Chapter 5: Knock! Knock! Vinny Sent Us!

A huge, bald, cigar smoking man opened the door of "Vinnie's Den". He shouted out at us in a growling voice, "yeah, whadda ya want"? We all looked at each other and I know that I started to shake and laugh all at the same time. My husband said in a pretty weak voice, "Vinny sent us!"

Well, "OPEN SESAME!"...scarey guy let us in. We were pretty shocked to see a huge room with tons of blackjack, craps and roulette tables in full swing. The room was bursting out at the seams with gamblers, men and women. Looking around the room you could see a lot of other scarey looking men checking out the action and watching the people. I am pretty certain the bulge in their jacket was a hiding place for a weapon of destruction...like a gun! I guess they were hired to protect the owner's interests.

Personally, I wanted to get the heck out of there; but, my friends and husband had no intentions of leaving. So, I whipped out my chunk of money ($25-BIG TIME SPENDER),
sat down at the Roulette Table, bought .25 Cent chips and started to play my favorite numbers: 27, 29, 31 & 36. After I placed my bet, I took a deep breath and looked up and around the table. And, lo and behold sitting right across from me was my sister-in-law's, Mother. What a small world! She was a pretty wild woman. Loved to drink, smoke and gamble. A woman after my own heart! I looked at her and said, "if you won't tell...neither will I." Our secret was safe and so was hers.

Coming next: Chapter 6: Vinnie's Place - Win or Lose?

Chapter 4: Big Time Spender !

Now that we have established that I was playing Poker at a very young age and proud of my blood and background; we can now move forward as I grew into adulthood (notice that I did not say anything about maturity), marriage and my love of games; specifically poker.

Now a married lady; my husband and I would occasionally go off on a junket to Las Vegas. We were not big rollers then and certainly I am not now. In those days, the plane trip was pretty scary! Propellers - not, Jets! Seven hour plane rides. My knuckles were white from grabbing the arms of my seat for seven hours. One of the most amazing things back then was that people actually DRESSED UP in Vegas! Fashion? What's that? Now, Shorts, T-shirts, Sun Glasses are "all-in" !

Most of our friends enjoyed playing cards. We had one special couple that were as crazy as we were. One of my most favorite memories of those early married days was the day when we were given the address of a Casino in a South Suburb of Chicago. Of course, this was a VERY long time ago and the Casino (not a Riverboat) was absolutely illegal...just as they would be now. In order to get into the Casino; we were told that we needed to use the secret knock at the door and say that Vinny sent us. I swear this is a true story. We decided to live dangerously and take the trip from the City of Chicago to the decadent hide-away in the South Suburbs of Chicago. I cracked open my piggy bank and brought all of the bottles I could find back to the store to retrieve deposits (Ask about that). It seemed like it took hours to get there. We were excited and nervous at the same time. Money was burning a hole in my pocket!

Well, we had quite a surprise when we finally arrived at our destination.

Coming Soon - Chapter 5 - Knock, Knock - Vinny sent us!

Chapter 3-Proud of my Blood !

When the leader of the "others" yelled out, "Blood Will Tell"; I did go home that afternoon and asked my Mom what that meant. She was cool and explained that it was really not meant in a nice way! But, she also said that I should get over it and not let that kind of a comment get to me. My Mom often reminded me that girls are jealous, little things and that is the reason why this group was so nasty! So, I often heard my Mom say, "they are just jealous of you"!


I never agreed that the group of "others" were jealous of me; but, I never told my Mom that I disagreed with her philosophy. I have always been very proud of my parents and brothers. My Dad had a fabulous work ethic and he was a super athlete. My brothers and I were very fortunate to have him as a role model. My Mom was pretty, tiny (petite) and a devil! She loved to joke and have a good time. She cooked up a storm for company all of the time. Our house was the place where all the kids would pile in after school and on week-ends to play games (poker), ping pong, basketball and baseball in the alley. We had a blast when we were kids. Good innocent fun...how could I not be proud of my blood.

After graduating from High School, I went on to College. I was engaged and married a year later to my High School sweetheart. That is what we did those many years ago...married young! All of our friends loved to play cards. We would have monthly poker games with couples and then I would play poker in a steady game with my friends every other week. The stakes were 5 and 10. No, not 5 and 10 dollars; but, .05 and .10 cents. We were big spenders!

Next Chapter Coming Soon - Chapter 4: Big Time Spender

Chapter 2: Blood Will Tell

So, now I actually made it through elementary school with few dramatic changes in my life unless you want to add the time when a cat jumped onto my head from a window sill. That cat hung on for dear life as I went screaming down the street in panic mode. You might ask me what does that experience have to do with poker? My answer is that from that time on I made a conscious decision to wear a hat as often as I could just in case that cat had it in for me. And now, of course; I am in vogue at the casino or in the riverboat poker rooms cause I wear a lot of hats. So, I am cool, in style and can hide the expression in my eyes when I tip the beak of the hat down. Flipping the beak of a hat is an art and one has to learn how to adjust the cap with little motion, emotion or tells.

My blog is named: Confessions of a Poker Fanaddict; therefore, I feel compelled to confess to all (most) of the habits or situations that influenced my becoming a Poker Fanaddict. During those elementary school days; I learned how to smoke - age 11. Not so cool. Back then we did not know what we know now about smoking and so we smoked at an early age (dumb & dumber). This was another tool that prepared me to fit into the poker room. The hat! The cigarette! (Thank heavens smoking is not allowed in MOST poker rooms these days). So, now I am primed to become the true Poker Fanaddict by the mere fact that I had a lot of tools for my future growth.

High School was more eventful. I was in a group that was fun loving. We occassionally skipped classes to go to the bowling alley to hang out. Unfortunately we were chased down by the truant officer and received due notice that if we continued in that light we would not graduate from High School. Our parents were notified of our behavior and we were punished severly never to skip school again. During the four years of high school I was in the band - played the Glockenspiel (Bells). Please don't ask me to discuss my Glockenspiel experience. I was not happy camper while in the Band. But, on Friday nights and all day Saturday we would get a group together and play cards. We played for pennies...no more wooden matches for me! At first, I lost a lot of my pennies and did not like that feeling at all. This was the beginning of my learning something about moderation.

And so, the Freshman, Sophmore and Junior years of High School floated by without too much trouble with the exception of one situation that became extremely distasteful and haunted me for a very long time. I mentioned the group that I was involved with. A bunch of fun loving people. But, there was this other group in our High School that had no respect for fun loving people. They were the "others"! The "others" decided that they would spread a rumor around school about my family. The rumor had to do with holding card games and our parents letting some underage kids play. Little did they know that we played for wooden matches when we kids played at our home; but, the "others" were bent on making a mountain out of a molehill. As a result, I was called into the Principal's office and asked a lot of questions. Ulitmately, my folks were called in to speak with the Principal, too.

In conclusion, the Principal was satisfied that all was fine in our household and mentioned that I was lucky to have parents that wanted to be so involved in their kids' activities. I was a pretty outspoken and brave person even at that young age and decided to confront the "others" who tried to tag me with a bad reputation me. One day, I noticed the "others" in a group outside of school and walked up to the leader and suggested (if you want to call it that) that I never hear bad words spoken about my family or me again. The entire group of "others" looked at me in shock. The leader sputtered and ultimately shouted out vehemently ,"blood will tell"!

Coming soon - Chapter 3

Chapter 1: How I Became A Poker Fanaddict!

Way back then in the "old days"; we did not have many toys. Nor, were the TV programs very exciting. I am giving away a lot when I tell you that the most popular show during that time were the wrestling matches that usually featured "Gorgeous George" and "Farmer Jones" as the star wrestlers'. I was very little; but, I still remember watching the big time wrestlers of the day on our tiny, round, television set surrounded by my family and friends. So, without giving away more about my age; you will have to "Google" Gorgeous George and Farmer Jones. Keep in mind that "age" is just a number and not very important; especially if you are a "Poker Fanaddict" and can still count.

I was introduced to poker at a very young age. After the wrestling matches we would all gather together at the dining room table to play cards. Poker was the game. All kinds of poker. You name it; we played it and made up some crazy games, too. We did not have poker chips; so, we played with wooden match sticks. The matches always had a terrible odor of sulphur and I was always worried that a match would explode if we pushed it around on the table too much. That never happened; but, I was little and imaginative back then. My Dad would always take one of my match sticks to light up his cigarette. He smoked a lot and he thought that I would not notice my match sticks disappearing a lot faster than my brothers' pile of matches. Well, guess what? That is how I learned how to count and to pay attention to everything that was going on at that table. I guess you could say that I instinctively watched for "tells". One day I asked my Dad why he only took matches from my pile of sticks and not my brothers'? His answer was simple, " you're a girl!"

As I stated earlier, I was pretty young and did not understand what was meant by that comment; but, you can believe that I pondered it very often as I grew and grew and grew. That one comment "you're a girl" is what spurred me on to being the person that I am today... a "Poker Fanaddict" and I am proud of it. Obviously, poker is a strategic game and I learned a great deal about people and life by playing poker when I was young and even up to and through to this very day. I believe that I survived many ordeals in my lifetime because I learned early how to compete. I will confess that poker was not my only achievment. My Dad was also an incredible athlete. He taught us how to play cards and gave us his "genes" and athletic ability, also. My Brothers' and I were let out on the Tennis Court, Basketball Court, Baseball field as equal competitors. I played football, too. Touch football - not tackle! Too rough for a girl.

Winning was not all that important to my Dad; but, he had a favorite saying, "show me a good loser and I will show you a loser". Can you imagine growing up with that kind of pressure? Even though I was raised to be very competitive at the poker table on the tennis court and in business; I was also taught moderation and values. You may ask how does someone who loves to play games as much as I do can understand moderation and values? In my mind, it is an easy answer..."show me a good loser and I will show you a loser". I never wanted to be that person that had to walk out of a game or off of a court with a phoney smile or eating my gut out because I lost and could not smile a truthful smile. So, early on I realized that it is not possible to win all of the time; but, if you take things in moderation you can be a winner because you can afford it if you do lose.

This is the end of Chapter 1- How I became a Poker Fanaddict. Coming soon - Chapter 2.