Marie and I had set up a lunch date at Mimi’s – one final see ya – be safe – have a great summer – and had discussed playing poker but we weren’t sure where/what/when after lunch. Wayne met us – pleasant surprise – for the food festivities and we got to visit about our buddy Mark winning a WSOP Circuit Event. And Marie and Wayne got to listen to me grouching about my three front teeth. The bracket thingey. It’s pretty ugly and very painful, the tooth had extracted a bit in the last few weeks and I went in the day before to have the brackets tightened. In a 24 hour period, I swear the tooth would fall out of my head except for the brackets keeping it locked in place. I had already called my dentist for an appointment the following day because I couldn’t close my teeth without hitting the back of that tooth. *Pain – sob* Everything seemed over amplified due to the pain in my mouth. Or maybe I’m just a grouchy be-atch.

Lunch over, Wayne left us to do other things and Marie and I decided to hit the Mirage and see if Donna was there for the afternoon. When we pulled in off of Industrial Road to oversize parking for the Mirage, we were told we couldn’t park there. We would have to go back out of the area, across Industrial Road and park in an oversize lot used for b-e-e-e-e-e-g trucks like my sis drives. The security guy told us he’d call and have a limo come and pick us up.

Well…ok! We made it across the street, pulled in and parked, sat and waited.

The security guard for that lot was sitting on the sidewalk and never moved all the time we sat in the Steed. We finally decided we would just walk and wouldn’t wait to see if a limo or shuttle would take us to the Mirage entrance – which BTW is quite a ways away. As soon as we started to walk away from the Steed, the security guard went into ‘secure’ mode. He told us we couldn’t park there. Well…why didn’t he tell us that 10 minutes ago when we had the doors open and the engine off and were idly sitting there chatting? We told him the security guard across the street told us to. He asked what we were going to do. We told him, “Play poker.”

“How long will you be?”

This guy can’t be a poker player. Everyone knows that poker players never know what time it is and they never know how long a good game will last or how long getting unstuck can take.

We told him we weren’t sure and he argued with us again, telling us we couldn’t park there. I did a, “Where are we supposed to park then? The guard over there told us we could park here.”

After a little more hemming and hawing and how long will you be questioning (there was nothing in the lot other than two semis anyway), he finally acted like we weren’t asking him for his left eye and let us go in peace.

We walked in, no sight of a limo…if we could have taken the employees entrance we would have been there in a heartbeat. Yeah…I still remember the way.

When we hit the poker room there were a lot of familiar faces: Danielle, Bill R., Marlene, Arlene, Mark G., but no Donna.

Marie really likes the Omaha 8 or better – it’s 5-10 with a full kill – so we helped start the game. Meno was in the game (hell if I know if that’s how you spell it but it goes with his character, think ‘mean-o’) I dealt to him at the Mirage before I left there, then he moved over to Bellagio shortly after opening, and then moved back to the Mirage. I asked him if he remembered me. He said yes and asked me where I was. I told him I’d been at Bellagio and I’d quit. He asked why. I said, “Because of you. I had to deal to you.”

He roared with laughter.

As he grouched his way through about 45 minutes of play, I said, “You know, Meno, that’s one thing I’ve always remembered about you…how happy you are.”

He roared again, laughing up a storm. Then he asked me where my son was…referring to Dan because Dan used to deal. I said, “He’s a security guard at the House of Blues.”

Meno replied, “Good. That’s a good job for him. He told me once that he hated dealing.”

I gave him the straight face when I said, “Meno, he quit dealing because of you, just like I did.”

I thought he really was going to pop a vein. He was seriously in laugh mode now. But it only lasted a few minutes, he was back to telling the dealer how to do their job and looking pizzed but that’s normal for him.

I’m not a huge fan of Omaha 8 although at one time I liked the game a lot, I still do play it in online tournaments in my Chasing Chris Ferguson project. And I struggled with this game. It’s typical Omaha, have the best hand and get ready to pitch on the river. One hand I had A-K diamonds, Q-8 or something like that and flopped Aces with the nut flush draw, made the flush, and still had the best high hand on the river. I was first to act and tabled my cards with the A-K of diamonds together, about an inch separating my other 2 cards. There were four other players in the hand and a low out. The dealer looked at everyone’s cards but mine I guess. She grabbed my cards to muck them and I really don’t know how I still moved that fast, I had my hand over hers in a heartbeat and pushed my cards back down on the table with, “Don’t take my cards.”

After I got my half of the pot I apologized for grabbing her hand. She was fine with it. I swear if I hadn’t she would have mucked my cards and I don’t know if anyone but me saw that I had a flush until I made a noise about it.

One of the people at my table was Rose, a dealer I worked with at Bellagio…she still works there. And David Hutton came over to say hello. He used to deal swing shift with me at Bellagio but had surgery on the tendons in his thumb and moved to graveyard high brush. He was there to play in the daily tournament. When Dennis K. came in, I definitely had to get a hug from him. He’s one of my favorite, A+ supervisors, and I’ve known him since way back when I first hit town. Honestly, I think I do need to get out more often and see some of these people. It’s really great.

Marie and I were in the 9 and 10s, Rose was in the 4. I walked around behind Rose with my camera and quietly leaned over to ask her if she would take a picture of Marie and I. The dealer was busy bringing in a fill and abruptly stopped and asked me what I was doing. I said, “Private business. It doesn’t concern you.”

OMG! She went on and on about the fact that she saw a camera and we couldn’t take pictures and she would lose her job. HA! I went ahead and showed Rose how to take the picture and went back to Marie. Of course I put it on the wrong setting and had to go back to Rose…as the dealer was still taking in the fill and rambling.

So shoot me! We got the picture.

Here’s the bad Karma Fairy at work. I did a ‘red eye removal’ and went to save the picture, only problem was the save was on the memory stick – I hadn’t imported the pictures to my computer. Everything went into standstill mode and I finally gave up and hit ‘stop’. It ruined half of my picture…our chips on the table and our arms. Kee-rist!

My smile is pretty strange, but not quite as strange as it looks here. It’s that strip of wax pressed onto the brackets (to keep them from shredding my lip) that makes me look like I really need dental work.

Gary was in the room when we got there, he came by to say goodbye, I was going to take Marie home after we played awhile longer. The game went up and down, three people went to eat, another one walking, then a seat opened, then a new player came in, but it was always short. We stayed until around 7:30 and gave up for the night. I was down, Marie was up. She’s such a great person, when I dropped her off at her condo, I felt a slight twinge. I’m going to miss her for the next four months or so.