Still the Super Slacker – where the hell is my motivation to work? I know it should be M-O-N-E-Y! Hell yes, I need it! I never buy a ticket to a lottery, I don’t/didn’t have any rich relatives, and people that are giving away money don’t have my phone number. That would include the poker table from the war side of the green felt – people are giving money away but I’m not on the list. I’ve seriously come to the conclusion there is no way to beat a $4-8 H game now that poker is THE GAME OF CHOICE to the majority of the world.

I’ve played the last two nights (instead of burning and turning) and have no clue as to what or how to be a contestant at the table. Four big pairs were shot down in flames to an under pair each time…mass action…no one made anything except the person that made a Set. Umnhhh!!!! I didn’t take my Set Vitamin before I played. I forgot to…damn it! Then it’s back to sitting for an hour and a half before I even find a hand I could put any money into the pot with. There’s so much money floating around the tables and I can’t seem to net any of it – hey, you don’t even need a fishhook, just a net to scoop it out of the water. Nope – not whining…crying, big, gi-hugeous alligator tears.

I did deal a full shift on Tuesday night, the night I followed The Tip Beggar. Table 1 in Bobby’s Room was full, Eli E., Phil I., Chau G, Abe M., Lee S, Steve W., Jennifer H., and David G.

It was funny when I hit the next table; I got a full-blown quiz about dealing Table 1. People are always so curious as to what the game is like and what ‘they’ are like. It is funny to listen to the lower limit players. “Gee…I’d love to sit in there and watch them play.” – “What are they like?” – “Who’s winning?” – “Who’s the guy in the blue shirt? I know I’ve seen him on TV.”

Upon occasion someone will reference Jennifer Harman and another player will ask, “Who’s she?” That always blows me away. I thought Jennifer was one of the ‘TV People’ that everyone knew.

One youngster wanted to know if the game was by special invite. I tried my best to keep a straight face when I replied, “No. If you walk in with $40,000 or so, they’ll find you a seat.”

But it is fun to listen to people that are in awe of high limit poker players…even if high limit players are just people with a lot of ‘big’ chips.

*****

While cleaning up some files and addresses on my PC, I finally deleted Frank Raymond from my address book. It seems so strange that he’s gone.

*****

Aruba is just around the corner. Some of us leave here on the morning of the 23rd and the general Aruba group – players and dealers – are scheduled to fly home on the 2nd of October. Jim and me are staying until the 5th. We want to cruise the island and I hope to see a few things that I missed last year. The hurricane didn’t hit the island last year but it dumped a lot of water and washed out a lot of roads – that kept me from making it to the Natural Pool and a few other places. This year I want to climb The Haystack, Aruba’s mountain…if you can call it a mountain. And then – my favorite – the early a.m. walks on the beach, swimming with the locals in the surf, nap time, report to work and ask for an E/O…you get the picture.