I lost a day. That’s not unusual because too many times I fail to remember what day of the month it is. The downside was that it was my younger brother Kenny’s birthday. I called him as I made the drive into work, just to wish him health and many happy days – only to find out that today was the 5th and his birthday was yesterday. Pshaw! He was happy I called and didn’t care about it being one day late. We jawed about life in general and my new life changes coming up. I can always go park on his land when I’m mobile, as long as I can crank up the Internet, I can hang out with him until it gets c-c-c-old. Cold is my stipulation, not his. He even has a blade to slap on his truck so he can plow out the road when it snows…that will open up the escape hatch to the county road. I could never spend my winters like that, or my birthdays for that matter. That kid’s got heart.
So…Happy Birthday, Kenny! Hello Bellagio! I got there too late to sign the E/O and ended up working almost my full shift. A game broke down when I pushed at 2 AM and I managed to escape. But before I went, I was asked if I wanted to take off Friday night. Not just YES…but hell yes. Strange as it seems I’ve worked almost all of my shifts for the last two weeks. I’m starting to feel like a full time employee again. That’s not a bad thing. I can always use the money and I’m sort of hanging on the rim with a bunch of life change things and lots of money escaping in different directions right now.
I had one table this week that was quite fun and funny to deal. I heard Matt and Dee long before I got to their game. They were being ‘cut off’. As a matter of fact, they were on the table right behind my game and I had my back to them. The way it all started, I thought they might just jump up and kick the table over…and land on top of my table. When I got to their game, Dee – 1s, Matt – 4s had calmed down – on the noise – and Matt was slamming a raise into almost every hand on every street.
Who could tell if they knew each other from someplace else? I couldn’t. Dee was dressed as if he’d spent a day at the office. Matt had on a baseball cap and work clothes…like construction type of work clothes. Dee noticed my nametag and asked me if I knew where the Bitter Root was. Of course he knew I did just from my nametag. He told me his granddad used to own a ranch there but sold it to ‘The Huey’ of Huey Lewis and News…but he could still go there every summer and fish and hang out. And he does.
Matt won a big pot and threw me a lot of $$$. As I thanked him, he gave me the giant ‘air’ smooch and told me he gave me a lot of tongue on that one.
I may have blushed…honestly. As Dee laughed, I feigned innocence with, “I’m from Montana. I don’t know what that means.”
Matt argued, “Of course you know what that means, that’s why I gave you deep tongue on that one. I’m from Jackson Hole, Wyoming.”
Let me tell ya, if I was going to get deep tongue from someone, I’d be taking that boy home with me. Umnhhh…yummy! But I was dealing poker so back to the game.
Matt was just right in the middle of almost every hand. Dee was intermittent jamming but much more card selective than Matt. The cocktail waitress came by and Dee wanted a drink. Nope! She wasn’t going for it…after all, they were ‘cut off’.
After she left, Dee told me that no one at the table had a drink and they really needed cocktails. I motioned to Matt, “He’s got almost a full drink.”
Dee reached over and grabbed it, inhaling most of it with a few gulps, handing it to a friend behind him that was leaning over the rail, “Keep this for me.”
I wanted to laugh but held onto my giggles. Matt never even noticed the move, or if he did, he gave no indication of it. Dee asked me if I thought they could get cocktails, he said it had been quite awhile since they were cut off. My…how time flies…it had been about 30 minutes. I told him I’d call the Supervisor and we could ask but they had to promise to totally behave, no potty mouth, no getting out of line for any reason or it would be no drinks forever.
Kamell arrived. I told him they promised to be really good and wouldn’t create any problems…they just wanted to drink and play poker. Kamell was great about it. He explained that if, for any reason, he was called to the table again for anything that concerned them, there wouldn’t be another chance.
For some reason, like kindred spirits of insanity, I hit it off quite well with Matt and Dee. Matt kept throwing money in my pocket, Dee did his share, and they were so upbeat about playing poker that I really felt like they were long lost buds. They got to order their drinks. I got pushed. As I left the game I ran around to Matt and he opened both arms, I gave him a giant hug, he said, “You’d better hug me, Linda. And you tell that guy (meaning Kamell) that I am one of the nicest guys in the world. The dealer before said I put out $10 and I didn’t. Maybe I shouldn’t have corrected him but that was what started the whole problem.”
Shoot! Since I couldn’t clock out and take him home with me, I had to go deal my next game.
*****
I did something I just NEVER do in a $10-20 NLH game this week too. I’m ratting on myself. I pushed into a game that had one regular in it – Lewis. We’re about the same age. All the other guys in the game were anywhere from 22ish up to maybe 30ish. Lewis was the only that was silent. The rest of them were all talking and every other word was fuck. “How did that fucking flop come?” – “What was he fucking talking about?” – “Fuck, I can’t fucking believe it!”
They weren’t upset or twitching, just couldn’t talk without throwing in fuck…if they had to leave it out there would have been big gaps of silence in their conversation.
About five minutes into my down, as I took the deck out of the Shuffle Master, I calmly stated, “I can’t fucking believe how many fucking times you guys have said the word fuck since I sat down.”
They went nutzzz. One of them exclaimed, “I love you, Linda!” and threw me a tip.
I clammed up after that and just dealt but they kept their conversation running in the same vein throughout my down. The one that threw me a tip asked if it bothered me that he swore but he didn’t wait for an answer as he took off with the explanation that he swore everywhere he went and in all conversations and didn’t even know if he could stop.
Lewis asked me how I liked dealing in a college dormitory. That about sum up the whole half hour.
*****
Jumping back to Thursday, I thought I was going to deal to Jennifer Tilly for the first time. A Must, Must Move started and she was in it and it was in my line-up. Just as I planted my butt in the seat, she was being called to the Must Move game. Oh well…another time.
A few hours later, I clocked out. My new, mobile home had a date at Camping World for a generator and washer/dryer install at 8 AM Friday. My plan was to head for both homes (one has been parked on the street in front of the other home), change clothes, hitch up the mobile home, and head across the valley before traffic went ballistic on the freeways heading in to town. Camping World is almost 30 miles from my stationary home in the NW. Sure I was going to arrive about three hours early for the appointment time. But that’s why we have beds in our mobile homes when we go on the road. *grin*
*****
On the WPBT scene…this is one person that I could never leave out. I see him at all Bellagio Tournaments and the pleasure is all mine. Never without a camera, always in touch with everyone, and giving us his view of how we appear to him. Presenting: Joseph Sr.
