One would think that with the size of Las Vegas, I would never have to run into anyone from the poker community in any other part of town unless I arranged a meeting. After all, per capita, the number of players vs. the number of non-players would make the chances close to slim and none. Not so…they are everywhere…there is no safe zone. They pop up when I least expect them and wish they wouldn’t.

A 3 a.m. trip to Home Depot produces three of them in different parts of the store.

Going out to eat with a young friend from California, in the Northwest part of town, created a “Was that your son?” query later in the poker room.

Cruising down an aisle in the grocery store or even hiking up at Calico Basin seems to make them magically appear. Worst of the worst scenarios is when they try to act like they really know me.

A perfect example is Sol, a really harmless, overbearingly lonely soul that plays $1-$5 7 Card Stud. He puts on an air and attitude, interjected with conversation, at the table that he knows me, intimately – away from the table. “That’s not what you said last night.” – “You promised you would meet me, what happened?”

One night, after a grueling eight hours at the tables, I stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up cleaning and laundry supplies. I’m chucking things into my cart, minding my own business, and out of the corner of my eye, I see him round the other end of the aisle I’m in. There’s no escape.

He throws his arms open wide and exclaims loudly, “Get down here and give me a big kiss!”

“Get the hell out of here.”

He pouted and acted like I was out of line. Oh well. I may have to smile and put up with it at the table but…

We’ve since ironed that out, now that he knows I’m not going to give him a big kiss, or meet him anywhere, or pretend to be intimate with him. It took a while to get this across…like training a bear to dance.

~

Curious as to what happened with Curtis, the player that backhanded his drink across the table in one of Linda’s posts? He tried to enter a bathroom that was closed for cleaning and when the Porter told him it was closed, Curtis gave the Porter a head butt. Ladies and Gentlemen, Curtis has left the building.

*****
This post by Chanzes when Linda was taking a break