I sighted Doug Lee two days.
It was nearing morning. I’d been sitting at the 2/5 game at the Venetian for the entire night, holding my own against some really aggressive players. I had watched three players bust out in the final hour - the last guy taking a terrible beat on the river, a King or Jack came (I can't remember which) making his opponent's flush.
It was only minutes after that hand when Doug Lee entered. He was oddly quiet - something was on his mind, but he refused to say. He had the look in his eye of a man who didn't know where he was or how he got there. A hazardous look. I think we all noticed it, even the dealer, for she never asked him for his ID-badge or his name. He simply sat down without a word, as if that seat had been waiting patiently for him all night to fill it.
In the next half hour he proceeded to bluff away all his chips. He was making mad plays, with a hand-range like machine gun fire. But with every play, his opponent held him by the nuts. No one ever bet to him: again and again they let him take his own bullets as he vainly fired out on every street – desperate to win one pot at least. Then, holding his last chip like the sacred Eucharist, he fell away from the table, half in a daze, dashing away without looking back a single time.
But I followed him, chasing him, as he strode outside. He never knew I was there, until finally, looking back he found me eagerly trailing him. He smiled and with a motion of his finger, like that of an exposed spy bringing me into his confidence, I came up right to him. The alley was dark, but a ring on Doug’s finger glimmered with supernatural fire, illuminating his face.
“What can I do for you?” he asked, knowing that I hungered to hear him speak.
“Doug Lee,” I said. “Tell me this, you just lost over $4,000 like it was nothing. Tell me please from where you get the capital that lets you play like a maniac and never win.”
“It’s not Doug Lee, but Doug Who.”
“Doug Who?” I repeated, for I didn’t know at all what he meant. Then I saw it behind him, a red monolith, with a dawning glow upon it, and I had but a second to extract my camera from my pocket and take this sole picture before it was gone, and with it, so was he: