While I just finished up a PM to LOTTOMIKE, I was thinking of a humorous story to tell. Mike is from Memphis, which is adjacent to my favorite gambling destination in the world - Tunica, Mississippi. I  go there at least once a year, if not two or three times a year. This year, I've been busy with work, moving to Ft. Mill, the death of my dad, my son starting T-ball, etc., so I've only made the journey once this year. But for those of you who have never been there, it is the best gaming you can find, and that includes Vegas, in my humble opinion. Obviously, when you add tourist attractions and other things to do, Vegas is the world's entertainment capital, but if you like to gamble, you might want to consider Tunica for your next gambling trip. One, it's clean. It's in the middle of a delta in the middle of nowhere. No ridiculous development, as the government of Tunica County seems to be careful about what goes where (correct me if I'm wrong, MIKE). Two, it's so much more affordable than Vegas. You can get a top-flight suite at the Horseshoe on any given night for under $100. Find that in Vegas. Thirdly, comps there are reasonable. If you sit and play, and ask for a meal, they're going to give you a meal. There are a dozen or so casinos there, and they are all fighting for your business. There was a time a few years ago, when the casinos got tight, but recently, it has gone back to the old days when Tunica first came to the gaming forefront. And last but not least, Memphis is within arm's reach of Tunica, lying 20 miles south of a great city. With Graceland, some good shopping, and of course Beale Street and BBQ joints, how can you go wrong visiting when you've been "gambled out" for the day?

Now, back to the story that I originally intended....back in 1995, my wife and I had just started dating and we met her parents out in Tunica for a Thanksgiving gambling week. Her dad is a fun gambler, and her mom (rest her soul) was a riot - a Filipina who spoke the broken English - but was a lot of fun. We traveled to all of the casinos in the area (even the ones on the Arkansas border) and decided one afternoon to spend our time at Sam's Town. At the time, I was playing Caribbean Stud, my game of choice until my father-in-law turned me on to blackjack. It was an up-and-down game, until there came a time when my wife gets up and annouces she is bored. Lo and behold, the next hand...the old man to my left was dealt a Straight Flush worth $15,000. At the time, I was livid. If my impatient wife had just sat down until I was ready to leave, that would have been my $15,000! The reason being was that they dealt five cards at a time to the player spots, and therefore, her 5 cards that she would have had came to me. The five I would have had went to the man next to me, and so on. My father-in-law jumped out of his skin he was so mad. She took a lot of heat for getting up from all of us, and I sort of felt bad - nah, no I didn't ... after all, it was $15,000!!

Well, I'm hanging around the table thinking the man who just won all the loot would at least hand us players a couple hundred for being happy for him. I didn't expect that to happen, just thought I'd stick around just in case he was feeling generous. That wasn't the case. In fact, when the big boss of the casino came up to him and offered him a room for a couple of nights, he barked out "Where the hell was that room a couple of days ago when I tried calling for it?!" He was really pissed at the casino for not taking care of him earlier that week. So he gets up, grumbles something after he gets his money, and leaves the dealer a $25 tip and vanishes. It was really comical, that combined with my wife getting ripped up for getting up.

The irony of this was that a few years ago, I was back out there in Tunica for my best friend's bachelor party and within 5 minutes of sitting at the Caribbean Stud table, I was dealt a $21k straight flush, thus trumping my wife's "mistake" from years ago. And I had just talked to her that afternoon, and she said "all we need is $500 to cover the rest of day care for the summer". We got that and more :) And I tipped the dealer $500, and gave my buddies $1,000 remembering how I felt when the old man got bitter at casino management. All's well that ends well, right?