Hosted by Steve Z. and Suzie and Howard Lederer, was a seriously gi-hugeous affair. I invited my share of people just to add to the noise and confusion but to my knowledge, only two of them made it – Suzanne met me there and I picked up Tony G. and drove there.The grounds of the estate are beautiful, with giant trees everywhere, the kind that give shade and are more of a common sight in ‘old’
Vegas. Of course it was hot as hell, it’s summer in Vegas, but they had a big tent type of set up that was f-f-f-f-freezing inside – set up with tables, lots of food, and an open bar. The whole shindig was great and incoming people never slowed down. When we arrived there may have been around 80 to 100 people there, an hour later there must have been 150 to 200, the flood of people coming in never slowed down. We stayed about two and a half hours and as we were leaving, more people were pulling up and still coming into the grounds in droves, and my guess is there were over 300 there by that time. Suzie said there would be around 500 attending and I’m sure she was right.

Quite a few people brought their children – little kids too that were so darn cute – and one (at least, maybe more) brought their dog – and one couple brought a chimp.

I have to say that I felt badly for the chimp. When I saw it, it was ringed by a group of people that were curious and wanting some type of interaction – and it was definitely giving interaction, grabbing a standing woman’s foot and pulling her foot up to its mouth while smelling her shoe as if it was a delicacy, grabbing another person by the hand (that was kneeling) and pulling that person off balance right into the middle of the ring of people, and kissing Suzanne as she was kneeling.

David Sklanski was sitting nearby and the chimp started punching him in the shoulders and rib cage. David took it rather well as he laughingly said the chimp must have read his latest article – I believe he said something about monkeys – but I can’t believe those blows weren’t a bit painful also. The chimp was no small animal, bigger through the shoulders and chest than me and probably weighing close to as much as I do.

The guy in front of me had a flask with alcohol in it and he gave the chimp a drink. I was really disgusted with this and told the guy not to give him any of that, of course he ignored me and gave him another drink. I do not know if the chimp’s handlers knew the chimp was given alcohol. I left that group immediately and went back to the tent.

Steve Z. was really cute when I asked for his picture, “You want a picture of me? All by myself?”

I mostly milled around, said hello to people I knew, ate – the food was beautifully presented and great – and took over 180 pictures, most of which really are keepers but way too many to put up here. Rather than try to do a pict-o-rama with text, I’ve decided to do the random thumbnail – click on the image for the big result.

Check back – all the pics from this gathering will be uploaded to this page ASAP.

UPDATING.

By the time I got to this point, it was almost dark, there were a lot of people left to ‘shoot’ with the camera but I was out of steam and it was time to go. I found Suzie to explain that we were leaving and she said something like, “You’re going to miss the fireworks…if the cops don’t get here first.” *LMAO*

It was as if Steve Z.’s place turned into a small village, poker pros were coming in from every direction, people that I’ve dealt to and worked with were on the grounds, and stick a fork in me. It was a great gathering, a little big for my taste but still…