A Sign, Probably Bad
At the World Series, Bill and Bob witness an omen. Nobody can agree on what it means.
The World Series of Poker hallway is the loudest place in Las Vegas that does not have a slot machine in it. Bill and Bob reached it on the afternoon of day three and stopped at the rope line, where they were immediately swept aside by a crowd moving toward the entrance at speed.
At the center of the crowd was a man in a black tracksuit with a gold stripe down each sleeve, gold-framed glasses and a cap that, when Bill looked closely, said Rocky Rivers on the front. Nobody has been able to explain the cap. Bill has asked around town. Ray's Poker Room says it does not sell merchandise.
The crowd was calling him Phil. They were calling it in unison, holding out notepads and cocktail napkins for autographs, and several of them were kneeling. The man walked through all of it with his arms spread wide, shouting something about a number, 1.4, that the crowd appeared to understand completely and Bill did not understand at all.
Bill and Bob stood at the rope and watched him pass. Bill's expression, according to Bob, was that of a man trying to work out whether he had just seen a blessing or a warning. Bob's expression, according to Bill, was that of a man who had just found a role model.
Nobody in the hallway could tell them what it meant. The man disappeared into the tournament room still waving, and the chanting went with him.
Neither of them has been able to say exactly what changed after that afternoon. But the trip stopped feeling like tourism and started feeling like something that was happening to them, which in both men's experience is usually when the trouble starts.
All of Chapter 1: The Vegas Trip →