The Invitation
A regular home game in Bob's basement ends with a Vegas trip nobody responsible approved.
The weekly game in Bob's basement was three hands into an unremarkable night when Bob stood up, held a set of car keys over the table and asked if anyone wanted to go to Vegas.
Bill, holding two cards and a small stack of green and blue chips, said no. He said it immediately and without looking up, the way a person says no to something they have been asked before.
The request was not a surprise. A poster for the 2026 World Series of Poker had been pinned to the corkboard behind Bob's chair since spring, positioned so that anyone seated across from him had to look at it all night. Bill had noticed this in April. He had said nothing, on the theory that acknowledging it would only encourage him.
The deciding vote came from Larry, who was seated in the third chair with his arms folded and his cards face down in front of him. Larry said please go.
Bill would later describe this as the moment he should have taken a closer look at the dog. Larry does not usually weigh in on travel. Larry does not usually weigh in on anything. A dog who has spent years watching two men misplay the same hands, and who suddenly asks both of them to leave the state, is a dog with a reason. Nobody at the table asked what it was.
Bob took the endorsement as a mandate. By the end of the night there were plane tickets, a departure date and a group chat with a name Bill has asked us not to print. The flop, a diamond, a spade and a heart, was never dealt a turn.
That was mistake one.
All of Chapter 1: The Vegas Trip →