“WHERE ARE YOU NOW MARYJANE”

We all have mysteries in our lives, good, bad or otherwise, and as poker players were always open to listen to our fellow players stories. Why? We love the action. It was 1966 in Monterey, California. I was sitting in the local card room, a virtual hangout for addicted poker players like myself. The game back then was not Texas Hold’em, but Five Card Stud. This girl walked into the card room, bought some chips, and sat down at my table, a cute girl with shabby cloths, but very sweet. At that time it was unusual to see a woman come into a smoky card room filled with all guys and playing poker. You could notice all the guys at the table eyeballing her. Not for her looks but for her chips. She said hello to most of them and anted up for the next hand. The dealer preceded, one of the players said to her, “hey what’s your name”.She looked over at him and said “MaryJane”. He shook his head as an acknowledgement. The first couple of hands she played badly and lost. I then noticed she was staring at me. I looked over at her and gave her a nod to say hello and she smiled. The next hand she won a sizeable pot which brought back her losses. She looked over at me, and very softly winked. She was attractive in her own way, and if I remember, a chill ran up my back, WOW! Male adrenaline. That wink, also made me wonder, “Can this girl really play well?” My gut feeling wasn’t to wrong after about 2 hours of play she had a fair amount of the chips that were on the table in front of her. She then decided to stop playing and thanked the guys for a good game. She stood up to leave and looked over at me and said “Can I buy you a coffee?” That male adrenaline popped up, I didn’t hesitate and said “Yes”. I got up from the table and we both walked out of the card room. I won’t go into what happened next I’ll leave that to your imagination. But, I will say “Never judge a book by its cover”. So! “Where are you now, MaryJane?” (THIS IS A TRUE STORY)