I spent the summer the same way as a lot of you, in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. It was my first time living out there for a duration, and if there's one thing you really can't avoid in Vegas, it's gambling.
Not gambling, gambling, I'm a poker player, not a fool. But smart, fun gambling. And if the house isn't taking a cut, I'm in. Which leads us to this story.
Around 1am one night, five friends and I headed over to the Rio to register for the next days $1000 event, stopping to eat at TGIF's along the way. We ordered a bunch of food and drinks, and the total bill came out to about $150. But as I'm sure many of you know, you don't exactly split things evenly when you eat, or pay for anything for that matter, in Vegas. Credit cards were quickly tabled, and Credit Card Roulette commenced.
*For anyone not aware, CCR works as follows. Everybody orders, and when the bill comes, the cards are piled into a stack. One by one, the cards are drawn in a random order until one remains. That person loses the game, and is stuck with the entire bill.
Being the responsible guy that I am, I had already eaten dinner and wasn't terribly hungry at the time, so I simply ordered two beers. Not wanting to risk getting stuck with the whole bill, I offered to withdraw from roulette, throw ten bucks at the loser and call it square. And that's what I planned on doing.
But I didn't have ten bucks. I had $100.
When our friend Cal lost the roulette, Galen came up with the brilliant plan to pull out ten playing cards, assign me one, shuffle them up and spread em out. If I picked the card assigned to me, I'd owe Cal $100, if not, I'd owe nothing. The expected value of the game was $-10, exactly what I had planned on paying, only it was a helluva lot more exciting, so when the opportunity came, I jump in it. (I'm not getting paid for the link, but c'mon, that commercial's pretty much the nuts.)
I was assigned the Ace of Spades, and the cards were shuffled and spread. I couldn't decide between the seventh and eighth card. I went back and forth in my mind: seven, eight, seven, eight… THREE! Why? Why three? Why would I choose three? I don't know, but I did. (Hint: Never, ever do that. Always go with your first instinct, in cards, on a test, anything. Read Blink… you're usually right.)
I lost $100. I had ordered two Blue Moons, and they cost me $100. Oops.
The scene was pretty wild. Galen couldn't stop laughing, Cal was laughing, even I was laughing. Until Cal said to me: "Go again for $1000?" Hell yes, how could I not? What were the chances of drawing the same card twice in a row? Turns out they're 1-100, but that doesn't matter, we all know what happened next. The cards were hardly spread before I grabbed one and slammed it on the table.
The Ace of Spades.
Galen was uncontrollable, he couldn't stop laughing. He even decided it would be appropriate to dance around the table. Cal was laughing, everyone was laughing. Well, except me. I was stunned. I opened my wallet and tossed the ten $100s across the table. Guess I wouldn't be playing the $1k tomorrow after all.
Two Blue Moons, One thousand dollars. Yeah, that sounds about right.
On to today's items:
Read the post below for details if you haven't already. Please indicate your preferred item in the email. Shipping for the caps and shirts will be $3, the jacket will be $5, and the duffel will be $8. These prices are completely fabricated, but they sound about right. Enjoy.
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