Poker & Celebrities, sort of

On Thursday I wanted to try a new poker venue - the Monte Carlo.

I hadn't played there since last year and wanted to check it out. So I drove down to the Strip, arriving about 10 or so. The poker action was dead with only a $2-4 limit game going on. I left my name and the mgr. said the no limit games usually start by 11 so I killed time playing video blackjack and buying a hockey parlay for my friend Terry.

About 1045 I was back again checking at the poker room...still no game. So I went over to McDonalds and had a quarter pounder. About 1130 I was back at the poker room - still no game, but they took my cell number and promised to call when the game began. I played a little more video blackjack - winning $20 - before deciding to cross the street to the MGM's poker room.

I got a seat right away and played for about an hour when I got my best hand. My three aces beat a woman's three kings to win a $100 pot. That was the highlight.

But about 2 p.m. or so I got a call from the Monte Carlo poker room that my seat was available. Sorry, I'm already playing. Soon after I heard a booming deep voice and immediately recognized it as Brad Garrett - Robert Barone in "Everybody Loves Raymond." He was playing at the next table behind me and stood up away from his table to make a phone call. He was about 5 feet away from me talking about setting up a meeting. Apparently he lives in LA, but comes to Vegas 2 or 3 times a month where he runs a comedy club at the Tropicana. And he likes poker, playing in a lot of celeb tournies, etc.

So at my table, just two seats to my left, was a 30-ish looking woman who said she was from Calgary Canada. She was chatting with the guy between us and said she was a HUGE Red Wings fan. I asked her how does a woman from Calgary become a Wings Fan?

"Chris Osgood is my brother-in-law," she says.

Lots of lies get told at poker tables, so I was skeptical until Melody whipped out her phone and showed me pics of Ozzie and his little girl eating cereal out of the Stanley Cup. Also a great pic of Melody kissing Lord Stanley's Cup. Very cool. So we talked about the Wings - she's liked Ciccarelli, Shanny and, of course, Stevie Y. Outside of Ozzie, none of the current Wings light her fire, she said. I told her I like Darren Helm, Datysuk and Lidstrom...

As for the poker, I lost $25 and another $20 on a hoops parlay (UConn killed that).

Today I wrote an article for the TC Business News about a robotics club that is working on building driverless trucks for the military. We're heading to Wal-Mart for a bit of shopping and I need to buy a hoops ticket for Terry who likes over the total for the Miami-Pistons game.

And so our adventure continues...