Tomorrow night is fright night – the day/night that all the ghosts and goblins come out to haunt everyone. I’m sure I will find a few of those in the poker room and they won’t even be wearing masks or face make-up or “trick or treating”. I’ll try not to act surprised to see them and I know they won’t yell “BOO” because they’ll be doing their usual.

Joe R. was playing in a $40-80 7 Stud game last week when I came in to start my shift. I walked up behind him, put my arm around his neck and shoulder, gave him a hug, and as he said, “Hi Linda. How are you?” I asked him if he was ready for Halloween.

For somewhere around the last 10 years, we’ve joked about the fact that he would be looking for me on Halloween. Sure it was a hot date thing…that really never was. Some day either Joe or me won’t make another Halloween. If it’s him, he will be another memory tucked away that will surface especially around Halloween. If it’s me, it really won’t matter now will it?

I love memories! Even if they’re sad, they are part of my life. I can’t seem to pick and choose which ones I want to keep because they flood through my head, at certain times, in an stoppable torrent.

Some of my favorite memories are centered on the Saturday Night Card Game at my house. Several of the people I’ve known for years – Gordon and Carole, we’ve been friends since the Montana Days. We worked in the poker industry together in Montana and have been friends for a zillion or so years. I met Vivienne when she came to Bellagio to play poker. I met Wayne when he found this site and came in to Bellagio and introduced himself. The rest of the crew pretty much developed from reading this site and wanting to learn to deal poker. Some of the wannabe dealers have gone on to other places and lost touch with us but the majority have remained to become good friends and still return to play cards and help more new people that want to learn to deal.

One of my favorites, and she’s not a dealer or a card player, Amy, is attached to Greg (no…not physically…they’re an ITEM) and that’s how she joined our group.

Amy recently had a birthday and like any good hostess should, I ordered a cake for her. It was a beauty – custard filling – marble cake with butter cream icing:

As the card party developed and we grazed on a variety of munchies, food, snacks, and Amy’s cake, I decided the cake needed to go back into the refrigerator. This is what the cake looked like a few seconds after I picked it up.

I know…I know! One would think I was drinking and couldn’t manage to pick up the cake and move it to the refrigerator. Truth is, the majority of the cake was on the back half of the base and the cardboard the cake was seated on neatly folded in half from the weight, and the cake slipped onto the floor on its top…as I did a SHRIEK kind of thing.

Amy and some of the crew ran in to see what the shrieking was all about. When Amy saw the cake, she grabbed a fork, got right down on her knees, and dug into the custard filling with, “Umnnhhh! This is my favorite part.”

We were laughing our asses off. I grabbed a spatula and started scraping up the sweet, gooey mess that used to be a birthday cake. Wayne grabbed my camera and snapped away.

I scraped the bottom off – which had now become the top – put it back on the cardboard and into the refrigerator. The top of it – which had now become the bottom – went into the garbage can. It felt like most of the icing ended up on my hands. The upside down cake, what was left of it anyway, stared back at me each time I opened the refrigerator door for the next five days until I finally pitched it into the garbage. Thinking back on it now, what we should have had was a ‘cake fight’. That would have really been the “coup d grace” for a birthday event.

Although we joke about the fact that we get together to graze and drink, we do play cards – splashed with all kinds of conversation – and the norm is to hang out for seven to eight hours before we give up until the following Saturday. Last week we played a half and half tournament – structured Holdem and Omaha 8 or Better. This week it was half and half – Deuce to 7 and Ace to 5 Triple Draw…hate those games. We finished the night off, after the tournaments, with our usual Big Deuce game. Next week…who knows?

But in the meantime…Fright Night – Halloween awaits!