1097852 A couple years ago I was in Las Vegas for a fictional story about how Jeff Gordon thought the new "it" game would be that stupid game no one plays that they always put at the front of casinos. I don't even know what they call it. It's a big wheel with numbers. You put your money down on which number the little rubber thing will point to when the wheel is stopped. Sort of like roulette, but without as many pretty women at the table. <object width="440" height="361"><param name="movie" value="http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3709112"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3709112" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="440" height="361" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object> <p> Jeff was throwing a poker tournament for charity so I got invited to play and was busted quickly. Later, he told me some of the guys were going to have an after hours game. The "guys" were professional poker players. It was a bad decision to join the guys. Worse still, I arrived without any money. They were only too happy to put me in. I ended up having to go the casino cage to raise the capital to pay back my debt. Different than that was the time I entered a World Series of Poker satellite tournament. In this one, the top eight finishers (out of about 400) would win entrance to the real World Series of Poker. I had no such aspirations. I just wanted to get my story shot and go play casino craps. At the point where I knew we had enough material to make a three minute story, I went "all in" on absolutely nothing. I just wanted to leave and play casino craps. I know the Phil Helmuths of the world would think I mailed it in. And that's because I had. I just wanted to play casino craps. I'd worked hard enough and flown in tired. I needed personal time. Instead when I went all in on nothing ... I came up with three kings, knocked out several players, and became the new chip leader at my table. My dominance lasted only so long. I didn't execute some bluffs very well and never drew trip kings again. I didn't make the World Series of Poker. I did help make a poker episode for Mayne Street. The plot is that Chris McKendry and Neil Everett play poker with me. Pretty complex stuff. This was a blog. true 2008-11-18T11:35:44Z 72523 1 2008-11-18T11:36:15Z