I just returned from Las Vegas and was ready to post that I stopped by the Regent yesterday afternoon and ended up with one snake and one $5 Derby. The Derby was most elusive. The cage said they were all gone, but found an $8 Snake while looking for any Derbys. I asked if any Derbys were put into play (on the tables) and the answer was yes.

So, I looked around. At first glance I had no idea if the Derby was the same edge pattern as the existing fives, or different. So I asked a the Pit. She said they were different and wanted to find me one. She went to every BJ table in her Pit and the roulette table and finally found one. Knowing that I would take another, she then telephoned the other three Pits and had/asked them to look. This provided negative results, so she went to the three Pits herself.

Unfortunately, she did not find any others, but I was very surprised and pleased at her efforts.

This is in contrast to two visits to the Tropicana to ask for Derby chips there. The first visit resulted in the cashier checking 10 racks of $5s and then going to the back window, but to no avail. She politely said maybe you can try later. This was Saturday afternoon at around 2 o'clock. A very pleasant exchange, although no chips.

Sunday night at 12 midnight (it was slow) I tried again, This time the cashier, after hearing my question simply said, No, they are all gone. I said, Well I was hoping that one may have been turned in. Refusing to make eye contact, he repl;ied, Nope! And that was it.

I like it better when they look around and find nothing, as opposed to wishing you'd just drop dead!

Jim Follis