29 ST Part 3

Fall 06 Summer and I am doing well. I always made money for other people now I was doing OK for myself a change. We had a real strong following, it was nice to reap some of the benefits. Right now my biggest problem was saving seats for players, what a slippery slope this turned into. I had this one guy I would save the 5 seat for and this caused me more headaches than I ever imagined. This guy lived about a hour outside the city so I would put chips in the seat and take time accordingly. He came to play 4 or 5 nights a week and stayed to the end playing 3 handed till the game broke. Sometimes he would be running late and my joint would fill up and I would have to tell players that seat was locked up for this guy. They would try to have me extend the same courtesy to them and I would politely say no I'm sorry but I can't do that. That's when the shit hit the fan. I had these two trial lawyers who went nuts on me trying to make me agree to it for them, man the shit they put me through saying they were just as good customers as the 5 seat and I was wrong. Sure they were good customers playing in my game about one 10th of the hours the 5 seat put in. I knew it was a bad beat and finally I backed myself into a corner and told them politely that they didn't have to play in my game. To them it was a matter of principal and I understood where they were coming from but I stuck to my guns on the 5 seat, the funny thing was that the 5 seat was a bigger pain in the ass than anyone in the game but he was great action 4 nights a week. I kept the game running somewhat smoothly, no fist fights, didn't get held up, we even got along with our silent partner. The only problem I had but didn't even know about was the upstairs neighbors, who I found out later felt I was bringing to much traffic to the joint. They had some sort of in-call bordello going on. I used to see their traffic coming and going all night, Wall St. types and lots of hot women. I used to see them on camera, all sorts of freaks going in and out. I was waiting for a donkey and a midget to walk on by! I was never got involved with them, didn't even know who they were upstairs and honestly could care less. A couple of times people would mistakenly ring my buzzer and I would go into the hallway with a brick behind my back ready to smash anyone trying to rob me. Not exactly my weapon of choice but I felt I could handle most situations. The one that I wasn't expecting was one night in Oct. when the buzzer rang and I saw two huskie guys that I did not recognize. This one night I show up early so I go in the hallway with my brick and say you guys must have hit the wrong buzzer and they say no we have the right place. Who the fuck are you and how can I help you? The first guy reaches in his coat and pulls out a gold detective shield and I notice the second guy with a chain around his neck and a bullet proof vest on. All sorts of things are going through my head! What the fuck is this, a raid no, I'm thinking robbery but these guys were definitely on the job. The head guy walks in and pulls me out of view from my game and the other one sits on the couch and says hello to my players like he didn't have a care in the world. The head guy tells me some shit about some major investigation that I am in the middle of and I should close down immediately because when it does happen I am going down hard! I tell them I will finish the night and be gone tomorrow. This sucks, so I get in touch with some guys I know and tell them what just happened we honestly didn't know what to make of it. Real? Not real? This was a big decision we had to make. We consulted a few people and they said it sounds legit. Did I want to get myself marked and always have problems? Or do I look at this as a gift and I can just walk away and move on. We choose to close shop because our players where loyal and would follow our game again. Who knows maybe the next joint I won't be saddled with back stabbing partners.