18 years ago to the day this night happened!
I am not going to say why I remember this date, it's not important to anyone but me. But I was in the deep abyss of poker, underground poker and somewhat depressed about the anniversary night. I was living in Texas and poker was illegal, so in order to play live you had to play in a club. To say a club, this was literally in a strip center next to a Korean grocery store. It was a door that looked like, well nothing. You opened the door and it went into a small room, opened another door and fuck man it was like 10 tables, tvs mounted, full kitchen, etc.. Totally illegal and like 40 players and I'd guestimate $100K on the tables.
I brought $1000 and in the span of 3 hours I busted. So here is where it gets interesting. I needed to get more money and I was told there was a 7-11 with an ATM across the street. I was pretty drunk. And so I managed my way across the street and used my ATM card, but the $500 I wanted declined. Turns out I hit my limit for the day, took $500 out at 7pm and it was like 11:45pm so I had to wait.
So there was a bench outside the 7-11 so I figured I would wait until midnight because that would be the next day right? So while waiting minding my business a dude sits down. Now behind the 7-11 there was a truck stop where semis would park for the night and I assume sleep before hitting the road. Guy strikes up a conversation with me and I engage. Next thing I know he is asking if I like soup. I am like yeah, who does not like soup. He says he has a burner in his cab and wants to know if I want to have some soup with him. I am like woah, not interested. To his credit he walked away.
I decided at that time to cut my losses. I mean $500 was not going to do me much at midnight. I stumbled to my car, and something was not quite right. There were two suspicious looking cars backed in call it instinct but I walked past my car like I was just walking through the parking lot. There was about 2 blocks away, a Motel that was a private hotel, it looked like a Motel 6 that lost its license. I paid for a room, $40.
Turns out the poker room was raided an hour later. Players had all their money confiscated, lots of arrests. I went to my car around 10am and was asked what my car was doing there, some straggler cop was still there. I simply said my girlfriend parked here because the motel parking lot was filled up and she took a cab to work. He knew I was lying but obviously could not prove anything so I hopped in my SUV and drove home.
Tight.
