22. With Mike Stefanidis and Paul Huyser on an overnight junket, April 20-21, 1991 (-$412.50)

• We each paid $110.00 up front and were given round-trip plane tickets to Vegas. The deal was if we played for four hours at a $5.00 minimum table at the Sands, they would reimburse us $90.00. In other words, the air fare would cost only $20.00. Mike and I pooled our money, and we were actually each ahead $87.50 at the end of the four hours.

  The rest of the evening didn't go so well.

• Mike commented that one of the blackjack dealers at the Sands reminded him of Angela Sciacqua from Farrell's. I didn't see the resemblance, so I asked Mike why. He said, "They have the same kind of arms."

21. With Gary Eastley, Mike Stefanidis, Paul Huyser, Gary Wokuluk, and Clayton Clark III - Bob Stupak's Vegas World, March 8-10, 1991 (-$17.25)

• This was a pretty good deal. Gary Wokuluk had received an invitation from Bob Stupak for what amounted to a free stay at his "fabulous" hotel. (Gary had previously taken advantage of the Stupak deal one often came across in such fine publications as Parade magazine.) We each paid $299.00 in advance, and when we got to Stupak's, they gave us $300.00 in real casino chips (which we all immediately cashed in for money), a room for two nights, tickets for a buffet, a coupon for a free bottle of champagne, etc. In other words, we got all that stuff for free, and we made a buck profit.^*

• Some of the guys felt compelled to play at Stupak's a while since he did give us such a good deal. I'm proud to say, however, that he made no money off of me.

• Okay. So, the Stupak deal was pretty good. But, there were some lousy things about it:
  • Vegas World was not close to any other casinos. We were forced to play there or drive somewhere else.
  • The hotel itself was pretty run down. Plus our rooms had tons of Stupak propaganda on the wall.
  • The buffet was pathetic. It looked like Ma Stupak had whipped together a little something for her son's hotel. I'm not kidding. This was not a regular hotel buffet. It was just for people in the junket. The whole thing fit on two regular restaurant tables.

• On the other hand, the bottle of champagne wasn't bad.

• Seeing as this was my 21st Vegas trip, I thought I'd play a lot more blackjack than usual. It was a good move. I won a total of $198.00 on blackjack. If only I hadn't lost $215.35 on craps, keno, pai gow poker, and wheel of fortune.

• Gary Eastley, Paul, and I drove back home in the same car, and we played pai gow poker the entire time. It made the trip go by very quickly.

---

^*We all got this deal because we were Gary’s guests. Gary himself actually got a better deal: He paid $299.00 in advance and received $350.00 when we arrived.

20. With Mom, Dana, and Sue - Excalibur, December 21-23, 1990 (-$238.30)

• Our flight to Vegas was scheduled to leave at about 8:45 p.m., but when we got to the airport, we were informed it was delayed an hour and a half. This was the weekend before Christmas; the airport was packed with people, and bad weather in other cities was causing flight delays. Since we had gotten to the airport early, we had a little time to kill. The video monitor said we'd be leaving at 10:20 p.m. Then it said 10:45 p.m. Then 11:00, 11:15, and finally 11:30. I asked a security guard if there was a curfew for departing flights, and he said no flights could leave after 11:30. As our plane was arriving, a representative from the airline told us that if we could not get the plane off the ground by 11:30, we would not be going to Vegas that night. He had us all organized to rush onto the plane as soon as the arriving passengers got off. We left the ground at 11:28 p.m.

• I had a very bad cold the whole weekend; the sore throat was hellish. To make it worse, the Sunday we were there was Las Vegas's coldest December day on record (temperatures in the teens, bottoming out at 11°F).

• We asked for maid service at 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, but neither of our rooms ever got cleaned. Finally at 11:00 p.m. we just said forget it and asked for some fresh towels. The next day we complained at the front desk and got $10.00 taken off each room's rate.

• This was the trip of the demon plane rides. On our return flight, we sat in the very back, and as we were taxiing away from the terminal, there was a distinct smell of fuel. (This is very common when you're sitting in the back, especially if it's cold out). Well, some rowdy New Yorkers smelled it and started yelling stuff like, "There poisoning us! She's gonna blow!" They were joking, of course, but it turned out to be pretty stupid joking because the passenger sitting across the aisle from Mom freaked. He started going on about how the airline was trying to kill us, and how he was going to sue, and he was extremely abusive to the flight attendants. They finally calmed him down enough so that we could taxi back to the terminal where he was escorted off. While taxiing back the captain announced that we were returning to the terminal to check on some smoke that was coming out of one of the engines. Initially I thought this was just a ploy to get this lunatic off the flight; however, they eventually had us get off the plane and board another one. A lot of the passengers were then saying stuff like, "Boy, that crazy guy was right!" But I'm pretty confident that the guy freaking over the fuel smell and the engine trouble they actually experienced were unrelated.

19. With Mike Stefanidis, Mike Coyne, Paul Huyser, Clayton Clark III, Ron Luce - Excalibur, September 21-23, 1990

• This was not a good trip. Mike Stefanidis and I were collectively up about $800.00 the first night, but we ended up being down an obscene amount by the end of the trip. One nice moment: The very last place we played was the Golden Gate downtown. Neither of us had been there before. We ended up winning big (for a 50-cent minimum crap table), and the pitboss gave us a complimentary dinner (our first comp ever!).

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.

17. With Mike Stefanidis, Paul Huyser, Clayton Clark III, Ron Luce, and Greg Payne - The Landmark

• I was originally supposed to drive over with Stan on Friday morning, but at the last minute he said he couldn't go, so I rode with Mike, Clayton, and Ron. On the drive there, just before Barstow, we saw a crow fly by with a giant McDonald's bag in its beak. The bag appeared to be completely filled, and the crow could barely stay airborne.

• The Landmark was an absolute dive. We swore we'd never stay there again, a promise we'll definitely keep seeing as they've since blown the place up.

• On the second night, Greg and I decided to have a drinking contest. I matched him drink for drink as we sat there at the tables. Many people felt I won when, at the end of the night, I ordered a McChicken Sandwich and ate it. Others claim that I was not drinking as much as Greg, and some say that Greg had a disadvantage because he had been drinking the night before, but it's all just sour grapes.

• When we were all having lunch at the Stardust, Mike said something off-color, and it caught Clayton in mid-swallow. He was only drinking water, but as he started laughing he also started spitting up water and gasping for air. Initially we were all laughing at him, but the water just kept coming out of his mouth. It was dripping all down the side of his face and onto his clothes and onto the table, and pretty soon people started staring. I got embarrassed, said "That's it! I'm outta here," threw down the money I owed for lunch, and left. Apparently, after I left, he got worse and worse as if he were choking, and Mike was afraid he'd have to give Clayton CPR.^*

• While playing craps at the Landmark, somebody threw one of the dice off the table. Paul bent over to get it, and when he stood back up, he just sort of froze with a weird expression on his face. Behind him, a couple of girls had started laughing. I said, kind of annoyed, "Paul, give the dealer the die!" He did, and then said, "Greg, give me the keys to the car. I need to get at my suitcase. I just ripped my pants."

• During trip 15, we'd had a very good dinner buffet at the Dunes. So, I recommended it to the boys for breakfast on this trip. Well, apparently it was one of the worst buffets in history, although I thought it was fine. I went up to Paul and Greg and said, "I don't know about you boys, but I'm having good buffet." They looked at me like I was crazy.

---

^*Clayton eventually stopped spitting up and he was fine for the rest of the trip.

16. With Bernie, Boppa, and Mary Thrasher - The Las Vegas Hilton

• Mary brought her camcorder with her, which was nice. Unfortunately, not much happened. I had one good roll at Nob Hill (now Casino Royale) where, starting with $3.00 place bets on the 6 and 8, I won $300.00.