I Love KY

I purchased this chip online after I went to the Kentucky Derby in May of 2005. It was my first time to Derby and I haven't missed one since. Giacomo was the big winner that day, followed by Barbaro, Street Sense and Big Brown. I won big on Barbaro in '06. But more important than the winners (and the horses who get put down on the track) are the wild, drunken shenanigans that happen at Derby. From our traditional Friday meal at Hooters (complete with pregnant waitresses!), to Fourth Street Live (complete with pregnant waitresses!), to the Church, Derby, KFC afterwards and the longest drive home on Sunday... there's never a dull moment. And without this yearly trip to Loo-ville, we'd have never met the Joint Commander. Or Darla, the incarcerated flasher. Or sung "Fraggle Rock" so many times. Or gambled on Sirius Radio. Or hit on Janet from 90210. Or been called 'loose dicks.' Or met the President (of what?). Good times. I could go on and on. But after returning home, sunburned, in 2005, I immediately purchased this chip. Derby... almost as fun as Vegas.

Shark Reef

UPDATE: I think I combined two different trips to make this story. The animal chips/shots at the table/Rahman-Lewis trip was from a trip in early 2002. The Hopkins/Taylor fight trip was in 2005.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In 2005, Hop and I were in Las Vegas for the second Bernard Hopkins-Jermaine Taylor fight. A spectacularly crappy fight that was notable for 3 reasons:

1. An extreme level of drunkenness (more on this later)
2. Both of us losing big bets on B-Hop
3. Before the main event, they filmed some scenes for Rocky VI. We got to see both Stallone's and Tarver's entrances and their intro's. Plus it gave me a good opportunity to ask Hop how old he thought Stallone was. Good stuff.

Back to the drunkenness and the original point of this post, getting the Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef chip. Throughout this trip, we played a handful of sessions of blackjack at the Mandalay. And we repeatedly did shots at the table... and tried to get others at the table to do them with us. Most declined. Probably because it was always ridiculously early in the afternoon... and they probably didn't want to wind up "the drunk asshats," like we were. Well, the Mandalay has a handful of animal-themed chips. The Shark Reef being one of them. They also have a bunch of "Year of the ____" chips. Goat, Monkey, Snake and Dragon that I can remember. There might be more. Through the course of play, we'd both accumulate a few of these animal chips, and whenever we'd lose a couple hands, we'd make it a point to bet with an animal chip and say something like, "I better set the dragon lose here, I need a win." Got to be a pretty fun endeavor that I think a few people at the table did start to follow. I think Hop even collected a $25 Rahman/Lewis chip that he kept. Don't ask me why. I didn't want the "Year of" chips, but I did keep one of the Shark Reef chips. I'm sure sending a Shark out to get a blackjack win was always a profitable endeavor.