81. Mike James' bachelor party w/ Greg & Brian James, Gary Eastley, Mike Stefanidis, Paul Huyser & Soren Ryherd - Caesars Palace, October 12-14, 2001

• We attended the San Diego State/UNLV football game, but left at halftime with State down 31-3 (which turned out to be the final score).

• Brian decided that he would eat some sort of steak at each meal. When encountered with the prospect of just not being physically able to do it on Sunday at lunchtime, he asked if the group would agree that they were eating a "snack" instead of a meal.

• We had a great meal at Lawry's The Prime Rib.

80. With Mike Stefanidis, Paul Huyser, Mark Huyser, Frank Farrell, Mike Coyne and Phil LaBarbera - Caesars Palace, February 2-4, 2001

• Mike S started the trip with a rubber band around his wrist to remind himself not to go crazy. And if anyone else saw he was going crazy, that person was supposed to snap the rubber band.

• The Flight to Vegas
  
  
  • Frank spilled his mixed drink.
  
  
  • Mike C did not vomit on anyone nor on the window.
  
  
  • I gave Almond Joys to everyone, seeing as Southwest Airlines refused to provide them.

• At dinner on the first night, everyone who had gambled so far (Mike S, Frank and Paul) was up.

• Questions That Came Up During the Trip
  
  
  
  • Frank wanted to know which U.S. state had the smallest population. Answer: Wyoming, with just under 500,000 people. (Mike C got it right!) California was easily the most populated state with over 33 million people. Nevada was the 35th most populated state with just under 2 million people.
  
  
  • Paul wanted to know how many countries there were in the world. Answer: Just under 200.
  
  
  • Mike S wanted to know why the Maxim Hotel in Las Vegas no longer had a casino. Short answer: The Maxim had been losing money and was forced to shut down in November 2000. When they were able to reopen the hotel the following month, the company holding the casino's gaming license had declared bankruptcy, so the casino remained closed.

• During a craps session at Caesars Palace, every time the shooter rolled a number that Mike S didn't have money on, he'd chuck a one dollar token into the trash can in the pit area. Eventually the pit boss said, "Hey, come on!"

• Dealer Mistakes
  
  
  • Paul was playing two hands of blackjack for $75 apiece. He had 17 on one hand, and 20 on the other. The dealer hit to 21 and collected Paul's bet on the 17... but she paid the bet he had on 20. Mike C and Mark D, who were watching, also noticed it. Later when Paul was cashing out, he said, "Sometimes 20 beats 21."
  
  
  • At craps, I got paid $35 twice for a single place bet on the six.
  
  
  • Again at craps, I got paid $70 for a place bet on the eight when he should have gotten paid $35.

• During a craps session, one of the dice landed behind a stack of chips where the stickman couldn't see it. This is a common occurrence, and the stickman asked another one of the dealers to call the roll. Before the dealer could find the die to make the call, Mike S loudly announced, "Six, hard. Hard six. Front line winner. Pay the line." Impressed, the boxman said, "Hey, you call it better than the stickman."

• While walking along the Strip, Mike S came up behind a man and a woman who were arm-in-arm. The man quickly released the woman for some reason, and when she turned to see what was going on, Mike was right there. He held out his arm and said, "I'm taking over now."

• While Mike S, Phil, Mike C, Frank and I were playing craps at Caesars Palace, a small child cried out with glee from across the casino. The dealer said, "The kid must be catching a hand!"

• While we were at the XFL game, a magnitude 3.4 earthquake hit Las Vegas, centered about ten miles west of downtown. None of us felt it.

• During a craps session at the Bellagio, Mike S's back was hurting, so he grabbed his right foot and pulled it up towards his waist to try to stretch out his muscles. While he was doing that, a cocktail waitress accidentally bumped him from behind. Mike's foot got shoved onto the shelf underneath the crap table where players put their drinks and ashtrays, causing Mike to lose his balance. He fell backwards landing on his back and taking the cocktail waitress down with him. Her tray had no drinks on it, but her tip tokens went flying. The pit crew came running over to help Mike up. Mike was embarrassed but otherwise fine.

• While playing at a $100 Pai Gow poker table, Paul played the following hand:
  
  Note that he should have played the kings up top. Paul later stated that he didn't see the pair of fours, so he thought he only had kings and tens. Then the dealer turned over the following:
  
  Paul had a push, whereas he would have had a win if he'd played it correctly. Upon seeing this, the dealer called the pit boss over to see if Paul's hand could be changed. Ironically, the pit boss said that if Paul had fouled the hand, they would allow the hand to be changed. But since it was simply a "strategic" mistake, the hand would have to stand.

• Phil and I saw actor Peter Falk hustling through the corridors of Caesars Palace. He looked old and disheveled.

• Apparently Mary and Ike were also in Vegas while we were there, but we never saw them. Mary said they were sharing a room downtown at the Golden Nugget.

79. With Mike Stefanidis - Caesars Palace, March 17-19, 2000

• This was the trip, my friends.

• We chose this weekend to go because Mike was invited to a free blackjack tournament. Mike found out early that in this type of tournament, the idea is to bet the maximum every hand, and depart from basic strategy in order to get the most money on the table (i.e., split 10s, double down on blackjack, etc.). If you get on a lucky streak, you'll be the winner. (Mike didn't make it past the two initial rounds.)

• We had fairly good luck for a while, but on Saturday night things started going south. We took a break to have a nice dinner and then headed over to The Mirage, but the luck was still bad. We came back to Caesars and I watched Mike play craps for a little while. He was up and down for about a half hour when I decided to just make a $25 hard eight bet. It hit, so I took it down, and now I had $250 to play with. A couple of shooters later, I decided to get aggressive, and I bet $130 across; that included a $25 buy bet on the four. Mike followed suit. A few rolls into the hand, the shooter rolled a four. Mike and I pressed the bet (making it $50) and collected $25 (not counting the vig). A few rolls later, another four. We pressed to $100, collecting $50. Pretty soon, another four: press to $200, collect $100. Now visions of all the tens from trip 65 flashed before me. Shortly thereafter, another four: press to $400, collect $200.

  Then came another four: press to $800, collect $400. This was getting exciting.

  Another four: press to $1,600, collect $800. A $1,600 bet! We had as much bet on the four as we had collected from it. Should we take the bet down?

  Another four: press to $3,200, collect $1,600. Good lord.

  Now the shooter wasn't just rolling fours, of course. Scattered in between were plenty of other numbers that were winning money for us. But it was nothing like these fours.

  Another four. At this point we couldn't double our bet because we couldn't go beyond the $5,000 table limit. Fine with us. We pressed the four to $5,000 and collected $4,600.

  Counting the 5% vig we had to pay on each winning bet, we had collected a total of just under $7,500 on our bets on the four. Now we each had $5,000 bet. Surely we should just take the bet down now.

  The shooter was at the other end of the table, so the dice were landing right in front of us where we could get a real good look at them. At this point, one of the rolls came up a three, but Mike misread it as another four. "Four!" he screamed out alone for all the casino to hear.

  Mike wouldn't stay embarrassed too long.

  Another four.

  A $10,000 pay out. On one bet.

  That was the last four the shooter would roll, but by the end of it, Mike and I had well over $17,000 each in front of us. We stayed for maybe a couple more shooters, then hightailed it to the cashier. I had them cut me a check for $15,000, and kept the remaining $2,000 to play the next day. We hit the sack, and I called Sherry the next morning with the good news.

78. With Mike Stefanidis, Mike James, and Greg James - Caesars Palace, September 24-26, 1999

• Nothing terribly interesting this trip. Mike James, Greg and I drove and met Mike Stefanidis at Caesars.

77. With Mike Stefanidis and Vic Dehmlow - Caesars Palace

• Vic was visiting from Illinois, so Mike and I took him to Las Vegas.

• We ate at Neros at Caesars Palace (sort of their steakhouse), and had some great prime rib.

76. With Mike Stefanidis - Luxor, May 20-22, 1999

• We rented a car and decided to drive to casinos we'd never been to before, mostly off the strip. It was a Friday, and Mike and I were amazed at how many locals we saw waiting in huge lines to cash their paychecks at the casinos' cashiers.

• Paul Huyser and his family just happened to be going to Vegas for a wedding the same time Mike and I were there, so we met up with him and played blackjack for a while.

• With about two hours before we had to catch our flight home, Mike was not-surprisingly down several thousand dollars. There was no way he could win it all back at the crap table, so I suggested we just go get some ice cream. We were at the new Bellagio.

  So before we get to the ice cream parlor, Mike says he'd like to play some dollar slots. I was done gambling for the trip, so I sat next to him and watched.

  He was playing three coins at a time, the machine's max. On his sixth spin, a combination came up that looked like it should pay something: a 7 and two special symbols. But the machine made no noise. We scanned the payout table looking for a winner, but couldn't find the combination. Then I noticed that the service light had come on on the top of the machine. I thought maybe Mike had accidentally hit the CHANGE button, and when the attendant came over I thought she was going to ask Mike what he wanted.

  Instead she said, "You hit a big one. $15,000."

  It turns out each of the special symbols was a wild card that multiplied the payoff by ten. Three "natural" 7s paid $150.00, so the first wild card made Mike's payoff $1,500, and the second made it $15,000.

  $15,000. FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. On a slot. There are people who go to Vegas and all they do is play slots. And they never hit something like that. Mike's probably played only a couple hours worth of slots his whole life. $15,000. It could have easily been me; and Sherry and I had just talked ourselves out of buying a new car 'cause we couldn't afford it.

  Anyway, there you go. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever witnessed in Vegas. And we were both kind of dumbfounded by it. I'm still having trouble believing it, and I was there.
  

75. With Mike Stefanidis and Helen Blount - Harrah's, October 10-11, 1998

• Mike and I were sitting in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot before the Padres third game against the Atlanta Braves for the National League Pennant. It was a Saturday night game, and we also had tickets for the game the following night. Someone suggested we go to Las Vegas between the two games. That's what we did.