Offbeat Poker Stories - Everyone Share

I was playing over at the old Golden Nugget poker room back in the 80's. Most of the games were Limit back then and I was playing 10-20 Limit Holdem. It was a great game with a lot of action and I was up about $300. Problem was that even though it was about 106 degrees outside in July I was freezing because I was sitting right under an air conditioning draft and I didn't bring a coat. I asked for a seat change but nobody was interested. 20 minutes later nobody had left and I was still freezing. I started playing badly because I was so uncomfortable and was now only up about 100. I took a break and walked by a hotel clothing store/gift shop. I saw they were selling a few light jackets for $90. Problem was the biggest size they had was medium and I wear at least a large and more likely an extra large. I tried on the medium. It was tight but I thought it might at least keep me warm. I bought the $90 jacket and went back to play. After sitting down the jacket felt even tighter than it did in the store. By this time I was totally frustrated because I was still uncomfortable. I then left the good game because I figured I would continue to play badly. With the cost of the jacket I broke even that day.

After that day I always brought a jacket to the poker room even if it was 110 outside. Even though I liked the look of the jacket I never wore it again.

I had been playing poker for only about a week when I sat down at the old Stardust poker room in Vegas. I was playing 3-6 limit holdem. I hit a bunch of straights and flushes and was up about $200 which was certainly the most money I ever won in my 1 week career. At that point I didn't know you couldn't take money off the table. Wanting to keep my profits I racked up $200 and took it over to the cage to get cash. I then came back to the table to play some more. Well somebody probably told on me and a few minutes later the floorman came over and informed me I couldn't do that. I told him I didn't know. I guess he didn't believe me because he excluded me for the day.

Looking back I'm glad the mobster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro who used to play a lot at the Stardust wasn't at the table or I might have gotten the crap beat out me.