“WARNING! WARNING! Earth is approaching at 300,000 MPH. WARNING! WARNING! Outer shell burning, *static* inner core melt down *static* vessel explosion highly possible. Impending crash…impending crash…” That was screaming through my head as I finished off the last few hours of my Play/EO at work. My chips were disintegrating into the atmosphere or being scooped up by invading space ships – while a few of the remaining chips still tried to build a defense against the threats in the super chip wars.

It all started like this: I arrived early at work. I signed ‘the list’ and found a seat in a $4-8H game. The game was a little spicy but I didn’t have to get involved…no playable hands. Then I picked up 5-5 (presto) in the BB. I flopped a set, rivered quads and got paid off. I went to check the dealing roster and I was starting on Table 34. I picked up my chips, togged up, and headed for the Dealer’s Box. The game was an overly active, noisy, everyone was a star, $5-10 NLH. It took me more than a few minutes to get through the noise and hype to get the game settled down and half way running like a game should run. BTW…it was a great game, too much action really. If that’s your kind of game and you like NLH, be there!

While I was dealing this down, Tyler M. came in to say hello. We first met in February of 2004 when he came in to Bellagio to introduce himself and play a little poker. Tyler had announced his arrival before hand (email) and asked what kind of wine I liked. Yes…that delightful child brought me a bottle of wine. Blogging has its perks. 🙂 He left to get the bottle of wine and returned to find me on a break and out to play. We had an opportunity to visit. Nice! I asked for his picture, he said yes, and since there was no game in Bobby’s Room, I had him stand in front of the glass doors for the shot. Tyler, thanks so much and it was even better that we had the chance to visit without a game between us.

I jumped into another $4-8H game, 3s, and soon had a conversation running with Blair – 1s, and Ben – 2s. Ben is from Australia, here in the States for a few short weeks and Blair is from CA. Blair was waiting for a seat in the $5-10 NLH game that I’d just been dealing and he said he plays mostly at The Commerce, sometimes $25-50 NLH but he was playing this limit to socialize and play with Ben. They were both a kick. The subject of The Big Game came up, and Michael Craig’s book, ‘The Banker, The Lawyer, and The Suicide King’, and excitement galore after they found out the game is back on and will be at The Wynn this week. Shortly after that conversation, while they were involved in a hand, I looked up to see ‘The Sweater’ AKA Craig Singer standing on the rail, looking for me. How did I know he was looking for me? We had planned to have a drink after work, if we could arrange the time.

I did a stadium wave and got Craig’s attention. He came into the room, we met midway and visited for about 10 minutes before he left. He managed to snag a cold and isn’t feeling as well as he’d like and has a lot of work that needs to be done. We opted to pass on the drink in hopes that he would manage to sleep…hard to do in Vegas. Craig is one of the nicest humans I’ve ever met…bordering right up there with LemLem (one of our dealers) and I never find any discord or harshness oozing out of his aura…he’s always a welcome sight. Besides…we talk poker, poker games, and throw in a little personal life, and all those fun things. Hopefully he’ll feel better and we can make the drink date before he leaves town.

I went back to the game with Blair and Ben. We kept kicking around the concept of PokerWorks and Table Tango and of course I had to explain that I write about people in games I deal and in games I play. I had my camera on the table and I laughingly told Blair I would make him famous by putting his picture up on my website. Ben marveled at the idea that I would take their picture and put it up here. Done deal.

My chip demolition began slowly. It started with the 10-7H, six-way action, two Hearts on the flop, and I turned a flush. It was checked to me, I bet and got three callers, including Ben. The River was a Heart, two players checked, Ben bet, and I called. He showed the KH-QD. He immediately began apologizing. Funny! I told him I wouldn’t apologize to him when I was stacking his chips. *laughter* I never stacked any of his chips. Matter of fact, I think I might have won one pot after that. Ace-Ace held up for three-way action. Blair got called to his seat in NLH, Ben and I visited and did the chip dance for about another hour and a half.

Chad Patterson arrived, his bro Greg was on his way and they came to play poker. A new $4-8 game kicked off right next to me within a few minutes and the Patterson Brothers were in it. I finally left Ben, Mary Carlson (another dealer), and Janet (an authoress of a self help book) behind me and joined the Patterson’s.

This game was a lot more fun because the chips were flying through the air but the other end of the table kept stacking them. I won another pot with Ace-Ace and that was it. I was card dead. Once I realized I was never going to win another hand, it really wasn’t very painful.

I had one chance to get even and win a few chips when I picked up A-JD and raised it. Greg raised behind me. A noisy, obnoxious rant at the other end of the table raised. Two people called. So did I. Greg raised it, Rant raised it, call, call, call.

The Flop brought two Diamonds – Queen high, no straights. Ouch! Earth really is approaching way too fast. I can’t even remember how many bets went in but we were all there. A Jack peeled off on the Turn. Possibly another out for me. Nope…a 9 on the River. Greg won a huge pot with A-A. Rant held K-K.

The funniest part of it all was I checked the River, Greg checked, Rant checked, and the Button bet. I folded, Greg called, so did Rant, and the Button showed a 9. Of course he was going to be able to steal the pot with a bet on the River. Kee-rist!

I sat through another round or two of the table and gave up. Poker really isn’t a game of cards. It’s a game of people played with cards. If it was all about cards, how could we play?