Shark Week at the Riverwind – fin

“She’s good luck, she made me eighty thousand dollars today.”

“She” was a too tanned, freshly manicured bruntette leaning against the back of his chair and motor-mouthing about real-estate, horse trading and “I kin sell anything – yew name it, I kin sell it. Buy it an’ sell it fer more.” She wasn’t his wife, we knew that much.

He – Mr. DBS (don’t be scared) was the fellow who replaced Papa Stack when he called it a night and took his rack(s) of chips with him. Mr. DBS was paying little attention to the action of the game, giving the dealer the challenge of corraling him in from his phone, or the waitress or his lady friend or his Crown Royal in a simulated cut crystal plastic high ball cup.

We knew his friend wasn’t his wife because his wife called several times while he was at the table. Each time he winced a little when he viewed her picture as the caller on his iPhone. He never answered.

I decided it wasn’t time for me to leave. I figured the fishing was about to get purty profitable. My companions to left of me were positively salivating.

He earned his moniker from his announcement on every hand “Now, don’t be scared, don’t be scared.” He was in nearly every hand and raising each time. Incredibly he’d call down hands with absolutely nothing. Well, I guess not so incredibly considering the volume of CR and beer chasers he was imbibing.

His chips were finding their way into the stacks on my left. He went bust on a big hand with the nine seat who, while we waited for the dealer to count Mr. DBS’s rather untidy all-in stack , asked me if I was I was going to call. He had a look on his face that said, “I have the nuts, get out of my way.” I got out of his way and he doubled his stack when his nut straight beat Mr. DBS’s nut nothing.

Another large pot saw a great portion of his rebuy migrate to the stack of the eight-seat. I got what was left of it – which wasn’t much, and he bid us adieu. I was sorry to see him go.

That’s poker. That’s poker in one of it’s infinite colored facets that you can feel good about, or you can feel bad about. Everyone at our table saw opportunity knocking when Mr. DBS sat down. We all knew he’d be leaving with nothing and we all wanted his chips in our stack.

I bristled inwardly a bit when my left-hand neighbor cautioned Mr. DBS that he was showing his cards. “I know she can see your cards,” he said pointing to me. Then I was embarrassed because I had seen his cards, but I still called his bet. I knew I was skating on the thin ice of karma. Was it wrong? Probably. But I had the taste of blood in my mouth and, like everyone else there, I was jonesing for a feeding frenzy.

I only got a nibble or two, and I left the table with less than I had before Mr. DBS sat down. Perhaps that was my karmic payback. I still left up for the evening having survived one of the toughest tables I’ve played at the Riverwind. I left feeling (mostly) good about how I’d played. LDP – Lock Down Poker served me well.

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I hope to return to online poker soon. Full Tilt dangled another bonus in front of my nose but, honestly, those bonuses are impossible for me to complete. I’ve been embroiled in some summer tv watching and, oh, trying to change some major life-style bad habits which have kept me busy and offline. But, things are settling back into a routine. I’m eager to play with pals in one or two of the weekly poker blogger tournies so look for me in the next week or two!