I had two sessions with Sam G. – one was the Wednesdays Tournament. When I slipped into the Box, it was the final table. Sam was in the 1s, Ross J. was in the 2s, Kim was in the 8s, Dave was in the 9s. Sam was in the jabberwockying mode of his life. He would give himself a run for the money on past events of talk-a-thons. He was jabbing at everyone…referring to Ross as ‘the man from across the pond’ – Kim as The Cat Woman’ and tripping through his own wonderland.

He said something to me about giving him some cards. A few minutes later he ended up in a raised pot with Dave. The antes were $500, the blinds $1,500-3,000. Sam won the showdown and Dave had him covered.

I reached to count down Sam’s chips and he blurted out, “I’ll do it, I don’t trust you.”

Well…ok! He counted his chips. Then when Dave counted his own chips down to match what Sam had, Sam asked me if that was right.

I wanted to say, “If it wasn’t, you’d sure as hell let me know,” but I didn’t.

There were numerous raises and all-ins, the blinds were high, and everytime a count down was made of chips, Sam did a, “Take your time counting them down. Don’t hurry. Is this going to take all night?” kind of thing, no matter how fast it went, he was on the prod.

Ross went all-in against Kim and won the pot. Of course I made a mistake on counting down Ross’s chips. Maria was right there (she works the tournaments) and straightened it out but my mistake added fodder to Sam’s fire.

He busted Dave. Dave said, “Nice hand!” meaning it. Sam ignored him. Dave repeated it a couple of times and told them all how nice it was playing with him. They all ignored him. He finally tapped Sam on the shoulder and repeated, “Nice hand!”

Sam looked up and turned his attention back to the game, even though he wasn’t in the hand, without a nod or word. Cold! Sam finally acknowledged Dave when Dave said he would be back in a few weeks. Sam’s acknowledgement was more like a Black Widow Spider opening her eight arms to her mate.

Sam went into the super vocal mode, after Dave left. To Kim, “I want to beat the cat woman. I want to hear her growl…or purr when I beat her.” – to Ross,”The man from across the pond…” – over and over with too many repetitions.

It went on and on. Ross finally went bust and Kim got him.

Sam stated to Kim that he had thought about giving her lessons for free but now he was going to charge her. SHIT! Too funny! She had him down to a nub and he was sliding off the last, dead branch of a tree, about 1,000 feet in the air, on the side of a 3,000 foot abyss.

The last hand I dealt, Sam called a raise pre-flop. The Flop was all middle straight related cards and one Diamond. Check! The Turn brought another Diamond and a straight card…althougth it was a gutshot straight.

Sam bet $12,000 – Kim called. The River put three Diamonds on the Board. Sam bet $10,000 and Kim went all-in. Sam thought and verbally conjectured and finally folded.

I got pushed.

A few hands later and it was all over. Kyle was pushing me – I asked him what the final hand was. Sam had made a stand with A-5 offsuit and Kim had 8-8. She flopped a Set and ended up with Quads. Wish I could have heard the end of that…

The next sitting with Sam has to be *postponed*…check back.

And a note on my explosion with Jimmy T. – he was right, a memo came out…don’t worry, none of the dealers knew about it…and they do get one extra hand while racking up before moving to the Main Game. Guess it’s even more funny now that I had a fit IN HIS FACE after all the noise I’ve listened to from him…maybe you’d have to be there.