Out of the crazy record-breaking heat that has held the city in its grasp for the last six weeks, the sky split open Sunday morning with one of the most fantastic light shows I’ve witnessed in quite awhile. Not to be outdone, the thunder picked up and carried a long, low rumble of applause to compliment the light show. Then…rain! Beautiful soft, continual rain for most of the day, it washed the dust and heat out of the air in the desert. Nature has a way of calming the spirit and replenishing the Earth…just wish mankind could get into that a little more. But until that happens, there’s always poker.

I pushed into a $30-60 H game last week and Shaunie (semi-regular) in the 9s had two full racks of chips by her arm and stacks of other chips in front of her. When I sat down, I said, “No racks on the table please.”

She said, “Boba’s ok with it.”

Boba is the brush for this game limit and does a great job but it’s certainly not up to him to tell her it’s ok when it’s posted on plaques on the walls and it’s a house rule.

I said, “It’s not up to Boba. It’s a house rule.”

“It’s ok. He’s going to change them for me,” she grouched at me.

Yup. She was grouching. I guess she thought I’d drop it when she told me that but I forced it by calling Boba. When he arrived, I said, “She said you’re going to change those up for her.”

He asked her if she wanted $1,000 chips and when she said yes, he disappeared with the racks and returned with two $1,000 chips for her. She was pissed.

A few minutes later she lost a hand and loudly told the player in the 8s that everything was ok until I had forced her to take the racks off of the table and no other dealer had said anything to her for hours.

I wanted to laugh out loud but instead I replied, “If the other dealers had done their job, you wouldn’t be upset with me.”

She stabbed me with, “No one else said anything.”

I curtly replied, “I apologize for the other dealers for not doing their job.”

She wanted a button so I wouldn’t deal her in…hell, I was happier than she was. How absurd can one get? Like the racks affected her luck and the fact that she was implying that it was all right with the floor man…it’s better than laughable.

I’ve passed her several times between tables since then and I cheerily ask, “Hi! How are you today?”

She’s forced to acknowledge me on a different level. I love it! Yup…there’s a mean streak hiding somewhere in my soul.

*****

I opted to play again last night. It was not a good session but it was a reminder of how one – mainly me – must play damn good to overcome the game. I finally picked up my chips and left the scene of the accident…maybe I was the accident but I can only think of a few hands that I should have played differently.

One thing I’ve found that is funny if put in the proper perspective – some players are always on the transfer list, searching for the game where everyone’s giving away money. That must be a scene from Cinderella plays against the Corporation and wins millions. These players are walking around, checking out the games in limits they play, ready to swoop in a heartbeat if they think a fish is bleeding and floundering somewhere in the shallows, so they stop and ask me, “How’s this game? Any good?”

The bottom line. Why would I want them in my game? If I found a little shoal and it’s teeming with life, why would I want a shark in there tearing up the shallows?

*Note to self – always tell a shark that the game sucks*