groups, despite the blueness of his freezing cold hands. (or was that the gloves?) :) I think because of his steadfast support of this group of idiots out in the cold, his karma increased by a multiple of ten! But that's another story.

Speaker called it "cat-herding" to get everyone out for the fun. I call it a joy and a pleasure. I really hope we all get to do it again, (in warmer weather please!) in the very near future. Mixing my passion for golf with friends new and old, just can't be beat for a really great time. I thank everyone who participated for making this kid's Friday afternoon, such an incredibly amazing part of the 2009 WPBT.

I also thank CK for doing so much to get this all organized. The fact that she could make it out to join us after all, was the best part of the day for sure. Rot's and Rot's of Ruv partner. You are the bestest!

This is getting a bit long'ish so, we'll try and cover the rest tomorrow. Stop by and see what happens if you can. I'm going to try and put the final touches, (pardon the pun) on the ass-grab, re-ass-grab hand of the weekend.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Where to begin....

***editors note***
What you are about to read is missing several key links. Please do not think of me as a bad blogger. It would be better if you could think of me as someone that has 79 miles of dial-up that really kicks ass! It's just that today the ass it's kicking so hard, is mine!

= = = = = =

"It's the most wonderful time of the year."
It most certainly is!

No, I'm not ready to start talking Christmas just yet. I mean the 2009 WPBT Winter gathering.

The only possible downsides there could ever be to such a wondrous thing are;

a) It went by WAY too fast and is sadly over already
&
b) I have to try to put into words, how amazingly fortunate I am to have had these past 3 days.

Now I know that no intelligent being stops by here, to admire my skilled and deft writing craftsmanship. There are REAL writers out there for that and as a group, we should all know that we're damn lucky to have them. When I look at the fact that each of those gentlemen has called me a friend and also that our time around a gaming table/bar has created experiences that I for one will never forget, I just wish I had the ability and skill set to convey my gratitude properly through this space. Alas, my usual mumbling and muttering is just going to have to do. Hopefully as we stumbled, (almost always literally!) into one another, I did a much better job of getting that point across in person.

Peb's and I got in to Vegas earlier than ever on Thursday, having checked in to Bally's and holding our first drinks of the trip by noon. That was where we gave in to the first of our four major Vegas vices. The Lobstermania Penny slots.

Three hours, $20, 4 Scotch, 6 beer and 5 C.C. and Gingers later, I thought we'd gotten the trip off to a pretty good start.

Since it was just about 4:00pm local, (7:00pm actual body time) we headed over to The Flamingo for something to eat. Cow and Crab served the purpose just fine thank you very much. The second of our Vegas vices, had just gone by the wayside.

Knowing that everyone would start filing into The Geisha bar at The IP fairly soon, vice #3 was also about to bite the dust. We grabbed two seats at our Let it Ride table just outside the bar and started the -EV amusement. Our seats allowed us the perfect vantage point to see everyone as they arrived. New friends were made and old friends were grabbed and squeezed to no end. Manly man hugs and "I have been waiting to squish you forever" hugs with the ladies ensued, almost as often as the exceptional cocktail service made it's rounds around our table.

I wasn't up huge, but I was indeed up. That is of course until the ulti-cooler made an appearance to stop by and, "just say hello." Sixteen hands! That's how many hands both Peb's and I lost straight, once F-Train stopped by for a visit. The first hand after he left to go say hey to the folks over at Pai Gow, I get a no-brainer win and Peb's turns a set into a boat for a much bigger score. I then went on a streak of six winning hands in a row. I tossed a green $25 chip over to the Pai Gow table, asking them to keep the cooler right by their sides if they would. Slightly funny side thought though! The screams of "Pai Gow" seemed to settle right down over there, once F-Train joined in on the fun. Coincedence? Hmmmmm....... Just sayin'. :)

We eventually made our way over to the Geisha to take part in The AlCantHang Experience. Truly the only show you're ever going to see in Vegas, worth the price of admission. The crowd grew and grew and as the night went on, The Geisha Bar was ours. I even got to meet Poker Grump, who I'd only known by name until that point. Of course I did what I always do when I get well lubricated and meet new people! I miss-told a hand history to perfection, confusing the hell out of both Pauly and The Poker Grump. Good times!

Well after a few hours of settling in for some great conversations with almost everyone, I saw the Let it Ride table just sitting there. ALL ALONE! Empty.

Grabbing hands and arms and using any other means available to me at the time, I called for The Blogger Let it Ride Olympics to begin. Dragging DRIZZ, CK, Recess, Dr. Chako and several others along for the fun.

That's when in comes my friend and fellow BB, BadBlood.

Blood : Let it ride Bammer.
Bammer : OK.
Blood : Damn!
Bammer : Hahahahaha. That's OK, it happens.
Blood : Here. (he hands me $20)
Bammer : What's that for?
Blood : Let it Ride.
Bammer : OK
Blood : Well, maybe look at one.

We pick the center card and reveal The Queen of Hearts.

Blood : Good enough. Let it Ride.
Bammer : Hahahahaha. Sure!

We hit two pair and get paid.

Blood : Let it Ride again Bammer.
Bammer : You sure?
Blood : Let's just look at one.

We pick the center card and reveal once again, The Queen of Hearts.

Blood : That's good enough. Let it Ride.
Bammer : Okey Dokey.

We flop a Queen for a pair and get paid.

Bammer : Here you go. (attempting to hand Blood his profit)
Blood : Let it Ride Bammer. Trust me.
Bammer : Blood dude, seriously? Take the cash.
Blood : Bammer, trust me.
Bammer : Can we look at one again?
Blood : Sure.

We pick the center card and reveal to our amazement, The Queen of Hearts.

Blood and Bammer : (in near harmony) Let it Ride!

Here's how that worked out for us.


I guess a straight's not too shabby!

But then again, maybe it is!

With conversation at the table that will most likely never be repeated without ALL of the exact same participants around at the same time, DRIZZ took the game to the next level. Prompting what I think is the only tweet that everyone was pretty happy to bring their phones over to show me.

Otis : Let it Ride is the new Pai Gow!

I don't know a whole lot about what the Casino's really think about us invading their little corner of the world, but I do think I know one thing about The IP. I think that they'd pay out this little pot over and over again,


just for the pure enjoyment that is the DRIZZ, "Quadzilla" celebration dance.

If the first day's events were any indication at all, this was going to be one hell of a great weekend!

We'll see if I can get another day done tomorrow, including why no one should mess with 130 lbs. of fury!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....