Oct. 17th 2014

It's another start, and a good one I think. But I have things to do and place to go.

I'll ruminate and get back to it... at some point.

It had been a friendly game, so I was shocked and confused when my “All In” was met with the reaction if did.

I suppose the moral of the story is to know the stakes before you bet.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We had been drinking, it’s true. It was Sophia’s 40^th birthday, and all the girls got together to celebrate. Some of the stuffier types went home after about an hour.  The crowed thinned out a bit more at about 11pm, but we hung on to the bitter end.

Sophia, Gertrude and I were still hard at it well into the wee hours of the morning.

That’s whene this Hotter-than-hot looking guy started sweet talking Gert. We were all drawn to him. He just exuded sexy.

He was about to leave, when Gert asked why he had to go.

He explained that runs a little after-hours joint, just down the street. Only the heavy hitters and the party-hardies are allowed in.

Sophia, staggered to her feet. “We Party Hard! We should come with you.”

After a sly smile, the hotter-than-hot guy led us to this little dive bar. We trailed past the riffraff seated at the wobbly bar stools, into large room in the back.

Lit with mood lighting and well set up. The centre piece was a well groomed poker table. Chips neatly stacked by the dealer’s chair. Ready for the players to arrive.

There was also a well stocked bar cart.

Mr. Hotter-than-hot set to pouring us drinks. Not that it mattered, we would have drunk anything at that point, but he knew just was to serve each of us.

One by one, well dressed, good looking guys started to arrive and take their place at the table.

Us girls admired the view and commented, not so covertly, about the various assets of each of the men.

The room was filling up, when Mr. Hotter-than-hot approached us again.

“Who of you will be sitting in this evening?”

Apparently, the deal is, if we’re in the room, one of us has to play.

We giggled and did our best to get out of it, but when the alternative was to leave all these well build guys and head out alone, I was offered up as the best choice, and the least drunk.

Things had been going well.

I had won a few hands and I’d lost a few hands.

But now, it really was getting late, or more accurately, early.

The sun was rising and the birds were chirping, not that we could tell form inside the windowless room.

It was at that point that, with 2 Jacks in my hand and on in the flop, that I called “All In”

First there what a gasp of utter shock from the other players, then Gert let out a “You GO Girl!”, which woke Sophia up from her little nap.

But then the oddest thing happened.

Mr. Hotter-than-hot proved his name to be more accurate than expected and burst into flames.

He let out a maniacal laugh and hopped up onto the poker table.

“Fantastic!” he exclaimed with a little too much exuberance. “Who else is in?”

I was, of course a little stunned, but even if I wasn’t frozen by my shock and awe of the situation, I wouldn’t be able to get very far.  A strange force field was preventing any of us from leaving. We could move a bit, our hands and certainly our mouths, but my legs seemed to be frozen in place.

That was it then. Play the game or lose everything… EVERYTHING.

Ooo - scary...
I wonder what will happen next.

Comment if you like.

Cheers.