Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Late breakfast again this morning. We're trying to do big breakfasts late so we can skip lunch, and then do dinner later. We're doing the Excalibur tonight, and have to be there early, so not a lot of free time today. I think we're doing Denny's for breakfast this morning, and then maybe going to the Sahara. Anne wants to do blackjack at a $1 table, and Kori wants to give it a try too.
Which reminds me of something I should mention. I watched an Asian guy last night at a blackjack table at the Luxor deal out five $100 bills, take them all in chips, and place them in a bet. He drew a 9 and a 3, and I *knew* that he was going to draw a 10. He did ask for a card, and sure enough, it was a king. I saw him then, after that deal was settled, pull out 9 $100 bills, and take a variety of chips. I think he bet it all again, but at that point we were leaving, so I didn't get to watch. I was like -- damn, if you want to just throw that much money away, give it to ME!
Denny's for breakfast was oh-so-good. It's been a while -- since the Thanksgiving trip -- since we've been able to have our "regular" meals at Denny's, so it was a nice treat. Then Kori, Bob, and Bobby went to the Belz outlet while the rest of us tried our hands at Blackjack at the Sahara.
I watched Lou and Anne start, then Sally sat at the next table. John wandered off somewhere. The dealer at Lou's and Anne's table was great; very friendly, and he explained stuff to Lou as he went along. I finally decided to give it a try, and sat next to Sally at the other table.
I really liked our first dealer, a woman from China named Melody. She had a gentle hand with the cards, and was just really good. She left after a bit, and then we had a woman named Jeanne. She was good, but was harsher with the cards, which bothered me. I got up probably about $15 more than my original $20 stake (this is at the $1 table). Then Jeanne left, and a man named Al from Texas dealt, and I really didn't like how he dealt. I ended up losing my whole stake (mostly because I kept betting with the $5 chips at the end, instead of getting change). I watched Lou again for a bit, then gave up and went back to the table with Al. Another twenty came out, and I never really got a lot more than the $20 I started with. I think the max I was up was $26 (including my original stake). I had started to lose again, down $3 or so, when Sally came up and said that we were getting ready to leave. I played one last hand, and left the table with about $16 or so. If she'd only come two hands earlier, I could have left even with that hand. Lou ended up being even, not making anything other than the original $20 he'd started with.
We went back to the hotel, and rested for a bit before going to the Excalibur for the dinner show, The Tournament of Kings. That was fun, lots of "huzzahs" and "here heres" for toasts. And I hit my beefcake quotient for the evening -- damn, the King of Norway was hot! We were in Norway's section. But he still didn't do very well, alas. And the rest of the guys were VERY cute.
We wandered in the Fantasy Faire, basically a bunch of carnival games, before and after the show. John won Anne a medium-sized jester bear at the water gun game (instead of filling balloons, you raced Viking ships down a track). Kori won, but she got a plastic Viking horned helmet since there weren't enough people playing to get a bear. She really wanted one. While us girls were in the bathroom after the show, Lou won me a tiny jester bear. Now I had to get one for Kori -- she was the one who originally wanted one! So I sat down, didn't win on the first race, but got lucky on the second (wherein just about every seat was filled), and started shooting right at the hole. I kept up the stream, and won the bigger bear (she really wanted a large one with Mardi Gras beads, but I think you must have to trade in other bears to get that) and gave it to her. We took some pictures with all the bears later, and then it was back to the hotel. The others wanted to go to the Bellagio water fountains, but I was too tired.
I crashed early and slept very well. I think I'm finally getting used to the time. Just in time to go back, of course.