Vegas Vignettes

[The Gift Of Gab]

I'm playing 10-20 no-limit at the Bellagio with some rich Middle Eastern kids. The drunkest and loudest of them is playing almost every hand. He bets 100 into a limped flop of J76 with two hearts. I have KJ and make it 300, and he comes back for the minimum, 200 more. I have no idea what he has and I'm not sure he does either, so I decide to see a showdown if it doesn't come down too ugly. The table is telling him the string-bet rule every hand but the kid doesn't understand he only gets one motion, so it costs me only another 700 to see his Q7o make running quads.

A few minutes later, a seat opens up at the far end of the table and is taken by a man whose face I recognize but can't place. It looks like...but it can't be...I thought he hated no-limit...

At this moment, some poor kid makes top pair, top kicker and we play a nine thousand dollar pot. After I finish stacking, I look up and hear the man mention how busy he is with his publishing business. It must be the Mason.

My friends want to leave, so I meet Mason but don't play a Hand to Talk About against him.


It's Labor Day Weekend, and the clubs are crowded. My friends and I decide to grease the bouncers instead of waiting in two-hour lines. A buddy of mine brings two friends with him to Rain, and after some drinking one of these guys sees a very hot Asian girl and decides she's working. He walks up to her, pulls out a hundred, rips it in two and gives her one half with his business card. She tucks the bill in her bra but insists that she's married. After she flashes her wedding ring at him a few times he gives up and wanders off.

The next day, my friend has ended up with half of this bill and asks me if it's worth anything. I take a look at it, and see that the drunk guy ripped it so perfectly that even on top of an intact bill I can't tell which half is bigger.

Since this friend happens to owe me $100, how would he go about getting something for this bill? Do we have to account for the other half, and can anyone come up with a better story than "my friend gave it to a hooker"?