I started playing $1 to $5 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better, no ante, in Deadwood, South Dakota in the summer of 1992. They whacked me pretty good at first, taking all my day labor money. But I was searching hi and lo for information on how to play the game correctly. I finally found what I was looking for in a library in Fort Collins, Colorado. A friend and I stopped into Fort Collins to work a few days of day labor. Two books that were written by Andy Nelson. They were small books and I ran them to the copy machine.
Gene, the friend I was with, was a rubber tramp. That's a tramp who lives out of his car. His wife and kid were killed in an autombile accident and Gene just wandered around the country after that. He was a real nice guy. We were on our way from Rapid City, South Dakota to Frisco, Colorado where the day labor jobs paid the best in the country. We made it to Frisco and when I wasn't working I was studying the Andy Nelson books on Stud 8.
Gene and I had both banked up some money. Gene wanted to go to Grand Isle, Louisiana, but I had other ideas. We said our goodbyes. He headed south and I hitchhiked back to Deadwood.
I can still see the smiles that grew on their faces when I walked in the door of that poker room. The pigeon is back!!! There wasn't even a game going on, but they all broke for the poker table when they seen me walk in. It didn't work out for them though. I was no longer the fleecee, I was the fleesore. It didn't take long for all their smiles to disapear. I became an everyday grinder in that game.
More later....