The poker dried up around here so I have been playing on the road some. Oklahoma is great as hold 'em is only now legal in Indian casinos.

In downtown Las Vegas last week at the world's loudest casino, the Golden Nugget, I had a great hand. There are as many as seven no limit games going in three casinos so us hustlers wander from game to game looking for a soft spot. You target three or four players to go after and five to avoid. I wake up with two Aces to the right of an all day sucker with two Queens. It is the really low blind one and two dollar with raises running fifteen to thirty.

He raises it to twenty five and I smooth call trapping only this lets a lady with two fours in behind me, a very tight player. They each had about three hundred.

Flop comes 7,4,2....two hearts. Sucker bets sixty and I set him in the center. . The kind lady lays down three fours! There is only one hand could beat her, three 7s and she figures I have it because I have been out so long. Man calls and I win. Essentially this is over a six hundred dollar gift...lucky break.

On my first morning I split first and second in a tiny tournament that was boring, loud, and tedious at the Nugget. I made $1200 without ever being the chip leader. The guy split it with me when he had a two to one chip lead. As an all day short stack, my strategy was to wait and wait while they knocked out each other.

On three separate sitdowns, my first hand was two Aces and they all stood up.
One morning there was a big game raging when I get there at 5 a.m. I had to wait a long while and finally got in tired. I start with three hundred. On the first round I catch two fives and then two eights and call raises with both. Then I catch two Kings and smooth call as there are frequent every pot raises. The jammer raises to twenty- five
and two men call. I move in two hundred and change and all three call.

They roll five cards with no more betting. Fifth street is an Ace but the Kings still stand up. It was a good game, hard to find but I quit anyway. I was eight nights there and only started wearing ear plugs near the end.