El Jackpota Grande

So I'm hanging out at the Bike putting in some overtime, trying to get into the 25/50 game but currently just sitting at the 15/30. The world's most incompetent floor man (who just took the belt from Garden City's Fung...Feng...fuck I don't know...Who once made back to back rulings of "There is no misdeal in Garden City" and "Misdeal") gave my seat to a customer who was throwing a hissy fit after I put a bad beat on him, rationalizing to another floor man "he's a prop" with me protesting all the way. Before I knew what had happened the customer had my seat and I was explaining to this guy that I'd been off for over 2 hours. Obviously I'm not going to make a real scene and make the customer uncomfortable, but it's the floor's job to, you know, let me make a fucking living when I'm playing overtime and helping his room. So anyway the 15/30 eventually breaks (with me getting button'ed, of course, when a customer quits 5 handed, a prop fails to post his blind, another pro takes his blind 3 handed and another prop declares "I don't play 3 handed" and quits) and eventually I get my seat in the 25 (after the guy who basically stole it cashes out 4 racks in 40 minutes). So I get my seat. Yay.

And I get hammered; when lagfish run hot, there really is nothing you can do. He has A8s, I have A9s. The big blind also has A8s, and I do not win. I have aces, he has 8s. I do not win. I have AKs, he has 96o. I do not win. All of these pots were capped, by him, preflop. The carnage is graphic, and I've been at the casino for approaching 9 hours now. But I buy 3 more racks (bringing the total for the game to an even half dozen) and soldier on. The bleeding stops, the lagfish leaves (by the way, the lagfish is also a prop who hit and ran the 40 for $1800 earlier today, literally picking up on his button) but I don't really like win any pots. It's 9:05 and I resolve to go home before my next blind. I rack up my chips. I pick up KK UTG and say "great, this will be my last hand". I raise, the big blind defends, and I bust him (the flop is 765ss and he has K8s, so it's no small victory for my 93% preflop favorite to actually hold up) and he....doesn't rebuy. He just leaves from the small blind position.

So now I can't leave. Why, you ask? I get a lap with a small blind on the button, which is a huge advantage, so I decide to play one more lap. Foolish, you say? Perhaps. But when you're trying to grind a living out of this game you can't pass up edges. So I play my big blind (in the small blind position) and nothing happens. A new player comes from the freshly broken 40 and takes his free hand in the cutoff as I post my small blind on the button. The cards are dealt and God's truth I don't even pay attention until the man in seat 3 turns over his cards and is screaming "two deuces? two deuces?" and the guy who just called all in on the river in seat 9 turns over 2 deuces. I look at the board:

6h 3h 2s - 2h - X

I look at the cards

5h 4h

2c 2d

We go go bananas. The floor can't decide if it's the big one ($100K) or the regular one (which was up to $61K anyway) because he thinks it has to be quad 10s beaten. We inform him that's not true, that the light is one, bring the 100 large. Sure enough, we are correct, and an awkward celebration ensues. I don't know how to describe it, but we just had the wrong mix of people. The big winner was this nitty white guy who barely said a word. The $25K winner was an older Asian man who was very calm and subdued. There really was nobody at the table who was super duper excited. 3 people immediately picked up. We fought on for another 40 minutes or so after they took our IDs and everything, but the game eventually broke. It took over 90 minutes for them to start paying the table shares, which were $3572 a piece (all 7 of us were dealt in, and we got 25% of the money). Congratulations pour in on my cell phone, but one message stands out from Torello:

"So are you up or down now on jackpot drops?"

I do the math....a shade under 2000 live LA hours. 3 hands per hour, $1 per hand dropped, $6000 dropped....I've won $5572. Way to be a buzz kill Torello.