I Hate it When I Lose Things. Like Cars. And Radiator Caps.

The Nightmare Before—And After—Christmas

Chapter 10

You can find the previous chapter here and remember you can find all stories in the series using the label, "Stranded in Vegas."

I parked in the self-parking garage at Gold Coast and headed to the front desk.  Fortunately there wasn't much of a line. My room was still being held for me.  Phew.  Even though I paid for the room--$470—upfront through Agoda, they still had to charge my credit card $100 for the resort fee ($22 a night) and "incidentals."  But I got my room key, went to the room, saw that it checked out fine and started hauling all my bags up to the room.

By the time I finished getting everything up there, I was nearly dying.  Yes, my back and feet were hurting something fierce (remember, I had taken that long walk to the Outlet Mall earlier in the day) but I was dripping with sweat.  You see I had to wear my heavy jacket and my sweater to handle the outdoors, but most of my trek to the room was inside the casino, where it was nice and warm.  And I was walking as fast as my aching feet could carry me.  So I was just sweating profusely.

And once again, I was mentally and physically exhausted.  Once I had the last of my bags up in the room, I abandoned  my original plan of taking a Lyft to the strip to play poker.  I knew I wasn't up to it.  I just wanted to eat and then lie down—perhaps forever.  Oh, and in case you didn't know, Gold Coast does not have a poker room.  They used to have a small room, but it closed quite a few years ago.  In fact, it closed down well before I started working in the poker biz. I never played there.

I went downstairs for dinner.  It was late—past 8pm—and the only (relatively) cheap option was a Subway that they added a few years ago.  For a few years I almost couldn't eat at GC as most of the other eateries are Chinese cuisine.  They also have a TGIFriday's but I didn't want to wait that long.  I had a feeling I would be having a lot of meals at that Subway for the next few days. Oh and this is cute.  When I checked in they gave me a whole bunch of coupons good for discounts at various places in the casino, like the bowling alley and some of the restaurants, including the Subway.  I actually got two Subway coupons (I think they were for 10% off).  But all the coupons expired 12/30/18.  Which happened to be the very day I checked in. So the only coupon I got to use was one of the two Subway coupons.

After dinner I wandered around the casino as best I could.  I considered playing a bit—more table games?—but actually it was almost too crowded.  Now of course they did have Pai Gow tables.  Back when I was playing that a lot, Gold Coast was always one of my favorite places to play.  In fact, when my pal Norm and I were visiting Vegas together regularly, we played so much Pai Gow at Gold Coast we actually got to know some of the regulars.  But the casino was just maxed out. The Gold Coast has always had a huge Asian clientele and around this time of year, a lot of folks from Asia show up.  I don't think I'd ever seen as many Baccarat tables as they had going, and they were all full.  Those that couldn't find a spot at a Baccarat table were playing Pai Gow.  But I was so tired and hurting anyway I'm not sure I would have played anyway.

I ended up buying a few snacks at the gift shop and heading back to the room.  I didn't bother to unpack.  I plopped on the bed with my phone, looked at it for a minute or two and almost immediately dozed off.

I woke up just in time to unpack, have my midnite snack, and retire for the evening.  So for the second day in a row, I was paying through the nose for a room in Nevada and not even playing poker, which of course is what I come to NV for.

The room I had was—well not great.  But it was not great by design.  When I first started staying at this place, many years ago (and probably soon after they opened), the rooms were fine.  Nothing fancy, but quite satisfactory and of course they were generally reasonably priced, that's why I stayed there.  But a few years back, they started "upgrading" their rooms. The last time I stayed there—which was likely right around the time I started with PokerAtlas—I got one of their newly remodeled rooms.  I preferred the old design.

The rooms look very nice, very modern.  But the modern style has a few impractical features.  The bathroom is just weird, especially the shower.  There is no shower curtain and only half a shower door.  On the half of the shower near the faucet, there's a glass window that doesn't move.  The back half of the shower is wide open, there's nothing there.  Now it is fairly well designed so that water doesn't generally splash (too much) on the bathroom floor.  But a little bit does.  The really bad thing about this, however, is that there is nothing to keep the steam and the warmth of the shower inside the shower while you are in it.  I mean a door or a curtain would keep you warmer, but the cold air from the rest of the room comes right into the shower with you, unimpeded.  You have to get the water warmer than you'd like to have it just to keep somewhat warm.  Also, it's just a shower, there's no tub.  I like to stop up the tub while I shower so I can soak my feet.  But no option to do that here.  If you stop up the drain, you'll flood the bathroom within a minute or two.

The poor design of the shower presents another problem.  Since there is an unmovable glass door in the front half of the shower, where the faucet is, there is no way you can just reach in with your hand to turn the water on.  You have to get in the shower to get it started.  Thus when you turn on the shower, pretty much your whole body gets hit with a jarring blast of cold water.  Yeah, it gets warm fast, but the initial blast is chilling to say the least.

Another bad feature of the room is the work desk they provide.  It's a very high desk.  To make up for it, the chairs they give are super low.  It's really impossible to work on the desk as is, your hands are much too high to type.  I recalled that last time I had this issue, I complained, hoping to get a taller chair.  All they could do is offer me extra pillows to put on the chair to prop myself up.  So I tried this again.  The trouble is, the desk is really thick.  And so when I sat on the pillows, my legs bang up against the bottom of the desk.  Very uncomfortable. It's just not a very well thought out design—like the shower.

Also, there were not nearly enough outlets in the room, a problem in this electronics dominated age.

On the plus side, when I got to the room I requested a refrigerator, and they said no problem.  The brought one up, it was a little bigger than the average portable hotel fridge that I'm used to.  Now they didn't say what they were going to charge me for it.  Typically they say it's $10-$20.    Now that's usually for the entire stay.  Although the one time I stayed at Excalibur they said they would charge me $10 a day for the fridge, so I told them to forget it.  Well, when I checked out, they didn't charge me a penny for the fridge.  So that was nice.

I slept pretty well and didn't leave the room the next morning until 11am.  I nervously checked under the car and saw no sign of leaks.  Hooray.  I knew had to stress the car, per Woody's instructions.  You know, give it a good test.  And I also had to add more coolant (burp it).  It was not only cold but extremely windy this morning.  The car was on the roof of the garage.  When I tried pouring coolant into the radiator the wind blew some of it all over the place, creating a major spill.  But I did get the reservoir filled up.

First stop was a nearby 7-11 from which I could use an ATM that wouldn't charge me any fees.  After parking, as I was walking away from the car, I noticed a liquid coming down from the engine.  It was green.  Damn it.  But it was in a different location than before, it was right under the coolant reservoir.  I wondered if maybe, just maybe, it was from the spill and it really wasn't leaking.  I decided I needed some time to figure this out.

So I drove back to Gold Coast, parked it and went in the casino and killed a little time.  When I got back to the car I saw no evidence of any leaking.  Phew.  I decided it was time to test the car by making another Costco run.  I needed lunch anyway.

The car seemed fine and I parked at Costco.  I picked a spot where I thought it would be easy to add more coolant after my lunch.  Now for some reason, this particular Costco parking lot is sort of my nemesis.  Every time I've parked there I've always had a bit of difficulty finding my car when I return to it.  So this time, I swear that I took extra care to note exactly where I parked it.  I parked it parallel to the front entrance, and in an aisle that was the last one before a driveway.  And, I was absolutely sure, I had to veer slightly to my right to get to the entrance.

Before eating my delicious (and cheap) hot dog and pizza lunch, I checked inside Costco for some desperately needed shirts (yeah, I was out of those too) but I couldn't find what I was looking for. So back to the car. 

But the car was not where I left it.  Or where I thought I had left it.  Seriously, I knew exactly where it was and it wasn't there.  It was the last aisle before a driveway and it wasn't there.  There wasn't a similar setup for many aisles on the other side, and I absolutely knew I hadn't parked that far in that direction.  I wandered around the parking lot, in the blustery cold wind, desperately looking for my car.  And I started panicking.  I looked up and down the aisles in aisles I knew it couldn't be because it was in the generally vicinity of where I knew I had parked.

Desperate, I went back in the store, more for warmth than anything else, and then asked the person who checks your Costco card for help.  She enlisted the aid of some kid who collects the shopping carts.  He grabbed my key chain and started pressing the panic button on the fob, hoping to hear the horn go off.  But nothing.  He spent about 5-10 minutes helping me look in the same area I had been looking but finally gave up and I was on my own.  I was so upset.    After all I went through to get it working, had my car been stolen out of the Costco parking lot? Was that even possible?

The fact that I was freezing my ass off outside looking for it made it whole lot worse. I finally had no choice but to head over to an area where I was sure it couldn't possibly be, where I would have had to have walked to my left, not my right, to get the entrance.  As I said, I knew I had walked to the left.  But suddenly, magically, it was there, about 5-7 aisles away from where I was looking (same set up as I recalled, in the last aisle of a section, next lane beyond it was a driveway). How could I misremember that badly?

I was both relieved and mad.  Mad at myself for being so stupid.  Honestly, I felt like a total moron.  Up until that point, I had never felt like a bigger idiot in my life.  But keep reading, I actually managed to feel like a bigger idiot just a few hours later.

I put some more coolant in the car, which was no fun in the freezing cold wind, and then stopped at a Walmart on the way back to the hotel.  I knew Walmart would have the exact type of shirts I was looking for and they did.  I also picked up another jug of coolant because one thing I'd learned in the past week, you can never have too much spare coolant.  And it was very cheap at Walmart.  Unfortunately, there were a couple of other items I could have gotten at the Walmart that I really needed and didn't think of at the time.

Back at the Gold Coast (where for some reason they had not made up my room), I tried to nap so I would be ready for another New Year's Eve poker session in Vegas, but was unsuccessful.  Originally I had planned on being home by now, but since I was stuck in Vegas paying ridiculous prices for a room, I was damn sure planning to play some poker that night, forgetting about my car troubles and the various expenses I had incurred, and doing my best to enjoy celebrating the new year. 

Now if my car had still been problematic, I would have had to have used Lyft to get to the Strip for the evening.  That was not a great option because I assumed that the rates would be jacked up for the big night. One of my Lyft drivers the previous week had mentioned something about "triple time" or something like that for NY's Eve.

But I appeared good to go.  So around 4:30pm I headed down to my car ready to get to the Strip just before they closed the Strip for night.  I had parked in the garage, not the top floor, so it would be less windy putting yet another batch of coolant in.

So, there I was, hood opened, radiator cap off, pouring coolant in the reservoir.  It was still a tad warm so I used a rag to loosen the cap, and I had the cap sitting on top of the rag, resting on some nearby part of the engine. And when I had filled it up, I somehow grabbed the radiator cap and the rag in such a way that the radiator cap slipped out of my grip, and it fell into the engine!!!

Seriously.

I looked under the engine, using my cell phone's flashlight feature.  But it wasn't on the ground under the car. I assumed it hadn't gotten stuck somewhere in the engine, possible in that plastic cover thing that's at the bottom or perhaps somewhere else.  But for sure I couldn't drive the car without risking the cap damaging something, coolant spilling out of the top, and possibly the cap coming loose while driving and losing it.  In other words, I was stuck.

I seriously had never felt so awful in my life.  Yes, I felt like a bigger idiot than I had just a few hours back while I was looking for my lost car at Costco. This was a new low.  To say I felt suicidal would be an understatement.  After all I had gone through with my car and now it finally seemed to be working ok, and then this?  It now appeared my NY's Eve was going to be ruined. How ridiculously stupid.  I just couldn't believe it.  This was a form of depression I had never experience before—depression and self-loathing for being such a monumental fuck-up. I was screaming at myself for being so lame. I told Woody & LM that I'd rather have a WWE wrestler perform a colonoscopy on me without anesthesia than re-live the past 10 days of my life, culminating with this moment and the lost radiator cap.

On the phone to Woody, he suggested calling AAA.  Retrieving that radiator cap was a service they would cover. So I called them. Nope, they don't cover that.  However, they did refer me to a provider who would come out and help me, at whatever they wanted to charge.

At 5pm on New Year's Eve.

So they connected with a company and they said they could come out.  They would charge $95 for the service call and it would be about 45-minutes for them to show up.  I wondered if that estimate took into consideration that streets were already closing in my vicinity for the celebration taking place at midnight?

I was cursing and pissing and moaning and beating myself up and of course waiting for them to show up. Then I had a crazy thought.  TC's shop wasn't far away and if he was still there, he'd probably be closing soon. So what the hell, I called him. I told him the car wasn't leaking but I had done a boneheaded thing and dropped the radiator cap into the engine.

He said, sure, I could come by and he'd check it out. I don't think he actually understood what I had told him.  I said that the cap was lost somewhere in the engine and I couldn't drive it.  Could he please, please, please possibly swing by and help me out?  I think he knew where the Gold Coast was and that it was really close to his shop. He was still at the shop.  So….he said he would do it.  He'd be there in about 20-30 minutes.  I thanked him and then called back the place that was coming to help me out for $95 and cancelled them.

Now I had to trust that TC was good to his word.  But hey, if he drove all the way to Primm, surely he would drive the few miles to Gold Coast, right?  I waited, looking at the clock, wondering if my latest disaster had made it impossible to get to the Strip before traffic completely closed down.  Oh, I knew I could get there somehow after all the roads closed, but it would be a freaking fustercluck.

At least Gold Coast had aisle and row identifiers.  I texted my exact location to TC and waited.  And sure enough I saw his Toyota van driving around looking for me within half an hour.

He looked into the engine with a flash light, bent down, and within less than a minute pulled out the radiator cap.  It had been resting on the bottom of the plastic protector thing as I had guessed.  He screwed it back on, then had me start the engine and a gave the car a quick inspection for leaks.  It checked out.  He wished me a Happy New Year and started to take off.

I tried to give him some money.  He had not gotten a dime from me since I paid for the initial repair.  I wanted to give him some cash for the house call which was totally my fault.  But he refused.  "Are you sure?"  He was, he wouldn't accept anything.  He shook my hand and again wished me a Happy New Year.  I thanked him profusely.  I must say the guy's integrity and dedication were beyond reproach.

Well it was now 5:45pm.  Most of the roads servicing the Strip were already closed.  The Strip itself was supposed to be closed by 6.  Would I make it over there in time?

Sorry but you'll have to wait for the next chapter in this never-ending saga to find out. Stay tuned, my friends.  And now you can find the next chapter here.

Back to Blackjack--But Did I Martingale?

The Nightmare Before—And After—Christmas

Chapter 8

And we pick up the saga right after I've checked into my room at Buffalo Bill's, right on the state line between NV and CA.  The previous chapter is here, and remember you can find all the posts in this series by using the label, "Stranded in Vegas," even though at this point in my story I'm actually stranded in Primm.

With all the stuff I thought I needed in my room, I was totally exhausted, both physically and mentally.  I was also starving.  I also had an aching back.  I was so tired I looked longingly at that bed and wanted to just collapse on it.  I might have actually done that but my hunger won out, especially because I knew I had to eat very soon so I could take my meds.

The room, by the way, was fairly nice.  It was surprisingly big, and it had a work desk and a chair to use with it.  And yes, it was, thankfully, non-smoking.  Much later I found out that the worse thing about the room was the choice of stations on the TV.  There were some oddball channels I wouldn't have expected (like National Geographic and the History channel—at least I think) but not a single cable news channel.  Weird that they didn't have CNN, Fox News or MSNBC. I guess they figure if you are there you want to be kept away from the real world.

I limped down to the casino to find some food.  When I checked in, the clerk gave me a map of the property and mentioned some of the food options.  He also mentioned some of the food options at Whiskey Pete's & Primm Valley Resort, all of which sounded a lot better that what I had available to me at Buffalo Bill's.  I can't remember them, but there were real places to eat at those other two hotels.  What did he mention for Buffalo Bill's?  Well, he said there was a 24-hour Denny's.  And a Panda Express in the food court which was also 24-hours (or maybe he just said they were open late, not sure).  And he said something about a McDonald's.

Surely there must be other options, right?  This is a hotel/casino, after all.  I dismissed the idea of checking out the better sounding food options at the other two hotels.  There was no way I was going to drive anywhere that night.  And not just because my car was not trustworthy.  Recall that I had gotten what seemed like the last parking spot at my current location.  No way would I risk giving up that spot and having to return to find nowhere to park.

There's a monorail that connects the properties.  When I asked about it, I was told it was closed that night (not sure if it was closed for more than just that night, I didn't care).  They did have a shuttle. I never asked about the location or the hours, I figured I was enjoying being inside, out of the cold, too much to try and take a damn shuttle. I would just make do with a meal at Buffalo Bill's.

I looked around the place.  There was a food court, but the only place there aside from the McDonald's and the Panda Express was a pizza place.  Well that would do…..except it was closed!  WTF?  Why would a pizza place in a casino be closed on Saturday night (before 7pm) on a big holiday weekend?  Desperate, I checked out the Denny's.  Hadn't eaten at a Denny's in a long, long time.  Well, since it was the only actual sit-down restaurant in the joint, it was crowded as hell. There was a big crowd of people who had already given their names waiting to be called.  I thought about at least asking how long the wait would be, but after 10 minutes of waiting for someone to come to the front, I just gave up.

I guess I had noticed that the McDonald's was not too crowded, surprisingly, so that was it. Why not Panda Express?  As any of you who have ever tried to eat with me in Vegas surely knows, I don't like Chinese food. And there were no other food options at all.  It had been ages since I'd eaten at a Mickey D's, although not as long as it'd been since I'd partaken in a Denny's.  But last I heard, McDonald's had salads, right?  Recall that I had been cheated out of a salad for lunch because the place I went to was out of green stuff. 

However, when I looked at the menu, I didn't see any salads on it.  Ugh.  No healthy food for me this day. So just a burger then.  But you know, after the day I'd had, I decided to treat myself to something I rarely have these days—some fries. I felt I was entitled.  However, I did resist the temptation to get a shake and just had a diet Coke.

I was impressed they got my special order right, and the burger was—adequate.  It was ok I guess, but when your fast food burger of choice is In-N-Out Burger it was a significant step down in quality.  But it was sustenance and it didn't make me sick, so there's that.  The fries, I must admit, were quite good.

While I was eating, I tried to figure out what I was going to do.  I had no place to stay beyond that night.  In theory, I had to be in Vegas Monday morning to get my car fixed (again).  There was certainly no reason to stay another night in Primm if I could help it.  And I figured by now I was stuck in NV through New Years.  It was going to be incredibly pricey, but I had to try to find a place in Vegas to stay for the next few days, through the 1st, at the very least.

So I headed back to my room and booted up the laptop.  I started searching for hotel rooms.  I remembered those Trivago commercials and used them since it would theoretically show me deals from all the other travel sites. 

Of course everything was expensive.  Last minute and the holiday weekend.  It was just nasty.  I almost booked a room at Sam's Town but then saw a deal at Gold Coast for a few bucks more.  The convenience and proximity to the Strip—and to TC's shop—made it worth the few extra bucks.  So, through some travel site that Trivago sent me to that I had never heard of—Agoda—I booked three nights at Gold Coast starting Sunday.  For those three nights, I paid $470.72, upfront.  That included taxes but it did not include the resort fee, which I'd owe directly to the Gold Coast.  I think the resort fee was like $20-$22 a night.  So yeah, I was getting hosed again.

Gold Coast is a hotel/casino located right across the street from the Rio.  I was very familiar with it.  Back in my pre-poker days it was one of my favorite places to play because they had low limits on their table games.  In fact, before I started staying where I stay now, it was also my go-to place to stay while in Vegas. 

That done, I could relax a bit.  Nothing more I could do about my accommodations or my car on this night.  I was ready for an exciting night of casino action at Buffalo Bill's!

As I returned to the casino, it suddenly dawned on me.  The absolute worst part of this entire episode was this realization:  I was spending the Saturday night before NY's Eve surrounded by a bunch of people who thought it was a good idea to spend the Saturday night before NY's Eve at Buffalo Bill's.

Of course, there is no poker room in Buffalo Bill's or anywhere in Primm.  There used to be.  I recall setting it up on PokerAtlas not long after I started.  Then they moved it to Whiskey Pete's and closed it down.  Then they reopened it at Buffalo Bill's on weekends only.  But in late 2013, they closed it down for good.

Much earlier in the day, when I thought I was likely going to be staying there one night and then could head home, I was thinking that I could play online at WSOP.com that night.  But by this time that idea had deserted me. I figured if I was gonna be stuck for a night, paying $140 for the room, I needed to have a casino experience.

By now I had realized that Buffalo Bill's was actually a lower quality casino than Whiskey Pete's.  And checking out the game action was further proof.  I looked for some Pai Gow.  That was the game I'd played the most the last few years before I starting playing real poker.  Guess what?  Not a Pai Gow table to be found.  I was shocked.  I assumed they have it at the other two casinos but I wasn't about to check them out.  In fact, they only had three varieties of table games available at all.  Blackjack, Craps and Roulette.  When I first started hitting Vegas I played a lot of Craps & BJ but never acquired a taste for Roulette (the odds were too bad).

I checked out the Craps tables.  There were two of them, but one was like 3/4's size. And it was empty.  The other was less than half full, not exactly appealing.  Unlike almost all of the tables I see in Vegas, it was only a $5 minimum bet. But the way I want to play Craps (keep betting the pass line, the come and always take max odds), I could go through a buy-in ridiculously fast at $5 minimum.  That's why I pretty much stopped playing the game in Vegas when the $2 minimum bet disappeared.  But you know, I was probably too tired and my back was bothering me too much for me to stand at a craps table for very long anyway. 

I figured I might play a little $5 BJ but before I did, I noticed one of those "bubble" Craps machines.  You know, it's circular, can sit about 6-8 players and in the middle are these two huge dice.  The floor under the dice starts to bounce and then the designated shooter pushes a button and the dice pop up and that's your roll.  I've seen them in Vegas all the time, and have always been intrigued by them, never tried it.  I just figured you were much less likely to get a shooter with a hot roll on a machine than in a live game.

But desperate times call for desperate measures.  I figured what the hell, I'd throw a $20 into the craps machine just to see what it was like.  Actually, it wasn't that bad. It took me a while to figure out how to take odds on come bets.  But I got it eventually.  And they even let you take odds that you'd never be allowed to take at a real table because they pay down to the penny.  Like you could take $2 odds behind a $1 pass line or come bet on a 6 or 8 and they would pay you $2.40 if you hit it.

The drawback was it was easy to touch the wrong spot and make a bet you didn't intend.  I did that multiple times.  Of course there's a way to take back the bet if you act fast enough, but you don't really have enough time and then, if you do take back the bet, you'd almost never have enough time to make the bet you actually intended to make. I missed a lot of odds bets that way.

Of course, even though there were often players at the other spots, it certainly lacked the excitement of a live craps game.  I was down below $10 and then I personally had a really nice roll.  When I finally had enough, I cashed out a ticket that was worth over $25.  A nice five-buck profit!

I was tired and was headed back to the room but I passed a BJ table with a couple of open spots.  It was $5 minimum and I figured I really needed to play a little live action to complete the experience.  So I bought in for $50.  It was the first time I'd played blackjack in years. 

Aside:  I just realized that in telling this story over the many chapters, I've mentioned the need to do laundry, problems with Uber/Lyft/Rideshare, and now I'm playing Blackjack.  I fear my blog is turning into a poor man's version of Tony's.

Almost immediately after I sat down, a waitress came around. If ever I needed  a drink, this was the time.  I ordered a Corona.  Truth be told, a fifth of Jack Daniels was what was really called for after the day I had.  But the Corona would do.  Then I noticed she had a tray full of Coronas and just gave me one, even though I hadn't previously ordered it.  I guess maybe she just walks around with a tray full of them?  Perhaps Corona is the drink of choice at Buffalo Bill's.  Maybe it's the only beer they have?

I wasn't playing for very long when I started to wonder if this was a 3-2 BJ table or a 6-5 table. I hadn't even thought about it before sitting down. Was I stupid enough to have sat down at a table that only paid 6-5 on blackjack?  I looked at the felt and it didn't say "Blackjack pays 3-2" like they always used to.  Of course, it didn't say "Blackjack pays 6-5" either.  But then I figured they likely wouldn't put that on the felt.

I assumed I'd find out eventually.  Sure enough, I saw someone get a BJ and they were paid 6-5.  Yeesh.  Even out here, 40 miles from Vegas, the evil corporations have ruined the great game of blackjack.  I didn't bother to check, I just assumed that all the tables—or certainly all the $5 tables—were 6-5.  In the end, it didn't make a difference for me, as I never got a blackjack.

Oh and by the way, I should have realized it was a 6-5 table before that because I saw no 50¢ pieces in the dealer's rack.  You would need those if they were paying 3-2 to pay off a $5 bet that hit a blackjack.

But one of the first hands I was dealt I did get two Aces.  It was weird seeing them, too.  As a poker player, my first reaction was "alright, Aces!" But then I realized that it wasn't the best hand in this game.  Of course I split them and immediately got another Ace. I asked and was allowed to split again. I don't remember the full results but I won two out of the three hands.

I wanted to text Woody & LM that I was playing BJ and having a beer.  They certainly deserved to know this vital information.  As I took my phone out, I suddenly remembered that the last time I played BJ, you weren't allowed to use your cell phone at the table (that used to be the rule when I started playing poker too, but that rule has gone the way of 3-2 blackjack).  Before my phone reached the table I asked the dealer about it.  "Am I allowed to use my cell phone?"  She shook her head no.  OK, no biggie.

But when she shuffled the 8 or 10 deck shoe, I stepped away to text my pals.  And when I came back, I innocently put my phone down on the rail instead of in my holster.  It wasn't there for more than a minute when a floorman came by and said, "No cell phones at the table, boss."  Hey, if I was his boss, I'd make the rules and allow them.  I didn't argue that the cell phone technically wasn't on the table, it was on the rail.  I just put the damn phone away.

I played less than half an hour and actually had a decent little run.  I ended up winning $30, which was nice.  I wasn't even really trying that hard, and I think I remembered the basic BJ strategy.  And no, I didn't Martingale. 

I headed back up to the room and called it a night, hoping the worst was over but not sure what to expect the next day.  And we'll pick up that next day next time. Stay tuned. Or you can just go straight to the next chapter which you can find here.

My Luckiest Night in Vegas Ever

Boy did I get lucky Saturday night!

It had nothing to do with poker or gambling.  But for about an hour, I was in total panic mode and I was very lucky that the incident that had me all panicked had a very happy ending.

It was late in the evening and I was at MGM.  I was done playing poker for the evening.  I was trying to relax and enjoy the, um, scenery that is provided there on a night when the club is open.  One problem I've been having ever since arriving in Vegas is that my chronic bad back has been more problematic than usual.  It really bothers me most when I do a lot of walking, and in this case "a lot" is not really all that much.  So I was sitting down in front of one of the automated roulette machines that is located by the deli, which is also close to one of the areas where the club-goers line up.  It's a pretty good place to sit and enjoy the view on a club nite.

I was using my phone to, among other things, text one of my pals.  After I was done with the texting, I put my cell phone down on the roulette machine, next to the bottle of soda I had.  I remember thinking that maybe that wasn't such a good idea, thinking that since the phone and the soda were behind me, it was possible somebody could rush by and grab my phone before I could notice.  Or even if I did notice, once they were running away I'd be helpless since I can't move very fast due to my back issues.

But does anyone really do that these days?  Steal cell phones like that?  I thought it unlikely, but definitely thought that I had to make sure to grab my phone when I was ready to get up.  In fact, I was sure that at one point, after looking at my phone, I put it back in the case that I use for it, that is attached to my belt (the belt goes through the loops so the case can't fall off).

Anyway, I got up finally, walked around as best I could, and headed towards the back of the property where the parking garage is.  I made my way slowly, because if I walk slowly enough, my back isn't too bad.  I was basically walking at half my normal pace.

When I got back near the hotel lobby, I took a seat in front of a slot machine.  I needed a rest before heading back to my car since there was still a long walk to the car from there (the MGM is a big freaking place).  Pus that location is also pretty good for enjoying viewing the club-goers coming and going.  Also it is also possible to catch a hooker sighting or two there.

I was there for awhile and I believe I was just about to reach for my phone to see if I had any new emails or texts when my buddy Abe walked by, on his way to his car.  I had missed seeing him in the poker room earlier.  He stopped and had a nice chat, probably at least 20-minutes.  Finally he continued on and I stayed behind.  And so then I reached into my case for my cell phone and….nothing.  WTF?

I stood up and looked around.   Nothing on the floor near me. I checked all my pockets even though I rarely put my phone anywhere but in my case.  Nope, not there.

Holy shit!  This was scary. I mean, my whole life is on that cell phone. I can't afford to lose it.

I thought the most likely thing was that I actually did leave the phone resting on that roulette machine, even though I was sure I hadn't because I had actually thought of that very possibility.  So I headed back towards that machine. But I was also retracing my steps and scanning the floor, as it struck me as possible that it had somehow fallen out (or was possibly knocked out, tho I didn't recall bumping into anyone) along the way. I tried to follow my path back as accurately as I could remember it.

Interesting thing.  I was in such a frantic state, I was walking totally pain free (or at least, oblivious to the pain) and I was walking at least three times faster than my normal pace and who knows how much faster than I had been walking since arriving in Vegas.

Anyway, I made it back to the roulette machine, and of course the phone was not there, and I looked all around the floor near there and found nothing. It was time to head to Lost & Found.  Until that very moment, I had never needed this service at MGM, so I stopped by the poker room and asked where it was.  Turns it was back where I was when I first noticed the phone was missing, near the entrance to the parking garage.

I headed over there and of course kept scanning the floor for a phone.  No luck.  When I got to the Lost & Found, I was nervous as hell and very upset, and there was this guy in front of me trying to locate his coat, which, from what I could tell, he had actually checked somewhere, so it was weird that it was missing.  Anyway, after telling this guy three times that his coat had not been turned into them, he somehow, magically, found the guy's coat.

Meanwhile I'm sweating bullets just desperate to talk to this guy and praying my phone was turned in.  The guy checked his computer and there was no phone turned in that evening.  Nada, zippo.  I was surprised that he didn't ask me to fill out a report.  Instead, he gave me a card and told me to check back at that number in a couple of hours to see if it had shown up.  Well, since I didn't have a phone, that was sure going to be easy, wasn't it?  Well, I do have a hotel phone I can use in my room.  Just like in the old days, before everyone had a cell phone.

I wasn't ready to quit yet.  I wanted to do one more attempt at retracing my steps to see if I could find it myself, by some miracle.  Again, no luck.  But when I was in the area where I last saw it, a thought came to me that maybe one of the bouncers who police the lines to the club may have found it (since I may have dropped in that vicinity).  And if so, perhaps they hadn't yet had a chance to turn into L&F. So I asked one of them, he checked with another one who actually could use his cell phone to tap directly into the L&F inventory.  And he told me that there was no phone turned in. I asked if there was any chance one of the other bouncers had picked up and just hadn't had a chance to return it, and he said no, they would turn it in right away.

Looks like I was screwed.  As I walked back to the parking garage, I started thinking, planning and wondering what the hell I was gonna do.  I figured first thing I'd do when I got back to my room was just try calling myself and see if someone answered.  Of course that would be a long distance call from my hotel room phone, and back in the day when that was the only way to make a call from your room, they used to charge exorbitant rates both for just making a call and then for the long distance charge.  But that was the least of my problems.

I figured I'd call Verizon and see what help they could offer me.  Could they locate the phone?  I have to confess, I had done nothing in advance to prepare for something like this, no app installed that could help me.  I was working without a net. 

I figured I'd have to spend all night changing every single password for ever single app or program or account that I have on my phone. And then what?  If my phone had not been turned in by morning, I couldn't do my work without a phone.  I couldn't do Vegas without a phone.  Could I get a temporary replacement?  Would I have to buy a new phone (at full cost)?  I wasn't looking forward to that possibility.  But what choice would I have?

I made the walk back towards the garage in a very agitated state.  I never took my eyes off the floor still hoping to see it somewhere on the floor.  Since the L&F desk is right by the escalator down to the garage, I had nothing to lose by stopping by there one more time just to see if maybe it had turned up in the past 20-minutes or so.  It was like drawing to a one-outer but what did I have to lose?

I went back there and the same guy was there, no one in front of me this time.  He greeted me with a "What can I do for you, sir," as if he didn’t recognize me from just a few minutes earlier.

I told him I was just double checking on my cell phone.

"What kind of phone was it again?"

I told him it was an LG G3.

Suddenly he reached for something on his desk that I hadn't noticed…a cell phone!  He pulled off the yellow sticky that was on it that said "Stage Deli" on it and examined it to see if he could identify the kind of phone it was.  He couldn't, but I could already tell it was my phone.  So he asked who my carrier was, since that is identified on the phone itself.  I told him it was Verizon and he asked me to unlock the phone.  Since all I had to do was tap the front of the phone a couple of times and swipe, that didn't really prove it was my phone but it seemed good enough him.  He did take a copy of my driver's license and made me sign a form that I had received my phone back, but that was it.  I cannot tell you how relieved I was. Phew.  I would be able to sleep that night!

I asked if it was an employee or a good Samaritan who had found it, and he said it was an employee.  I'm guessing it was a janitor.  The sticker indicated it was found in the area where I last remembered using it, where I had put it down on the roulette machine.  But I honestly don't believe I left it on the machine.  I think it is much more likely that when I went to put it back in my case, I didn't secure it properly and probably just didn't notice that it fallen on the floor.  But I'll never really know.

I'd like to thank the Lost & Found and the security folks at MGM for their great service and response.  Great job.

But let's face it, I got incredibly lucky.  No doubt the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me in Vegas, getting that phone back, unscathed, in such a short period of time.  Of course that one hour that it was missing will probably take two years off my life, but I'll worry about that later.

Meanwhile, would love to hear advice as to what steps I should have taken if I had had to return to my room without the phone?  And what should I do know to be better prepared for this if —perish the thought—this ever happens again.