May Day!!

1 MAY 06

I was going to take today off in solidarity with my fellow immigrants, but I didn’t think having my dad born in Canada counts.

Anyway, a series of 5 (or less) outers brought me back below the break even line. I’m tempted to tell some bad beat stories, but I’d have to pay each of you two dollars, and my poker fund just can’t take another hit right now.

Instead, I’ll just say thank you to Otis for recommending “Shut Up and Deal,” by Jesse May. I’ve just started reading it, and it’s that rare thing in literature – a unique voice. It takes a little getting used to – almost like someone is dictating the story as opposed to writing it down, but it grows on you.

The first chapter really added some clarity to how I’m feeling right now.

Here is the review from Amazon:

The vignettes in Shut Up and Deal are a bizarre mingling of Damon Runyon and David Mamet. Mickey, the book's narrator, is always playing cards with people who have monikers such as Uptown Raoul, Hot Mama Earl, Johnny World, and Vinnie the Greek, and he himself generally wears at these card games something like "yellow pants and a green double-breasted jacket from the seventies and a green and yellow flowered shirt with dark sunglasses" in order to sucker the unsuspecting mark into maybe thinking that he is not such a good poker player and that his money can be easily won, which it usually cannot. Yet the dialogue, reflecting life on the professional poker circuit, is stark and brutal, as in Mickey's advice to a dilettante who is considering following in his footsteps: "All I can tell you is that it's lonely out there, real fuckin' lonely, and your play doesn't matter so much as how tough you are and whether or not you fall apart."

If you need me, I’ll be trying not to fall apart tonight at the ‘shoot.