The Saturday night meets have grown long in between sessions. I seem to be the only person, of the entire group, that consciously makes an effort to bring everyone together. In a way, that sucks. Why don’t people take the initiative more often and throw out an invitation to spend time with each other? Perhaps they really wish I’d just go away and they want to invite the others but feel they have to invite me too if they hold a shindig. Gee…that’s kind of a disheartening thought so I’ll skip over it and think it’s just because mankind is lazy in general and procrastinates on everything although the thought ripples over the gray matter on occasion. All of that out of the way, Marie and I were first to arrive, she beat me by a few minutes and had our names on the list for $3-6 and $2-6 spread limit.

She had taken a seat in a $2-4 game while she waited for me. As I arrived, her seat opened in $3-6, she moved over, and then we were both called to $2-6. I believe the game was just trying to crank off but the table was on the other side of the podium and not visible to me when I entered the room. There were six other people seated with chips but the game looked like it was dead. Marie took the 1s, I took the 2s, and the second hand I was dealt was K-K. All the raises went in pre-flop, three way action, bringing Q-8-3 and two clubs. I came in last place in a three player race. A set of Queens and a club on the river gave the nut flush to A-J clubs. The flush checked to us on the river and we both checked. Teach him not to bet his own hand. He was never going to get a call from me but he would have gotten one from the set of Queens. So went my poker night. I managed to claw back to even at one point and then I floppeda set of Queens and got beat by the flush on the river by the woman that had flopped the set of Queens earlier. It was a huge pot but I still didn’t pay off her bet on the river, I knew what she made. Someone else did though so I witnessed A-8 clubs dragging down a huge pot that I would have liked to have claimed. Oh well. Poker, Poker, Poker…

Vivienne arrived, she took the 3s (Nicholas where are you?) and we gabbed while I folded just about every hand I looked at. I hated the game. One guy called everything and he finally left with about $50 in chips. Marie was happy to see him go because he beat her in every hand. I was really sad because the life of the party left. Seats filled, seats emptied, the house still pounded us out of $5 a pop with the rake and the jackpot.Wayne, Greg, and Amy arrived; they didn’t arrive together but within a half hour of each other. Wayne took the 7s, Greg took the 4s, and Amy sat behind me for a bit to visit and then moved over behind Greg. Waynewas the only orphan, the rest of us were all on one end of the table.

The poker room is now in the middle of the casino and it’s unbelievably difficult to hear anything, even from the person seated next to you. I don’t even know how many tables they have, I’m guessing around 12, but I was surprised how dead the tables and games were for a Saturday night. The NLH games may have been very lively – and possibly the $2-4 – but nothing seemed to be screaming, “HEY, I’M LIVE!” from any section of the room.

The dealers were the same as all the rest of the dealers in Vegas, some felt they had to stop the action and talk instead of deal, some did a great job, some made huge of examples of the fact that they couldn’t reach the chips and cards in outer regions of the table by carrying a stick with them to pull in the bets and chips, and a few (two women I noticed in particular) drew giant, white, chalky looking lines on the table with a chip from the rack, and grouched loudly that they expected the chips to be put in past that line. Ok…why not talk to your manager and ask them to put a line on the table that’s professional looking?Or do what I do when I deal, “Please push your chips in…” No dealer rag going on, just a thought on the fact that management never seems to follow up on dealer training, etiquette, or customer service. That really does get on my nerves. And it’s more reason to play online so pick one of the banners on the left and sign up.

I stepped outside the ‘poker fence’ and snapped this shot of my buddies in the game:

Marie’s back to us – 1s; Me – 2s, empty; Viv talking to Amy -3s; Amy, main sweater to all of us; Greg – 4s; unknown that bluffed me off a hand -5s; hidden behind dealer – 6s; Wayne barely visible behind the blue checkered 10s – 7s.

I took a shot of Greg and Amy together, it was not a good picture so ‘delete file’. I really like this one of the beautiful Miss Amy:

I had Wayne take a picture of Moi and another picture of Marie and Vivienne and me together. Let me tell you, if I put up the picture of the three of us, those two women would K-I-L-L me. And I understand the thought that goes with it. None of us like our own picture – mainly because we are human and we have an image of ourselves imprinted on our internal hard drive and that image is nothing like the one that a camera sees. But I would have to agree with them, they were not at their best in this photo. So…you get Moi…all by myself…and where the hell did all that white frosting come from along the temples and forehead? Yikes!

The flush on my cheeks is a bit of sun from the hike that morning and the nifty sweat pull-over is from my Aruba trip sponsored by Ultimate Bet. Word is out that Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker are/may be merging. If so, that may be the end of the Aruba trip. *heavy sigh* But in the meantime, download the software and sign up because there will be other special events on the horizon.

Wayne appeared to be a million miles from the world, revolving around another planet during most of our play. Yes…I always notice what other people are doing at the table, friend or foe, I watch everything and I suppose that’s why dealers bother me so much – their attitude and mood affects the whole game. But I did manage to get a big smile out of Wayne when I told him this picture was for his mom!

For the first time, in all of the times I’ve ever sat beside Marie, she hated the game also. And she brought up the fact that we were being raped by the drop. Yes indeedy kids…we were in fact. At that point, we kicked around theissue that we needed to go back to a monthly ‘graze and play’ scene like we used to when I had a house big enough to host it, except in those days it was a weekly. Now if we can crank one off once a month, it will be great. I still have the need to travel to all of the different rooms in Vegas and do some pictures and thoughts on the room, the staff, and playing there. That will work out. It may be once a month or so with the ‘Pan Game Plays Vegas’ but it is still on my menu. Even if I’m the only Pan Game member that shows. But Marie’s point is totally valid and I agree.

We gave up the game and went to dine. The Excalibur features the Sherwood Forest, nights and jousting theme in all of their decor and we chose the coffee shop, The Sherwood Forest Cafe as our place to graze and continue our meeting. Wayne stayed in the game after we left and joined us later. Our waitress was a perky, little, bundle of noise and energy and when she came to take our food order, I asked for the Spinach and Artichoke appetizer. She blurted out, “Where are you from?”

“I live in Las Vegas.”

“Then you should already know, that all the casinos on the Strip do not serve spinach and probably will not for another six months.”

I gave her the deadpan look and asked, “So you couldn’t just tell me you didn’t have it? You had to put me through a fucking quiz first?”

She immediately leaned over and put her face into Vivienne’s shoulder. *hysterical laughter* Hey, I have no idea why I say the things I say sometimes, my mouth just pops open and BOOM! Words! She took it well, after she accused me of being mean, she even stopped the manager and asked him about the spinach crisis for me and then he went to the chef and the chef made a dip with artichokes that was very, very tasty. Nice that they would go the extra effort.

Just in case you’re interested, the Sherwood Forest Cafe offers the Sherwood Platter as one of their appetizers. Holy Cramolie! It has fried calamari on the platter. Now honestly, did they have that in Sherwood Forest? But the food experience was much better than the poker experience. Wayne did join us and we laughed and chirped for an hour and half or so. I hated the poker, I love my friends. Stay in touch kids.