You envy my life.
For all of you people that think I live an amzing life sometimes, well, today was another one of those times that you’ll just shake your head. I am.
So yesterday I’m playing poker at the Red Rock Casino (where I lost a bundle), and I run into a guy who’s playing in a celebrity poker tournament at the Hard Rock. The MTV Video Music Awards are in town, so there’s a lot of events surrounding that. Long story short, he calls his VIP host and gets me into the tournament.
I wake up early and head down there to check in, and I run into my new friend. He gives me the lowdown on how bad the players are, since they’re all celebrities. It’s a Rolling Stone sponsored event, and there’s tons of celebrities around. My first table has Nelly in the 1 seat, me in the 4 seat, some guy from Three 6 Mafia in the 6 seat, and Antonio Esfandiari in the 7 seat. I didn’t recognize anyone else, but I’m sure they were all richer than me.
Most everyone couldn’t play a lick of poker, but Nelly actually was ok. He’d still get crushed against most poker players, but he fared OK against the celebrity camp. The 3-6 Mafia guy? He couldn’t even follow the betting. Unfortunately, I picked up no hands and went out somewhere around 35th out of 100+ players. I doubled up through Antonio, which was nice, but busted out with pocket tens to a guy’s A8. If it wasn’t a $950 buyin tournament, I wouldn’t be so annoyed.
I heard Adrian Grenier (Vincent Chase) was in the crowd, but I didn’t see him. I did see Kevin Smith, and got the chance to say hello to him real quick. I ended up running into him at the $15 blackjack tables with him, and played an hour or so with him, his wife, and a buddy of theirs. I think I saw the cocktail waitress bring over like three packs of methols in the hour or so that we played. Wow.
Skipped out to the pool for a free Angels & Airwaves show. Ran into their manager Rick Devoe, who I haven’t seen in years. Good show… I was pretty impressed not expecting to be that into them. Met some interesting people while playing blackjack by the pool before the show, too. Very interesting people.
Didn’t stick around for 50 Cent, who was performing an hour or two after Angels & Airwaves. The place was too packed and it was too goddamn hot. Tried to leave the Hard Rock but was trapped in due to the insane traffic from a big weekend, the two shows I mentioned, and an outdoor Linkin Park show. Could have watched a couple of their songs through the gate if I cared to, but they ain’t my cup of tea.
Played some more stupid table games and broke even for the night before I wrapped things up. I really wish I was more up on pop culture, because I’m sure I ran into a handful more celebrities that I just didn’t recognize. All in all, a pretty fun day minus the poker losses.
Oh, and I just got a new car a couple weeks ago.
Life is good. 
