Last week, both the Consumer Electronics Show and the AVN Awards (which are basically the Oscars of porn) were in town. Everybody thinks it’s a great time to visit Vegas, because of the all the porno girls running around. But that’s really not the case, since the fans of porn outnumber stars of porn by 20-to-1. Nevertheless, I did manage to squeeze some entertainment out of it, thanks to a call from Jonathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel, a top PC gamer who happens to be a friend of mine. He was hosting a party for a computer hardware company, and he invited me to stop by.

The party took place in one of the nice suites at Aria, and I figured it would be fun. Then I arrived to see 48 guys and two girls, all standing around and watching Fatal1ty playing Quake. This is not the kind of party that I’m used to attending. But I grew up as a video game fanatic, and Fatal1ty had been a boyhood hero of mine. I remember seeing him on MTV and thinking it was so cool that he could play video games for a living. So I decided to stick around.

Heís a superstar to a certain demographic of guys, and what made this party special was that all those in attendance could get a shot at playing Quake against Fatal1ty. Naturally, I took my turn. And, of course, he completely kicked my ass. But that was fine. I got to play Quake against my PC-game hero, and if he had done anything but annihilate me, well, I’d have been disappointed.

. . .

It can be eye opening to spend time with smart people outside of the poker world. Such was the case when I hung out with Craig Clemens. He’s a really successful online affiliate marketer. He’s written advertising copy to promote dating e-books for David DeAngelo and others.

We were at Tryst, for a party that Fatal1ty was throwing. It was enjoyable, but the girl-to-guy ratio was way worse than usual ñ thanks a lot, AVN Awards

On the upside, the lack of female opportunities gave me a chance to chat undistracted with Craig. He told me that random guys come up to him all the time, seeking dating advice due to his work with David DeAngelo. Then he added, “You and I have the worst jobs. Our fan-base is all 18-year-old dudes.” After that, Craig imparted some of his marketing wisdom on me, and I’m really grateful. It’s gong to be handy for me in the very near future.

. . .

Getting together a bunch of friends for a game of flag football is nothing unusual. Of course, though, when my crowd hits the field, there’s going to be lots of money at stake. Antonio Esfandiari and I each drafted a team and bet $1,000 on the game. Whoever makes five touchdowns first gets the money. We scored right away, and I doubled the stakes to $2,000. Then Antonio (who had All American Dave, his personal trainer and the only real athlete in the game, on his side) called a false start on us. After that, things got pretty intense. There were lots of fakes and lots of penalties. It became more tackle football than touch, and All American Dave flew into in a gravel-pit while attempting to take down one of my guys.

In the end, Antonio’s team won, and he got his money. But it was almost worth it, just to see the looks on some players’ faces. They weren’t from the gambling world and couldn’t wrap their heads around two poker players betting thousands of dollars on a recreational football game.

Conversely, though, Antonio and I can’t see the point of doing ANYTHING and not betting on it.

I just got twitter. ‘Andrew_Robl’ Add me.