Charity Poker

I mentioned before that The Girl made Dance Team. She and The Boy are also running Cross Country. And when you kids are in athletics, it doesn't take long before the parent booster club comes knocking at your door. Our booster group is The Elyria High Pioneer Club. Yours truly is the new parent representative for Dance Team, the newest recognized sport at Elyria High. I'm not the parent representative for Cross Country, but I'm sure that's just a matter of time.

Being in Pioneer Club means that you have to help out with the massive fundraisers they have. The one this past weekend was running a charity poker event at Nautica. I will admit I came into this blind. I had no idea what this would be like. I knew there was "Dealer Training" that you could go to, but you didn't have to so I didn't go. They said there were plenty of other jobs to do at the event. I just couldn't get a clear answer on what.

We four were at camp Saturday night when we started packing. On Sunday morning we were up extremely early, took down the tents, threw everything in the van and on the road by 9 AM. An hour and half later we were home to unload, shower, pick up the dog, start laundry and give the kids money to order in a pizza. The Man and I were back in the van and headed to Cleveland by 1:30.

After some crazy detouring caused by constantly closed bridges, we arrived at site. The poker room was, way back in the day, a very cool arcade in the Powerhouse. I still have some tokens from there, but that's not the currency they use in that room anymore.

The place was filling up and we were thrown immediately into dealer training. The one thing I didn't want to do. (The Man on the other hand was thrilled. It was exactly what he wanted to do.) I must have passed training because before long I was sitting at a table dealing to 12 poker players. They were friendly. They were forgiving of my mistakes. They helped out as much as they could. But I spent the whole time a tense ball of nerves. When I was finally relived, I practically ran out of the room.

The Man was dealing at the same time. He loved it. Thought it was big fun.

A little while later, I was put back at the same table where I was a little more comfortable and made fewer mistakes. That table broke up before my shift was over so I got a reprieve.

This went on all night. You stand around with nothing to do until the guy running the show pulls up to you and says, "Hey, head over to table 18, okay?" The other jobs? There was getting chips for players. That really only took one or two people. The other 58 of us were there to deal. And deal and deal and deal. The amount of money that flowed through that place was blowing my mind.

They let us go at 11:30.

After spending three nights sleeping in a tent followed by nine hours of working a poker event, I slept like the dead once we got home.

And that was our weekend.