On my way in to work last night, I sang Happy Birthday into my cell phone as my baby put his phone up to his baby’s ear…my one and only grandson was celebrating his first birthday. He’s cute and sweet and cuddly beyond belief…he’s a real Riot. Yup, that’s his name, Riot!

And that’s the way my night at work was, a real riot. By 5:20, I was seated on Table 7 in the new room. I asked Doug (cardroom manager) and two supervisors if they would send the first table of players in from the Poker Pit to my table so I could deal the first hand in the new room and for just a minute or some nonsensical amount of time, I thought I would have the honor. I got the first table of players but they were part of the daily tournament and they were going on a 15 minute break. POOOP!

The next table of players were in the tournament also, they went to Table 6. Right out of the blue, before the room was even officially open, the 4s knocked a full cup of coffee and cream over onto the table, it ran to the Shuffle Master, and in general made a hell-uv-a mess. Tom, the dealer on 6 spent at least 10 minutes with wet and dry towels trying to clean up the mess while the table was on break.

The first hand was dealt on Table 36 by Bev. I believe it was a $4-8 H game. I’m not resentful or jealous, just kind of hoping…kind of?

When the tournament resumed, the first hand I dealt produced A-A for the 6s. He sent another player home for the night when the other player raised all-in and then showed A-2 Off.

At 6:00ish, Doug announced the opening of Bellagio’s new room and received a huge round of applause from everyone.

The two table, private salon is referred to as The Bobby Baldwin Room and the kids that play the biggest game in town were there in full swing.

The room filled up. I believe we had 32-33 games running when we were at max. When midnight rolled around, and Wynn was opening, we didn’t have a mass exodus, we had games – lots of them. And when I left at 3 a.m., there were still 16 games running.

The poker room is truly a work of art. The colors, lighting, wall coverings, pictures, carpet – everything enhances the spectacular beauty of what I believe is possibly the most beautiful poker room in the world. There are a few glitches that will be worked out and the office isn’t set up and functional yet but it’s on the way. Shuffle Masters are installed in all the tables. There are still traffic problems and not a lot of room between the tables in some areas, hopefully that will iron out and be resolved soon.

April 27th, 2005 – a date to remember. Happy Birthday, Riot – in celebrating your first year of life! Happy Birthday, Bellagio Poker Room – in celebrating your opening and continual effort to improve and provide poker for the world!

This is Riot when he got his ‘2-3’ busted off by an idiot tourist that had no clue how to play the game.

I told Riot not to worry, if the ‘tourist’ stayed long enough…