"Don't You Think She Deserves A Steak Dinner?"

After an initial slide, I got real lucky Tuesday night, at three different tables, including one where a woman was wearing a crew jacket for a Bollywood film called "Love Has No Language", recently filmed in New Zealand (a family member apparently was on the crew). If she hadn't been quite so reckless with her bets (definitely a relative concept in a casino) she would have been lucky too.

Around midnight, with the stack of black chips growing relentlessly, I crossed an invisible threshold, where people began to take notice. The waitress called me "sweetie", a term of endearment she hadn't used before. Odd how that works. Then three women, one vaguely Hispanic and the other two vaguely East European, abruptly appeared behind me and started to do what they could to attract my favor. "Gina" began offering all kinds of betting suggestions, and asking things like "Do you live far from here?" and "Wouldn't you like to give me a lucky chip?" and pretty much becoming my cheerleader for an hour. The pretty girl sidled close and pointed to the homely girl and asked "Don't you think she is pretty? Don't you think she deserves a steak dinner?" My inside voice said something churlish like "Jenny Craig might be more suitable," but my outside voice said something idiotically pan-celebratory, like "Steak dinners for everyone!" Everyone else at the table, who had been loudly demonstrative just minutes before, since we were all winning, all reacted to the women's intrusion by donning Sgt. Schultz "I know n-o-t-h-i-n-g" poker faces, and clammed up despite the continued wins.

Pretty danged funny....

On my way out the door, I caught a glimpse of the pretty Vietnamese restauranteur who has been there on three of my visits this last month. She was sitting in her favorite chair at her favorite table, but looking awfully forlorn. If anyone in this joint deserved a steak dinner, it was her.

Win: $3,137.50, minus initial stake of $620.00, minus $30.00 credit card fee = $2,487.50.