The Flamingo

LV '01 will forever be remembered for the great Freak-Out. We were staying at the Flamingo... me, my brother, Hop and Joel. The four of us took turns getting killed at the tables. One night, my brother and I fared poorly. The next, it was Hop and Joel. Then, me and Hop. Which led to a lot of instances where two people would go do something, while the two who had just gotten raped, would get cheap food and try to kill some time before giving the tables another go.

One the last night, it was Joel's "turn" to stay out and ride the hot streak. While me, Andy and Hop retired to the hotel room. Everyone was sound asleep when Joel came back to the room sometime around 4am or so. I didn't hear him come in, but I did awake to Hop's screaming. He had sat up in his bed and just lost it, becoming his own hotel room-invasion alert. He must've thought Joel was breaking in or something. He just sat up and yelled, "AHHHHHH, AHHHHHHH, AHHHHHHHH, AHHHHHHHH" while everyone else was in stunned amazement. He finally shut up and just laid back down and fell asleep.

The next morning, Hop pretended to not remember. I knew he was lying. Everyone else was laughing so hard they had tears running down their cheeks. We went to the airport and flew home, with Hop flying a different flight than the rest of us, due to his living in Chicago at the time and all. Later, Hop admitted to me that he was afraid to fall asleep on the flight home... he didn't want a repeat Freak Out at 30,000 feet. I would have paid $5,000 to see that happen though. Maybe more.

As for the chips, the house chip was part of the 2004 haul. The others were bought on-line. Not the best chip collecting stories, but I will forever remember the Freak Out.