And finally, the rest of the story....
Sat Mar 19 (continued)
So we took a full timeout after the Salon mishap. Um, you want to call a four-digit loss a "mishap"? -ed. After a break of about an hour, the six of us found ourselves back at the craps table. All of us had one side of the table; on the other side was a man and his date/wife, a 6'1" blonde who was probably a swimmer, and about 3 kids just out of college.
It was one of those times when the atmosphere was just right. No one was obnoxious, everybody was in a good mood and there were plenty of good - not hot, but good - rolls. The hard ways auctions between Layup and Wiz started again. I bet my usual $5 hard 4 - and it hit! - and then had the courage to parlay it.
It hit again. Finally, a parlay'd hard way. That was nice.
In the middle of one of the good rolls, a middle-aged man in a yellow sportcoat came up to our side and tried to squeeze his way in. I have to say, there was a lot of excellent boxing out (and words being exchanged) to prevent him from getting in and ruining the atmosphere. He finally found a spot on the other side of the table and made his way in between the swimmer and the kids. He was an ass the whole night.
He was there for 2-3 rolls before....
"Cocktails? Cocktails?"
Alcohol time! I turn around....and see a 70 year old woman's cleavage right in front of me. For whatever reason, the Mirage has a 70 year old drink waitress working Saturday nights. It's depressing, really. That's not exactly what you want to see at that time of day......Sunday morning at 11 am, well, that's acceptable. Not at Saturday night at 10 pm.
As soon as she arrives at the table, a 7 comes up on the dice. Out!
15 minutes later, she arrives again...."Seven out! Line away!"
The third time she came back, Layup and Wiz yelled for security. She never came back to serve us.
The rest of the night consisted a Pai Gow Poker session with John - who killed me again - and then back to the Ultimate Hold Em table. I think it was just Layup, Wiz and I. It was about 1 am, when all the drunks make their way out of the bar and stumble...where, exactly?
Behind us, about 30 feet, there was a group of about 4 20-something guys, one who was in bad shape with his head down on a slot machine. His face seemed to be in the coin collection area...he couldn't, could he?
No - he moved his head away from the slot machine and vomited all over the floor.
One minute goes by...two of his friends had fled the scene. Another round of vomiting. Part of this one goes on the slot machine itself.
Another minute...another round on the floor.
Wiz is screaming at the pit boss.... "Can't you do something? Call someone over!"
Ten minutes later, the cleaning ladies were there attending to the mess. A good time to call it a night.
Sun Mar 20
Sunday morning was golf at Rio Secco, with Layup and Wiz backing out. And, well, they probably made the right choice. The weather was 60-65 degrees, with constant winds at 25 gusting to 40-50. It was an interesting round. I played the best I have played in a year, going +3 for the first 6 holes in that weather (and it could have been even, if not for a missed 3 footer on 1 and a misclub on 4.)
Then the real adventures began. #7 was a 190 yard par 3 all over water which just happened to play into the wind. I foolishly picked a 5 wood, swung hard, and ducked it in to the lake. Don had the club selection of the day, hitting a 3/4 driver to pin high.
Leland hit a good shot to the right, chipped on to about 20 feet below the hole. It was downhill from the hole to the front of the green, where the front of the green was shaved down to the lake.
After marking, Leland replaced his ball, stepped away to look at the putt....and the wind caused Leland's ball to move. And roll. And roll away from the hole, down the front of the green, and down to within 2 feet of the lake before he stopped it.
We were all laughing - and Leland casually chipped the ball back up to the hole, and it sped past the hole to about 20 feet above the hole.
Then it stopped, and came back.....slowly....slowly....gaining speed.....and dove right into the hole.
After that turn of events, we knew this round was over. There was no way we were playing all 18. On #8, we played "Surivivor" - we all picked up except Leland, the only one to record a score. We called it quite after #9 and had lunch in the clubhouse, where we listened to the speakers for some person's 75th birthday.....
Back to the casino, where it was a good run at craps (I don't remember this; I think it was just the 4 of us as Don and Mike were watching the Purdue-VCU game), another good UTH run, and the 6 of us at the blackjack switch table where it was proven that none of us can play that awful game.
Before the craps run, I placed my bets for the late afternoon games. I was doing well, and - for whatever reason - put in a few wacko bets for the afternoon. I don't like the Big East at all, so for no reason I took Florida State. I wanted to play a parlay as well, so I said "what the hell" and put in a $50 money-line parlay on VCU and Florida St. That means both of those underdogs have to win for me to get a nice 13-to-1 payout.
Anyway, before the Kansas game, the four of us got together to put in a group parlay for the two late games, Kansas-Illinois and Fla St-Notre Dame. We each would pick a side or total for a 4-way parlay.
Wiz took the Fla St under.
Layup took Kansas -8.
It was my turn. I had no feeling whatsoever on the Kansas over/under, so it was up to the Notre Dame/Fla St game, with ND giving 5.
I really didn't want to drag everyone down with me on the Floridat State flyer. And it was a flyer! There was no reasoning at all for me to pick them earlier in the day - it was just because I hated the Big East!
So I chose Notre Dame -5. Leland took the Kansas under. We put $25 down each to win a total of $1100 if all 4 came through.
Well, the Kansas game ended up 73-55 or so, so we were 2-0 for that game. It was down to the final game of the night, Fla St-ND.
Now, VCU was the upset of the day, and they beat Purdue, so now my underdog parlay to win $650 is live. And Florida State got out to a big early lead, shutting down Notre Dame....and the under was looking good....
Layup asked me what I have left for my betting slips. I showed him the Fla St bet and the live parlay.
He was a bit confused. "What did you do?"
Well, I don't really like the Florida State bet, I stammered.
"You hedged against us!"
No! That's not it at all!
I was really waiting for Sean Connery to show up.....in that scene from Entrapment, when he realizes that Catherine Zeta-Jones is a double agent...
"YOU'RE PLAYING BOTH SIDES!!!!!"
No! I protested. I just didn't want to take you down on a losing Florida State bet.......
Florida State, of course, won by 19 in another big upset; the under covered as well. I collected my Fla St straight bet, my VCU-Fla St parlay, and we lost the group parlay because of my pick........
Dinner that night was a bit cold as we watched the end of the game.
After dinner, Wiz and I had another High-limit blackjack run, which ended a little better than the first time (it was actually positive). The trip ended with Leland and I running from one craps table to another trying to find one last hot roll - and we were unsuccessful.
The alarm came too soon at Monday at 5 am to pack up and leave.
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