Monday, June 23rd - Day 1 - Before Breakfast

Rocky Balboa put raw eggs in his protein shake before running the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art every morning while he was in training. Will they do that for me here at the Rio Mardi Gras Buffet Breakfast? Can I get them to crack open a couple of white ones for a Virgin Strawberry Frape? No. The salmonella thing will scare them off of it. I'll need to eat scrambled eggs. Too bad. I am Rocky, the ultimate underdog. I know the need to beat 1,000 guys makes everyone an underdog, but I am going to fly now, and do this thing. We are going in. This is what we have been training for. We're going over the wall. Outside the wire.

Actually, Rocky was not as strong as he thought. The truth is, he was planning on carrying his dog, Butkus, up the steps in the movie at the end of his run and lifting him in the air triumphantly at the top of the steps. Butkus was too heavy for him, and he couldn't get it done. Whimp. Since he is over 50, I am hoping Stallone is in this tournament. He will not make the final table. I will knock him out. In a sequel, he did the run again, and did raise his dog over his head...but alas it was a smaller dog, Punchy. The sequel did not do very well either.

OK, I am NOT Rocky. Forget it.

Furthermore, I have a team. I do not run alone. Chuck is in the tournament, as is Neil. Nick shows up tomorrow, so he will only be in the daily Bellagio tournaments, not the Senior's tournament, which is a bracelet event. The winner will be the World Champion Old Guy Poker Player for one year.

We will miss watching Baby Face Baxter getting carded in the Senior's tournament, by each player he knocks out, as they hope to get their chips back if they are right. And then they have to leave when the floor man looks at the license shaking his head "no."

However, the team has a new spark. Neil Blumenfield, as a warm up to the warm up, played in the daily tournament at the Lucky Chances Card Club in Colma last Wednesday, for an entry fee of a $100 or so, and beat 105 guys to win $3,500. His wife has given him a new poker hat. It looks nice. The team is ready. Bad beats cannot get to all of us. We will draw our strength from the power of numbers. One of us will make it up the steps, AND lift the stupid dog.