Chapel Karma, Willy is back, Tao of Poker is 5

We arrive at the "A Special Memory Wedding Chapel" about 10 minutes early. Just enough time to slam one last beer before the ceremony begins (although others were actually drinking inside the Chapel). Everything went according to plan and the wedding was over in less than 40 minutes from the time we arrived to the time that I stood on the street corner trying to hail a cab with one hand, while whiping the sweat from my brow with the other.

Out of nowhere a typical touristy looking fellow comes running down the street towards myself and a buddy of mine. He's wearing a tacky Vegas shirt and is sweating disgustingly more than the rest of us combined.

The first words out of his mouth (I kid you not) are "Oh man... thank God you guys are white!"

At the time, I remember thinking to myself "This must be a scam."


I mean seriously, who says that? Then out of nowhere a third buddy of mine yelps out "You must be from Texas." as he slowly faded away into the background to witness what was going to happen next. I am sure he was thinking the exact same thing as I was (scam), but made the smarter decision to take off before he could get stuck for some cash. I'm still not clear on how he actually guessed that.... no doubt I'll ask him at the reception next month.

Sure enough, he was from Texas. He flipped open his wallet and showed the two of us this quote for a new tire. On the other side of his wallet there was a folded up $100 bill. He showed us the quote - it read $116.95. He was short the difference. I even asked him to pull out the hundred dollar bill so I could confirm it was real.

We know what is coming next. The request, the begging, the promises.

He swears up and down that if we ever come to Texas, he will pay us back... whatever we want, just take his number down. I laugh and for some reason decide that he is telling the truth. I pull out $10 from my poker roll and give it to him. He is appreciative, but still short almost 8 bucks. My buddy covers the difference and the guy is forever grateful.

Not five seconds later he is down the street at a quick pace and heads off into the heat.

We look at each other and discuss whether we just got scammed. I am not convinced, but really there is no way to find out...

Fast foward another 15 minutes and there still is no sign of one last cab. The five of us decide that walking a ways down to one of the busier streets would be a good idea... in the 110 degree weather! After walking the wrong direction and finally flagging down a cab, we are rescued.

As we head past the Chapel we just walked away from (in the wrong direction) I look out the cab window to my left about 5 minutes later and I see the Texan on the side of the road with two other people attempting to change his new tire.

I guess he found enough money.... It felt good to help that guy out, even if I did, at the time, feel like I was getting scammed. I've been scammed before, and I am sure I will be scammed again one day. But this time, it worked out well.

Once we got back we went for dinner and more drinks. Dancing. Drinks. Dancing. Drinks.

At the end of the night we hit up the Cafe for some food. After I polish off my bacon and eggs I happen to glance under the table and see a dirty old bill half jammed under the table stand... It was a $20.

A Church karma double up.

That $20 sat in my pocket for over 24 hours. The next night I see a roulette table and I notice a table that has solid black's. I'm always looking to pounce on a lop sided table for some reason... ( -ev for sure unless you have deep enough pockets). There were at least 8 blacks in a row. I pull out the twenty and throw the dirty side down on the table on red. I feel it. I know it's coming. "It's a lock" I say out loud to anyone who will listen. 20 seconds later, the ball bounces around and....

...it lands on red.

Easiest 30 bucks I've ever made...

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On a totally non-related note, Whatupwilly is back at it. He's been away from blogging for exactly two years and has finally updated his blog with an excellent post all about his experience with running away from the bulls. I hardly call it running with the bulls as anyone in their right mind would actually try to stay as far away as possible. I can't believe that some of these guys actually try to touch the bulls as they run by. Crazy! Anyway, check it out, its a great read. Anyone else ever ran with the bulls before? Not me, and I doubt I ever will...

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Check out Dr. Pauly's site for some fantanstic news... Tao of Poker is turning 5 years old! He's going to be holding a $5 tourney on August 5th and the winner take all prize is a $5,000 seat to the Borgata Poker Open!

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More Vegas stories to come, here or there. You'll just have to find them...

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I've been so busy since I've been back I've only had one chance to play online poker which was last night. No mookie, I decided to play some cash games instead. I'm thinking of taking a shot or two at the next level to see how I compete. I'd be under rolled of course, but that is the whole point of taking a shot here or there. If Bayne can risk almost half of his bank roll in a 5/10 game, then I think taking a shot with 1/10th of my roll just might be within my risk tolerance.

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When the fuck am I going to play golf again? Seriously, I have a big tournament coming up at the end of the month. It's a three day club championship and I need to take this thing down soon (I cam second last year). Often I'll play better if I've had some time off, so I'm basically using that as an excuse to sit by the pool or play baseball instead. We're in the finals early next week, and then it's straight to the golf course to get geared up and ready to play.

Good luck at the tables or whatever it is you are doing these days.

Later.