Monday, January 2, 2006
Holy Schmolie! I just typed ‘2006’ – that means my brain has officially registered the fact that another year has passed. What my brain is having a hard time digesting is the fact that the weather is just as ugly right now as it was when 2005 blew off into the past. It’s windy, spitting something between rain and sleet, and C-C-C-O-L-D outside. And I have to go to work tonight. Damn! I want to stay tucked away from the rest of the world – mainly the weather – and not move for a few days.
Terri Evanowski entertained me while I dealt a $15-30 H game last week (last year *giggle*).
*Begin background* I’ve dealt to Terri (off and on) for somewhere close to 10 years. She normally plays $80-160 and $100-200 H having moved up from smaller limits by playing her way steadily up. She played in Bellagio’s $15,000+300 final event of the Five Diamond Tournament. She finished number 42 out of 555 contestants and the night before she got knocked out, she was sitting, more like crammed in-between/up against Ritchie Wong – 4s and David Limb – 5s, and drinking, highly animated and talkative and very happy to be where she was in the tournament chip standings. The game was $400-800 Mixed and she never stopped talking which is highly unusual for a ‘sweater’. But which one was she ‘sweating’? David was very serious and quiet but Ritchie kept laughing with Terri and she never slowed down.
She said something about stiffing the dealers if she won and then laughed her way through, “But not you, Linda.”
She said she would never tip ???? but I didn’t hear the name. That whenever ???? came into the box, she put her small chips behind the big chips just so she wouldn’t accidentally tip him/her. Then she asked me, “If I win the tournament I’m going to have a big party. What would you rather have, Linda, a big party or the money.”
“The money.”
Everyone laughed. She said that was ok, she’d give me the money. She asked back and forth between David and Ritchie if 2M would change their lives and then asked the other players at the table. I don’t even know what kind of response she got. I just loved the hell out of her enthusiasm and candor. *End background*
Before I sat down in the $15-30 H game, I told her how great I thought it was that she finished as well as she did in the tournament. She went on a little gabfest about the tournament and she was still very pleased that she’d played in it and got to where she did. She talked to me through a lot of my down, asking me about tattoos, etc., and I told her I’d have to talk to her about that away from the game.
She was inhaling chocolate martinis, ordering them two at a time. She asked, “Do you think I can get to 200, Linda?”
I was pretty sure she was talking about her weight but didn’t want to open a can of worms so I asked, “Two hundred what?”
She laughed, “Pounds,” as she slammed chips out onto the table.
She went to war in one hand with Van AKA Mama (as she’s known around the $15-30 H tables at Bellagio). I can’t remember the position or the raises pre-flop. The board was A-3-4-5 and the raises went in – the River brought a back door Diamond flush possible. More raises went in with Terri reducing Van to a caller. Van turned over pocket deuces, Terri turned over K-2 Diamonds and blasted Van with, “Don’t fuck with a drunk!”
I almost spit. Thankfully I got pushed right after that so I could laugh in private.
So…time to brave the elements and head for work.