Jackpot!

I just knew that Wednesday was gonna be better than Monday. I guess it's actually Thursday now, but I'm still up from last night, so we'll credit Hump Day with being a good one.

First of all, I didn't do much yesterday, my case of the blahs this week has been well documented. I don't know if I put any credence into it, but I'm guessing that all of my biorhythms had been on a low ebb for awhile.

Around noon, I drove over to the O-House to get some lunch and try to mend fences with Marcie, but that didn't go so well. I'll talk more about it later, but I'm trying to take the high road right now. Please don't fill up the comment section with questions or advice about her, or even comments offering opinions to her character--I'll deal with it later. Right now is not the time. Oh, and I didn't even eat while I was there, either.

Anyhow, I came right back home, did a little websurfing, and finally fell asleep--I'd been up for about 18 hours by that point. I woke up around 7:30, checked in with the buffoons in the T2V Chatroom, did a little more puttering around on the computer, and then realized how hungry I was. I hadn't eaten anything since the hot pastrami sandwich the night before, and I was starving. Plus, I wanted to get out of the house again.

I got dressed and headed back down to the casino again. I figured I could try and make a few more bucks at the poker table, plus embrace my newly frugal lifestyle by eating dinner for free. When I got there, there were two full tables going, and I had to sit on the waiting list for about 20 minutes before I got a seat.

On my first hand of the night, I had a suited Ace-King that ran into pocket Aces and another hand that made their flush on the river. The bronze medal cost me a quick $27. Not a good start. A few hands later, I had a guy convinced that I had Ace King, when the truth was that I had a set of tens, and I raked a huge pot, putting me over par, where I stayed for the rest of the night. Yep, I had a decent night at the 4-8 game--nothing to make a living on, but I was never stressing about being stuck the entire time. I had plenty of bullets and it was a stress-free game. Plus it helped that nobody was sucking out on the river against me this time around, either.

It was a fun table, and sometime after midnight, the other game died, and we were the last table. One of the other dealers clocked out and grabbed a seat too, so it was a fun crowd. My buddy the floorman was hungry again, so I told him I'd order him some more french fries. Since I was so hungry too, I also had an order of calamari sent over, along with another hot pastrami sandie (oh yeah, it was that good) and some potato salad. As soon as the grub showed up, it opened the floodgates--it smelled so good that everyone else jumped on the phone and ordered a room service delivery too.

I don't know what time it was, but I'm guessing it was around 2:00 am or so the floorman came over to the table with the 'up' dealer, and as soon as the hand ended, he announced May I have everyone's attention please...

Happy Birthday to you all--the Jackpot just hit over at Texas Station, so nobody move--We've got paperwork to do!

High fives all around, and he then passed out the jackpot buttons to everyone at the table (you gotta turn one in to get paid). That slowed the game down considerably, because everyone who was stuck suddenly became unstuck, and the celebration was on. The jackpot was up to $193,000, so doing some quick back-of-the-cocktail-napkin math, I told everyone that if there were 80 players, we'd each get $1450+. Oh hell yeah!

It took a while to fill out all the paperwork and such, and after about a half hour we found out that there were 148 eligible players when the bad beat hand went down, so we each earned $780 apiece! Not bad. (And BTW, we never got the details of the hand that won, but this week the low hand to get beaten had to be four of a kind 8's or better).

Talk about great timing--It's been so slow lately that I was really worried about how I was gonna have any kind of bankroll for the Madness. I mean, I had a couple hundie tucked away, but that ain't much when a weekend in Vegas is looming on the horizon. Now, it's all good! And normally, I'd be totally pissed that the jackpot hit again, but since I got a chunk of it, I don't mind--yeah, I'll only get two shifts this weekend, but money won't be a problem this week.

Once they figured out the individual payouts and had the chips brought over from the cage, it was time to collect (Yeah, they pay out the prize money in casino chips). I dropped $60 in the dealers toke bucket, and happily pocketed $720. I was also up sixty bucks in the poker game at the time, so I figured that I'd play until my next blind, then call it a night.

Everyone else had the same plan, so I think the game broke up shortly after I left. I had a little celebratory drink and then grabbed a cup of coffee and headed back here to the house. On the way home, I squeezed as much gas into the tank as it would hold, and then picked up a few groceries, too. I thought about going out to breakfast, but I was still full from my dinner four hours earlier.

When I got home, I put $750 away as 'untouchable' until next week when the buffoons start arriving en masse, and I figure with my little paycheck and a couple of shifts this weekend, I should easily have a grand in my pocket when I go to get my Madness on.

I know I should get some sleep, but right now I'm just a little too keyed up.

Mikey