Last Chance, Part Six of 10
Already the idea I’d had of coming in to lose everything at the poker seemed like an ancient, buried decision- I was thinking more now about making as much as I could. I’d turn my parents’ final scratch into a hole big enough to turn the world inside out for just a minute. And then, if there were enough left over in the meantime, I’d spend the rest of my life golden and bloated, drinking daiquiris and soaking in bathtubs playing poker online.
After downing my drink and before I hit the poker tables, I sauntered over to the roulette tables, a brief layover before I got to what I came for. I settled at one where there were only a few people. I watched a Chinese couple with a short stack chips place bets one dollar at a time, either on red or black only. When they doubled their dollar they’d shout loudly and squeeze hands, and when they lost they’d pound their fists on the table, glare at the dealer as if it were his fault for making the ball fall against them.
I watched the numbers fall for a while and then on a whim laid out $1000 on the 1-12 square, a bet that paid three-to-one. The Chinese man looked at me distractedly for a moment, his mouth ovaled. He pointed at my chip to his wife, said something loud to her that I obviously couldn’t understand. The wife looked on at me as if I’d put a baby on the betting table. When the spin came up Red 8, and the dealer added $2000 more to my stack, the foreign woman squealed and began rattling off at her husband, hands all in the air, flustered. I moved my bet to the EVEN square, and the man followed behind me with five of his own dollars, then both of them looked up at me sternly. I shrugged and watched while the dealer put the ball it play, and after a couple of whirls fell down into Red 28.
For a second I thought I was going to be assaulted. The couple bucked and burst out with moaning in their chairs, so excited that they could barely wait to get their chips in their hands once the house paid off. Once they’d calmed down they looked to me again like children at a magic show and shoved twenty dollars in behind me as I put two grand on Black. That came up too, and they stood up from their chairs, their eyes lit up with wonder and sensation, hardly able to stand still. A couple more bets went down like that, each time the couple getting louder and more excited, alternating between shaking and kissing my hand each time we won.
