Do you know what a hard four in craps is? It's a pair of twos and you bet that the shooter will roll it before rolling a seven or an "easy" four (1-3 or 3-1). The odds are eight to one against you but the house pays only seven to one. That gives the house an 11. 1% advantage. It is a stupid bet; strictly for suckers. It is Bill's favorite..

The hard four provided a lot of action during our recent trip to Las Vegas but, predictably, the final results were negative. Our disappointment at the crap table was compounded by our failure to hear from our former hero, George Hamilton..

George has a cigar lounge at the New York, New York hotel casino. It is a classy joint, maybe the nicest cigar lounge in Las Vegas You enter it through his store where you can purchase Hamilton cigars and other upscale items..

We wrote to George prior to our trip hoping to catch up with him. We even enclosed one of our columns that contained a favorable review of Hamilton's Reserve. We recognized that George's schedule might not coincide with our trip but we figured he would at least set us up with a free drink and cigar so that we could review the lounge..

Nada! No drinks, no cigars, no perks of any kind. Not even the courtesy of a reply. We guess our letter went into recycling with the junk mail. That's the last time we say something nice about George Hamilton. Effective immediately, he is banned from this column and his cigars will never again be allowed in our humidors..

Other than George, the rest of Las Vegas was exciting. The new, billion dollar Bellagio features an art collection that surpasses the National Museum of Art. For an admission charge of $11.00, you can view the original works of Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and Picasso..

"I wouldn't pay 11 bucks to see that crap," Bill stated firmly..

He then walked next door to Ceasar's basement and paid $9 for a simulated submarine ride. If you're looking for sophistication and culture, you'll have to find another column..

The strip is continuously changing. MGM has a new lion. Harrah's has been given a new look. The Caribbean-themed Mandalay Bay opened in March and the soon-to-be-completed Paris Hotel will offer a scaled down version of the Eiffel tower..

There is much to see both in the city and nearby. Snow capped mountains and the Red Rock Canyon area short drive to the west. To the east lies Hoover Dam where you can photograph your spouse with one foot in the Pacific time zone and the other in Mountain time..

If you intend to visit Las Vegas, we recommend that you bring your own cigars. Most of the hotels now offer well stocked cigar shops or counters but the prices are frequently outrageous. For example, a Partagas Limited Reserve Grand Corona ran about $30. We settled for some $4 unknowns that had green spots on the wrappers and tasted like old newspaper..

When we got home, our Rough Rider friend from The Sunday News (See entries for July and August 1997.) gave us the newest offering from Nick's Cigar Company of Miami, Florida. It was a Colorado-wrapped torpedo called "The Cuban Bullet". With a length of only 4" and a ring of 54, it delivered a rig smoke in about 20 minutes. The cigar burned evenly and held the ash nicely. At a price of $2 to $3, we considered it a good value..

Also on the home front, a friend of ours recently found a cigar band album while cleaning up his mother-in-law's attic. The album was specifically designed for cigar bands. It has crossed cigars on the front and the pages have slits into which the ends of the bands are inserted..

There are about 300 bands in the album. They reportedly cover the period 1890 to about 1920 and are in mint condition. There are many obscure names, e.g., Flor de Netherland, A. Fernandez Garcia (Habana), La Demanda, Tamposa, E1 Librador (Habana), Egyptian Dieties, lnjun, La Pila, Bances y Lopez (Habana), Bouquet (Habana), Lord Dugdale and Brown Tips. There are some familiar names, e.g. Upmann, Belinda and Punch; and, there are some private labels that say things like Union League Club, NYYC, Bethlehem (steel) and so on..

Our friend is curious whether these things have any value? If any of you collect cigar bands and can shed some light on the topic, we would appreciate hearing from you..

We will be attending the April Crawl & Hert in York (ACHY) in York, Pennsylvania on April 24, 1999. It will be more herf than crawl since it will basically be held on a single site. It is expected that 75 to 100 people from several states will attend the event which will feature cigars, music, BBQ, prizes and camaraderie.

It just doesn't get any better than this!

The Cigar Guys

P.S. For further information on ACHY '99, contact Rick Osborn at rickoz@blazenet.net. and check out his web page at http://yourpage.blazenet.net/rosborn/achy99main.htm Then join us and have a smoke, a burger, and a beer with the Cigar Guys.

You can The Cigar Guys at: tbill@enter.net for any comments or questions.

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