Elmer spends the day trying to fill inside straights: I spend it raking chips across the felt.Īnd here's the beautiful part: The whole time, I'm playing with Bob Stupak's money. Sitting down at the Vegas World poker tables, I figured to face Elmer and his wife, Thelma Lou, who just breezed in from Palookaville to share their money with me. While it's true that playing the slots or blackjack is mathematically a losing proposition no matter what casino you're playing in - you're subject to the same house edge, the same relentlessly unforgiving vigorish - the fact is, these odds don't apply to poker, where it's every man for himself. Stupak targets low rollers with low-cost vacation packages - and that's what struck me as an opportunity. Let Caesars Palace and the Mirage draw big-money players, through glitz and ersatz opulence. Maybe you've heard of this place, the renegade casino for Everyman. And that's how I succeeded in bringing Las Vegas to its knees. That's what caught my eye about the ad for Bob Stupak's Vegas World, and that's why I headed west.

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