Poker Magazine

The Midwest

On January 6^th, I was due to make an appearance at the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Michigan. I must admit I wasn’t too thrilled to have to be in Michigan for any reason (not to knock Michigan in any way – I’ve had some very good items in Detroit) but New Buffalo wasn’t exactly on the top of my want-to-visit list. I was, however, super excited to find out I would have to fly into Chicago to make it to New Buffalo. Chicago has been on the top of my list for a long time.

The plan was to spend one night in Chicago and one at the Four Winds. And, as always, I brought a couple of my buddies. Anyone who knows me knows that I almost always show up with an entourage. Tony came to Vegas and we flew out together, and Jeff came straight from San Fran and met us at the airport. We had plans to catch up with my buddy Benji, but he got stuck in Miami.

I really didn’t know anybody from Chicago, so I called up my good friend Noah (owner of Marquee in NY) and asked him if he knew anybody in town. He had me call his friend Billy Dec. At that time, I didn’t know anything about Billy other than that he owned some spots in town. (After coming home, I looked up Billy’s web site — billydec.com — and watched the YouTube link…you have to watch this! I had no idea he was so big time!)

We meet him up at his place The Rockit Bar and Grill (which, by the way, was voted best

Burger in the country by the Good Morning America show) and, upon entry, the boys and I were STUNNED by the number of attractive females present. This place was more of a sports bar — how could there be so many girls?!? Big screens… pool tables… that kind of environment.

Although I’m more of a club guy, I was really enjoying the overall experience of this place. And it was packed. If you are ever in Chicago, it’s a MUST. We met up with Billy and right away I took a liking to him. A genuinely nice person. He went out of his way to make sure that I AND my friends were having a good time and were well taken care of.

I was just starting to get in the mix of things at Rockit when Billy informed me that we were going to the next spot. I was so confused… the place was jamming! Why were we leaving?!? We were going to his club called the Underground. I was chatting up this girl and wanted to invite her to join us, but did not do so after Billy came over and whispered into my ear what turned out to be my favorite line of the year: “You don’t want to cross-contaminate.” Seeing that so far I was super impressed with everything, I decided taking his advice was the best move. And on to the Underground we went.

I’ve been to many nightclubs in my time, so please take what I say very seriously! By far the BEST club I have ever walked into. (By best, I mean best New York style… small venue… very select crowd… the kind of spot where you don’t just get in. You HAVE to know somebody and you have to have girls and you have to spend money.) The only place that even compared was Pangeas back in its heyday in New York, and nowadays Marquee, even after four years, is still poppin’. We were FLABBERGASTED when we walked in. It was AS good a crowd as the Playboy Mansion parties. The ratio was 4 to 1 girls to guys and EVERY SINGLE one was 7 or higher. I could not believe my eyes. Jeff and Tony were at a loss for words. I’ll never forget when Jeff said, “I didn’t think this existed. I mean I’ve heard about it, like Studio 54 way back… but it’s here and it’s happening RIGHT NOW.”

We sat at (more like danced on top of) Billy’s table the whole night. He never once allowed me to pull out my credit card. A very nice gesture indeed. We had SUCH a rocking time. For me personally it was one of the top fi ve best going-out nights of my life. That is a BOLD statement, ladies and gentlemen, but a true one. What I didn’t need was the bottle of Cristal at the end of the night (which Tony and I split, chugging — with no glasses, of course). My head hurt so bad the next day. We were having so much fun that we closed the place down. It’s not often I stay at a place ‘til the lights come on! We just lost track of time and, even after Billy left about thirty minutes before closing, we couldn’t stop.

Thank you, Billy, for a wonderful night. And for all you folks visiting Chicago, try to go to the Underground. GOOD LUCK getting in, though (just call Billy at 800-555-1212. He will put your name on the list — LOL).

There is a lot more to this story I’m dying to write about, but it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. I’ll just leave it at that.

Next day the Four Winds sent a car to take us to the casino. Early wake up call with a full day’s work ahead… Tune in to the next issue to hear all about it (I’ve always wanted to say that!).

P.S. I have recently signed a new deal with a new site and I am VERY excited about it. You will hear about it soon!

Thank you all for reading and please tune into the MOJOhd network to watch I BET YOU.