Porky could see that Cheese had started the session like a man with a plan. This was no night-outer. This fact gave Porky at least part of his bad feeling. Cheese was more than a recreational player. This was strategy. Cheese had opened up with some ultra-cautiously played hands. Porky didn’t think Cheese had expected Zargosa to be there and was showing him huge respect. In this situation most guys would have chucked their money straight into the Zargosa vacuum cleaner. Ten hands in and Cheese was still being very conservative. On the eleventh hand he made a little move and made a loss on the river. Zargosa won but you could see he was regarding his opponent with increasing respect. Give Cheese some credit, he didn’t flap. The cat was cool.
But this was just the start of an epic session, with the pot swollen with donations by wealthy amateurs way out of their depth. It was fascinating to watch and Porky had got absorbed in it. It was like watching a great sporting contest. Then a call came in. Had he seen what was happening at the roulette table? No he hadn’t. Better take a look. When Porky did take a look he saw that the little hamster was up a startlingly large sum. A problem? Maybe, but not a big one. The main thing was to keep the guy playing. The golden rule was keep them playing. Porky had seen people start of good but then lose the money for their kid’s education, their employee payroll, their homes, their businesses. It happened all the time.
Porky was hoofing it down to the Casino floor in the direction of Harry the Hamster, the big winner of the moment. He was preparing in his mind what he was going to say.
Hey, Harry! Great to see you in Casino Byzantium. And so on.
He was just about to go into the room where the roulette table was when he got a message. Foxy had just come into the casino. Porky stopped thinking about Harry the Hamster. Foxy was going to visit Casino Byzantium.
House of Glass 