I Thought You Were Special

Good morning everyone.  Just a few loose ends to mention here before I talk a little bit about poker in Las Vegas.  For some reason (?????) I forgot to mention my tenth place fantasy baseball team again on Monday.  Tenth out of ten teams - you have to love consistency...  I will mention that my team had 4 stolen bases yesterday though (3 of them courtesy of a guy named Tony Campana, who I couldn't pick out of a lineup - a Chicago Cub if that helps you)...  Watching last night's opening game of the NBA Finals went something like this for me (keep in mind that I have no money on this series):  first half - "well, my prediction of the Heat in five games is looking pretty good right now";  second half - "well, I'm glad that the Heat are going to lose..."  I'm watching 'The Dan Patrick Show' right now and Charles Barkley is being interviewed.  Patrick just asked Barkley what worries him about the Heat after seeing last night's game.  Barkley responds, "LeBron don't have a lot of help right now.  He's like Michael Jackson playing with a bunch of Tito Jacksons..."  :)  I also wanted to say thanks here to the other bloggers who have given me 'links' (added me to the list of blogs that they read) - it's interesting to see the different places that 'Bikini Hill' is getting visitors from.

I wanted to type a little bit today about some of the people that I've seen while playing poker in Las Vegas.  Let me state right here (again) that I feel very strongly that if you are a poker player or fan, then you MUST go check out the WSOP if you are in Las Vegas while it is running at the Rio (through July 16th this summer).  You don't even have to enter an event or sit down in a cash game - you just need to check it out.  With that being said, at the WSOP you will see MANY pro poker players (DUH!!!) and celebrities, and I'm obviously omitting them from my blog today because of course you're going to run across them at the Rio, and I saw a ton of them while I worked the WSOP, and later during visits there when I wasn't working it.  The thrust of this blog entry is people that I have sat at the table with, or have seen in the poker room playing at other tables in Las Vegas.  I'm hoping that some of you readers will come in and comment about people that you have seen in poker rooms in various places.

When I started playing poker in the desert I played some sessions downtown at the Golden Nugget.  I don't know if they still run the promotion, but at the time you could get a buffet comped there if you played for four hours (for those of you who might not be hardcore poker players, it is rare for poker players to receive comps - 'free stuff' - that compares to what the gamblers receive playing games in other parts of the casino).  I personally liked their breakfast buffet because they have the deal where the chef prepares your omelet to order and they also had a lot of fresh fruit.  Anyway, I was playing in a 2/4 or 4/8 limit game at the Nugget when I glanced at another table and I SWEAR that I saw... Lou Diamond Phillips??? there...  This registered for me because it was the first time that I saw a celebrity in a poker room in Vegas.  I saw where he went to sit, and I could see him playing at his table from where I was playing, and I thought that was pretty cool.

Okay, I played A LOT of 3/6 limit poker at the Mirage when I first started...  These sightings won't be in any particular order...  I was sitting at a table during football season, it seems it was on a Saturday when college games were on the t.v.'s, and I was seated by a guy who had a sling on his arm.  We had been playing for a few hours and we started talking, and I come to find out that this guy is Dave Burba, a major-league pitcher.  Burba has played for several teams for those of you who aren't familiar with him, and he was unsure of this status for the upcoming season due to the arm surgery.  I was surprised initially that he was playing 3/6 limit, but a lot of people just play to have fun/blow-off steam.  I try to win money EVERY TIME that I sit at a poker table (TRY), so this seems a little weird to me...  I have been told on NUMEROUS occasions that Bill Gates has been seen playing 3/6 limit at the Mirage...  It seems like it was about 3:00 in the morning another time when I saw 'Webster' strolling through the Mirage poker room on his way out (Emmanuel Lewis played 'Webster' on t.v. a long, long time ago)...  I remember sitting a Mirage table another time with Susie Issacs.  Ms. Issacs is one of the 'first ladies' of poker.  She has written poker books, played for a long time, etc..., and I did already know who she was at the time because I remembered how surprised that I was that she was sitting at a 3/6 limit table...  I didn't ask her why she was playing that game (probably because of fish like me), but she was very friendly to the people who recognized her and approached her.  I remember another time when I was sitting in the 2 or 3 seat with the 'rail' immediately behind me, my back to the sportsbook and the California Pizza Kitchen at the Mirage, when I happened to look behind me, turned back toward my table, and then attempted to get whiplash as my head IMMEDIATELY shot back around to get another look at the two BEAUTIFUL ladies whose conversation had caused me to turn around in the first place.  In one of my many not-so-shy moments, I apologized tongue-in-cheek for whipping my head around so fast, and they explained good-naturedly that they were in town for the Adult Film Awards...  :)

On that note I will wish you a great day and will see you again on Friday.