A Day At The Tables

24 Feb ’06, 2.22pm EST

Originally uploaded by geoff_fox.

Very windy – went to Foxwoods. Wish me luck.

That line above was thumbed onto my phone while playing poker. It was about all that went right early in the day.

After my big ‘score’ in the PokerStars satellite tournament, I thought some real poker might be fun. I don’t usually sit face-to-face while I play… in pajamas.

Foxwoods is around an hour from here. We drive by another beautiful casino, Mohegan Sun, to get there. About twenty minutes before poker became hot, Mohegan Sun shut their room. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors, but never an official explanation for why they closed.

As has been my custom recently, I sat down at a $10/$20 table and proceeded to bleed money. I’m a little embarrassed by how much I lost (and won’t put the amount here), but with the bets being in increments of $10 and $20, it mounts quickly.

Ouch.

My mood had shifted from good to bad. So, why not spread a little sunshine around? I headed toward Helaine in another part of the casino.

I took the shortcut to get to where she was from where I was. That involves cutting through the men’s room!

Helaine was having fun. She really didn’t want to go. We compromised and had an early dinner… or late lunch… take your choice.

We sat along a wall in the lounge attached to Cedar’s Steakhouse. On one TV, foreigners with unpronounceable names were playing hockey in an Olympic medal round. Go guy with 15 consonants and no vowels! On another TV, Scooter Libby’s lawyer explained how much classified data he’d need for Scooter’s trial, while commentators speculated it was a ploy to get the charges dropped.

Scooter’s my age for heaven’s sake. No one our age should be named Scooter.

Loaded up on chowder, burger and French fries the size of waffles, I decided to give poker another chance. Helaine told me an attitude adjustment was in order.

I went back, sat down and began to win.

I had an incredible mountain to climb… which I did. By the time we left, I was down $5. It’s so incredibly unlikely, I’ll say it again. I lost $5 for the day. And that was after tipping the dealer on every winning hand and tipping the waitress who delivered bottled water, coffee and a Baileys (the only alcoholic beverage I drink. What a wuss I am).

I got up from the table and we left. I am a happy man.

Before I close out this entry, two casino observations.

As you walk toward Foxwoods’ poker room, you pass a portion of the casino with unusual games. I don’t know their names. I have no idea of the rules. They are played, almost exclusively, by Asian men and women.

It is astounding to walk through this area and see nothing but Asian faces – most of them puffing cigarettes. I don’t know if the number of smokers here reflects the Asian-American population in general, but it is quite noticeable and a much higher percentage of smokers in one place than I remember seeing in decades.

The second observation concerns something we saw just before we left. Helaine was alongside my table, waiting for me to get up and cash out. She told me to turn and pointed to a coterie of security games and other uniformed casino personnel. Some of them were scurrying around, others standing and milling and others still were holding a white sheet aloft, hiding whatever was behind it.

If someone didn’t die tonight in the poker room, they surely got real sick. I guess that’s inevitable with so many people there all hours of the day and night. It was a little spooky.

As far as I could tell, no game stopped while this commotion was in progress.


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