I came through the casino, on my way out of the employees area from a break, on the night of the 20th, and who should be walking towards me? Eli B (fuel for many other posts here). I was visiting with another dealer as we walked towards the Poker Room and Eli tried to get by us without looking at either of us. Hey…there was no one else around.

When he was even with us, just before passing, I loudly asked, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

His head jerked up…he knew we were there, he just didn’t want to look at us. I continued with, “Get over here so I can punch you!” and did a mock set up like I was going to get into a boxing match with him.

He stopped and kicked out at me…he was about 12 feet away…his countenance was stern and unforgiving. I did a kick back at him. He did one at me. We both laughed and I headed for the room.
I got to deal to him, of course, in $60-$120 Holdem, later in the night. When I walked up to the table, he had one stack of chips, about $400, he looked up at me and exclaimed, “Lucifer!”

I laughed and asked, “Then what are you?”

He laughed. He won during my down, not to say that he was winner, he probably wasn’t. The next time I see him, away from the table, he’ll feel comfortable saying ‘hello’ or saying ‘smile’ but when I deal and he’s losing? He’ll act as if I did it to him personally, picked his face out of crowd and decided that he should burn in the electric chair. Some things just never change.

*****

Doodle, a youngster from somewhere in the outer realm of the poker world…back East…looks like he’s barely old enough to be in a poker room…Oh My God! Maybe he’s not!

Well anyway, he was here about six months ago and flirting around with $30-$60 Holdem. He’s got a pretty positive attitude and actually behaves like a kid…there I go again. His hair has grown out a lot from six months ago and it’s a mass of curly, fake looking locks. He’s tall and thin, with the style of clothing he wears, it gives him the appearance of trying to re-live the 60’s.

He tried to convince me, a few days ago when I was dealing to him, that he had a great attitude all the time. He does, but it’s got a razor-sharp edge at times…like when he loses a hand and thanks me, personally…as if I did it to him on purpose.

I happened by the Cashier’s Cage tonight as he was cashing out. He was talking to Ed, the Seattle escapee, and Chris, an Asian youngster that has a great attitude and likes to play, and I spied a $100 Bill by Doodle’s foot. I reached down, picked it up, and said, “I just love a man that can afford to throw money on the floor!” as I stuffed it into my pocket.

He said, “Finders Keepers, huh?”

I agreed but asked him if he dropped it. I was sure it was his. I offered it to him and he took it, then I exclaimed, “Geez, I hope I didn’t just give you a $100 that wasn’t yours.”

He told me he had $3,000, counted the bills in his hand, and he still did, so he gave it back to me with the statement that he wished he hadn’t been so blind and he had looked at the floor.

Then I did a ‘are you sure?….’

He said he had $300 in his pocket, let him check and see if it was still there…damn it…he only had $200 in his pocket and they were crumpled like the bill I found on the floor. I gave it back to him.
Ed said he’d take it if we were just going to keep passing it around. We were all laughing by now.

If I wasn’t really sure it belonged to him, it would’ve went into my pocket without a word. Maybe the next time he’s got that razor-sharp edge on his good attitude, he’ll tone it down…