Welcome to Las Vegas! My name is Victor H. Royer, but everyone just calls me Vegas Vic. I was named after that famous neon sign in Downtown Las Vegas, that cowboy with the hat on top of the Pioneer Club, always waving his hand and beckoning to his long love, Sassy Sally, on the other side of the street. I will be writing a few articles for AccessVegas.com, so I hope you enjoy them.
Poker People
We called her Diamond Lil. Not because her name was Lil, or because she wore any diamonds, but because she always caught it on the river. She reminded us of those famed Belle's of the Mississippi gambling ships of yesteryear.
She was one of the Poker People at my table. We formed a sort of poker camaraderie that night at the Las Vegas Hilton Poker Room. This was many years ago now, when they still had a big room and many tables. But I've never forgotten these people, and this game. We began as strangers, and after several hours or so we all became friends for the night.
Next to me sat Dan Petrie Jr., writer and movie director ("Beverly Hills Cop"), a few seats to my right Rodney Dangerfield's opening act (I never did get his real name), a few seats over Diamond Lil, then Texas Pete - an enormous man with a huge hat - then Fred the Fisherman, next to him one of the local professionals whose face I know very well, but whose name I no longer recall. And then there was I.
The seven of us made the full table, the only die-hard poker players who sat there for almost two days continually playing our cards and enjoying the atmosphere of this great Hotel, this terrific City of Lights, Las Vegas.
We named him Fred the Fisherman because he always went fishing. Sometimes it would work, and others not. Poker is a strange game - a lousy hand can win, if you bluff well. Fred did - sometimes.
Diamond Lil was by far the most animated player. She was constantly amazed every time she won a hand. She was either very lucky, or very good. We never did figure out which. When she sat down to our table she smiled and quipped "I'm not very good at this game. This is my first time in Las Vegas." We smiled politely. After this she proceeded to clean us out.
She was simply amazing. No matter what hands we all had, Diamond Lil somehow won. When I held a full house (kings full of 9's), Fred caught a flush and Texas Pete had three tens, Diamond Lil pulled off four 6's! The local professional (let's call him John) finally broke her streak with a straight flush. But Lil was far from finished. Eventually we learned how to play her and the game evened out, but even then she was truly a Riverboat Queen!
Texas Pete was a character too. This wasn't his real name either, but he was sooooo BIG, and his hat was soooo HUGE, and he was from Texas ... well, one thing led to another and we named him Texas Pete. Perhaps it was because he said he just came in from Whiskey Pete's (the casino at the California/Nevada state line).
Pete had this booming voice and Texas drawl and he would down one Lone Star (beer) after another with such complete abandon and apparently no effect, we soon became convinced he'd drink the Rio Grande dry if given half a chance. He played poker in the same manner. Always big. He lost more often than he won, but he didn't seem to care. And it made the pot bigger when he was in.
The guy who was Rodney Dangerfield's opening act at the time just came over from Caesars Palace where Rodney's show had finished for the night. He said he wanted to get away from Rodney. It seems Mr. Dangerfield was in a party mood that night and his appetite for the good times proved too much for this young man. Of course, I can't speak on behalf of Mr. Dangerfield since I have never met him, but he was described to me by this fellow as a very gregarious man who truly enjoyed all that life and fame had to offer. I wish he invited me.
The best conversation of the night I had with Mr. Petrie. (At the time I was a writer in Hollywood and we had a lot in common.) I truly enjoyed this time with Dan. He is a very clever and knowledgeable man, well respected in the Motion Picture and Television communities. We would talk about whose latest movie he was about to direct, about people we knew in Hollywood, and in between these slices of "shop talk" played a few exciting hands of poker. He got the better of me there.
The Las Vegas Hilton Poker Room had only been open a short time then, and it was truly magnificent. (Sadly, it is no longer there. Gone and replaced by a smaller version in the main casino). It was the most comfortable poker room in Las Vegas. I also liked to play at Caesars Palace (that poker room is now also gone, replaced by a Slot Club), or Bally's (which is still there), but this particular night the world seemed to have shrunk to just one table, seven people and a dealer. It was a great feeling. All of us from different walks of life, yet for a few hours it seemed as if we were a family. The microcosm of the world centered over green felt and a deck of cards.
I ran into "John", the professional, several times after that. He is a quiet character and he plays tight poker. He is one of the several professionals that regularly play the $5-$10 seven card stud games in Las Vegas. If they do well, they proceed to the higher limit games, if not, then they play the $1-$4-$8 stud games. Over the years I got to know many of them. Theirs is a tough way to make a living, but they are by-and-large very good at it.
Like with everything else, practice makes perfect. Just think of it - if you play poker and you have a stake of $100, and you make an additional $100, then you make $600 profit per week (if you play every day for 6 days, take one day off). And if you're good at it, you can make this $100 in a couple of hours, then have the rest of the day free. This way you make $31,200 per year. Not a bad salary in anyone's language.
The truth is these professionals often make a lot more, and then at other times less. But generally speaking I have found them to be nice people who enjoy the game and don't possess mercenary attitudes. There are those who can't handle it, but then they are the near-to-be's. The true professional knows that there will be times when skill alone can't do it. Luck plays an important role. Often you can know the exact count, and know exactly how good your hand is and what your opponents have, with only one card to go.
You also know, for instance, that there are two spades left (you've either seen the others discarded, or they are face up in this 7-Stud game, or you have a few yourself) and you know your aces-up are good to his one pair-flush-draw, and the odds are astronomical against your opponent drawing one of those spades. Yet, he does, and you're in the hole. That happens in poker, as it happens in life. The true professional knows that and will take it into account.
That game we played eventually broke up about 26 hours after it began. Texas Pete finally drank more Lone Stars then he could handle and grumbled his way back to his room. "John", the professional, left earlier to seek better pastures elsewhere. I think he was tired of loosing to Diamond Lil's draw on the river.
Rodney's opening act had to hit the hay since he had a show to do that night. Diamond Lil cashed in $1,000.00 in winnings! Fred the Fisherman lost a lot.
Dan was going to the Hilton show that night and flying back the next day, and finally retired. Then there was I.
I only won about $40 that night, plus the tips and drink money. But to me this wasn't the reason for staying there that long, for that particular game. To me this was experience gained.
Las Vegas is sometime described as a City of Sin. Not true. Las Vegas is a city where you can find as much, or as little, of what you're looking for as you want.
In my case, I found six friends. I have never met any of them again (except for "John", although he too is no longer in Las Vegas as far as I know), but that night we were together, enthralled in a game, a city, a time of unpretentious pleasure that we derived out of challenging each other for a stack of gaming chips.
It was worth it. But that's what Las Vegas is... a city where a stranger becomes a friend in a short time. You may never see them again, but you never forget them. There's wealth to be found in this ... here, in Las Vegas, at a poker table.
Victor H. Royer is the Author of 21 books on casino games and gaming, and more than 50 casino reports, profiles, and manufacturing analyses. Visit his Web site at: http://www.GamingAuthor.com
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