Queen of Hearts

I sat in on the lowest limit game at each L.V. club, looking for soft games and pretty dealers. This is a TURE story of how I approached learning to play Texas hold’em poker for a living, twenty years ago. I ran into two cuttie dealers. One - an Asian who always wore glasses, a black dress, and heels. She was the night card room manager of the Riviera which at that time ran only 3 tables. The other cuttie was Debbie a 24 year old dealer at Sam's Town on the edge of Vegas down the Boulder Highway. She had studied hard and knew the game very well. After one week my friendliness and smiles paid off as we both had become strongly attracted to each other. I’d learned her work hours and knew her shift would end in about 45 more minutes.

As she was at the edge of the card room leaving to take her last break, I approached her and said, "I'm going to play some craps. Come on over when you get off."

I was unsure of her response, as she was surprised and didn’t know what to say. I went ahead to the craps table and bought in for lots of chips, just in case she passed by she'd see all my chips, take me for a big winner, and stop. I knew she would be passing by any minute so I got loud and said "press it" whenever I hit a place bet. As fate has it, at the end of her shift she came over and stood next to me at the craps table where I had rows of chips and was living it up.

I quickly acknowledged her and said, "Debbie, you came! Look at all these chips."

She responded, "How much do you have?"

I said, not really as much as it looks like. Most of them are quarter chips. Total, about seventy dollars." "I’ll cash out and let’s go somewhere?"

Debbie answered, "Let's do it."

There were about 3 racks of chips, one of which I let her carry for me to the cashier’s cage. We both liked each other and knew this was going to be a nice date. Sam’s Town has the theme of an old western town with hard wood floors, with a wide staircase leading up to an open mezzanine with rails over which you can lean and look down into the entire casino floor below. The cocktail waitresses wore a touch of war-paint on their faces, a headband with a feather, and tassels decorating their buckskin tiny skirts. To fit-in the poker dealers’ uniforms were boots, jeans, long sleeve shirts with small red & white checks, and a red scarf around their necks.

I was in jeans too and not wanting to spend a lot of money, I suggested that we just hop in my car and go dressed as we are. As we walked out onto the wooden sidewalk with it’s overhead porch which outlines the Casino, she asked, "What kind of car do you have?"

I replied, "You’ll love this. I’m parked in valet and I have a new Thunderbird."

I pointed into the valet area to a small red, white, and blue flashy car and said, "But tonight I drove my Pinto." I grinned big and continued, "I really do have a Thunderbird too. I wouldn’t just make that up." From her response I could see that she believed me and was excited with our impetuous decision to trust each other into an adventure that neither of us really knew what to expect, except lots of excitement. As we drove up Fremont Street toward downtown it was apparent that she was good company. It was about 3 AM and even in Vegas most classy activities were slowing down. I didn’t want to spoil our good start together and decided to avoid the sexual suggestion and chose something we both had in common.

I said, "We’re getting along so good that I don’t think we need to spend much money to have a good time. Don’t think I’m cheap, but the poker room at the Lady Luck goes all night long. Lets go there and see how it is?"

She answered, "Sure!"

At the bar I bought her a peach brandy and got myself a bourbon & coke. I found out besides dealing that she also liked to PLAY so we bought into a $2/4 hold’em game with adjoining seats. I offered to buy-us-in for $40 each. She insisted on buying in with her own money, she’d just gotten paid. We got lucky. Her best hand was 2 4 in the pocket on the big blind. She kicked me under the table as she bet-out, when the flop came A 3 5. I got out but all other players called her to the river then they all folded. She flashed her hole cards to me just before pulling in the pot. My best hand was Ah Ks. I was on the button and saw 5 limpers, so naturally I raised. All 5 of them called, but Debbie folded. The flop came Kh Th 5s. Under-the-gun bet with 4 callers. I raised, got reraised, with 2 callers, then I capped it as all 3 of them stayed in. The turn card was Kd. Under-the-gun came out betting with still 2 callers. The action was massive as we capped it again with all 4 of us players still in for the river bath. I figured they had at least two pair or were drawing to mid-level heart flushes and UTG probably had trip kings also. The river card was the Jh. I flashed my Ah for Debbie to see and I kicked Debbie under the table suggesting the nut flush. She kicked me back and giggled. The other players noticed that Debbie & I were acting giddy. This must have been the cause of all players checking to me. I bet and everyone folded. Maybe they figured me for the nut flush or the Royal Flush (?) I drug in the $105 pot, minus the rake, in this $2/4 game. Debbie grabbed a $5 chip and tossed it to the dealer.

Immediately I said to Debbie, "Lets get out of here."

We were both winners and wasted no time in filling about two racks of mostly $1 chips. We were all smiles and full of energy even though it was about 4 AM. After dumping our chips at the cashier’s cage we headed straight to the bar and celebrated with another round of drinks.

She said, "When you showed me that ace I knew your other card was the Queen of Hearts."

I responded, "No it wasn’t"

She came back with, "Don’t lie to me."

I said, "Okay Debbie this is no lie. I had trip kings. But I DO HAVE the queen of hearts."

Then I slowly leaned forward and gave her our first kiss. Man was it juicy! We went to her place. She kept me quiet not to wake up her daughter.

When we hit the sack, you know what happened next?

She whispered, "Are you sure you HAVE the Queen of Hearts?"