I Say a Little Prayer For You

As you probably figured out from my last post (here), despite my recent misgivings about Vegas, I was there as recently as last week.  It was sort of a stealth, under-the-radar visit (I suppose that’s a bit redundant, which is surprising, cuz I’m usually so concise).  It was a very quick trip by my standards (five nights, no weekend nights)….just a quick, slightly belated birthday trip.  My pals LM & Woody were headed there, and they enticed me to join them by promising me a free dinner at a fancy Vegas steakhouse. How could I refuse?

We dined at Alder & Birch, the new steakhouse at The Orleans.  It was a fine meal, and probably too nice a place for The Orleans.  Thanks again, guys!  A few days later, It was LM who surreptitiously took the pic of me that you see in the last post, only a few levels before my soul was crushed for the umpteenth time by a certain starting hand that we won’t mention.

On my last night in town, Thursday, one of those type of things happened that I will surely miss when the evil corporate suits who ruin (not a typo, I didn’t mean “run”) finally make it unbearable for me to visit any longer (see here and here). It hasn’t happened just yet, but believe me, it’s getting there.

The thing that has always appealed to me about Vegas, long before I became afflicted with a bad poker habit, is that you see and hear all kinds of crazy, odd, and silly stuff that you just really can’t see anywhere else. And you experience it and then you go, “It’s Vegas” and you shrug.  By now, I would have thought I’d seen it all, but they keep coming up with more weird shit.  Of course, this blog was started in part to document all this (or all of it that I witness). Of course, the best of this type of thing is salacious, but even the less provocative weird things can be fun.  This story is G-rated.

Anyway, I was playing deh pokerz at the MGM.  Right next to the poker room is a sports bar called “Tap.”  The bar has open windows when it is open, so you can hear the noise from it quite well from the poker room (and I suppose, should there ever be any noise in the poker room, you could hear that from Tap). 

I happened to be sitting at the poker table the very closest to the bar.  Suddenly, while playing, we start hearing singing.  A group of male voices had launched into a rousing chorus of the song, “I Say a Little Prayer For You.”  I looked over and it was coming from Tap.  At a big table nearest the poker room, there was a group of maybe 10, 12 young guys—late 20’s/early 30’s I’d guess—singing the song together.  There was not a female with them.  They were all well dressed by Vegas standards (sports coats).  They were singing loudly enough for the entire poker room to hear them.  Also, they could probably be heard in the sports book too.

As best I could tell, they sang the song completely from beginning to end.  My best guess is that it was a bachelor party and they were serenading the groom-to-be as if they were his intended.  It was pretty funny.  And of course, it reminded me of the scene in the film, “My Best Friend’s Wedding” where the whole wedding party broke out in the very same song (perhaps they were doing an homage to that very scene).  The difference was that in the movie, the song was sung extemporaneously.  Here, it was obviously quite planned (and even rehearsed?).

It was one of those “Only in Vegas” moments. And of course, it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny if it had been a group of women singing instead of guys.  It’s just not the kind of song you expect to hear a group of young guys belt out, especially in Sin City. 

The song completed, everyone went back to their business and we never heard from the lads again.

Here’s a link to the clip from the film that I’m referring to, and if you’d like to hear the original version of the song, click here.

And of course, it wouldn’t be my blog if I didn’t figure out a way to get a little cheesecake in the post.  So I’m including some pics of Cameron Diaz, who co-starred in the movie.  Why no pics of Julia Roberts, who was actually the star of the movie?

Well, I’ve never really found Ms. Roberts particularly attractive.  Nothing personal, just my own taste.  I always thought that the idea of Julia Roberts in a film titled “Pretty Woman” would be like featuring me in a documentary called, “The World’s Greatest Poker Player.”

And yes, this post is uncharacteristically brief again.  Sorry about that.  But I returned from Vegas facing a deadline for my Ante Up column, which I just filed a few hours ago.  It was actually the first time I ever needed the deadline extension I’d inquired about getting.

But I felt I had to get you good folks a post this evening.  I have a reputation to keep up.  You see, the fine folks at this fine website have named the very blog you are reading the seventh most awesome poker blog in the known universe. I do want to thank them for the recognition. Now my goal is to move into the top 3 for next year.  It will be a challenge, for sure.  One of the folks I will have to overtake is my pal Pete P. Peters, proprietor of the fifth most awesome poker blog in the known universe. As you can see from his latest post (here), he is upping the ante by turning his blog into a “Healthy Lifestyle” blog.  How can I compete with that?  It is a topic I know less about than how to win with pocket Kings.  So I guess I’ll just have to up the boobies.  It’s what I know.