Stranded in KC........

Got to head over on Saturday for another poker session at the casino. With the baby soon to come, probably one of my last visits for awhile. For the session, I won around $100 in 4 hours, so a pretty good outing from that perspective. I've had three winning sessions in a row. That's a bonus as far as I'm concerned, as I'm really only there to break even and entertain myself. That's rarely a possibility at any casino game other than poker.

I sat down at a pretty quiet table. As I often do, I quickly struck up a lot of conversation at the table. I like playing when there's a lot of talk and it's well known that a happy and talkative table makes a lot more plays that they shouldn't be making. That's obviously a good thing.

Now that I've been there a few times on the weekend, I'm able to quickly recognize a few of the regulars and know how they play. That helps a lot. I was excited to see that the regulars that were at my table were pretty aggressive players, which means I can trap them pretty easily with some of my bigger hands. That was my main strategy and it worked really well.

After a bit, there was a guy that sat down next to me and I said hello. Really nice guy who liked to talk at the table a lot. He was a college tutor who was from Portland, Oregon. He was in town to tutor at a local college for the week. Unfortunately, because of the winter storm in KC, his flight out on Friday and his flight out on Saturday were cancelled. So he was left stranded in KC in a hotel and just decided to make the most of the night and come play some poker.

A dealer's name caused one of the funnier moments of the night. She's a really nice lady who is originally from Thailand. Her name is Wan. My friend from Portland noticed her name.

Portland: Dealer, what is your name?

Wan: It's Wan.

Portland: That's funny. We have the same name!

(Everyone laughed at this point, thinking that Portland was yanking our chain.)

Wan: I don't think your name is Wan.

Portland: Oh yes it is!

Portland then proceeded to toss his driver's license into the middle of the table. His name? Juan. Pronounced the same way, but obviously the spelling was quite different. Wan picked up the licence and the rest of the table got a good laugh when she verified that they had the 'same' name.

Portland mentioned that he had a 18 month old child at home. I told him I was about to have a child. He told me that it was great and that I'd love having a kid around. He said he actually missed having some of the chaos that his kid brings because he'd just been sitting around a hotel room for the last few days. He was ready to get back to see his family.

We did have one other guy come over to our table from another table because he noticed that our table was loud and looked like we were having a good time. He proceeded to prove my point that I made earlier. He had a wonderful time and talked constantly at the table. He also lost $150 in the process. The gift of gab is a beautiful thing when sitting at a poker table.

Portland ended up walking away about the same time I did. He was only about $15 down when he left, so certainly a good night of entertainment for him for a cost of $15. He thanked me for keeping the table lively and I wished him the best in trying to get out of town. Hopefully he managed to catch a flight on Sunday.