A recap of the week at work…almost a no workweek for me. For some reason, when I’m soon to be ‘outta there’ as in taking vacation or time off, I completely lose the desire to work. The beauty of dealing poker is that it’s easy to find the escape hatch when everything quiets down. The downside to it is that I should work – hell yes just for the money – and I can talk myself into signing the E/O list in a heartbeat as soon as I hit the room and it looks like I can get out. That’s exactly what I did. Signed the E/O, played a few hours, hit the time clock, and hit the street.

Monday night was off and on – play and get picked up to deal a few times. Not a good ending from the player’s seat but that’s the way it goes. Tuesday night, I played for about an hour and spent the rest of the night in the dealer’s box. It was the only night I didn’t clock out early.

Wednesday night I was out to play as soon as I walked through the door. Before my butt hit the player’s seat, I visited with Carmen (high brush) standing at the podium in front of Bobby’s Room. There was no game in that room but right in front of the podium, a $40-80 Stud was in progress. A piece of paper, torn out of a magazine, was lying on the floor about two feet from the 7s.

*begin background* During the WSOP Mike Matusow apparently drew unnecessary attention to Minh Ly (one of the regular players in Bobby’s Room). From the way Minh told the story to every one that would listen in Bellagio’s Poker Room, Mike embarrassed Minh by drawing attention to Minh when the cameras were on Mike and Minh was seated beside him. Minh’s version is that Mike put his arm around Minh’s shoulders and started giving a background on Minh to the camera…even though Minh told him to stop it. Mike persisted and it went on way too long for Minh. Minh feels that he was embarrassed by Mike and lost control of his own emotion and consequently finished poorly in the WSOP Championship Event because of it. Minh finished in 19th placed. *end background*

The piece of paper, on the floor, was a picture of Mike. And it had footprints on it. Apparently Minh had put it there and every time Minh walked by, he stepped on Mike’s face. Funny? Hell…it’s hilarious. I like Mike and Minh both but I can see Minh’s point in wanting Mike to leave him alone during the tournament. Not sure I can see the point of stepping on a picture out of a magazine but whatever turns your crank.

But back to Wednesday night and playing. $15-30 and I managed to get even…ugh! I couldn’t put anything together and whenever I picked up a hand, the guy in the 8s picked up a bigger one. They were all jovial and easy to get along with but I finally just gave up…picked up the few chips I had left and went to visit my buddy Jim AKA The Monkey. He was punishing himself in a $30-60 game. Wayne came in and visited with both of us – sitting behind Jim and sweating him for a bit and then sitting behind me and sweating me for a bit. Hey…maybe he’s the reason neither one of us were winning. J Just joking!!! We’re all three making the Aruba trip this year. WOOO HOOO!
Thursday night brought an electrical storm that closed the airport for a few hours. I watched it spark and dance across sky as I hit the freeway. After I entered the area of the manmade electrical show, I played $4-8 H, and laughed my butt off with the boys in the game. The 5s raised almost every hand pre-flop and then released as soon as someone bet the Flop. Go figure. He was extremely pleasant and never seemed to be bothered one way or the other over the Flop or his cards. He had to be in the game at least $400 when I racked up and left for the night. I left with a nice win for $4-8.

Jim was just coming back into the room when I was leaving. He’d been there earlier when I first came in and he left for a few hours. He went back to the poker game. I headed for my little sanctuary away from the rest of the noise of life. Two hours at work, the rest of the day/night was mine.

Friday I signed the E/O list and found out I was on hold. I searched all the $30-60 games figuring Jim would be there, still stuck and jamming. He was MIA as far as I could tell. I jumped into a short $4-8 H game on Table 9, hidden behind Bobby’s Room – back in an ‘L’ shaped part of the room. About 15 minutes later I looked up to see Jim coming around the corner…pig drunk. He’d been playing in the Omaha 8 or Better game. Long and short of it, he got into my game. He’d started drinking within an hour of when I left the night before…and it showed! How in the hell he was even halfway coherent or able to walk was beyond me. I don’t even know how he was still sitting in the chair.

I was off the clock by 8 p.m. and we headed out. I dropped him at his hotel and headed for home. I couldn’t help but think how glad I was that my brain wasn’t trapped in his body…I’d have been puking. There’s no way I can handle alcohol like that and live through it. Ugh!!!

Another incident on Thursday left me in a highly emotional state and thankful that I was so damn lucky to have an angel of mercy right at my shoulder…just when I needed her most. I stopped in Mangia (help’s hall) before I left for the night. Had my tray, food, etc., and as I walked to a table, my heel came down on a spill that was hidden. My foot shot out, my tray went up in the air, silverware flew to the floor, and I was going down. It was going to be ugly because both of my feet would have shot up and I’d have fallen from around four to five feet, flat on my back, on a tile floor.

A woman was right behind me, with nothing in her hands, she grabbed my elbow and gave me just enough support to balance and keep from falling.

I said, “Oh my God! Thank you so much.”

She said, “I was so afraid for you.”

I replied, “Oh my God, if you hadn’t been there, I would’ve fallen for sure. Thank you so much.”

She went on her way. I sat down with Robin, one of our chip runners, and tried to eat what I had picked for my evening meal. I was almost sick to my stomach. There was something red on the heel of my shoe that resembled strawberry jelly…wonder how my blood would’ve looked mixed in with it? There’s no way I could’ve taken that fall without splitting my head open, or breaking a hip, or something really ugly.

I’ve thanked God repeatedly for watching over me…and for sending me an angel.