18. With Gary Eastley, Mike James, Mike Stefanidis, Stan Wong, Paul Huyser, Mark Huyser, and Mike Coyne - Excalibur

• Gary paid for Mike James' and my airfare as a graduation present. He brought along his camcorder, although we didn't tape very much.

• On our last day in Vegas, Mike James, Gary and I ate breakfast at the coffee shop at the Dunes. We sat down and decided to play some keno. Gary and I both filled out a sheet with four numbers (mine, as always, being 42, 44, 46, and 56).

  Before the keno runner could get to us, I saw something interesting in the keno rules and mentioned it to Gary. "It says here that they have a special four spot that you can play for $2.50. There's no payoff for hitting two, and you only get your money back if you hit three, but if you hit all four you get substantially more money than a regular four spot."

  Gary decided to go for it. He asked Mike if he wanted to go in with him, and Mike said yes. Gary filled out the special four spot and then decided to play a special three spot as well. Their three spot consisted of three numbers that were also on their four spot.

  The keno runner came by, and finally our game started. I watched the board with disgust as none of my numbers was coming up. Then Gary said, "We've got two." Then suddenly, "Make that three!"

  I asked, "Are you serious? Is it the three that are on your three spot?"

  "No," he said, "We need number 7 on both sheets."

  We all sat there looking at the board chanting "Seven, seven, seven, seven...," and sure enough, 7 came up. They won $550.00 on the four spot and $125.00 on the three spot, so they split $675.00 which put them both up for the trip.

• My luck, up to the point where Mike and Gary had won their keno jackpot, had not been so good. I had lost about $500.00, and it just kept getting worse. Gary and I went to play craps at Caesars which put me in the hole for $800.00 total. I was sick about it when we met Mike back at the Dunes. I bought a shrimp cocktail and went around saying, "This shrimp cocktail cost eight hundred dollars. Mmm, mmm, boy is it good."

  Well, we still had a couple of hours before our plane left, so I decided to play a little more craps. I went up to a five dollar table at the Dunes and was up a little and down a little for about a half hour. There were some pretty high rollers at the table, including a couple from Poland who had asked for a $2,500.00 marker when they stepped up to the table.

  Finally, the fellow to my right got the dice and had a pretty good run. It put me up for the table, about $100.00. I thought there was no way I'd have as good a roll as he did, but of course I gave it a shot. I established a point of six and immediately rolled it back. I turned to the fellow to my right who had eventually sevened out with a point of six and jokingly said, "See, that's how you roll a six." The guy laughed. He had a lot of black chips ($100.00 each), and I thought, "All right. I made a high roller laugh."

  I proceeded to make another point and thought, "Hey, maybe I've got a hand going." On the next come out roll I rolled an eleven. The Polish gentleman to my left had had about $50.00 bet on eleven, and when I rolled it he tossed me a green chip ($25.00). Surprised, I thanked him and then thought, "Oh, man! This is what I've been waiting for my whole gambling life! A hot hand where I've got the dice and a high roller is tipping me!"

  Well, the hand just kept getting better and better. And every time I would win for the Polish man, he would give me a green chip, and eventually two green chips at a time. I threw out a bet on the eleven, $5.00 for me and $5.00 for the dealers… and I rolled it! I couldn't lose.

  Then, my point was six, and everybody was betting on the hardway. By now there were no red ($5.00) chips on the table, only green and black. I thought, "What the hell, the guy's tipping me," and threw out $25.00 on the hard six. A couple of rolls later, I hit it. The table absolutely exploded.

  When I finally sevened out, I had $1,000.00 in front of me. The Polish man thanked me, I embarrassingly thanked him back, and the pit bosses descended on the table to assess their losses. I was one of the more conservative bettors, so I estimate the table must have lost about $25,000.00 on my roll. I cashed out, and we drove to the airport to catch our flight.

  Mike James, Gary, and I all went home winners.