We hope you’ll joins us to celebrate Liz’s 30th Birthday for a Casino Night theme party at the Waucoma Yacht Club. Feel free to dress like James Bond or in your favorite cocktail dress. There will be professional craps and blackjack dealers, a Texas Hold’em table and Roulette wheel. Everyone will receive $1,000 in play money at the door redeemable for prizes at the end of the night. There will also be a DJ for everyone’s dancing entertainment and an open bar. Gifts and presents are discouraged (although Liz always welcomes a good bottle of Champagne…!)…Looking forward to your presence Saturday evening at the Waucoma for Liz’s 30th. We’ve been receiving calls about what to wear and cocktail dresses and tuxedos are encouraged if you’d like to dress up. Otherwise make yourself comfortable but be aware their may be a few James Bonds in attendance (bonus play money if you’d like to dress up as one of the Bad guys or a “Bond Girl”.

How cool does that sound?  I’d like to start off by saying that Kathleen would not allow me to purchase a tux for the event.  She droned on and on about how I wasn’t even wearing one to our wedding and how it would be weird if I bought one for the party.  Hmmm, I guess she had a point, and after some pathetic pouting I conceded by throwing on my trusty pinstripe suit and was ready to roll.  Kathleen got herself nice and dolled up as well!

The party was great!  Food, alchohol and a friendly crowd really made for a fantastic atmosphere.  What was the highlight of my evening, you ask?  Roulette baby!  I had never played before and it seemed to be the least intimidating (aka confusing) table at the event.  I blew through my first $500 worth of monopoly money in approximately 5 minutes.  I was instantly hooked.  I must confess that I then starting using Kathleen’s chips for a while until I blew through almost half of them as she went off to grab a drink.  Yeah, she put a stop to that nonsense rather quickly.  I have to say, she too got into the festivities by testing her luck.  However, she kept complaining about not knowing what she was doing, but none of us did so it was all good!  Overall, we were doing OK (held steady with the original amounts we were given at the door) for about 45 minutes or so, then the dealers took a 15 minutes break for cake and beverage. 

Upon their return I was ready to go.  I had to make quick work as Kathleen was very tired and needed to get home to bed.  This inspired me to place larger wagers.  So, as people we’re placing $25 chip bets, I started throwing down $100 and $500 gambles.  The dealer instantly started shooting me looks, as if to say “wow, you won’t be here very long at this rate”.  I played all “outside bets”, which were either Red or Black, or Columns.  My momentum was building after I doubled down on $2,500 worth of chips.  Boom!  I won.  Again and again.  Before I knew it, I had a little under $25,000 in chips.  Oh yes, the dealer was stunned! 

I walked over to Kathleen to show her my chips and all she could do was laugh.  At this point, I just wanted to give my chips away so I went all in on black and the middle column.  Keep in mind that by this point, I don’t think there was any one individual who had yet surpassed $5,000 in chips.  What happened next?  Boom!  I hit black and the column, which would catapult my winnings over $75K.  The dealer was visible irritated by now as I had used up all her “high-value” chips, and now had to dull out monopoly money.  Kathleen laughed hysterically, but insisted it was time to go.  So I then did what any respectable young chap would do with all that dinero.  I threw it all into the air and screamed at the top of my lungs: “I’m making it rain bitches!  How you like me now?”  Woman and men quite literally took a collective gasp, then leapt onto the table to collect what they could, causing a frenzy of epic proportions.  It was surreal.  Ok, ok…that didn’t happen at all.  In reality, I calmly dispersed cash to all the people that were at the table and donated all my chips to Joe Hoover (went to high school together), who was my lucky charm that evening and didn’t even realize it. 

Oh the excitement of it all!  Not only will I rent dealers and tables for a future party of my own one day, I now think I’m going to give roulette a shot in Vegas next October.  I’m sure it will only take 2 minutes to loose it all, but what better game to test your luck?

Thanks for the great evening Alexis & Liz!  Below is a video and some photos from the evening: