Lady Luck is My Friday Night Date

"You might forget your manners
You might refuse to stay
And so the best that I can do is pray
Luck be a lady tonight
Luck be a lady tonight
Luck if you've ever been a lady to begin with
Luck be a lady tonight"
-"Luck Be a Lady," Frank Sinatra

Greetings and welcome to The Un-Zone, the official site for all things Un. Yes, I have used this line before, but I like it. If you've got any good suggestions, send them in.

I'm still single. But on Friday night, I had a hot date. It was Lady Luck. No...Lady Luck is not a code name for some hooker or something, but that fickle thing called fortune. That lady luck. When you think about it, however, Lady Luck would make for a decent name for an exotic dancer or something of that nature. I digress. I do that quite a bit.
I'm not much of a gambling type of guy. It's too risky for my tastes. I'll play the occasional game of poker for fun and a game or two of blackjack. For me, I'm more into the mathematical aspects of gambling, the analysis part of these games of chance. Calculating odds. Figuring out who has what cards. That sort of stuff.

So, given these proclivities, it makes perfect sense that I should go to a social event with a gambling theme. Absolutely perfect sense. Logically, given that I am at such a social event, I should happen to do very well with such games of chance as craps and blackjack, but have lousy luck with poker. In some respects, I kinda wish it was actual money I was winning, as I could have make quite a bit...but anyways, that is not the point of this blog. Describing my streak of good luck is the point of this post.

The day begins with craps, the venerable game of rolling a pair of dice and hoping certain sums appear on the face of said dice. An interesting sidenote, dice are called "probability cubes" by the politically correct writers of some math books, as "dice" connotate negative images of gambling, whereas "probability cubes" are neutral in such respects. I digress.
It's my turn to roll and I go on a decent winning streak. I keep hitting the point I set on the come roll and I'm feeling good. My luck runs out after winning several games. As luck would have it, I hit a seven when I should have been aiming for a six. Hey, you can't argue. Lady Luck is fickle.
Time for the Texas Hold-Em tournament. I promptly get cleaned out. I don't get the cards I need and for some pervertedly twisted reason, when I fold, had I stayed in, I would have won big. For instance, I have a 10 of clubs and a 2 of spades. The cards on the flop are a 10 of diamonds, a 10 of spades and a 2 of hearts. I could have had a freaking full house. The turn card...a 10 of clubs. A freaking four of a kind. No way in hell a person could have beat me had I held onto my cards. The final insult: the river card was a 2 of clubs. Yep, a freaking four of a kind and a three of a kind. I'm still hitting myself. I should have just stayed in that hand. But that's how luck works. It's fickle and it flitters from person to person. It bounces and turns like the little ball on a roulette wheel.
An interesting sidenote. At one of the tables, John Smolen and several others break into "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" sung by the Isley Brothers. I guess they were recreating the scene in Top Gun. That one where Tom Cruise and a bunch of Top Gun students sing at a bar.
After getting shafted in poker, it's time to play blackjack. But first, time to wander around. Talked to some people...calculated some odds. I play at one table and win a few hands...as in six or seven hands. It's getting boring. So I quit and walk around some more. Talked to some more people. Saw a guy carrying a pink drink who dressed up like Fred Phelps, the crazy Kansas minister who protests funerals and is virulently anti-homosexual. When you see him, you doubt intelligent design. If this intelligent designer was that clever, why did he let that flaw into the system. One could possibly wonder if Fred Phelps is a genetic throwback to a lower lifeform. Then again, I don't think the lower lifeforms would take credit as being one of his ancestors. Quite an interesting choice of costume and drink...
I stop at a blackjack table and Kyle(The Kansas Law Student, see link on right sidebar), is dealing. He took over for someone. I'm not sure why, but it was nice of him to do so. I sit down and I proceed to win. I don't know, but the feeling was weird. I think the gut instinct of knowing when to hit or when to stay or when to double down just took over. I was right on nearly every one of my calls. Except for that one time I decided to hit and went over. Three consectutive blackjacks and a long string of 21s. Quite nice.
It's getting late. Time to go home but enough time for one more hand. I dump a bulging baggie full of chips (bulging baggie sounds funny. Almost sounds like a drug dealer term or something you would read in a court case involving drugs) on the table. I comment to the guy sitting to my right (who was drunk and pretty annoying) that it would be funny if I got another blackjack.
I didn't get a blackjack, but I did win again. Kyle, when I left, mentioned something about taking me to a casino the next time he visits one. Saying Lady Luck was on my side would be an understatement.

And so, that ends the story of my weekend. I think just reading your post will increase your good fortune by quite a bit. So, if you read this post and make a killing at the casino, please e-mail me your story and I'll give instructions on how to send a nominal cut from your winnings. It's just a small favor. Just kidding. You can keep all of it. Uncle Sam, however, will want a lot more that I will.

That's all for now.

That's all for now.