Chapter 4: Dito - Enrichment - 2nd July 1993

What happened next grew out of that night. I'd had fun with Angela and I was feeling full of myself, on top of the world. I know in hindsight that common sense and Martin's training should have warned me, but it didn't. Things would have gone differently if I had thought them through. I didn't though. All I was thinking about was that I'd written a check for a lot of money, and now I needed more. I'll regret it to my dying day.

I woke up early and used the cleansing trick that Martin had taught me; it was better than a cup of coffee. Flights from San Jose to Vegas started at six in the morning, so I just hopped the first flight I could. I paid cash at the counter. I arrived at the Illusions hotel from the cab, paid cash again and walked inside. I had a little over $5000 in my pocket in a bank check from emptying out my savings account that morning. I'd flown in to Vegas on a lark, having decided that it was basically impossible to stop a telepath from winning at poker. So, I decided, if I'm gonna go 'play' poker, it should be in Vegas. I'd left a note on my fridge for Martin when I headed out.

The moment I stepped out of the cab I could sense that there were telepaths around the strip. When I walked into the casino, I knew that there was one nearby. She was not too powerful, and I knew from Martin's training that I could mask myself from her easily. I knew she hadn't detected me walking in, and probably wasn't powerful enough to find me on her own. I was feeling pretty powerful, pretty self confident from the night before, so I decided to see how things worked here.

I worked my way slowly up to where she was sitting. She was firmly ensconced in a booth with a good view of the gaming floor. In front of her was an ashtray and a large glass of water. She was chain-smoking Camel unfiltered. On either side of her were two really big, really buff guys dressed in expensive suits who had been mind-controlled into drones. They looked like her harem. She was something like 50, butt ugly and a little dumpy dressed in expensive clothes. The rings on her fingers had to total more than ten carats of good looking diamonds.

I heard her talking under her breath. "Table seven, counting cards. He's no good at it, ignore him." Now the thing is that even I know that the casinos use state of the art closed circuit systems and a room full of people actively looking for cheating. I knew that then, I know it now. Why I didn't stop and ask myself what she was really looking for is what eats at me. I should have known right then.

I grabbed a drink from a passing cocktail waitress with some really pretty tits up on display in her small uniform and dropped a ten dollar bill on her tray. No need to horde my cash I thought, I planned on having more soon.

"Slot number 212. Using a magnet." The guy on her left got up and walked away into the rows of slots. I scanned the rest of the casino as I watched her operate. She was the only one monitoring at the moment, so I felt safe enough to go play some poker.

I walked to the cashier, got most of $5000 in chips and headed to the $500 table. Quite by 'accident', someone at that table 'just decided' to drop out of the game and a space for me opened up. Also, 'just by coincidence', the guy who had been waiting to sit down decided he'd wait at another table instead. I put my chips on the table and smiled at the dealer.

"$50 ante."

I tossed in and got my cards. I checked in with the old broad watching the action and went to work.

I won a few hands, and purposely lost a few. I played and waited. After a couple of hours, I was up another five thousand. About that time, Yoshi Motori came into the casino accompanied by his big Japanese bodyguard. He was an extremely wealthy Japanese businessman with a taste for high-stakes poker. He was escorted past a red velvet rope and a closed curtain into the high-stakes game. I wanted into that game.

An hour later, I was up another $6000. I had almost $17,000 in chips in front of me and I had run four people off the table close to broke. Just 'by chance' though, there was always someone looking to play poker at my table. I yawned and stretched. It was close to 7PM. I had been checking in with the telepath monitoring the room from time to time. She never found anything suspicious about my play to investigate. Interesting, that.

The next time the pit boss came through, he leaned in and said to me.

"Excuse me Sir, I'm the floor manager for this section of the casino. My name is Francis Ruby. I'd like to welcome you to the Illusions Hotel. We appreciate your business."

"Thanks very much. My name is Colfax ... Colfax Popingham. I'm enjoying myself very much. You have a nice place here."

"Mr. Popingham, it would be the pleasure of the Illusions if you would accept our hospitality for the evening. We have a very nice suite set aside for you if you would be so kind as to stay with us. The room and everything in it are at your convenience."

"How wonderful, my thanks. Of course I'll accept. There is one thing though."

"Yes Sir?"

"I'd very much like an invitation to the high stakes table."

"The casino requires a minimum stake of $25,000 per player, Mr. Popingham, I'm afraid that you don't"

<a slight push from me>

" ... oh, excuse me, my apologies. Of course you meet the minimum table requirements. I'll just go see how long the wait will be for a seat."

He was back in just a minute.

"There are three people waiting for a seat at the table, sir. Would you care to join them? If we have another player for that game like yourself come in, we can open a second table."

I was escorted behind the red ropes. It felt really good to be on the inside of something for once. Ever see a James Bond film? In the private playing area of the movies, the women are beautiful and beautifully dressed, and the men wear tuxedos. Here, a couple guys were in suits, a couple were in jeans, and the one woman playing looked like the retired Dry-Cleaning Queen of Indianapolis. That's because she was. If I was expecting glamour and glitz, it wasn't there. However, there was a ton of money floating around, and I wanted it.

As I waited, I pushed people slowly out of the game until both Mr. Motori and I had seats. I sat down near nine PM. For some reason, no one at the table noticed that my chips were light for the game. As I sat down, I checked in with the casino telepath. She had been rotated out, and another not-so-swift telepath had taken her place. This one was a thin little guy with a thin face like an axe blade. The mindless stud-muffins had been replaced with a pair of artistic, bohemian gay men who were also tampered with.

"Ante is $500."

I tossed in and got to work. You can't bluff a telepath. I don't need a 'tell' to know what you're going to do. I didn't have to count cards or even out-psych my opponents. Basically it was an exercise in patience and not making a scene. It was a long, methodical bloodbath. No one got up from the table as I played. Each became somewhat unprofessionally obsessed with taking me to the ... um, cleaners. When I didn't have the cards, I knew it. I was at least a little careful in that I didn't have people just play like idiots. I knew that'd show up on the cameras and questions would get asked. So, I simply made a long string of very, very smart moves.

"Another $50,000 please." Said Motori, handing in a check.

"Another $25,000." Said the dry cleaning queen.

"Gimme twenty grand more." Said the venture capitalist.

"Whew. Draw $45,000 on my account." Said the embezzler.

At midnight I pushed away from the table with over $150,000 in front of me. I got a check and went to the Sand-Dune Casino. Their telepath was also not ready for prime-time, and I walked out of there with another $200,000.

I played for fifteen hours at four other casinos before I returned to the Illusions. When I checked into my room, it was a huge suite done up to the hilt in high Las Vegas excess. Clearly, I'd been upgraded more than once. The bathtub had a waterfall and was big enough for two or even three. The bed was round and a huge TV hung from the ceiling above with a remote control built into the headboard. One channel was live video of the bed, recording onto a VHS tape. There was a huge sunken, greenhouse style balcony that looked onto the restaurant terrace nearby and out over the strip.

When I called for room service an incredibly beautiful 'room service' hostess brought up my meal. When I scanned her, I learned that she was an ex-cop for the city of Las Vegas, and she was there to look for anything the hotel could find out about me. She was a spy from hotel security. That kind of pissed me off. What was weird is that it also made me horny. Why? I guess because I knew that she thought she had the secrets when I knew that I was the one with a secret advantage.

That should have been my second clue. Casinos don't tend to send beautiful security personnel up if you've just won a couple of hundred grand. That's a good day, but still chump change. They bring out the big guns for the real fat cats, but...

"Hi, my name is Talia and I'm here, Mr. Popingham, to make sure that you're being well taken care of by the hotel, and that you enjoy your stay. May I set out your meal?"

"Of course, Natalie."

She paused as she laid out my food. "I don't really answer to Natalie, how did you know that was my name?"

"You look like a Natalie. A very, sexy Natalie."

She at least had the courtesy to blush.

I walked over to the balcony curtains and opened them all. It was about Five PM in Las Vegas in Mid-Summer, I'd been playing for a long time and I'd used tricks of the trade to keep myself alert ... it was bright daylight out and the hotel's dining terrace was beginning to fill up with diners. In Vegas, the early diners are mostly older. Lots of gray haired women come to play some keno and live a little. Lots of couples in retirement from places like Madison, Wisconsin. Good plain folks. They had a great view of me and the balcony. One nice looking older lady even waved at me. I waved back and blew a kiss. She laughed and turned to her companion to tell her about it. She wondered if I was a celebrity.

"You know Natalie, I think I'd prefer to have my meal out here on the balcony, the view is really excellent. You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not, sir. The view is extraordinary, isn't it?" She frowned at my use of her name as she took the place setting and headed for the table on the balcony. It was a gorgeous glass topped table with ornate brass legs.

"How tall are you Natalie? Five ten?"

"Five nine, sir."