Isn’t it great when you meet people, become friends, and they put up with you? They even go out of their way to make you happy…thanks Wayne. My latest hiking adventure can be found here. Once you arrive at the page, please click on “Lake Mead”, then “narrows hike with water in the wash 12/12/04”. This hike was quite unique in the respect that it’s the first time I’ve found water running in the wash. AND we saw a huge scorpion. I knew there were scorpions in the poker room but this is the first time I’ve found one in the desert.

*****

I finally dealt real poker games, the ones with ordinary people playing liveable limits instead of all those fantasy movie star games that are higher than the moon and only played by the rich and famous or the rich and pros or the not rich think they’re pros. Almost seven hours of bliss, nothing higher than $30-60 even though the room was busy as hell, I missed all the big budget, mortgage your house, you’d better win a tournament to play them type of games. That was Monday night.

Tuesday night I dealt three tables of the tournament and then got out to play. Got a seat in a new $4-8 game, won the 2nd and 3rd hand – huge pots – visited with the player next to me, Will from an earlier post, and got picked up and sent back into the line-up. That was a simple night too…no high limit games.

Last night I bounced around a little. Dealt a few hours, played for an hour, got ready to deal again and found out I didn’t have to so I bounced back into the player’s seat.

While I was dealing a $4-8 game, Sam (he was in the game the night that Lupe called me all those strange names and she had to leave) and his friend Marty were at my table. Marty was in the 10s and full of questions. He and Sam told me the dealer before me had exposed the Ace of Spades. It would have been Marty’s card. They both said the dealer asked Marty if he wanted to keep it, even though the table had seen it. Marty said the dealer seemed to be amazed that Marty wanted a replacement card for the Ace.

I’d have to believe the dealer was jiving them. But then I’ve seen so many dealers do so many different STUPID things that it’s entirely possible.

The boys in this game were pretty funny. Sam flopped/or turned a 10 high flush. He also had a pair of 10’s with a 10 on the board. The last card brought another flush card and after the bet was called on the River, Sam told his opponent, “A pair of 10’s,” and turned over the Flush.

***Begin edit. I just got an email from Marty explicitly explaining Sam’s happy go lucky, always have a good time, boisterous and joking, even if he’s losing, attitude at the poker table and in life in general. This post about Sam was never meant to show him as a grouch or a jerk.

Perhaps he turned over the flush AS he called his hand as, “A pair of tens.”

It would have been awfully close…the statement and the act, there was no long drawn out pause.

Everyone was laughing and kibitzing, EXCEPT the opponent that immediately took a walk. The ‘boys’ were ribbing Sam about needling the player with the statement.

Marty…so did you!

Shit happens at the table. In general, everyone was having fun. If I had been the opponent, I would have taken it as a needle but it’s not the end of life as we know it on this planet so I would have continued to play the damn game for hell’s sake.

***End Edit.

His opponent immediately took a walk and Sam got the Raspberry for needling his opponent by telling him he had a pair of 10’s instead of a flush. Sam tried to explain that he thought the last flush card beat him but the ‘boys’ weren’t going for it. Neither was I but I was the dealer so it didn’t matter.

Marty was wondering if he would make it…not in the poker game…into the Diary. Yup!