Epic.

Done got to drinkin on a school night... and got to thinkin... how I need to update this thread. Not sure why I've put it off so long (probly because my addy supplier moved away but I'm taking the first step by posting whatever I'm posting now. I've been told the crap I've lived the past few years are stories that need to be told so I'm gonna do it soon dadgummit

Slim, good to hear from you again! Hope you are well, looking forward to tales of new adventures.

Hoping that you didn’t blow all your dough on crypto.

Please do, your Vegas stories are the most fun on 2+2 by far! Had some very very crazy drunk gambling nights (not everything is detailed in my TR), but nothing even remotely close to your level haha.

What a nice surprise that you surfaced! I hope things have been OK for you and look forward to the next chapter. Be well.

Been waiting for this for a long time go go go!

welcome back.

You guys are funny. He'll be back in 2 years or so.

you knew

It's been a long time since I've updated... over 4 years... but man I do have some stories to tell that I hope will make it worth the wait. To try and make up for it, there is one intriguing Vegas TR topic that I never discussed before... and probably shouldn't... but this will be my final TR so screw it... I'm gonna write about some of my experiences with hookers/lobby whores, upper (a few lower) class prostitutes and porn stars. I never wanted to discuss them on here for 2 main reasons... one was if he** froze over and I wound up getting married, I wouldn't want the girl to somehow find this. The other was I didn't want to glorify it for anyone, encourage others to go out there recklessly doing what I did. One of my often used quotes is "If you learn from mistakes, I should be a friggin genius" If that holds any truth to it, then as far as dealing with prostitutes, I should be considered a board member at Mensa. So coming from an expert, I will say don't do it, especially...absolutely not "lobby whores" there are no honest working girl hookers anymore, just thieves. I'll elaborate on it eventually because it ends up being relevant to put some things into context of my story I'm gonna tell... but for now, I will simply say don't do it.
While I'm being righteous, let me say again that I never cared about strangers reading this stuff at first, just wanted to send it to friends so I wouldn't have to tell the same stories over and over... but now I do want to share my experiences with anyone that can be entertained, enlightened, inspired or any of that crap . I have a lot of stories to tell, not trying to sound like a tool, but if my stories help anyone get over extreme depression/anxiety, I will have been glad to leave a good mark in this world, even if it's with people I will never know of. Roll your eyes if you want but if you get old like me, have the come to Jesus moments like I have, you might think different lol. I'm promising good stuff eventually but I'm also writing a lot this for myself to reflect and to look back on as it wound up being some of, if not the most significant times of my life. I'm pretty sure if you can stand my blah blah blahing, it should eventually be worth it, especially for anyone dealing with depression.
In defense of the procrastination (besides not having access to addy) Every time I started to write about 2018 and all the crap that happened with Crypto...recalling it, trying to write about it got me so down, I just couldn't follow through. I don't even want to tell it now but it's relevant to the story so I'm gonna have to a little. These stories may be boring or depressing but it's part of the buildup. 2018 was crazy, and I mean crazy. Around mid January, 2018 Ethereum peaked around $1,440. I had close to 1,000 Ethereum in one account alone. I had wanted to wait til I moved to Vegas to sell for tax/other reasons but I had a feeling it had peaked and wanted to sell enough to guarantee I'd be a millionaire the rest of my life. I was gonna sell all I had in one account which was a little more than half of my total crypto.


Looking at the pic now, knowing you had a million after taxes with the click of a button... man it's tough.
I was gonna sell and empty this account out one night. I sat around, ready to place the sell order and watched it drop by 10k.... so I waited about an hour, it dropped about 10k more so I decided to wait til morning. By morning it had crashed pretty bad, close to 35%. I woke up with a rock in my stomach and many texts from nervous friends with only a few pay checks invested, while I had my life invested lol. I blew it off, said it's just a setback. Said it'll come back soon enough (classic gambler's mentality ��)
There are so many details going through all that mess for pretty much all of 2018, crazy things that happened. I've actually had a friend tell a writer and he wanted to write an article about all my crap that year. It's a heck of a story but I just can't bring myself to write about it in detail. I will say while crypto was crashing I got really bad off, horrifically bad. I had experienced some minor depression in my life but never had significant/extreme depression and certainly not extreme anxiety to go along with it. Experiencing both of them at the same time is just friggin awful, indescribable. I was depressed because I went from 2.4 mil in crypto to about 700k, and dropping.... then I had horrible anxiety having to decide whether I should try and ride out the storm, get back to where I was or get out completely with 700k in case it goes to nothing. Everyone said to sell but I kept saying it was coming back which of course is the gambler's mentality. 2.5 mil along with other assets would have me at my lifelong retirement goal.... "Fu** you money" my personal definition of F you money is enough to never hear an alarm clock again.
I traded a lot of my bitcoin and ethereum for high risk "sh** coins" in 2018 wanting to get back to my retirement goal quickly and quit working. From February 2018 til about Winter of that year, my hands constantly shook from anxiety, never stopped. I used to rarely drink unless I was on vacation, but I started drinking very heavily even on school nights. I couldn't eat, I lost 25 lbs, got so skinny I looked like I could hang glide on a Dorito.


The depression was awful. I was so depressed I couldn't enjoy music even. I would drive to work often with the car completely silent. I started taking zoloft and eventually it helped... which ended up being a bad thing. I had kept saying crypto would come back and was holding out, but when the zoloft started working, I started thinking I need to ditch this gamblers mentality, be thankful for what I have and sell it before I wind up with nothing. I remember Jordan Belfort (Wolf of Wall street) came out and said sell it all because it will go to nothing and it scared me. I knew I was probably making a mistake (now it obviously was) but I was just ready to be done with the shaking hands and everything else. A wise man always told me "A gambler's money is never his own" and I was ready to have my own money. I ended up selling almost all of it at the absolute worst time... and after trading a lot of bitcoin/ethereum for sh** coins...
Side note- a wealthy man I met in Vegas and ended up being really good friends with had always told me to tell him when it was a good time to buy into crypto. When I got out I told him I thought it would either eventually reach a new high, or go to nothing. I said if you got some money to gamble with... since I'm getting out, now is probably the time. He put in 50k into it and never thought about it. When it shot up In the Fall of 2021 I asked him about it and he said, oh yeah, forgot about that. He logged in to see close to a million in his account. Guy had a million dollars sitting around he didn't know about lol.
I knew it was a bad idea to get out but I just wanted to be done with it. The shaking of the hands stopped, got my appetite back but the depression and anxiety never left. There's just no describing it all. In the Fall of that awful year of 2018 I smashed my car on my buddy's farm. His driveway is like a car roller coaster that a lot of us would fly down over and over. One guy boasted how he had the speed record of 65 mph going down it. There was no alcohol involved, but completely sober... I got the bright idea of attempting to achieve 70... which didn't end well







Got it on video but the commentary of the (marijuana stoned) redneck that owns the farm makes it pretty funny so I'm gonna wait til I finally figure out how to monetize youtube, tiktok or something before I make it public.
Anyways, 2018 was a bad year... worst of my life

For almost 2 years I was convinced I was gonna retire, never have to hear an alarm clock or answer to anyone again. Having those notions go to crap was/is indescribable and something very few people have experience with. One of my best friends dated the prettiest girl in the town for 4 years from age 16-20. After they broke up she married a rookie NHL player. I won't say she was a gold digger at all because she wasn't but I know she had to think she was gonna be very well off her whole life. You know, while I'm addied up I'm just gonna say who it is because I don't think she would mind and she helped me tremendously. The hockey player was Shane Willis for the Carolina Hurricanes. He didn't sign a huge contract at first but he started off very well. His next contract was gonna be lifelong securing money... until this happened.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ex2CYgGIauo" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I'm not good with all this mess so if the video didn't post just youtube search Shane Willis hit.
The hit didn't immediately end his career but he was never the same, didn't play much longer, never got the big money he was sure to earn. I ran into his wife one night and told her she was the only one I knew of that could understand. It may sound superficial or "gold diggerish" to some but come on... If I were her I would have certainly planned to never work again. We talked a while and she helped me a lot. Sometimes the simplest, most cliche things can be the best advice and I remember her telling me that you have to "take it day by day" do whatever you can every day to make things better. Shane came and picked her up that night and I talked to him a bit. I remember thinking how last time I saw him he was at a celebrity golf tourney getting hounded for autographs and now he's at our small town bar with the rest of us.... I remember thinking man, that's gotta be tough on him... but he still has a great life and I need to do the best I can to make one for myself, quit being so dam depressed. I would never ever kill myself but when you see people like Robin Williams, Chris Cornell commit suicide when they have all that money you're like what the eff... but I know now what it's like to go from those highs to not even rock bottom, but just not as high as you were. Depression is an awful thing.... that often turning into wasted time... that parlays into more depression.
I constantly said that I would never get over it... and I'll never forget when another good friend said "you ain't gonna get over it, you just gotta get through it"

Now that I got that out of the way, let me get to the trip reports I never posted, cliff notes of em anyways.
In late April 2019. I had a buddy that worked as a high limit pit boss at PH. He got to be good friends with one of the Backstreet Boys who had been on a residency at PH.... (If I did it) 99.9% doubt he cares but I'll refer to the BBoy as "KJ" to be cautious of crap I've ran into before. My buddy said KJ had boasted about how he beat me like a drum at poker. I said well, tell him I'll be down there soon, let's play heads up for 10k... get some yo. KJ obviously has plenty of money, but he isn't loose with it. I knew he had extreme appreciation for a dollar and thought he would fold to my bluff but...


The Backstreet Boys were having their closing weekend after a long residency. I had never been to a BBoys concert and until I met KJ I knew maybe 2-3 songs of theirs... but I aint gonna lie, after I met KJ the previous Halloween



I opened a BBoys Pandora channel and I have no shame being an instant fan. Being as that I don't care for all this modern day mess, I can shamelessly say I liked a lot of their songs. I thought playing KJ heads up would be cool (along with being easy money) so I told my buddy to tell him let's do this yo. I used to play a lot of poker and thought I was decent, but I hadn't played too much poker, especially not heads up in a very long time. I practiced against a friend I used to win against every time... and he beat me like a rented mule over and over. I was out of practice, got nervous to say the least but I wasn't gonna back out at this point. Picked up the perfect T shirt for the match

I didn't wanna get carried away with the gambling this time, blow all I had won recently so I took 10k cash with me and only gave myself access to 3k via ATM. KJ had a show that evening so I think we had planned to play around midnight after he was done. We had agreed to take 3 shots just before the match (again "If I did it" he's sober these days) so I didn't wanna drink too much beforehand, be all sloppy..... but of course I thought just 1 or 2 couldn't hurt. Wound up with a good buzz and drawn to a BJ table. Planned on playing small but you know how this goes. Had lost most of the 10k cash I had brought before midnight and was gonna have to shamefully balk on the whole thing �� I was there at midnight and was relieved when KJ didn't show. I didn't text him and he didn't text me so I figured he got caught up with something more important. I was sitting in high limit around 2am, telling my dealer friend how I was happy he didn't show. Right when I said it, felt a hand on my shoulder, turned around and it was him. He said man I'm sorry, I was worn out, crashed after the show. I said that's fine cause my 10k entrance fee was "gone like last week's groceries" We got to drinkin, started playing 3 card poker, other crap, just wandering around the property.

This was a lot of fun and a reality show producer's dream. Before we got completely hammered, I think we became friends. Had calm, good conversations about life and all. However, as the drinks started hitting, it got more interesting. It was two smarta**es trying to outwit each other any chance they could. Celebrity and all that crap aside, I honestly began to like the guy a whole lot. When I met him I didn't know who he was and would never recognize him myself but obviously the place was full of his fans that weekend. With everyone gawking at him, In many ways it reminded me of the time I got to hang with Johnny Drama. It was entertaining watching people recognize him, stand around and build up the nerve to ask for an autograph or pic all night. After I had drank enough, I got to where I would spot it, tell em to come on and get you a pic.... and if he said something smarta**ish to me, I would stand up and yell out, "hey there's a Backstreet Boy here, come get you some" He would look at me and smile, shake his head when I did it. He was a good sport, never once saw him tell anyone no for a pic.
I do distinctly remember one hand at 3 card poker during this. I was at the complete a** end of the 10k I had brought. I had lost a ton in a row, figured I was due and went all in with maybe the last 500 I had. I remember taking my hat off, putting my left hand on my head. Thumb on temple, index finger on forehead, looking at everything in front of me and thought what a fun night but here I sit about to finalize a loss of 10k in a few hours and ruin a good time. KJ smacked the table with his hand and said "what you thinking about Slim?" I said (while looking at his $50 bet) "I'm looking at your pic on the table

and looking at myself betting 10x as much as you and I'm thinking I might have a problem. He said "You think?" I liked him more as it all went on. Turns out I was due, hit a big hand that got me back in it, didn't have to take the "walk of shame" to the ATM. After that I started running good and having fun. I do remember asking him "Doesn't it get old singing the same songs night after night after night ? He quickly responded with (after I slammed a shot) "Does it get old with you getting sh**faced, with your loud a** bumpkin accent, worrying the he** out of people every night?" I liked the guy even more after that. I loved his wit and wanted to 1 up him like a drunk redneck wants another beer. The stars aligned and I completely nailed it �� There is about a 45 second sequence where something happened where I got KJ (in our smarta** peeing contest) pretty dagon good even in the "If I did It" context I can't tell it but on his last weekend of a long residency I got him big time in front of employees that knew us both well. It was a lot of fun




Going through my phone, looks like we parlayed the nice 3 card poker run to high limit black jack. Found a quick video. Celebrities hate when you post vids but screw it, this was over 4 years ago and it's not bad.... btw... the other guy in this video is noone famous "If I did it" it's embarrassing hearing myself so drunk and loud ��




https://youtube.com/shorts/CnN_zZ9UljU?feature=share



Miraculously ended up winning all my 10k back and then some that night




KJ hooked myself and several others with vip seats to their final show and I was looking forward to going... but we got so hammered the night before, only got a few hours sleep. We said screw it and gave the tix away. We did attend the farewell party at the roof club at Paris. Had a great table/bottle service, great time




Looks like I wound up getting pretty hammered that night


and of course, wound up gambling... but kept running good
and miraculously cashed out... what a great night

Was a hand away from being down 10k that trip to going home with a good deal of money. Phenomenal trip and a great time with friends. When the BBoys started their tour and came to Raleigh, NC that August, I was in Vegas. The show was sold out so a friend got me to ask KJ for tickets and he came through



Next trip was only a month later, nothing crazy but it did end up having a lot of significance later on. I had always dreamed of moving to Vegas since the first time I visited. Talked about making the move for over a decade but others and even myself knew it was never gonna happen. However, the depression after the whole crypto thing was awful. The same ole routine at home that I had for ages, living every day with regret of missing out on "Fu** you money" was getting unbearable. As much as I hated change, I needed it. I started getting serious about moving to Vegas and this trip persuaded me to do so more. One day I went with a longtime friend off the strip. Ever since I saw Mike Tyson's frenchie in The Hangover I have always adored them. My friend had one that was as chill and as sweet as can be. She came along and we went to a dog friendly place called Lazy Dogs that was really cool.


We went to a nearby park, it was really nice.

We don't have huge parks like that where I'm from and I really liked it, had a great time. It was nice doing something different, away from the strip, experiencing a different side of Vegas. Seeing that nice park and all definitely had me thinking harder about moving there. Spent all day with her Frenchie and fell in love with her. I said if I ever moved to Vegas, I would pay for her dog to get pregnant in exchange for pick of the litter. That dog was friggin awesome



When I got back home from that trip the monotony of the same ole routine for many years wasn't helping the depression. Every morning when I heard the alarm clock, I felt like Bill Murray/Phil Connors on Groundhog Day. Every morning when I heard that alarm, the first thought I had was regret of not cashing the crypto out when I should have. Every and I mean every single day it was my first thought. I hated change like a redneck hates the dentist... but just like a redneck with rotting teeth needs a dentist, I knew I needed change. I had told my job that I wanted to transfer to the Las Vegas branch that Fall. The manager said ok but gave it as much sincerity as all my friends did. The boy who cried wolf didn't have nothing on me as many times I had told folks I was moving to Vegas, so no one took it seriously. I had a Vegas trip planned that August with friends and it was (supposed to be) my last. Not too much out of the ordinary but this pic reminds me that I was doing very well that trip



Not sure how much I have talked about my friend "Mickey Mouse" and "Shawna" in this current thread but I first met them both in 2016, have talked a lot about them in previous trip reports.

There were 3 things I was really looking forward to this time, my (supposed) last trip. I had a voucher for a guest and I to go to the Grand Canyon in a helicopter, picnic at the bottom. Another was to see Paula Abdul in concert. I love my 80's 90's music and the girl I was going to do both with (the frenchie's mom) was a dancer, loved Paula Abdul. Just my luck the girl ending up meeting a "charming" guy a couple weeks before my trip and got serious so that really sucked. Had such a good time with the girl my last trip and had been looking forward to it every day. You could say she had the "Mickey Mouse effect" on me lol



Regardless she is one of the nicest people I have ever known and I was really looking forward to it... but it just didn't happen. I knew a girl that beautiful, getting hit on every time she is seen was bound to run into a "charmer" and this would happen... nonetheless, it just sucked. I had wanted to go a month earlier cause I knew it was likely, but delayed it a month cause friends from home were going. I'll never forget being in a Mcdonalds drive thru and seeing that text that she couldn't go. I know I post pics of good times on here, seemed to have a charmed life but believe me... it ain't haha. The "L" in my luck always seems to turn into an F every time I intensely look forward to something like that, thinking about every day beforehand. So this trip was gonna be a disappointment no matter what. However, there was one more thing I was looking forward to. This being my (supposed) last trip, I was looking forward to ending the "Shawna streak" and wanted it to go out on a win so much to where it wasn't even about winning money (well....) It's unbelievable how many times Shawna has cut the cards and I wound up winning. She was 30-0-1 (no lie or exaggeration) It had gone on for over 2 years. I used to ask her to cut for me all the time but then got to where I would wait til the last hand of the trip and go very big.
She had gotten off at 10:00 am after working grave, we went and had a few drinks. I was up this trip really good, wanted to put 5k on the final Shawna hand. She had been working all night, ready to go home but I wanted to wait until my favorite dealer had come back from break. Shawna was really wanting to go home but this weirdly meant more to me than any of it made sense so she stuck around and waited for no other reason than out of kindness.
Again, since this is my last TR..... I'm gonna go ahead and say that "Shawna" and "Mickey" are the same person. (several strangers have come up to me and asked who each of them are ��) I gave her 2 different personas because there is just no way the miraculous things that happened through these years could involve the same single person. The first night I met Mickey was a very significant night in my life that I don't have time to explain but I remember it well. Ronnie Milsap could see she was very pretty but being physically pretty isn't hard when you're born with it. Being "beautiful" is a completely different virtue that is earned. The way I saw her being so genuinely kind not just to me (the guy giving the tip) but to everyone, even homeless people with so much genuine concern made her one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen.
My favorite dealer got back, came to a table where a guy had been playing by himself for a while. I figured he wanted to play alone but I asked nicely could we jump in the next shoe for just one hand. He said one hand ? I intensely explained the history of the Shawna streak and so on. Told him it sounded silly but this is very big, the last one ever. He looked at Shawna/Mickey and said, oh this is your lady luck huh ? Funny how lady luck always seems to be attractive. Then he pulled his money back and wanted nothing to do with this hand. The guy was a karma guy or whatever, kinda like I am. I'm guessing he thought this was pathetic crap and wanted nothing to do with it. During the shuffle he kept asking questions.... "How long have you known each other? How did you meet? and of course he asked you're not in love with her? and so on. I answered every question like I had my hand on the Bible with truth bombs and as unlikely as it would seem to all be genuine, he looked at me intensely, looked at Shawna, said ehhhh screw it and put his money in the hand.... and good thig he did because the run of the cards if he wasn't in would have given the dealer black jack and made the final Shawna streak hand about as fun as 5 thousand dollar trip to the dentist... but instead, hit the soft 13 for 21




The guy playing with me lost his hand but he was genuinely happy for us, gave Shawna and I high 5s. The whole room was cheering. What a great moment







Had to edit the video short to not show some faces but watching the whole thing now, seeing Shawna as happy about it as she was (even though she had no money involved) really makes me smile. She never believed any of that Shawna lucky stuff until it got to be around 10-0. Then I think it meant something to her, had her heart rate going higher than mine during the hands lol. I told her there were 3 things I had been looking forward intensely for months. The first two were heartbreakingly disappointing but Shawna came through, made it a great and epic trip. Man I do miss those good ole days.
Went home very happy, it was great winning big on my (supposed) last trip
I was still intent on moving to Vegas in the Fall, but as fate would have it, wound up meeting a beautiful, really sweet girl



In hindsight I didn't really like her very much, knew nothing was gonna come of it, but it gave me an excuse (that I probably would have found elsewhere) to delay my move. My manager told me he couldn't let me transfer at the time anyways from being so shorthanded. I could have pushed the issue and got the transfer but I'm sure I was looking for excuses to stay at home anyways... and so I did. I wound up going back to Vegas 3 times before year's end and pretty sure I lost every trip. As for the Shawna streak... long story short, it ended lol.
One notable thing that happened in one of those trips, there was a go go dancer at PH I had always talked to but never hung out with. I met up with her probably around 2am when she got off. I took her to where my buddy was the bartender at Aria high limit, have a drink where it would be quiet and chill. When we walked in it was anything but quiet. Had only seen an entourage and crowd/bodyguards like that since a guy they said was Meek Mill (Who I didn't have a clue who he was then or now) was there a month or two prior. I figured it was a rapper I knew nothing about so paid it no mind. When my buddy the bartender (who was there the night I got pretty wild with Drake and Rhianna) walked up he said, ok Slim... behave yourself, we got a celebrity in here. I said who ? He nodded his head at the table behind me at this guy



I said, oh I know him, it's fine. The girl I was with thought I was joking of course. It was such a commotion going on with bodyguards everywhere around Post, I wasn't gonna bother him or anything. We sat there 30 minutes or so, had a couple drinks, caught a little buzz before we got up to leave. When I stood up, I gave Post a hard stare and he noticed me. He threw his head back and waved, motioned me over there. The bodyguards made way and I said man, you remember me? He said yeah, how you been bro ? I looked down at his chip stack with amazement (which looked to be around 800k, playing 40k a hand... again... "If I Did It") and said not as good as you, holy sh**! I turned to the girl and said me and this guy used to slum it at Planet Hollywood, now look at him. I said man I know people have told you "Congratulations" more than a bank teller has said "insufficient funds" but geez, congratulations man. Looking at all those chips I thought about the time at PH that I spotted him $100 to double down and he lost. That night I told him don't worry about it, I won my hand. I started to remind him of owing me 100, wishfully thinking he might toss me a 5k chip or something, but I held off. Had seen bodyguards detouring all pic seekers earlier but I told Post, man I'm sorry but you know I gotta hit you for a pic.






Addy has worn off and gonna stop here but I promise to finish this up soon as I'm really excited to relive and tell these stories. "Happiness is only real when shared" and I forgot how much I enjoy doing this. Thanks for reading

Welcome back!! I’m going to dive into this tomorrow (bedtime for me now) and hope I read that you are well. Thanks for resurfacing and sharing.

epic...

Amazing

great, as usual...

Can't wait for the rest!

I never thought this thread would be resuscitated, much obliged to be proven wrong. There's a first time for everything. ty slim

The culture around C List celebs is hilarious.

Very entertaining read. Can't wait until you post the rest of it.

Slim, thanks for the update. You seem like a genuinely good guy, hope you're in a good place now.

I'm out of touch with current culture. Who's Post?

Post Malone, singer ...

Extremely well written, looking forward to more

Next post coming in 2026!

This is good ****. Thanks slim.

Slim's TRs would make for the best movie about Vegas ever made. Maybe Christopher Mintz-Plasse or Freddie Highmore as the lead.

If the budget is really big, Leonardo.

I love you Slim.