Distractions and Sports Betting..........

I headed over to the local casino poker room this past weekend. As is often the case, the table had a wide mix of players at the table. On this particular night, it seemed that the more odd and seedy characters decided to show up.

On the opposite end from where I was sitting, there was a guy who sat down with about $500. He immediately started a discussion at the table with a couple other guys about sports betting. He was SERIOUSLY into sports betting, which obviously is illegal in our area. I'm guessing he had a bookie. They talked about parlays, spreads, odds........on and on it went. I'm somewhat of a novice better (i.e. I'll bet on a game or two when in Vegas), but these guys were planning on making money off this stuff. Note to these guys.........there's a reason why the bookies end up with quite a bit of money.

The $500 guy apparently was a gambler in more ways than one. He sat down with $500 and burned through $300-350 of it in just over an hour. He was playing all kinds of hands and more than happy to bluff with every one of them. He was having fun initially until the stacks started getting shorter. He started talking a whole lot less and kept looking down at his chips. By the time I left the table, he was down $300.

Another player was an easy read. He was likely in his 50s and it appeared that he hadn't played live poker much. Every time he had a winning hand, his hands would shake as he placed the chips out to bet. It was easy to see and it easily saved me $50 on a couple of hands that I would have lost more had it not been for his shaking hands.

There was a young woman who sat down at the table that provided most of the entertainment for the evening. First, she was wearing a shirt that exposed her navel and provided plenty of cleavage. We quickly figured out that she wore that shirt with the full intention of distracting the players at the table. It works to some extent, as several of the players started flirting with her. I even saw one player accidentally knock over his chip stack as he was chatting with her.

It also became pretty obvious that she was a pretty weak poker player. She was playing hands that were often behind. Unfortunately for the rest of the table, she kept getting lucky and taking people's money. I was personally up about $120 at one point in the night. I ended up facing off in a hand against her. With one card to come, I had a strong hand and I knew I was up against her. Unfortunately, she hit one of only two cards that she could win with on the river and took a big pot from me. I was pretty frustrated, but I'm not sure that I played the hand wrong. Unfortunately, I just got unlucky.

She also had a lot to say during the game. She constantly talked about 'sleeping with her cats'. She must have had quite a few cats, as she had all kinds of stories about them. I really could have done without her stories about changing the litter box. Note to single women.......guys aren't turned on by the thought of dirty kitty litter. She did, however, score big points with her conversation about Vegas.......

Girl: I just got back from Vegas.

Guy: Oh yeah? What did you do out there?

Girl: I went out there for a weekend to hang out with some of my girlfriends.

Guy: Do anything exciting?

Girl: Yeah, we went to a strip bar.

Guy: Guy or girl strippers?

Girl: Female strippers.

Guy: Really?

Girl: Yeah. I can tell you for certain that the female strippers are much better in Vegas than they are in KC.

Guy: (displays look of wonderment) Oh, I see!


So, this girl established that:

1. She likes to play poker/gamble.
2. She's been to see female strippers in Vegas.
3. She's been to see female strippers in Kansas City.

When you talk about women in a casino/poker room, that's about as good as it gets on a male degenerate gambler's attractiveness scale. She might as well be crowned with the title of 'Miss Casino 2007'. Better yet, she ended up getting in a verbal fight with the guy next to her. He evidently made a sexist comment that rubbed her the wrong way. She tore into this guy verbally like one of her cats would tear into a scratching post. It was a pretty immature spat, but it made for good entertainment from the other end of the table.

For the night, I played 8 hours and won a grand total of $13. Certainly not much of a profit, but it's never a bad deal if you can have that much entertainment and get paid to do it.