"We Don't Need Nutjobs Playing Here"

This is the long awaited sequel (two whole days) to my earlier post, "Without Really Thinking, I Threw a Punch At Him",  you can find it here. That post is pretty much required reading before reading this one.

Since I had promoted the BSC poker room to Marsha (before learning she was a certifiable whack-job), I knew I had to tell at least some of my BSC pals about this gal.  And maybe I thought I should warn them, in case I had done too good a sales job!  I was only able to tell one person, and it was Jack, he liked the story and joked with me about it, saying something like, "thanks a lot for trying to get a whacko to come play here.  You know Rob,, we don't need nutjobs playing here.  We try to keep people with a violent streak out of here."

It was just kidding around, and it was fun.  But I did apologize and reiterate that I had try to sell her on the BSC before she told me about her punching a guy out the night before.

A couple of days later, I was back at BSC playing my then usual limit game.  They had opened up a second limit game and I noticed a floor person escorting a short blonde girl to that new limit game.  I caught a glimpse at her, and she saw me.  She looked familiar.  I swear I saw a hint of recognition in her eye as she saw me.  I thought she was going to say hello to me, putting me on the spot to remember who the hell she was, but she did not.  She just took her seat at the other game, more or less directly behind me.  I caught another look at her and began to think it was Crazy Marsha.  But I wasn't sure. 

Hmm.....how to be sure?  Well, I saw her hang up a jacket (or sweat shirt) on her chair.  I could see she was wearing a short sleeve shirt.  If it was Marsha, she'd have that odd tattoo on her arm (unless, as I thought it might be, that was merely drawn on with pens, not a permanent tattoo).  I had to check it out. 

I got up and glanced over to her.  She was busy with a hand or a conversation and fortunately didn't notice me.  I saw the odd tattoo still there on her forearm, plain as day.  It had not faded.  So not only was this gal indeed the whacko from the other poker room, but it was an actual permanent tattoo, not a drawing.

I knew I absolutely had to tell Jack the gal I told him about was there.  I had to.  I also wondered if I should warn somebody...but I wasn't sure whether I should have or not.  I was thinking that I might tell a couple of my pals, more for amusement than for a warning, but I figured it was probably not necessary to actually warn the bosses.  Pointing her out to them might actually have caused more trouble than saying nothing......I figured that Jack would know what to do.  I could have warned the shift manager, who of course knows me as a regular, but decided not to.

Fortunately I know how poker rooms operate, and I had seen Jack working but he hadn't come to either my game or the game Marsha was at yet that night (I was there before his shift started, so I knew this for a fact).  I looked to see what table Jack was dealing to.  I then checked the board.  After the game he was on, Jack would be on a 1/2 hour break, then would deal one more table, and then, would be dealing at Marsha's table.  So in about an hour and 10 minutes, he'd be dealing to whack job.  I had to tell him that it was her before he got there, if only so he could be especially attune to her behavior and be on the lookout for anything odd about her.

When I wasn't in a hand, I got up and went over to the No Limit game where Jack was dealing and got his attention for a second while he was waiting for a player to act.  I whispered in his ear, "Try to come see me when you go on break."  He said ok.  I dunno if Jack had seen me that night, but he knew where to find me, at one of the limit games that were right next to each other.

Meanwhile, I had seen several of the dealers I am friendly with all dealing at Crazy Marsha's table.  I actually tried to think of a way to warn them about Marsha before they dealt at the table, but I didn't know if I could do it in the five or ten seconds I had while they were waiting for the previous dealer to leave, and I didn't want to have Marsha look over and see me talking to the dealer, or worse, overhearing anything I said (like....."I can't go into it now, but keep an eye on that girl in seat 1, I'll tell you about her later").  So I didn't get to warn anyone. 

Although I was tempted to say hello to her, and almost did at one point, I soon thought better of it.  Why bring myself to the attention of such a loose cannon?  So I decided to keep my distance and avoid any further eye contact with her (after all, it was eye contact she had said was the reason she punched a guy).  I did not say hello to her.

Jack took his break and as I asked, he came over to me.  Mike was dealing at Marsha's game.  I said to Jack, "Remember the story I told you about the girl who was banned from the locals poker room?  That's her, the blonde in seat 1 at table 19, right next to Mike."

"You're kidding!"

"No, that's her....I confirmed it with the odd tattoo."

He again gave me a hard time about selling her on the room, then pointed out that he was going to be dealing at that game in less than an hour.  I said I knew that, that's why I had to warn him. "But she's been there for over an hour and so far she hasn't punched anybody out yet!"  He laughed.  I knew if he wanted to he could try to quiz the previous dealers about her, to get a hint of what he was in for.  She was in seat 1, that's the seat immediately to the left of the dealer.  So Jack then said, "Well at least she's in seat 1, I won't even be able to look directly into her eyes!"  Jack remembered my story very well!  I said, "Well, let's hope she doesn't ask for a seat change."  He agreed...then said the other good news is that security was actually right at the front counter just now for some other reason....maybe he should warn them.  We laughed.  He said, if she does anything, it will be my fault! I think he was kidding.

I was paying a lot more attention to Marsha's game than the one I was at.  And I watched as Mike left the game, unscathed.  He was on break now, and I called him over.  Mike had not dealt to me that night but had already come over to see how I was doing, as he frequently does, earlier in the evening At that point earlier, I had just lost a huge pot when I had pocket Kings, had made a set of Kings on the flop.....but all three cards were clubs.  The fourth card was a club as well.  The fifth card was meaningless and I had trip Kings beaten by a flush.  Mike has a "history" of dealing me pocket Kings (which usually lose) so I knew he would be interested in this story.  See, my headaches with Pocket Kings go way back, before I was playing No Limit and tournaments!

But now I was calling him over for another reason.  He came over to where I was sitting.  "What do you want?  Can't you see I'm break?"  He was just kidding around. I asked if the gal in seat 1 at the game he just left seemed ok.  Why did I ask?  I gave him a 20 second explanation, only telling him that I played with her before and she volunteered that she had been banned for punching a guy at locals poker room the night before.  He was interested.  He said that now that I mentioned it, she did seem "combative." 

Then he asked if I knew who Mike McDermott was.  OK, he didn’t actually say Mike McDermott.  Mike McDermott was the name of the poker player Matt Damon played in The Rounders. I want to be really careful so Marsha cannot be identified.  Anyway the name he gave me was the name of a professional poker player.  How well known I’m not sure, as I had never heard of this person.  But there’s a lot of poker players I’ve never heard of.  

I had never heard of “Mike McDermott” and told this to Mike.  "That's a professional poker player.  And that girl in seat one claimed to be Mike McDermott’s daughter."  Suddenly I realized Mike was playing with his celphone while he was talking to me. He said he was trying to find a picture of “Mike McDermott.”  He tried for a few seconds and then said "I'll find it and come back and show you in a few minutes."  I said ok....btw, did you notice that tattoo?  "Yeah...what the hell was that????"  Mike disappeared to take his break.

He came back out a few minutes later, having found a picture of professional poker player “Mike McDermott.”  He showed it to me and suggested that yeah, there really was a strong resemblance between the girl at table 19 and this poker player....so it was likely that Marsha was telling the truth, that she was the daughter of a famous professional poker player.  Interesting, to say the least.  Mike kind of thought that if she was the daughter of a famous pro she would mostly likely not be a problem, and returned to her break.  I don't think I ever mentioned to Mike that I had try to sell her on coming to the BSC poker room, so he, at least, didn't hold it against me that she showed up, unless he eventually got the full story from Jack.

While playing, I used my celphone to look up “Mike McDermott.”  I was able to see some more pics and boy is there a strong resemblance!  Also I found her bio and saw that “McDermott” has one daughter...named Marsha!  So that was definitely the truth.  Eventually Marsha left the game and the room before Jack made it over to that table to deal.

So that added an interesting spin to the whole “Crazy Marsha” story, that one of her parents is a somewhat famous poker player.  Furthermore, Jack had seen Marsha watch and then leave with an older person who was playing NL.  Presumably a relative of hers.  This older person had been in the room fairly frequently lately, so that’s probably why Marsha was in the room that night, not because I “invited” her.  Jack said I was off the hook.

Oh, and according to Jack, the older person with Marsha was a very good poker player but a certified wacko.

If they are related, I guess it runs in the family.  But at least Marsha’s debut at the BSC ended without any physical violence.  I mean, assuming she didn’t punch a guy at the main cashier, outside the poker room, out of my view!

And that is the final post about Crazy Marsha....unless I run into again in the future.