+25 @ The Commerce Casino

Jennifer was going to tea at the Ritz, so in a low-brow counterpoint to her adventures I took off for the Commerce Club. I had never played there on a Saturday afternoon before, and it seemed a little less desperate than a week night. Then again, we did have one fellow at our table who announced that he filed for divorce and bankruptcy today, and there were at least two retirees. One of them was a shark I had played with before, but luckily she left after taking the table for $300 in less than an hour. None of it was mine I'm happy to say. Overall the table was quite a hoot and we all had a lot of fun.

Now onto some interesting hands. I had pocket sevens in late position and the flop came 7,10,9. The pot was capped after the flop with half the table in and I was a little nervous, but when another 7 showed up on the turn I was nervous in a good way. A 10 was the river card, and at this point there was still a lot of action. With the jackpot a possibility I wouldn't have mind getting beaten but I did have the best hand and beat out a full house and a straight to take the $100 pot. I wasn't so lucky with my pocket kings though. Just as on the previous Tuesday night they lost to a straight draw that my opponent made on the river. In another hand in early position I had a suited big slick and collectively we capped the pot before the flop. The flop and turn were rags, and two folks went all in with $4 when the ace came on the river. I called and they were very annoyed to find that I had the aces. On my last hand of note I had A,Q suited in middle position and the flop came A,10,8. I bet and the button raised. The turn was an A and again I bet and this time only got callers. The river was a blank and when I bet the button raised again. I reluctantly called to find my 3 aces beaten by the button and his pocket eights.

When I went to cash out I was all proud that I had over a full rack of blues but an event at the cashier was a bit humbling. This dumpy little Chinese woman in front of me started pulling out whites from her purse and she eventually cashed out $8000 worth of chips. I can't ever conceive of a time where I would be comfortable playing at the level she must have been playing. I'll stick with my $3-$6, thank you very much.