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Riviera, Las Vegas: The final day./Sad
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Riviera, Las Vegas: The final day. (Art Grater)
Date: Wednesday, 6 May 2015, at 2:11 p.m.
For most of the 1970's my brother and I and most of our friends from Idlewild Country Club in South Suburban Chicago went to the Riv at least 4 times a year on junkets. Most of the time we were picked up in a private plane, and we often were flown to the SuperBowl and then to Vegas by the Riv. This was because my brother and the rest were big rollers, and I was big enough to join them, and also because Manny Green was the Chicago Rep for the Riv and he was a member of our country club and one of our regular players in our (very large) gin game and in our 16-man rotating golf Scotch Game.
At least two of the players in our chou bet $5,000 to $10,000 on every bet on the craps table, which in those days was real money. At the time, the Riv was one of the best hotels with the best shows...even the lounge acts were spectacular. (I saw the Supremes there!)
My brother and I always shared the 4 bedroom Frank Sinatra Suite on the 20th floor with a couple of friends. There was a hot tub in the center of the living room and a fully-stocked bar...everything was comped.
One day at the crap table one of the guys in our suite was trying to convince a young lady to come up and see our very special Frank Sinatra suite. He was trying his best to impress her and described the suite and the hot tub to show her how special we were. That was when the lady told us there was a Frank Sinatra suite on every floor! For at least 10 years we thought we had the only one and they made sure to give us the same one on the same floor every year and we were told we had the best suite in the hotel. (We did, but so did every other big roller.)
My brother and I were in real estate back then, and we sometimes made enough money in Vegas to come back to Chicago and go out and buy another investment property, but there were also times we came back and had to sell one to pay off the Riv. We were all big betters at the crap table but we were constantly finding things to do to keep us away from the tables so that at least we would give money to each other instead of the Riv. We had massive gin games and golf games, and that was where I played my first Chicago Scoring Bridge game for $100 a point.
It was also my first chouette as several of us played backgammon, and I remember the stakes: $100 a point, and I guarantee you none of us played under 15 PR. The day after I got back from one of those backgammon games, I bought my first backgammon book and I called Kit Woolsey and started taking lessons (he was $75 an hour and we played on fibs and typed back and forth because long-distance telephone would have cost more than the lesson.)
We continued to play backgammon, at home and at the Riv, for $100 a point, and sometimes more (that's like $1000 a point today by the way). And because of my lessons I cleaned up.
One day, at the Riv, Manny told us there was a guy who was a big roller who was looking for some backgammon action. He wanted to play for $500 a point. So my guys backed me and arranged for us to play. We asked Manny to ask around and make sure the guy was not a pro or a crook, and he came back and warned me not to play him. So I didn't. His name was Gabby something. (He would have cleaned me out for sure!) Later Manny came back and said the guy was willing to spot me a 3-1 opening as long as he wasn't down. That was, to me, a sure sign I was out of my league. I might not have been a good backgammon player, but I wasn't completely stoopid.
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