A Day Of Poker In Paradise

I guess the dressing room for the “dolls” is behind the poker room because every half hour or so two well built and scantily clad girls walked by with a fully dressed female chaperon.

When I am in Las Vegas I play poker. I am a decent poker player in a city of excellent ones. It’s a challenge which is my fun. I’ve been playing in tournaments because you can get a lot of play with relatively little money at risk.

I played the noon tourney at Caesars and was doing really well until I got a pair of Aces dealt to me. That’s the best starting hand you can get. Unfortunately, another player at the table got lucky and ‘cracked’ them. I was gone.

I went back and found Helaine here at Palazzo. We had an early dinner at the Mirage Buffet. Vey nice. I could easily weigh 600 pounds.

More poker this evening. I headed back to Caesars where there are tournaments every three hours. The 9:00 PM tournament is a bounty tourney. I’d never been in one of those before. The prize pool was split between bounties for knocking other players out and the more cash for the final three of the 27 entered.

I won one bounty and held on until we were down to six. At that point I asked if anyone was interested in a deal. Amazingly everyone was amenable and we chopped the pot into four smaller and two larger shares. I was quite happy walking away with some cash.

This was a really fun table with people from all over the country and two men from Holland who deal at a casino in Amsterdam. No arguments. Everyone was very, very nice with good chitchat and stories.

Meanwhile, the Caesars poker room is adjacent to their “Pure” nightclub and Pussycat Dolls blackjack area. I guess the dressing room for the “dolls” is behind the poker room because every half hour or so two well built and scantily clad girls walked by with a fully dressed female chaperon.

I complained to the floor manager they were stalking me. That got a good laugh.

Pussycat Dolls at Caesars poker room

Judging’s Not For Me

Right now, I would like to take a nap. My whole body is bloated. I wish I had some Alka Seltzer

I did a live shot on-the-air this evening. That’s become more of a rarity as my boss strives to separate ‘Fun Geoff’ from ‘Weather Geoff’.

PIC-0088This was the annual “Taste of the Nation,” which benefits the Connecticut Food Bank and other charitable endeavors. It all took place at the Omni Hotel at Yale, in Downtown New Haven.

The live hits were fun, for a variety of reasons. First, I enjoy having the opportunity to play around a little while on-camera. Second, I tried to solve a techno challenge and succeeded.

Until now, there was no way to control my weather equipment from the field. I’d cue the director, who would cue the floor manager, who would push my weather graphics button. Often, there was missed communication, which took me out of sync with what was on the screen.

This evening, I brought in a laptop, connected using the venue’s wireless Internet cloud, and used logmein.com to bring my weather computer’s screen and controls to the laptop in the field. Though it won’t show me the actual high-res graphic I’m displaying on the air, every other part of the system’s back end was there.

This was a huge burden off my shoulders. It worked perfectly.

PIC-0090After the news, I assumed my second job of the evening – judging the food. I had been volunteered for the job. Who knew how difficult judging is?

I’m not talking about the qualitative judgement. That’s not the tough part of judging. The tough part is the shear quantity of restaurants and food. I had to sample some of everything!

Right now, I would like to take a nap. My whole body is bloated. I wish I had some Alka Seltzer.

I guess I’m the wrong guy to recommend for Iron Chef.

This is Jeopardy: The Taping

Jeopardy’s producers decided the 2003 College Tournament would be held at Yale. Excellent choice. Not just because it’s down the street from work, which it is, but because Yale is steeped in tradition and excellence.

I have been involved in a number of Yale events over the years, and every time I’ve interacted with its students, I’ve come away impressed.

Unlike your high school prom, Jeopardy was able to make a gymnasium totally unrecognizable as such, and move in with everything you need to make TV. Cameras, a lightning grid that would make a rock band jealous, a new Jeopardy set… it was all there and in place. A replica of Rodin’s Thinker wore a Yale cap.

As the weatherman from the ‘host’ station, I was invited to say a few words to the 1,500 or so in attendance for the two final shows. To quote the title of a long forgotten Broadway show, “We Bombed in New Haven.” It was not my finest, most stellar moment, as a live entertainer.

When I am unhappy with a performance, I want the opportunity to do it again. It’s frustrating.

Johnny Gilbert, the man who starts every show by saying, “This is Jeopardy” did the real warm-up and seemed like a nice guy. Bob Boden from Game Show Network once did a count of Johnny’s TV shows – and the count reached over 50.

I was very excited to meet Johnny, because I’ve always had this ‘thing’ about announcers. It probably goes back to the first time I attended a game show broadcast. It was the early ’60s, NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and I can’t remember the show or host for the life of me.

I do remember Wayne Howell. He was the announcer and he did the warm-up. He was great. I remember how impressed I was that we were getting this comedy routine before the show. He was really killing with some really old material.

More than anything, I remember the floor manager calling out “thirty seconds to go” and Wayne, not missing a beat, adding, “if you have to.”

With the warm up over, Alex Trebek came out. So many people look different on TV, not Trebek. He looks exactly the same. Though I don’t sense he is outgoingly warm, he spent a great deal of time in the audience answering questions. That personal contact is very important. I give him credit for that.

Because the shows haven’t yet aired, I will hold my tongue on exactly what transpired, only to say, the three contestants were male, very smart and astoundingly young. One could easily have passed for 14 or 15. None of the three came from Ivy League Schools and one attended a more or less a local, non-selective college that you’ve never heard of.

Though the staff tries to tape Jeopardy in real time, doing a half hour show in 30 minutes, that was not to be. A few of the responses weren’t what the writers had expected. Were they as right as the chosen answer? A conference took place – research was performed. This was no two bit game show. Someone was going home with $50,000 and a car. The answers needed to be correct beyond the shadow of a doubt.

There was also a bit of technical trouble. One of the computers used by the contestants to write their answers went down. Technicians coaxed it into working on the first show, but couldn’t get it to cooperate for Final Jeopardy on the second.

During one of these breaks, I was introduced to Harry Friedman, Executive Producer. He had the confident manner of the guy who knows how to get the goose to continue laying those golden eggs.

I could tell from speaking to him that he knew a show like this had to be a first class production in every way to succeed. Everything had to look perfect.

When we began taping without the computer working, one of the staffers told me how Harry was a major stickler, and that the problem must have been insurmountable for him to allow production to continue.

In local TV, unfortunately, because we’re live and on a much tighter budget, we often move through problems without solving them. Jeopardy can’t afford to do that. I am so jealous.