Watching a low-limit game play out on a weekend afternoon. Low rollers, seniors and a couple of sharp-eyed hustlers are keeping the action going and the drop box filled.
Six or seven people limp in for one hand — it’s that kind of game — and the flop comes down 8-4-8.
One of the hustlers bets and three people call.
We have a little pot building, and the dealer drops another chip.
Meanwhile, one of the senior citizens totters off to the bathroom.
The dealer, one of the faster ones in this checkered lineup, burns and turns. Another 8 falls.
There is a little buzzing, but the same hustlers fires a big get into the pot. Two players fold, but one guy is hanging on despite a formidable board that now reads 8-4-8-8.
The pot is respectable now, enough to buy a tank of gasoline and lunch in the coffee shop, too.
Somebody then asks the dealer an irrelevant question — something along the line of, “Do you know when the basketball game starts?”
“What basketball game?” she asks.
The questioner has to stop and think. It’s one of the NBA playoff games, but he can’t remember which one.
Well, no matter. There’s still a river card, fifth street, to come in this hand.
She burns and turns. It’s the case 8, leaving the board 8-4-8-8-8.
There is more buzzing and a little chuckling now.
The hustler looks back at his hand and checks.
The other player in the hand also looks back at his hand, and he checks, too.
The dealer, using her hands, motions for the players to turn their cards face up. If you wanted to bluff an 8-4-8-8-8 board, you have missed your chance.
The hustler turns up 6-6. He had flopped two pair and turned a full house. But he now has four eights with a six kicker.
The last remaining caller turns up king-jack. He had flopped nothing, turned nothing, but he now has four eights with a king kicker.
The dealer pushes him the pot.
He sheepishly tips her a dollar chip.
And she drops the cards into the automatic shuffler, grabs a fresh deck and gets ready to deal another hand.
“So,” the guy asks again. “Do you know when the basketball game starts?”
