The Winning Ticket

This is part 1 of a trip report detailing my latest Las Vegas adventure.

The story actually begins last November, during a previous Vegas trip, where my brother’s friend Paul (seen on left) placed a bet on the Florida vs Florida State college football game that was being played later that day. Trouble was, Paul had the date wrong, and the game was actually being played the next night, after his scheduled departure time. He left Vegas as scheduled, and subsequently found out that Florida beat Florida State, meaning he now had in his possession a winning ticket worth $1100. He was faced with the decision to either send in the ticket via snail mail, or fly back out to Vegas to cash his ticket. He decided on the latter, and thus we all chose to meet again in Vegas for the weekend of January 25th.

I arrived a few hours earlier than Paul and Brian, and decided to sit down for a few rounds of poker at Mandalay Bay (the casino we were staying at, and also the casino where Paul had placed the bet). A few hours went by, and the two of them eventually showed up and decided to join me at the table. Brian sat down immediately, but Paul had us lockup a seat for him as he cashed his ticket. About fifteen minutes later Paul returned, shaking his head, still holding said ticket.

Apparently on the same weekend that Florida was playing Florida State in college football, Florida was also playing Florida State in college basketball. And poor Paul, meaning to place a bet on the football game, had accidentally placed a bet on the basketball game instead. Just his luck - Florida beat Florida State in football, but failed to do the same in basketball. His “winning ticket” was a loser. Ah, what a way to start a Vegas trip. Fuckin’ dumbass.