Proportion

Poker, I've played my share, including a home game last night and a trip to the casino today. I had thought, albeit last minute and very briefly, to hop on a flight to Vegas for the WBPT, but realistically knew that four or five days away might be too much of a drain on my constitution, not to mention an expense I didn't know I could justify despite the support of the wife.

So, in short, last night's game was a card-dead wash and today saw a double-up in a few short hours. "In short" because although I wanted to tell you about the set of Kings and the Aces against Queens, something far more interesting happened elsewhere in the building.

Yet, before I go on, I have a little set-up:

A few days ago, an old PAO friend, John (AKA Mad Mosby) wrote to say he would be making the drive to our local rez casino and asked if I wanted to go. We met in the poker room where I found him at a 2/5 table. Just watching the huge pots made Thumper flutter despite the beta blocker, and I thought that even were I able to afford that game, I would not be able to justify putting that much money on the line just for entertainment. I was happy when John later informed me that he had done quite well.

Then we went to dinner.

The plan was that John would head home and I wold hit the 1/3 tables again after eating. We said our goodbyes, and I headed back to the poker room. Then I remembered I should call the wife and headed outdoors. John was coming back inside. He changed his mind and decided to play roulette for a little while. Having never played roulette, nor wanting to, I was nevertheless curious and decided to watch.

We both watched for a while, and then we again said farewell.

But I couldn't bring myself to go back into the poker room. Dinner set too heavy, which meant my head would not be in the game, so I played a slot, broke even and decided to call it a night.

John was playing roulette.

Now, as I said, we had watched this game for a while. The table was full at one point and the chips were flying. I guess 37 to 1 odds will do that, but it was the Asian couple on the far corner that caught my attention, for while she was putting a hundred or so in play each roll, her husband was placing out anywhere from 900 to 1,000 dollars all over the board.

Both were well dressed. He had some card in front of him on which he wrote after each roll. While we watched, he managed to stay about even. When I found John the second time, no more than a half hour later, he informed me that the guy had already gone through $7,000 in that time, and I watched him go through another 2K in ten minutes.

My lord.

But it wasn't just him. And the house was killing. Granted, others had less but everyone except John seemed intent on getting all or most of their chips on as many numbers as they thought "prudent." All bent forward over the board placing chips like charms, it was more like ritualized hysteria than a game. And perhaps knowing that success was surely fleeting, no one smiled when they won.

And while I could pat myself on the back for sticking with a game I knew I could beat, I also knew that nothing could beat the warm fire and bright smile waiting an hour away, so we said our final goodnight.