My last two nights at work found me playing $4-$8 Holdem. One night a win, one night a loss. Guess the Card Fairy finally managed to sprinkle chip dust in my hair and I just couldn’t resist the urge. I’d been ‘poker free’, as a player, for almost four months. Nope, I’m not giving it up…

The first night found me sitting next to Steve. The night before, Steve was in the 10s of a $4-$8 Holdem game I dealt and the 9s mentioned that I must be the ‘writer and website Linda’. We conversed a little back and forth and Steve wanted to know what it was all about. Matt was the player in the 9s and he told Steve about the site’s contents and said he particularly liked the Montana days (which I plan on putting back into action soon).

I told Steve that I had written about him. He laughed and asked, “You mean the idiot that goes from $80-$160 to $4-$8 and back again?”

We got into a discussion about players, dealers, bad attitudes, good attitudes and believe it or not, I really didn’t have to say much, just nod and ‘umhhhh’ every now and then.

So back to playing with Steve. He was pretty low key and left the table several times for long walks. He can really put a sizzle into a game and crank it up so fast you’ll wonder if it’s even safe to play A-A…but this wasn’t that kind of night. He had a gripe with the WPT showing the hole cards of the players and giving new players the edge on learning the game from television rather than the hard way.

We argued a little bit in the respect that I like the fact that television is bringing poker into everyone’s home and making them aware that they can come out and play…I called it a tie because he wasn’t going to agree with me and I wasn’t going to agree with him.

I also sat next to Richard. He’s been a player in our room since we opened. He’s great as a friend, player, and mainstay in a poker game. He comes to play and if you pay attention, you know where he’s at in a hand.

He was on my left and four times, when I picked up a pair, he picked up a bigger one. I raised. He raised. Luckily the flop let me escape each time. He never hassles dealers or other players or throws cards or chips. Wish I had two or three of him at every table.

The 2nd night I played, I changed tables. A very pretty, young lady and her husband were sitting side by side in the game. They were from New Orleans and had been vacationing for a few weeks, traveling around the country and been on nonstop play since they hit Vegas. Everyone was very talkative.

She asked me what limit they were playing at the table behind me. It was $400-$800 7 Card Stud. Celine Dion’s husband, Renee, was in the 2s of that game. The conversation went to ‘what’s he like to deal to? does he tip? how does he act?’

My answer was and is this: “If all the players in every game I ever dealt and will deal, behaved like he does, you would never hear a dealer or a player complain.”

One thing she said to me that I find to be a touchy subject, her statement? “You must have been really beautiful when you were young.”

One guy said, “I think she’s beautiful now.”

She flustered a bit with, “Well, she is…”

I said, “I think I’m young now.”

She flushed and said she didn’t mean it like that. I smiled and told her I knew how she meant it.

She was giving me a compliment. Yet I find this to be quite irritating. Why do people feel that life and beauty is based on youth? Many people become more beautiful and much more valuable as friends, lovers, companions, and mates as they grow older.

Some of them even learn how to play poker…See you there!