Words can't describe the feelings

My thoughts are with everyone in the path of the hurricane. Lives lost, jobs lost, homes lost. Looks like all of the casinos in Biloxi will be out of comission for quite awhile. The total devastation is heart breaking..............

Rock Star Poker cont.

Do I have a cool job?
YES, YES, capital letters YES!
Friday found me working most of my normal shift, but at 7:00 when I normally would be looking at the EO list to see if I was on my way out, I was on my way to The Lounge to deal the Rock Star Poker tournament.
Phil gathered the contestents and started to give a Poker Basics 101 speach. He asked how many of the contestants had NEVER played live or online. Amazingly, over half of the people raised their hands..... Phil sent them to Charlie, a Palms dealer and tasked Charlie with teaching them the most basic of the basics. I guess Charlie did a good job because one we got started, things went rather smoothly.
As I have said before, dealing to stars of TV, Movie and Stage doesn't usually get me too worked up. Not that I was worked up about this either, but this was way cool. As the room began to fill and the general public was admitted to the observation area the DJ started cranking out the tunes. Then Phil Gordon introduced those who had won a chance to play in the tournament. He then introduced Dave Navarro, Chad Kroeger, Jerry Cantrell and Gene Simmons (who had just celebrated a birthday) and invited each rock star to select someone from the general admission crowd to play too. Not one of them chose a dude. Not that I expected anything less, but each, in turn selected an attractive female from the crowd. In addition to the $10,000 grand prize, anyone who knocked out one of the stars received a $100 KISS chip courtesy of the Palms. Unfortunately, I was dealing when both Dave and Jerry were eliminated. Gene was the first star eliminated and Chad was the last.
I'm not sure why this surprises me, but each and everyone of the rock stars were extremely gracious and nice people. It was a pleasure to have played a small part of it all.
A young man named Justin won it all. Earlier in the day I happened to deal to Justin in a $2-4 limit game. He told me then that he hoped that the (bad)cards I was dealing him in the limit game were not an omen. I guess he got the bad cards out of the way in the afternoon so that he could win a cool $10,000 later in the evening. To read Dave Navarro's blog of the event and his account of how Justin celebrated it, visit this link. http://www.6767.com/
Gettin' nekkid with Gene Simmons' girl friends.........Only in Vegas Baby!
No, I was not invited to the after party.........maybe next year.

VegasRockStarPoker

I've recently been informed that I will be dealing this event. Working at the Palms sure does present some interesting possibilities. I dealt to Dave Navarro last year and I can honestly say that he is the nicest guy with black finger polish that I have ever met. The last time I dealt to him, he and his friends kept mentioning that they wanted to go up to their room and play more poker. I hinted that I would be happy to be of service to them. He said he would take me up on that offer. When I clocked out, they were still playing in the poker room and I went home. Good thing I didn't become their private dealer as my boss later told me that it would NOT have been a good idea. Something trivial about those gaming regulations and my gaming license.

http://www.vegasrockstarpoker.com/

As usual, I am a day late and a few $$ short. The deadline for entry was at midnight. I missed it by a few hours.

Addicted to addictions.........

I wonder where the time has gone. So much has happened since the last post.

My mother turned 60 on 8/8. Is it possible? Dad turns 65 on 9/5. Someone please figure out how to stop time.......................

July 31 marked the two month point in my "no slots" campaign. So, on August 1st, to celebrate, I hit the slots hard and long........The first two days of August found me a few hundred ahead of the infernal machines. I'm sure that this was NOT a good thing. So, I played and played and played and, as expected, the machines won. They won BIG. One of these days I will learn how to not punish myself. Until then, the struggle continues.

I have been collecting casino chips for about 19 years. The highlight of the year for the past 4 or 5 years has been the internation convention of the Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collector Club. I have made many friends through chips. It is always nice to see those friends, many of whom I only see during the convention. Another convention has come and gone. More memories for the mental scrap book. Rumor has it that a new record price has been paid for a chip. $70,000. Is it possible? Yes, it is. The run up in prices for truly rare vintage Vegas chips has been building for a few years and there is no end in sight. Everyone should ask their grandparents/parents if they have any old chips sitting in the junk drawer or jewelry box.

The poker room boom continues. Tuscany recently opened a small room. Caesars is recruiting poker room management, so I guess that they will finally re-enter the fray in the near future. I was at the Hilton a few days ago and they have their room under construction. It will be directly across from the sports book. They have one poker table assembled with a sign stating that they will be open for business on Sept. 2. The Venetian is rumored to be bringing 40 tables to the scene soon. I believe that the 40 number will give them one table more than Bellagio. Green Valley Ranch looks to finally open their room. I've heard that with everyting in the pipeline, there will be 100 additional poker tables in the LV Valley by early spring. Can this city absorb that many table? It remains to be seen, but I doubt it. Let the canibalization begin!

Today I had the pleasure to deal in the Stuff Magazine poker tournament at the Palms. There was a large contingent from a TV show that I won't name (Think about three decades ago and call it That ____Show). I will say, however, that "Fez" was noticably absent. I don't usually fuss too much about who I deal to , but it would have been a hoot to deal to Fez.

The passport finally arrived and plans for the Aruba trip are coming together. Now all I need to do is request some time off for late September/Early October. Leave it to me to put the cart before the horse. I really don't anticipate any issues with the time off, but this is ME were talking about.

After finding Big 2 on Superior Poker I obsessed a little and played it and played it and played it. My newest passion/addiction is Chinese Poker on Superior. I may have stopped the bleeding as my last deposit was last Tuesday and I still have 135% of that deposit in my account. May it continue. The biggest disappointment so far was when I had TWO straight flushes and a pair while playing $3 Chinese. I figure I stood to win upwards of $150 on that hand alone. Not to worry, two other people had bigger straight flushes and my total win on that hand was something like $11. Amazing.

I'm looking forward to Linda's return from the wilderness. I've missed the Saturday night card games. I wonder if they want to play Chinese the next time we play.