A couple of days ago my friend Jae and I entered a three-table late-night poker tournament at Bill's Casino on The Strip.  It had a thirty-dollar buy-in and the top three finishers, out of about thirty players, got paid.  I “cashed”, finishing third, and won fifty-eight dollars, or would have if I hadn't made a bonehead play on my third or fourth hand — an ill-advised all-in that felted me and forced me to re-buy.  So I ended up twenty-eight dollars ahead but with the satisfaction of feeling, for a few hours afterwards, like a poker god.