I sent out the usual email to the ‘Pan’ group, advertising that they needed to show up for the 6 p.m. card party because it could possibly be the last one hosted at my present residence – and even possibly the last one I host in a helluva long time. Yes…that secret plan that I keep talking about. Remember the big assed truck and the fifth wheeler? Those are things that are whispering the wind of change. Only at this point it is no longer a whispering wind – it’s picking up force and starting to tug at my hair and clothes as I move about my daily life. But honestly, that subject and everything involved in it is a post of its own…probably in the next few days.

Scott, Ryan, Maria, Mike, and Carole and Gordon couldn’t make it to the Card Party. The rest of the group came rolling in at 10 to 15 minute intervals. Kram, Greg P. and Amy A., Chad P., Viv, Gary and Marie, David brought Heather (she’s a new face to our group – just visiting Vegas), and my nephew, Chad. Chad P. brought two friends that just moved here, Nick and Tim. Wayne was at work and showed up as soon as he could get here (on the funny side, I called him before he left work and he said, “If anyone’s interested, there’s a helluva $10-20 NLH game going here.” – he works at The Palms – and I replied, “Why would I want to break up my card party by sending someone there?” We both laughed.) When everyone or even almost every show up, it’s really quite a houseful. We usually start in the backyard, huddled around the chimenea, with a drink and visiting, and then it’s off to ‘super grazing’ and cards.

Tim and Nick want to deal. I sent my ‘dealing mpg’ url address to Nick in an email and we visited a little bit about the dealing aspect. They both play, are young, enthusiastic as hell, and eager to be involved in poker. The flood of new faces wanting to enter the dealing side of poker is huge. The card parties are the perfect place for new people to jump in and get their feet wet because everyone in attendance either is or was a player or a dealer. The downside for them is that we don’t always want to play poker or teach people to deal so if they show up, they have to do play what we are playing or take a hike. I think they get the best of it, either way.

We played Big Deuce. Amy and me switched off playing the same stack of chips for a while. There are times that I could care less if I play cards, but I do like the company so switching off works well for me. Chad P. had to leave for work – MGM. Wayne arrived. He brought champagne so we could toast to me.

We finally switched off to poker and let the new kids take turns dealing to us. I even won…5c stakes…yippeee!!!. Kram and me went to war in a few hands but he’s easy to go to war with. He likes to scramble it up at the table and he kept goading/teasing us to play NLH. Nope! We didn’t fall for it. We just wanted a friendly little game of ‘graze and visit’.

Greg P. and me were both telling everyone we had to play in the Titan free roll the following day. For some reason, Greg picked up his phone to find out something from a friend and found out that we both missed the Titan free roll. It was held on Saturday. It’s just a little bit funny that we both thought it was on Sunday. There’s another opportunity for a bigger free roll at Noble Poker – it’s a $5,000 freebie for just a $20 deposit. I’m going to see if I can manage to remember what the hell day it’s on and be there. *chuckling*

Late in the night, Wayne pulled out the champagne and poured. Him and me were standing the kitchen talking, coffee brewing, chocolate cake waiting to be cut and devoured, when he informed me that I should think of a toast, since this was a kind of farewell. I can get all creepy emotional at times and I didn’t want to think of this as goodbye to anyone – and it isn’t, it’s just hello to change.

So when everyone had their glass of bubbly, I simply raised my glass and said, “To me,” with a small smile. We all drank. It went over quite well for me, nothing emotional about it, and we were off to the next hand. I finally kicked them all out about 1:30 a.m. My butt was dragging.

So ends my reign as the Queen of the Pan Game Hostess and Poker Dealer Instructor in Las Vegas. The winds of change are steadily increasing.