10/17/99 sunday
i've had a great time in the st. louis area, but it's time to leave. "on the road, again" - heading for tunica, mississippi (i've learned that there is no poker on the aztar riverboat in caruthersville, missouri.
i stop for lunch at a fast food place (only the second time i've eaten at a fast food chain this trip) in herculaneum, missouri. i can't resist the name. as i enter the burger joint, i find it wonderfully ironic that the radio is blasting out "touch of grey" by the grateful dead. o/~ i will survive...i will get by....i will survive!
class? what's herculaneum? anyone? anyone? ah, dear readers, herculaneum was the *other* city flattened when mt. vesuvius blew its top and wiped out pompeii around 67 ad. or 74 ad. or somewhere around then. "i will survive," indeed!!
tunica, mississippi, is about 25 miles south of memphis, tennessee. a couple years ago, it was nothing but cotton fields. however, when a nearby county voted to reject a proposal to legalize gambling, the good folks here jumped right in!! they've built a bunch of huge, vegas-style casinos, which have turned this place into the fastest-growing county in the state. the casinos are separated into three clusters. i'm booked into hollywood casino for three nights (no room charge - but I gotta play 8 hours a day), which is in the southern cluster (casino strip), near sam's town, harrah's and isle of capri.
i park in the lot and walk into the place. naturally, the place has a hollywood theme (duh). i find the poker room. although set off in a far corner, the room is just as noisy as if it were in the middle of the pit. they've got five tables in the room, and two 1-5 stud games and one 3/6 hold 'em game in progress. i'm dressed in my usual poker attire: green satin "tropicana poker club" jacket...taj mahal poker room baseball cap...and foxwoods new england poker championship t-shirt. d'ya think i look like i'm lookin' for a poker game?
no one greets me as i walk into the room. there's a floorperson there, who buys and sells chips and keeps the lists. there's someone who looks like a supervisor, who's reading the sports section. there are two or three people standing around, waiting for seats.
i look around. i stand there. nothing happens. i pick up a copy of a "mid-south gaming guide" - a 28 page tabloid which features local gaming news, and which even has two pages devoted to poker (including a column by mike capilletti!). i leaf through the guide. it's kinda hard to miss me. still, no one greets me, or asks me whatinhell i'm doing there. after a full ten minutes, i decide that hollywood poker room doesn't want my business.
local security guy directs me to the nearest pay telephone. the horseshoe doesn't have any rooms available for poker players, but sam's town gives me a reservation for tuesday and wednesday. the grand is booked up tonight, but can give me a room for monday....i'll call back. i speak with david at the gold strike. yeah, he's got rooms, but he can't talk right now - he's pretty busy. great! i'll be right over.
[ tiger leaps at the chance to go to the Gold Strike ]
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Kenneth R. Churilla