"You big winner, man!
Made a lotta money!"
Says a non-native English speaker
at my blackjack table.
He's talking to a disappointed regular
with a few thousand dollars in front of him
when he's over 10 grand deep.

He owns a high-end car dealership
and tips well. He behaves himself,
minds his own business and understands
that it's not my fault he's losing.
He becomes upset at this drunk
hollering at him telling him to be happy.
I scold him, but the regular
tells me not to worry about it.

"TABLE MINIMUM BLACKJACK!"
I belt out, my table full of laughing drunks
blurting out insults to their friend
as I hand him $15. A middle-aged woman
flashes the table and nobody asked her to.
I still count myself lucky
because I got a story out of it.

"Hey! I had one on that split too! You took it!"
A guest on my roulette table shouts at me,
saying I took a bet that was never there.
I shake my head and tell him I don't think so.
He insists that, if we check the cameras,
it was definitely there.
I call my pit boss over to check the cameras
and he begins to backpedal.
I tell him that the guest says
he had a bet placed
and that I disagreed.
He tells me to pay him $85 for it anyway.
"Everybody gets one," he laughed.
I didn't.

"Would you mind if I gave him a hug?"
A fellow dealer asks the boss.
They have someone tap into his table
so that he can hug a man he just paid
184 grand. They embrace, the guest
has tears in his eyes.
He came back to the empty table
to talk to the dealer who paid him.
They shot the shit for a while
talking about both of their families.
Both thoroughly middle class.
The big winner taps a stack of purple
against the table. That'll be 10k.
At the end of their conversation
he passes the stack to the dealer.

"Tokes for the children!"
I shout, knocking tips against my tray,
before dropping them into the toke box.
I don't even have kids, but somebody does
and everyone wants to help the children.
I say this at the end of the night
in the last few hands
before the end of my shift.
Been dealing to some friendly idiot all night
who plays all wrong and defied all odds.

Put me in for $5 on a bet that pays
270 to 1. And hit it.
That'll be $1350.
Tokes for the children.


© Little Devil