Here’s the two chips that I’ll always be keeping. As I’ve said before, I really like taking my chips off the table when I can and that’s the story on these two.

My first CCGTCC convention was 2001 and I set sail for the 21 table at Aladdin one morning before the floor opened at the Trop to get me one of these Persian ladies. Pretty new place at the time, this version of Aladdin. The $1 and $5 chips were nice enough and the greenie was actually pretty disturbing. Ever look closely at the thing? What exactly is Aladdin rubbing there on the inlay anyway? BUT! The Black Chip! Love at first sight! Oh man, the colors, the beauty, the mystery! Had a run of luck going, got a parking place under a shade tree, cashed in the poker tourney the night before and turned my 12 red chip buy-in into this $100 hottie. Keep her in a cool, dark place these days.

I remember the other black one you see here also. I was sitting at blackjack table third base at the place Lew and Abe Wertheimer opened, the Clover Club there on Sunset Blvd. Joe was dealing that night and Betty Davis was over at first base, Spencer Tracy was mostly drinking in his seat. Joe looked up and said, “Oh man, it’s the new guy, Siegel.” Benny reaches into the rack and pulls out about 20 blacks and says, “Hiya Joe, need some walking around money, ya know. What’s up Spence?” Betty takes a drag on her cigarette and Bugsy takes that in for a second. “Helloooo Beautiful, here, keep an eye on this for me, will ya?” Flips her this ten you see here and turns to head for the cage. Sees me. Stops cold.

“Well…how’s business Killer, how’s things back with the Boys?”

I give him a nice stare, thinking about my rifle out in the Lincoln, imagining the cross hairs somewhere on his head.

“Pretty good Ben, in fact, they were talking about you just the other day.”

“Yeah? “ He gulped! “Swell, go see yourself the ocean while you’re out here, Okay?” He turns and scrams.

“Sure Bugs, I’ll tell it you sent me.” Betty chuckles.

Naw. I bought it off . Had heard about Bugsy’s Clover Club and confirmed through Armin that this chip was on the tables when Siegel had part of the joint. Spent a night on The Google and found this:

http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tcbarc11/tcbarc11.pl?read=373240