Evolution

It's WBPT week!!!!

A time when silly poker bloggers converge on Vegas for friendship, memories, poker, and total drunkeness. A time to reunite with old friends while making new acquaintances. To further friendships and make the legends that people will tell their kids years in the future.

I am amazed at how much has changed over the years. From the Excal to the MGM to the IP to Caesars to Lagasse Stadium. I tell ya, things are mighty different.

I wasn't there for the first gathering. I actually showed up in Vegas on the Monday that most of the WPBT people were heading home after the first meet up. I only know of how Iggy tried to hire a midget to show up at Sam's Town as himself. I read about the Sherwood Forest Bar drinking like most of everyone else.

That is why I had to show up in the Spring gathering 7 months later. Once I had my first taste, I know I had an addiction. From the mixed games in the box at the MGM to cashing in the tournament at the Aladdin, I knew these were my type of people.

Things would slowly change. The Sherwood Forest Bar would lose its luster to of all things, the Geisha Bar at the Imperial Palace. The Saturday poker tournament would move from Sam's Town to the Aladdin to the IP to Caesars Palace to the Orleans to the Venetian and this year to Aria.

One constant has been the mixed games at the MGM. It is custom for games of HORSE and then some to be played. In a strange twist, that would lead to the now infamous Table 16 and the wildest casino home game ever played.

Other offshoots came of people of similar interests coming together. Golf, pinball, and neon museum tours. But nothing that comes close to something that I will claim that BadBlood and I started. The Steel Panther show! It started with a venture to the Hard Rock casino to see Metal Skool that would lead him and I to bring more people to the best show in Vegas.

And it all ends with the watching of NFL football on Sunday. Like the tournament, the location has changed. From Mandalay Bay to the IP to Lagasse's Stadium. Football viewing in style!

I am really looking forward to the activities this week. Meeting up with great friends is always exciting and satisfying. Meeting new people is as great. It is how lasting relationships start.

Gambling with friends and raging solo when needed, drinking to excess without needing the assist of a wheelchair and coming home with great memories. That is what this trip is about to me. I'll know how satisfying it is when I begin to miss everyone late on Sunday when they are still around me.