I could have sworn it wasn’t four days ago – that I was last here I mean. A lot of noise is going on in the poker world right now because of The Big Game – the game where Andy Beal takes on The Corporation, one player at a time. He took their buy-in this time and is basically waiting to see if they want to continue. My thinking is there has to be a lot of thought going on in their camp. They are winner over all, some of the members of The Corporation are the original members but there are new ones and some of the original ones are not involved. They are busy with tournaments, TV, poker camps, and a variety of other things that may keep them occupied and away from the heads-up play Andy prefers. Plus, the $ factor has to be a large part of their decision. How much are they willing to give back? How many new corporation members are willing to feed the pool, if they can’t play the game? That brings up another question – why aren’t they playing the game? Time will tell and that’s the only answer I have.

A friend of mine posted on the Bluff forum – linking to the page here that has a picture of Andy, Craig, and Me. A bunch of smack about the link came up. Bluff even edited the link. That’s comical since Bluff was posting their link on 2+2. The bottom line is that everyone wants to know what’s going with who/what/where in the poker world and it has turned into a war to see who knows what and can report it first.

Before I leave the thought on reporting, I’m looking for a couple of writers. If you’re seriously interested in writing poker articles, please email me – geenen*@*pokerworks.com. Take out the ‘*’.

My week at work really wasn’t. I was there…sort of…but I barely worked and barely played. The room is quiet. On Tuesday night I had to admit that it was the quietest I’ve ever seen it, since opening, and even possibly during the nightmare of 911. There are a lot of rooms in town, each taking their share of the players that are available, and more rooms opening. During the week, since work really is on my schedule, I don’t frequent other rooms. I’ve barely started to move around on my days off, to check out the action in other places and play a bit to get a feel for the room, management, staff, and comps or perks.

I did play on Tuesday. Look at the character in these faces. I love them!

Left to right: Joe – Tony – Don. They are all brother-in-laws, Joe and Don married Tony’s sisters. Don lives in NY and visits infrequently, Tony lives in AZ and visits five or six times a year, Joe lives in Vegas and plays almost daily. They are all widowers. Tony and Don play $4-8H…with me…and I deal to them. Joe plays $20-40 Stud and $30-60 and $40-80 Stud if a game is in progress.

I have posted about Joe before. We have a lot of history at the tables. Joe has played $4-8H with me in another casino in town (years ago) when he would take his wife there to play Bingo and wait for her to finish. He was one of the regulars in the $75-150 Stud game at The Mirage when it first opened. Kee-rist! In those days, he was like the Grim Reaper when I landed in the Dealer’s Box…I hated to deal to him. Over the years, we’ve worn off all the sharp edges and other than an occasional outburst (one happened about seven or eight months ago), we have grown on each other.

Around five or six years ago, Joe had a stroke. Shortly after that his son Chris died, leaving behind a wife and two small children. I used to deal to Chris also and had played poker with him too. My heart broke for Joe. Then Joe’s wife became bedridden and had to have constant care. If I live long enough, one day I will go in to work or receive a phone call from someone that Joe passed. I know I will cry.

I printed three – 8×10’s and took them in to work with me on Wednesday, giving each of them a print. Joe was so damn happy. You would’ve thought I’d given him the key to eternal bliss. I love that guy!

On some of the funny parts of our ‘time’ together: I used to wear my hair in a high ‘spike’ and have a small braided tail down the back of my neck. My hair was burgundy color and looked like a fire brand under the poker room lights at The Mirage…all except for the black strip that went just offside of center, about two inches wide. Somewhere I have a picture that needs to be scanned in – another time.

When I sat down to deal, Joe would say to the other players, “How would you like to go to bed with this one. You’d start with a red head and wake up with a black head.” *roaring laughter from Joe*

One day I became extremely irritated that he kept singling me out like that and I retorted, “You’d die in the first five minutes. I’m a real race horse!” *laughter from everyone*

Eventually he started calling me a witch when he lost when I was dealing. That really pissed me off! He was never big on monetary tips and he liked to sit in the 1 or 8s and throw the cards over the dealer’s hands, into the rack, when he lost a pot.

One night I happened to be in the room with my youngest son, Darian. Darian is a good-sized boy, nice build, and very direct eyes and manner. We were moving through the high limit section of The Mirage and Joe looked up. On impulse I stopped and introduced Joe to Darian. Joe jumped right up, shook his hand, and visited with him for a moment. I was pretty impressed with Joe…that wasn’t what I expected.

Then Joe did something that made me laugh my butt off. One night while dealing to him, he was calling me a witch and telling the other players that I flew by his house late at night on my broom, he jumped up and went to the corner to find a ‘porter’s broom’. That broom has a very short handle on it. He brought the broom back and put it on the back of my chair. *hysterical laughter*

Another time I sat down to deal the $75-150 Stud and J. C. Pearson was in the 7s next to Joe. J. C. was racking up, ready to leave when Joe asked him to stay and play a little longer. For some reason, J. C. said OK. He lost the first hand I dealt. The old grudge/hate cloud that J. C. has for dealers was fueled even more by this session. He then played every hand while I dealt, lost almost all of them, and gave up most of his racks before I left the table. He grumbled and whined, made comments about ‘saving the blues’ and a few million other negative things that I’ve heard over and over from him for the last 15 years or so.

The next night I went back to deal the same game, Joe was in the same seat (thankfully J. C. was long gone) and Joe apologized to me for asking J. C. to stay. We both laughed over it but Joe was sincere. He knew how mean J. C. could be.

Then one time I stood behind Joe’s chair, waiting to push into the game, and Joe reached around behind his chair until he found the back of my leg and ran his fingers up and down my leg…I was wearing a skirt. I laughed so hard I thought I was going to die. He thought it was pretty funny too.

For years we have teased about having a date on Halloween, I could fly by on my broom. He called me ‘spook’ part of the time too. He moved to Bellagio with us when we opened. One night I walked up behind him, waiting to push into the game, as he was counting out a huge stack of 100’s. He looked up at me and said, “I had a dream about you last night.”

I fell for it, “You did?”

“Yes…and I owe you a lot of money,” as he held up the stack of 100’s.

Time has changed us both. Funny how people just grow on you, you learn to roll with the punches, pick out the parts about them you like best and cherish, bark back at them when they are out of line, and they learn and return the same to you. Damn…I love poker!