That's So Florida, Part 2
I had shut the car off and mentally prepared myself for excuses, surprises, and letdowns from all parties involved. I had a plan and it was the road of least resistance - getting angry and disappointed was just going to ruin my evening. I walked up the driveway, to the door, and in I went. Expecting there to be a lot of talk and noise from these characters, I felt I had entered an empty house. I rounded the corner and found them all quietly playing OFC for a dollar a point, almost ignoring me. Everyone said hi and continued on their game and I was hitting up the fridge for something to drink. I was waiting for the incoming fire from the table, and as I walked over, Tim in his normal manner just blurts out of nowhere,
"So help us settle a dispute. Mike owes Bookie money from before Bookie went broke. John bought all the debt from Bookie, and his payments are on different terms. Also Josh owes me money and John agreed to pay me X amount each month for his debt, and stopped for a while. Should I tack on anything extra?" It was a ****ing mess. First of all, everyone was sitting there staring at me, looking for an unbiased answer as if I had all the answers. Even Bookie was staring inside from out in the back yard like a raccoon who was used to getting fed by humans and was almost licking the glass in the window. He was like an animal, not let out of the backyard and unable to help himself. These debts were all incurred around the same time from different people, differing amounts, and on different terms. It was a real cluster****. I really didn't know why they were asking me - Mike owed me money too and I really didn't know much about their debts. I decided to take the simplest, most diplomatic route possible.
"Has everyone agreed on a number that they either owe or are owed?" They nodded their heads, so I continued with, "Okay, take those numbers, don't add any interest because no one here is a loan shark, and come to a REASONABLE agreement with everyone on how you are going to get paid." Arguments ensued immediately. It was also more complicated than I thought. Mike owed both John and Tim, Josh did as well, but both Tim and John said they owed one another money. It was way too complicated to hash out the numbers and I had nothing to benefit from getting further involved in the situation. All I could picture was Tim and John dressed up as Samurais and fighting till death. I was picking up a soda from the outside fridge and Mike approached me away from the others, I knew what was coming.
"Yo, you mind if I deal a little bit more this evening? I have a lot of bills and have to make payments to these guys. I could really use it, the wife didn't get approved for as much food money as we are used to."
"I don't know man, I don't really see that being my problem. I didn't drive 50 miles here to to play, I could have just gone to Bonita and enjoyed a nice 2-5 PLO game."
"I REALLY need the money man. I know we don't see eye to eye, I am just asking you respectfully for my kids." I suddenly saw the scene in Casino in my head where the degenerate casino employee gets reamed by Joe Pesci for spending his utility money at the tables. I wasn't Joe Pesci, nor did I have his money, but depriving children just isn't my thing. I suddenly had an epiphany that told me to not deal, just play and enjoy your evening.
"Just deal, and when you are ready and need a break, I'll come in for a while. I'm just going to play." The smile on his face was worth it, and I chalked up my softness towards Mike to taking an extra Lortab and Klonopin before setting foot in the house. Part of me wanted to see Mike make a mistake, palm a chip, anything that would do him in at the game. At this point, I didn't even care if I played, watching this play out was worth the price of admission. The regulars started to come in - Nazi, Nice Shoes, Greek, Rad, and then Peter showed his face around the corner. I really wasn't expecting him to show up, he had already made a fool of himself multiple times, berating players, and owing money to the game. I didn't care if he was playing, I was going to needle him on not taking me up on the PLO challenge though. It was like a high school reunion - everyone was outside talking, shaking hands, and they were accepting but hesitant of Mike. He still hadn't lived down the trust issues he had accrued over this time, but Tim insisted he was going to watch him like a hawk. Meanwhile, Tim let Bookie inside to hang out for a bit - it was raining and it was the only humane thing to do. This caused a whole different dynamic, as most people loved Bookie, but he owed a lot of money to Tampa John when they were partners in book. He was never going to be able to pay it back, and TJ had to accept that, but he wouldn't and approached him as if he was holding out on the money. TJ was usually a professional about most matters but he just didn't want to let this go. He should have written it off as a business loss and kept on going, but TJ had lived an entitled life and was used to getting his way. Tim told him to discuss it outside the game, it was going to kill the atmosphere and the action that was ready to take place.
It was interesting to see how much had changed in just a little over two years. Willy's 19 year old girlfriend was pregnant, she was a waitress and he was Tim's gopher boy. He wasn't allowed to deal at the moment because of his hand in deck-setting that had been found out through the grapevine - it was a condition four of the players had insisted on or they would not have shown up. Greek had gone from a thuggish mid-level weed dealer to a born again flat earther that thought we were idiots for following the world agenda, whatever the **** that meant. Josh now had a job at the local cardroom as a runner, and he was looking to deal after their next hiring session. Vito and his wife were divorced, he wasn't there, and nobody missed his uptight, judgmental attitude. Nazi was still the same, but he had a defeated look on his face. He was the cornerstone of all the games and the hours were getting to him. He was also owed money by Mike and probably a few others, and just wasn't happy about it. Nice Shoes had already lost his house and his wife, and lived in a condo out by the interstate. He told me he gets to see his daughter on the weekends as long as he was going to Gambler's Anonymous meetings. Bookie was still stripping copper off of old AC units, Tim told me he made decent money, but much of it was probably going to crack considering he was still in a tent. Mike wouldn't talk about his new job dealing at a different cardroom, but Derek had let me know he hated it and was scrambling for shifts. Derek was finally sober for almost 6 months now, and though he was getting divorced, he was turning a corner. Jack, the Vietnam Vet, had come to the game but left in the beginning when he saw that Mike was the dealer - who could blame him? We all shared that desire to get the adrenaline rush that came with the gamble factor in the home game setting, and I was happy that I was not involved in owing or being owed money, besides Mike which I couldn't control. I decided to let it go for now and focus on John not ****ing the game up with his micromanagement of people's debts.
As the game started, I bought in for 500, as well as Nazi, and TJ had to one up everyone and get in for 1000. This was classic John, always throwing more money at a situation to look like the man in charge. Other than that, the mood was very high at first, and the game ran slow as the focus was on other topics than poker. Thank God I chose not to deal - Mike was making about half the normal rate in tips. Three or so orbits in I picked up 1010 in mid-position and 3-bet TJ's open to 20 on a straddle to $65 which resulted in him jamming on me for around $500 effective. Even though he played higher stakes than I did, he seemed to donk off tournament style in cash games, this was a call.
"Once or twice?" He asked.
"One time," I replied, and the board ran out K high and he told me a pair was good, so I flipped over my hand and took the pot. I noticed there was an extra redbird missing after the rake, so this was going to be a double-raked game.
"Why only once?" He felt like he had been betrayed, when in reality he felt emasculated for jamming 100 big blinds with A8ss.
"Because you would only run it once with me." It was the truth whether he liked it or not. It pained me to tip Mike 2 dollars since he owed me several hundred, and he had a pained look on his face that he didn't get a redbird. I told him I would happily take it back if he didn't want the money. I had become a complete *******, but only to those who had deserved it. TJ had been hitting on Nicole, and even invited her on a boat trip to the Bahamas solo, which I thought was hilarious. He did this to Josh's girlfriend too, and his creepiness was not paying off for him in the friend department. He topped off to 1000 again and I remained pretty quiet at the table, not playing many hands, but enjoyed watching the action.
For the 3 hours, all seemed great, I brought my stack up about 125, and almost everyone had rebought or topped off their stacks except for myself and Josh. I was waiting for a big pot to brew to see Mike rake the hell out of the pot. Sure enough, an orbit later, TJ jammed into Tim's Aces and they ran it out twice with Tim winning both boards. What I also saw was Mike make change for a green chip and kept 15 for rake and 10 for the pot, enough to sprinkle it to make people feel it was changed out correctly. He went to make change for another out of his tip rack and shorted the pot another 20 bucks. Before I could even laugh about Mike being so stupid, I heard TJ speak up immediately - he was probably watching him closer than I was.
"After this hand, we need to talk." He said in an aggressive manner to both Mike and Tim, who always sat in seat nine next to the dealer. Everyone was looking between Tim, Mike and TJ as they wanted to know what was going on. When it completed, TJ got up, pointed at Mike like a servant and started his rant.
"This guy, in one pot.....double raked and took a few red chips out for his tip well. What are we going to do about that?" Everyone was shocked. Nazi gave his quick look around he did when he was pissed as hell and rightfully so, he was 100 percent a cash player, and never went on the book. Even Nice Shoes, who never complained about anything and was an easygoing guy laid into him, claiming this was the reason he was broke and getting foreclosed on his house. Tim saw things were clearly going to get out of control and without saying much, threw a green chip to everyone at the table. He said that should cover any rake or tip skimming that Mike would have done, and pulled his tips from his line in the well and back into a rack. Mike was starting from zero after some discussion that they would let him deal if Tim watched the tips and rake. It was clear that he wanted the game to continue at all costs. This caused a second issue, as a couple of the dealers who had come to play that were good action were starting to go broke and had no more cash on them. Tim was handing out stacks of green left and right, putting thousands on the book so the rake machine could keep going. At this point, it was a matter of how fast Mike could deal, and how long the game would run to see if Tim's gamble would pay off. If he could pull an all nighter on the game and his debtors didn't go busto, he could make quite a bit of money, if not, he was going to be stuck quite a bit.
As the hours went by, I judged how well his plan was going by the look on Tim and Mike's face. Tim was not playing as many pots and generally seemed disinterested. He actually got off the table around 230am and we played eight-handed for another hour. Sometime before 4, Nazi managed to get coolered by TJ, who had also taken the stacks of a few other dealers. We were six-handed now and though I loved it, two guys were on the book and TJ had already stayed longer than he normally did.
"Alright, I'm gonna cash out," were probably the words Tim least wanted to hear. TJ had about 3600 in front of him, and as he slid his stack forward, so did everyone else. The game was over and it was going to be interesting to see how this all played out. After counting out the stacks, checking the rake, and what he had put on book, he came and sat down and had come up with a "plan".
"This is what I am gonna do. I will pay everyone their buy-in back, then whatever is left over I will start to pay out until I am out of the buy-ins. I have too many guys that went on the book and I can't cover it all." No one said anything, at least not yet.
To be continued......
