The worst part is that this happened at the Venetian, and not some crappy casino. The Venetian is so cool and is definitely in my top 3 casinos that I've seen here. They also have a few awesome restaurants/clubs and the Blue Man Group, all of which I wanted to experience, but won't be able to.

I'll try my best to do this story justice, but I don't think I'll be able to even come close to illustrating how intimidating and infuriating the situation was.

Shortly after busting out of the tournament, I get my chips (that's how they paid the $9k) and my friend and I decide to head out. This was at like 9:00 pm or so. On the way to the valet to get his car, we are stopped in the hotel lobby by 3-4 security guards basically running up to us.

They ask us for ID, which is fairly standard because we are both young and look young. Obviously we don't like being ID'd but we of course oblige, we are both 21 so no problem. They stare at our ID's for a while, we are like what is the problem? We offer other forms of ID, ranging from Social Security cards to college IDs.

They quote some bs Nevada law about damaged IDs, and note that Andrew (my friend) has a few minor dents in his ID. Bare in mind these are basically nothing, and they clearly could've used their discretion and allowed it like anyone else. Additionally, we weren't even gambling or even in the casino are, we were in the hotel lobby. We point this out and mention we are on our way out anyways, what is the deal? They bs something about them having the right to ID anyone, which I suppose is legitimate, but c'mon, this was getting ridiculous. Again, they refuse our request to just take our IDs and leave.

So they say they need to go verify the ID, so we are taken to a little security section off the casino floor. This whole situation is pretty embarrassing, being taken across the casino by multiple guards like criminals. I'm upset because I just busted the tournament in unlucky fashion and wanted to get out of there and go to a bar with my friends. With no intention of actually leaving my friend, I ask if they would return my ID, since they had no problems with it (no damage). They decline with no stated reason.

We stood at the station for approximately 10 minutes, growing increasingly infuriated by how long it was taking to verify our legitimate IDs. They say they are having problems with their system or something and that we need to go see a security manager or something. So we go through an employees only door, pass numerous kitchens, waitresses, dancers, etc. We went so far back behind the casino, it was actually pretty cool. At the time we weren't worried of course, we knew we were 21 and it was kinda neat to see all this, but we still wanted to leave.

So we get to this room and enter, only to see several more guards. These guys were pretty big and had guns, etc. We get put into separate small rooms that are completely blank, have benches with straps, and cameras/audio recording. We are told we cannot leave and we are waiting for some guy to come talk to us about our IDs (specifically, Andrew's because his is "damaged").

The whole time I feel we were treated pretty poorly, likely a function of us being young and having a lot of money, which was probably pretty obvious. This guy walks into Andrew's room and the first thing he says is "that's a nice watch, how'd you get it?" with a negative tone as if to imply Andrew had stolen it. Andrew had on a Ulysse Nardin, I had on my Gucci, both indeed nice watches. The guard mispronounced Ulysse Nardin at least 3 times, with Andrew correcting him each time, which was pretty funny, because we still assumed we weren't in any trouble or anything. In fact, at numerous points I joked with the guards about whether they were going to beat us up and rob us. Actually I'm not really sure if I was joking or not, maybe I was just testing them to see their reaction. To be honest at this point I was starting to get a little concerned about the situation and the fact that we had about $30k cash between the two of us, they seem to hate us, and we are isolated in a backroom, basically helpless.

That's when they break it on Andrew and make it clear this whole thing had nothing to do with our IDs, which makes sense in retrospect, but in the heat of the moment it was pretty easy to be fooled into going back there. They say that when Andrew cashed out chips from the poker tables the previous night, the cashier gave him $1,000 too much. They say that this is all clearly on video and that Andrew realized the error which was clear from his reaction on the video. Andrew had never mentioned this to me and it had been like 24 hours, so I doubted it's validity and thought this might be how they "get at us" and take $1,000 from us. They wouldn't let us see the video, but said they would call down the police or the gaming commission to verify the error, which they "did", although this was likely a bluff. They bluffed us successfully on many occasions, but I will contend that they did it well enough and the pressure of the situation would've fooled just about anyone in our shoes.

It turns out that Andrew did in fact know he received too much money, but hadn't told any of us so at the time I had no idea if this was some sort of scam or legitimate. He wanted to see the video and was starting to get pretty upset with security, which I don't really blame him for. Acknowledging that he knowingly took $1,000 extra would surely get him in trouble in this spot. Arguments between security and Andrew (with me chiming in on occasion continued for probably 20-30 minutes.

Did Andrew do wrong by taking the extra $1,000 knowingly? Yeah, I think so. It definitely got the cashier fired and he likely won't be able to work in a casino again. However, I think that once the mistake has been made, the casino should basically just chalk it up as a loss and it being their fault, and shouldn't be able to come after Andrew like this. At worst I think they should be able to just blacklist him, but not take back the $1,000.

Eventually they kicked me out and kept Andrew, which concerned me. I would've preferred to stay with him and was worried since he was getting very upset/irrational about the situation and could potentially be in danger. They took me to another room took photos of me, uh oh. Then we continued to walk even further down the hallway until we reached an alley behind the casino, which looked incredibly sketchy. On the way out they read to me some document about how I had been "trespassed" which basically means banned for life from the Venetian. I ask why, since I was completely uninvolved with the transaction from the night before, had no idea about it, and wouldn't even be in this predicament had I not been with my friend at the time they decided to apprehend him. They said they were just following orders and couldn't tell me why. I asked how I could go about finding out why or appeal, they told me I needed to talk to some guy, I can't remember his name, and they wouldn't give me any contact information.

At the door, they asked if I had any uncashed chips, which was a very difficult question. On one hand, I could say yes and risk them confiscating the chips (I had about $7k in Venetian chips on me) or say no and risking them maybe searching me and catching my lie. I just said no and walked out, knowing I could always sell the chips to someone else or use them at another casino, it didn't seem worth the risk at the time of losing them.

So here I was in some random alley, no clue where I was, in a sketchy area walking around with like $15k on me. Still upset over the tournament, in shock about what just happened, and worried about my friend and now worried about getting lost or mugged.

Meanwhile Andrew was getting baited into signing some document that basically said he was turning over the $1,000 willingly and that we couldn't sue them or anything. So he paid the $1,000 but got blacklisted as well.

I eventually found my way back to the strip and went to the Mirage and waited for a bit until I got a call from Andrew, who was on his way over to meet me. We exchanged stories, etc, while crushing Mirage single-deck blackjack for a few grand and throwing back some drinks.

There are many interesting things about what happened, but I think the main thing you should know is how tricky casino security (and I guess the same goes for police in general) can be. They will say anything to get you where they want you, even if they couldn't otherwise do so. They didn't charge either of us with anything and couldn't have taken us to that backroom against our will, but they used the front of the ID problem to get us there. I would advise anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation to just say no, I'm not going into a backroom, I'll stay out here while you sort out the manner, I refuse to be taken there etc. And to press them on why you are being held, are you charged with anything, etc. Or that you want to speak with someone (a lawyer) who can guide you through their bs and lies. The way we ended up, we were literally helpless and the result of both Andrew giving up the $1k and us being blacklisted were basically inevitable.

I'm obviously pretty upset that I'm blacklisted since I was completely uninvolved, I was treated poorly and deceived, and now can't ever go back to a casino which is truly awesome. I'm going to attempt to talk with someone about it and get reinstated, but I have no idea how likely that is. I don't imagine Andrew will have much luck, even though he gave back the $1k.

I must say I'm extremely impressed with casino security. They deal with millions of transactions daily, have an equally numerous amount of cameras, and there must be many people must be watching and double checking these transactions. I'm sure cashiers pay out the correct amount at least 99.9% of the time, they usually double check the chips and sometimes have someone else verify before paying. But someone was watching Andrew's transaction, and doing so intently, and caught the error.

Additionally, they were able to track Andrew down the next day using the cameras. He never swiped a card or anything that would automatically let them know he was back, they must've spotted him with their cameras. What's more, they found him in the hotel lobby, so they must've been searching everywhere. This was "only" for $1,000, which is basically nothing to a casino, but they put on quite an impressive manhunt it appears.

Lastly, I apologize to the numerous people I have left hanging with this story. I'm sure some people were worried or just really wanted to know what happened, I'm not near my computer too often in Vegas, as most of the time I'm on the strip and not at our house.

On a different note, yesterday I played the $1500 PLO event. I only lasted a few levels, never really got anything going or built a stack. I missed a few flops and with only 60bbs to start in a wild, multiway game, missing a few flops is basically all you have until you are very shortstacked. Mike Sexton was at my starting table which was pretty cool. I eventually busted when there was an EP minraise which got 2 coldcalls, I jammed my 10bb stack with J984 double suited, figuring that although I would get a call (and usually just one as I figure to get isolated a lot by the EP minraiser) I would have decent equity and there would be so much dead money with the coldcalls and the blinds that I would be +EV in the spot. Turns out I was right as EP isolated with AAT7 one suit and I had around 40% equity and only contributed to around 1/3 of the pot. Unfortunately I didn't win the hand, oh well.



The event was very wild and people dropped like flies, which I guess is to be expected with a short starting stack and an action game like PLO. The field was soooo soft. I saw numerous people do stupid things like getting it in with a bare 9 hi flush draw on a paired flop. I was just in shock the whole time and tilting that I kept missing flops. Oh well.

I opted to not play the $5k NL event today, since I didn't really feel like it and also because since that event would be so deep, it would be fairly likely that I make day 2 and I would much prefer to play the $2500 HA event tomorrow, which is the plan for now.

I still want to meet up with the other Leggo guys, lets get dinner or something soon.

Craig