I went to work with the best of intentions. I was going to deal my full shift and then head home for work that has been waiting…as in like I just got a 400 disc CD player made by Sony that will plug right into my Bose Life Series 25 System and I’m trying to get all those damn CDs in there and listed by name, so what if I only have 250 or so? Then work on this site, links pages and more that needs to be updated, and a few million other projects that seem to unfold when you/I am the single household…that means all the housework, truck washing, laundry, yard work, garbage, etc. has to be done by me along with a zillion photos that I want to scan in and catalogue and put on CD, a book and screen play to write, a few other websites that I’ve created and maintain, phone calls with family and friends, emails with family and friends, discussion/forum posts that need to be answered, sleep, working out, being lazy once in a blue moon…40 hour work week, poker, poker, more poker…damn where was I?

The room was semi-busy and lots of dealers, I started on a break and within 20 minutes, asked if I could play. Sure enough, I was in the 8s on Table 27 within 15 minutes.

The 7s opened and a few minutes later, a woman that wanted to play $1-$5 Stud entered our game. She looked and dressed like she should be home sweating over a cook stove, doing laundry, asking the kids to do their homework and popping hot cookies in her mouth as she scooped them off the cookie sheet while she was doing all of the above. She started a conversation with, “I was playing in another $1-$5 game and this guy kept raising, he never stopped raising, I knew he didn’t have anything but I couldn’t get any cards…”

I did a little reciprocal, “It’s nice when someone in your game is raising, that way if you make a hand, you have a pot to win.” She chattered and I nodded.

I started with $200 on the table and sat through about an hour where I never made a hand or tried to play one. The 10s was quiet and I found out later that his name is Brad…I called him ‘Bad Brad’ after we got to know each other. We both ended up being trapped, roped, and branded in more than one hand and became ‘table friends’.

I finally picked up K-K under the gun. I raised. A player in the 4s that I knew had a lot of credibility raised, the 7s called, I raised, the 4s raised. The 7s called and so did I. I was pretty sure the 4s had A-A. The flop was all little, bad flop for my hand because I feel now that I have to pay off any bets. The 7s and I checked and called to the River. On the River the 4s showed A-A.

He apologized to me. I’ve known him across the table a lot of years but he’s not really a regular…I said, “No problem…you started with the best hand.”

The 7s had no clue as to what was going on or what we were talking about. He was extending a courtesy to me…something I really appreciate from another player.

A few hands later and I looked down to Q-Q. Raised it. The 7s had already called $4 and she climbed right in. The Flop was 5-4-2, she bet, I raised. She called. The Turn was a 5. She checked, I bet, and she called. The River a Deuce, she bet, I called, and she showed me 4-2 offsuit. The player on her right commented that that was the kind of hand that won the pots, ‘even if they get mad at you for playing them…’

Of course I picked up A-A next, right under the gun, raised it, the new player in the 9s called $8 right out of the chute. The 10s, AKA Brad, raised it, 40 people called…swear to God, they came in from across the street…of course the 7s called.

The Flop was 8-8-3. The 7s checked, I bet, the 9s raised, the 10s called, 40 people called and I again raised it and got raised by the 9s. I knew he had an 8 but now the pot was huge. The other 40 people called the 9s’s raise and so did I. On the Turn the 7s and I checked, the 9s bet, the 10s went all-in, the other 40 people called and so did the 7s and me. A 3 popped off on the River, it went ‘check’, ‘check’ and the 9s bet, the other 39 people folded, one of them called.

I turned up the two Aces and said, “Ok, let’s change the deck,” as I shifted them into the muck. Whew! Exasperation here. Not proud of showing the hand or asking for a deck change…just in the head banging mode.

Sure enough the 9s turned over 8-7 offsuit and won a huge pot. Later I asked ‘Bad Brad’ what he had and it turned out that he had those damn Kings. We were both running on empty with big pairs and beats.

I looked at 6-6 several times and not much more. Finally saw A-K S in the small blind, called $2 more with it, flop was 8-4-4, checked and mucked with a bet.

My Button, I looked down to A-J C. I just called $4.

The Flop was A-6-6. The 7s had dilly dallied around with any two cards since she sat down, ran her chips up and ran them back down several times and now, she bet. I raised her. She called.

The Turn was a King. She checked. I bet. She called. The River a 10. She checked. I bet, she called and turned over A-K. Hysteria sets in here. I wanted to do a gut busting, belly laugh when she said, “I thought you had a set.”

I bit my lip to keep from retorting, “Funny, I thought you had nothing.” I really thought she had a bad Ace and the pot would be split when the King came…silly me. Of course I just clammed up and watched the show. Went all-in with 8-8 and lost that pot. Threw away two winners during a three hour period and never drug a chip…nothing I held hit or would have won the pot except those two hands I tossed, one was K-10 and the other 5-2.

I left the room for a bit and returned with a substantial buy-in…I put $300 more on the table. I wasn’t grim, irritated, or in death’s grip with any of it…just kind of in awe that I had been running this way for about a year and it didn’t seem to change.

The 7s won with credible hands for a short time and then about an hour later, she’d played her way off of all of her chips and left with about $25. I’d play with her any day, any time, any stakes.

Seats opened, players changed, I moved to the 9s, Bad Brad moved to the 8s. We got replacement players and the game went on. Quiet and slow for awhile, then BOOM, action and noise.

David was in the 6s with a sweater named Dan. Dan got the 7s soon. T. J. was in the 10s. We started a five way conversation. David was a kick and we hit it off, I felt that I had dealt to him before and he said it might have been his brother that had just left town…they resembled each other. David and Dan were from Edmonton and the talk went to the card rooms there and the action, to playing Vegas. Dan was pretty new to poker, when he held A-K and flopped an Ace, he graciously checked with everyone else, even on the River. He was easy to laugh and easy to like.

David was curious as to the best paying jobs in Vegas…cocktails? Probably. Stories of what dealers made out of high limit…NOT! The best place to play in Vegas? Bellagio, of course, recommended by ‘yours truly’ but it’s also the best overall action in town.

David and Dan won very few hands. Bad Brad and me didn’t do fare too well either.

A new player, Phil as I determined later, sat down in the 2s. He bet no matter what. He didn’t know much about the game except that betting was accepted. I asked his name because the guys on my end kept referring to him as ‘Him’ which I didn’t care for…Phil was just there to play…hell!!! Play he did. No place for the faint of heart.

T. J. was from Kentucky and I blasted him with a Tennessee thing. He said that’s the state they made fun of where he came from. It turned into a laugh a minute. He said he’d just bought his first pair of shoes because they insisted he wear them in the poker room although on the plane they didn’t care. He really was a well dressed, attractive young man so all of it went over well…we laughed and hooted.

Frank came in to deal and went with everything we said and did.

David asked about female dealers getting hit on all the time, as in, “you must get a lot of it when you’re dealing…”

I told David to keep in mind that almost everything that was said at the table was in jest or Bull Shit because players are always bluffing and never tell the truth. We talked about it from both sides. I told him that I knew male dealers that had women players sitting next to them that ran their hands over the male dealers leg, under the table.

Frank said, “Never!” while he busted out laughing.

Most of the guys on my end decided that was the job for them, they should be dealers if they couldn’t get hired as cocktail waitresses.

I asked David how long he’d been in town, he said few hours, he’d just flown in and came right to the tables, he was leaving in a few days for Oregon.

Frank said it reminded him of a trip he took to Sturgis ND, he ridden his bike for 14-15 hours, got there, nothing was open, he took a hotel room that cost $159 for five hours.

I quipped, “Well certainly, she was worth it! Right?”

My audience roared.

Frank said, “No!” and explained it was trip for a ‘biker event’ and he ended up turning around and coming back after he bought a few things.

Somehow the boys on my end then went into a ‘whose wife could out shop whose wife’ kind of thing and ‘give the other guys wife a run for the money’, etc. No matter who said what, it was followed with laughter.

Bad Brad got beat, beat, beat. All the boys on my end were into having a cocktail by now. I was still on the clock and couldn’t get there but this game is the kind of game that I would play in every day for the rest of my life. No one winced, threw a card, had a shit fit, or went into a terminal gloom/swearing attack. They just played, hand after hand, and visited and shared stories. That’s the way poker should be. In the meantime, along about 1 a.m., this kid got about $60 from being even and decided to call it a night.

Bad Brad is leaving on a Red-Eye and the other boys promised they would be in tonight to say ‘hi’. Not only that, I’m expecting to meet ‘Salsa’, for the first time, after a year or so of emails and stories/posts on discussion pages, and Tanya, another new acquaintance on the forum/discussion board.

Yippeee!