Not quite the weiner that Mike was

I took a customer out to dinner tonight and then afterwards got together with a friend of mine, Matt Parra, who used to work for Xerox. Matt and I worked together pretty closely over the course of about three years, he as a sales guy and me in a few different roles. Over the years, Matt and I have become great friends and we try and connect as we're traveling to different cities around the country. After dinner, we headed over to the casino in Kansas City. The past few times I've been there I've played poker and learned the hard way that while I'm good enough to beat Eli badly at poker, I'm not good enough to hang at these tables. Matt is good enough, so he hung in the poker room while I hit the blackjack tables.

I sat down at a $5 table that was really cold. I played for a while, losing bit by bit, hoping things would turn around. For a while, it was just me and the dealer, which is a pretty lame way to go. I was getting ready to change tables when two other guys sat down and started playing. Suddenly, thing changed. We played for about 45 minutes with ridiculous luck. We all kept pressing our bets, doubling down and splitting like nobody's business. We went from $10 hands to $50-$100 hands, riding the hot streaks as long as we could. I had a few hands where I'd bet $75, split and win. I ended up about $500 ahead and the other two guys were about the same before I decided to call it quits.