Last week I got really sick. But not in the usual, crazy gambling way. I think I somehow contracted Swine Flu. I didnít go out at all and felt awful. On the upside ñ yes, thereís always an upside ñ I played a ton of online poker and had a nicely profitable run. I clocked 20,000 or so hands, which qualifies as the most volume Iíve gotten in over the last two years. The ante PLO games on FullTilt had a ton of action, and that is great if youíre in the mood to gamble. Obviously, I was.

I started feeling better a few days before Halloween and celebrated my newly renewed health by going to Tao with a bunch of friends. Many of them had just gotten back from Europe and the EPT. So there was lots to catch up on. We had the best table in the club and figured we were ballers. Then we looked at the groups on either side of us. They got into a Cristal war ñ competing to see who could order more. Their bottles came six at a time while we got two-for-one on vodka.

We didnít spend nearly as much as they did, but we still had a damned fine time, chugging Patron and generally going off. One girl got down on all fours while the rest of us danced. That was good for a laugh, but it got even funnier when I found out that sheís from Michigan. Yeah, thatís how we do it back home.

Tao proved to be a pretty good warm-up for Halloween. Antonio Esfandiari had a dinner party at his condo. He had his regular guy cooking, so the food, as always, was delicious. The girls all seemed to be half-naked, and my buddy Alec Torelli was in town and partying, which was a nice surprise.

He had made a $200,000 triathlon bet with Ashton ìtheASHMAN103î Griffin. Whoever finishes in a shorter time wins the money. Alec was training hard when Ashman went on a $1.5-million downswing online. Suddenly the prop bet seemed less important and he didnít train at all. So, right before Halloween, Ashman bought out of the bet for 100K. That was the easiest money Alec had ever made. He was pumped and having a great time at Antonioís.

I couldnít take my eyes off the female bartender, who was dressed up as a super sexy sailor and had a pretty heavy hand when it came to pouring out the shots. Comic relief came from some 19-year-old kid who happened to wander in uninvited. Nobody knew who he was and, briefly, he had the time of his life ñ until it became too good of a time. That kid spent most of his night yakking off of the balcony,

Everything else was going great until the speaker system blew out and pretty much killed the party. But it probably saved the cops a trip to Antonioís condo, which is the way these kinds of bashes usually end. After things wound down, I went home and fell asleep relatively early, which was nice for a change.