So for the people who knew him, you know that we met playing blackjack at the Horseshoe in the spring of 2001. I knew that day that I was probably gonna really like this guy that was more than 30 years my senior. He was dressed in slacks with a blazer playing at a corner seat near the door. I sat down and we talked as we played. He was extremely bright and had been a card counter for years. I was new to card counting at this time. In fact, it was only the second location that I paid after I learned to count cards. The first one barred me after a few visits, so I moved to the HorseShoe. Man what a good decision that was. He knew I was counting probably immediately. I had no idea he was until I was bout to leave. It took me several hours to figure out something he figured out in a fe minutes. He always said I was a better counter than him, but he was probably wrong. About an hour or two after I sat down the first time I meet him, he told me he could never be a dealer. He said that with his limited education they would fire him the first day. Falling for his trap, I said "Why is that?". He said "He wasn't able to count to 21 unless he got naked." As Larry the Cable guy says "That's funny no matter who you are!" Of course I told him I hope he doesn't get 21 because I didn't want to see that.
The best line he ever used goes as follows. Everyone knows that his wife is a saint. She would take care of him as though he was a king. I would always tell him, I don't know why she puts up with you. He would say, I know, she is a saint. About the forth time over a six month period I said this, apparently he had figured out a response to my constant putting him down. He quickly replied, "That's because you haven't seen me naked!". To this day that ranks as one of the funniest things I have ever heard. Apparently, he wanted people to see him naked since two of his stories centered around him taking off his clothes.
He always made me laugh without trying either by his stories, his jokes, or his actions. I remember one year SuperMom and I took him and My Favorite Greek to an Italian restaurant for his birthday in the Venetian hotel. We stayed there for hours talking and drinking tea and soda. Unknown to us we were being charged for each soda. He liked diet Coke almost as much as I did. I must have spent $50 on diet coke that night. You should have seen his face when he found out.
There was this other time when we were playing limit Texas Hold 'em. I was dealt suited connectors like 8-9 spades. I called the blind and me and two guys were in the hand. The flop came and it missed me. The other guys checked, so I saw the turn. Now I have an open end straight draw. I bet trying to steal the pot and get one caller. The river completes my straight. I bet and get rebet and this continues until the other guy is out of money. I win and he starts talking under his breathe about me because he flopped a set, which I thought was funny. Turns out the Italian didn't think it was funny at all. This 70 year old man basically tells the guy half his age to zip it or he was gonna have to deal with him (in less polite words). Funny thing is, I know he meant it. That Italian always made me laugh.
Here is another example of the mess he would get me into. We were having lunch the week before Halloween. He was telling me about Denny the Dog and the record streak he was on picking football games. He was like 60-6 handicapping the pro games. Turns out The Italian had bet $100 on each of Denny the Dog's picks for the upcoming Sunday. I said I'll take some of the action and took $50 per game off of him with dreams of making millions. Turns out that once the early games were over on Sunday, there was no way for us to even break even. Final results, Denny the Dog had picked 3 winners and 13 losers this week. I am so glad I took some of his action. Denny blamed it on Halloween. I lost over $500 that week. The Italian laughed about this the entire football season.
Speaking of football, the best and last football game I ever saw was December 17, 2006. Chiefs versus the Chargers at Qualcomm stadium in San Diego. Tomlinson rushed for 200 yards as the Chargers won 20-9. I bought tickets for me and The Italian to go see the game. It had been 25 years or so since he had been to a football game. It was a night game. We took off for the trip early in the morning. Stopped on the way in Victorville I believe for lunch. We got to the stadium early and pulled into the parking lot where people were tailgating. The Italian rolled down the window and we slowly drove through the parking lot. He said the food smelled so good and asked if I could circle the stadium one more time. Of course, I did. Turns out the tickets I bought were tickets issued to the players and coaches which are returned if not used. We sat in the middle of the families of the coaches and players. They all knew each other. Of course you know by the end of the game, you would have thought by the way they were treating The Italian, that he was one of the player's family members. San Diego had a defensive end named Igor Olshansky. Every time he made a tackle the fans would say Igor. Of course we joined in. The Italian said that was the best football name for a defensive player and asked if I would name my son Igor so he could be a great defensive end. He was amazed at the stadium, game, fans, players, and seats. As Ice Cube would say in reference to that day, "Today was a good day". That was one of my best days with The Italian.
He had about 100 cousins. Funny, thing is I believe all but one was named Vinny. I met Vinny 1-15 on a trip they made to Vegas. I went out with them several times while in town. A great time was had by all. And these fellows looked up to The Italian greatly. I was beginning to think he was the God Father. There was true love there.
My kids loved him. Lu would say his name with a southern draw, that The Italian loved to hear. DP would ride on his wheel chair, and The Italian would act like he was his grandson and people would tell him that DP looked just like him. He would smile and say, "Yeah he is a good looking boy". The day before he died, we were lucky to visit him. He was not feeling well and the end was near. We didn't know that when we stopped by. We had already moved to Florida and were visiting for the week in Vegas. He had been sick all week, but the day we were to fly out, we stopped by. He set up in bed and talked to us. He told a couple jokes and smiled as usual. DP noticed that The Italian had a couple of toe nails that were yellow in color as older men some times do. The Italian replied, "Those are my golden toes." For several months DP wanted "golden toes".
One time a friend of The Italian came to town and we went to play Craps. The Italian loved craps. We were playing a little while and I had just completed a great roll. I bet the Italian he could do the same. He said he was going to roll for two hours. So the bet end with me telling him that I would give him $5 for every roll he made after the first ten rolls. If you Craps, ten rolls is a lot. The Italian had the best roll ever. When he severed out, I had set aside $170 on the rail for him and had won more than $2000. Being the person he was, he told me to give the $170 to my daughter Lu. He would also always bring them money. I think Lu has more money than I do because of this guy.
He has several funny and wise stories about his uncle. He loved his family so much. I really miss talking to him. I have hundreds more, but will conclude here.