Friday at the Rio

Last night was "Fight Night" at the MGM Grand. Thankfully, I didn't wait until the last minute to leave the house and drive to work. When I got there, the employee parking garage was closed - I'm still not sure why. It definitely wasn't full. I guess they had it reserved for VIP's or the Mosely/Vargas entourage or something. So, I had to double back and get in the long line spewing out of the other garage. Good times. I grabbed some of those yummy pretzel bites from the soft pretzel stand on the way in and made the long trek across the casino, through the lobby, past the slots, and down into the basement to get my uniform. I hurriedly got dressed and ran back upstairs for pre-shift meeting where the whole staff was seated. Nobody got the night off last night. We were opening early and staying open late. It was pretty crazy all night - especially the bar area. Trying to get in and out of the bar area was a nightmare! I'm just glad it's over for a couple of months. Sugar Shane Mosely and his entourage came in to eat after the fight. He was in great spirits of course and signed some autographs, took some pictures, etc. I also saw actor, Jimmy Smits of NYPD Blue and the West Wing. My personal favorite, Wanda Sykes came through as well. I just think she's hysterical. I gotta start bringing a damn camera to work.

I had off on Friday, so MiamiDon and I went over to the Rio for the last day of the HORSE Event. My hope was that we could sit in the bleachers for the final table. I wasn't sure how early I would need to get there for that though. We called Pauly and he met us out in the hallway. My first request was to see the "Hooker Bar". Pauly smiled at me very knowingly as if he's heard that request a million times and we headed on over there. I love the live music every 30 minutes, plus it's a good way to keep track of the time if you aren't wearing a watch.

Pauly and I at the hooker bar...



Pauly, me and Don...



The highlight of the excursion was when I hit quads (too bad this doesn't ever happen for me at the live poker tables...




Grubby came over and hung out with us for a few minutes too, but he was heading over to the Sahara Tournament. He's leaving next week for his new job, so it's too bad we won't have much time to play Mr. Cashman together.

After we left the Hooker Bar we ran into Wil Wheaton and of course I got a few more pics...






Stay tuned for my next entry where I get seated in the bleachers (right up front) at the HORSE final table and I get to meet Jen Leo too!

Also, Michael Craig finally got his blog up and running. I'm actually doing a little work for him so I know firsthand that his writing is excellent and so are his blog entries. Check him out at Craig's Journal.