Black Tuesday

On the Strip

Reporting back on our trip to Vegas. The time away from work and the kids was VERY relaxing. We spent plenty of time at the pool and checking out the sites. We arrived at the Mirage about 11am and were unpacked and ready to go by noon. First thing we did was checkout the Venitian and the Wynn hotels.

We decided to catch a show the first night we were there, so we bought half price tickets for Le Reve at the Wynn. We headed back to our hotel to lay out by the pool and have a few drinks. I ordered this frozen monstrosity that took me about 30 minutes to finish while we soaked in the huge oasis of a pool at the hotel.

Big mistake.

It was hot, I was already dehydrated and the booze knocked me on my butt. We all decided to grab dinner at the Wynn before the show that night, but I was sick to my stomach so I spent the majority of dinner trying to recover. I was able to suck it up and actually enjoyed the 10:30 show.

It was an hour and a half of Cirque du Soleil type acrobatics, all within the confines of a theater that consisted of a huge swimming pool with a retractable stage and all kinds of trapeze type things that would emerge from the 40-foot high domed ceiling. It was quite impressive, considering the action and the fact that all the performers were sopping wet during the show.

At the World Series of Poker

On Monday we did more pool lounging, albeit without any booze for me. We went to the Rio hotel that night, where the World Series of Poker was being held. I saw several pros, including Greg Raymer, the 2004 WSOP Champion. He was gracious enough to autograph a $20 bill for me while walking back to his table during a break from the Pot Limit Omaha event that was going on that night.

After having dinner at the Rio, we decided to head back to our hotel, but there was an amazing lightning storm which was circling the strip. We took a shuttle back to the Paris Hotel and scampered through the rain over to Ceasar’s Palace where we watched the lightning show for about 30 minutes.

By the time we got back our hotel that night, the girls were pretty tired and I wanted to do a little gambling, so I decided to show Scott how to play craps.

Second big mistake.

Sonya & Simon Cowell

I burned through 75% of my bankroll in about 30 minutes, so I switched over the blackjack. I would lose my remaining 25% in another 15 minutes, so my attempts to beat the house came to a sputtering end in less than an hour. Thankfully, I am disciplined enough to set a loss limit and stick to it. Little did I know that my losing streak had just started.

My “black Tuesday” would continue the next morning when Yahoo stock took a kick in the pants by losing 20%. This would be followed by blackout in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, which knocked out all air traffic control in the south western U.S. This would ground our 7:30 flight in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Power was restored and we managed to leave Lost Wages at about midnight, which got us into San Jose at 1:30 Wednesday morning.