Columnist John Katsilometes: Alleged card cheat may be out of aces

John Katsilometes is the Sun assistant features editor. His column will appear Mondays starting Nov. 29. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-2327.

To the Clark County District Court, Adolph LaRue is case No. C156620.

To court officials he's an addled but elusive old coot with no phone, no address, no means of transportation and a long list of medical woes.

To the Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, which operates four homeless shelters in North Las Vegas, he's a handicapped 84-year-old man and an unfortunate casualty of society.

But to the state of Nevada -- the Mirage in particular -- Adolph LaRue is a card cheat of the lowest order.

LaRue has lived in Las Vegas "more than 60-plus years and I know this city better than anyone," he boasted Thursday afternoon. Dressed in a wide-lapelled blue leisure suit once favored by Mike Brady, LaRue appeared before District Judge Mark Gibbons on the charge that he cheated at poker at the Mirage on Jan. 19.

According to documents filed by the State of Nevada, LaRue removed two cards from the deck and concealed them somewhere on his person. The ol' hide-the-aces-in-your-sleeve ploy, in other words, and a felony in these parts.

Mirage floor supervisors observed LaRue's handiwork for a while, then counted up the deck and found it was missing two cards. LaRue then stood up and two cards fell to the floor.

Security at the Mirage tends to notice such deft attempts at trickery.

After being granted a seven-week continuance in the case to clear up his myriad medical problems -- including headaches and dizziness from a lemon-sized welt on the back of his head -- LaRue said he got busted on purpose. But exactly why is not easy to explain, even for the man on the hot seat.

To paraphrase: LaRue said he wanted to force the case to trial so he could tell the court that the government bilked him out of $10,000 in Social Security payments. That happened a few years ago, when LaRue was in prison. For cheating at gambling.

Luckless LaRue has been convicted of cheating at gambling four times since 1985. "It's always the same thing, me cheating at a $3 table," LaRue said. "How does a person cheat at a $3 game?"

LaRue, walking quickly despite the use of a cane, said he was eager to tell all of his tall tales, but was eager to catch the next bus home -- which he said was St. Vincent Shelter in North Las Vegas. He said he needed to start back to the shelter and be there by 6 p.m. so he could pay $5 for dinner, a shower and a night's sleep.

"I'll be there for dinner," he said. "We'll have a long talk then."

At 6 p.m., at the shelter, Night Manager Ed Cantrell was summoned to help find LaRue in the cafeteria. Cantrell used the card-coded filing system that accounts for all shelter dwellers every night. We rifled through the "L" files and plucked out an "Addolph Larooe," who was listed as an 84-year-old handicapped man.

According to the shelter's records, LaRue hadn't checked in for at least several weeks. A couple of employees said the name sounded familiar, but he wasn't around on this night. When hearing about LaRue's odd odyssey, Cantrell sadly shook his head. "We have a lot of people who come here who have just slipped through the cracks," Cantrell said. "It sounds like he's one of them."

We looked around into the night, toward Jerry's Nugget and then downtown. There was an unspoken sense that 84-year old Adolph LaRue was out there, somewhere, playing cards and trying to go out a winner.

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