Chapter 36 – Luck be a Lady Tonight/Unlucky

Nef’s POV

The past couple of days that I’ve spent with Sasha have been absolutely amazing. This trip in and of itself was not overly exciting or out of this world but being with Sasha made all the difference. On our second night there both Ovie and Sasha participated in a NHL player poker tournament. I tagged along for the ride. There were galleries set up – much like other poker tournaments that were televised – so that we could watch the games. Now if you’ve ever been around Ovie and Sasha while playing poker two things will happen: one, you will lose because you can’t read them and they cheat by talking to each other in Russian or two, you will become utterly infuriated with them because they bet on any and everything with no rhyme or reason. The last two players that were seated at the table where experiencing option 2.

I didn’t pay attention to their names but I knew that their wives/girlfriends were sitting beside me. The women were laughing at how frustrated their husbands were becoming.


“That makes no sense!” one of the guys shouted. Ovie of course was laughing.

It turns out that guy was Brad Richards from the Dallas Stars. His girlfriend Rachel was nice.

“Okay. I may not know much about poker but this is crazy,” she said to me.

“I know how to play poker and nothing Ovie or Sasha does make sense. They’ll bet on any and everything. It doesn’t matter whether it’ll win or lose.”

At one point Brad threw up his hands in defeat when Ovie went all in. He had no way of knowing if Ovie had a really good hand or if he was bluffing. It didn’t help that Sasha went all in as well.

Before the end of the tournament Rachel and I went to play on the slot machines; neither one of us had ever done it before but we were eager to give it a try. I sent him a text message to ask for his wallet because I didn’t have any cash with me. Instead of telling me to come and get it or stepping away from the table to bring it to the end of the gallery where I was sitting he threw it at me. Of course he managed to hit me right, square in the forehead.

“Oh you should make him pay for that,” Rachel said laughing.

“Oh, I will.”



“Where are you?” Sasha asked. He’d called me when the tournament was done. Ovie was scheduled to be at a club for the rest of the night and Sasha and I had opted not to go.

“At the slot machines.” Rachel and I had quickly gotten bored with the casino. I don’t understand how some people can go to a casino and gamble for hour. We had tried the blackjack table but we hadn’t done so well. After I lost about $250 I called it quits.

“So pretty, what are you doing over here?” he asked when he found me.

“Pulling the lever and getting tickets!” I showed him all of the tickets that I had received for the winnings from the machine. “Look! I won!”

I showed him the tickets: one was for $5,000, one was for $4,300, and the last one was for $2,500. I had done infinitely better with the slot machines.

“How much did you put in the machine?” he asked.

“Well I took a $20 for your wallet.” I handed his wallet back and he pocketed it without looking inside of it. “But I may have…perhaps have lost a little bit more at the blackjack table.”

I pulled the lever and the siren and lights went off.

“Again?” Rachel asked.

“Yup!” This ticket was for $1,400. “I’m just lucky I guess.”

“Okay Lady Luck, we go.”

We said goodbye to Rachel and then Brad when he found her. Rachel couldn’t help but laugh. She knew I had taken Sasha credit card from his wallet. He always carried two of them: one Russian and one American. I took his American Express card. I wanted to see how long it would take him to notice it was gone. During the time between us leaving to go gamble and actually gambling Rachel and I had gone to buy tickets for the Thunder from Down Under Male Dance show the day after the awards ceremony…on Sasha’s card of course.

We didn’t have anything else planned besides the tournament so we walked around the casino for a little bit. We tried our hands at roulette and craps.

“Place your bets! Place your bets!” The attendance at the roulette wheel shouted.

I placed a hundred dollar chip on the red square and a hundred dollar chip on the even square. Sasha bet a hundred on 28 black – he had to bet on his number.

“Red and Even, red and even. They pretty lady calls for red and even!” He spun the wheel and dropped the ball. “’Round and ‘round she goes! Where she stops nobody knows!”

“Red 16!”

“I win!”

We placed another bet- this time Sasha went for 8 black – Ovie’s number and I placed a bet on 28 black, his number.

“Black 28!” the attendant shouted. “Lady Luck is here tonight.”

“Yay! I win again!”

After about an hour Sasha deemed it necessary that we go back to our hotel room. He was just upset that I was doing well and he wasn’t!

“But I’m doing so well!”

“It late.”

“It’s Vegas; it doesn’t matter if it’s late.”

”Let’s go back to our room. I’ll make it worth it, I promise.”

“Promises, promises, promises. You better deliver.”





I don’t know what I expected for the NHL awards ceremony. It was pretty straight forward. Outside of the main hall there was an area set up for reporters and photographers. All of the trophies were on display leading into the room where the presentation of awards would take place. That night Ovie acted like the class clown. He ran around with a video camera trying to capture every moment on film. He’d given me the camera so that I could record his acceptance speech if he won any awards. He ended up taking home the Ted Lindsey award.

“You have fun tonight?” Sasha asked me when we finally made it back to our hotel room.

“Yes, thank you for bringing me.”

“What you want to do tomorrow?”

“Rachel and I are going to a show. Thunder from Down Under.”

“Rachel?...oh Richards’ girlfriend?”

“Yes, we’re friends now.”

Sasha asked if he could come with us and I told him that he might not like it. He looked confused before I told him that it was a Male review.

“And thanks for the tickets by the way.”

“What?”

“I bought the tickets on your card.”

I pulled it out of my wallet and handed it back to him. He hadn’t noticed that it was gone. He didn’t make a big deal about it. He did however make plans with Mike to go to a place called the Cat House. I wasn’t mad or upset. He was trying to make me jealous. I’m not a jealous person so I told him to behave and to have fun.