ROUGH DRAFT OF NOVEL..BEGINNING. Ideas? Help.

[Johnny Hughes]

Poker Paradise...A Novel

After fifty years of poker, there were certain things Johnny always did at the beginning of a game. He counted all the cars and noticed the four tight rock players he expected to see but wasn't happy about. With nine cars outside the Town House, he knew there would be a seat. Part of his strategy was to always arrive a couple of hours after the poker game started when there was more action.

Everyone saw him on the security TV monitor,"Here comes another gar." said Dee. They had played poker with each other around West Texas for half a century. Nora met him at the door with a warm hug. Johnny peeled three hundred dollar bills from the roll he flashed and took the seat beside Nora, the dealer and sole owner of this small gambling joint. She handed him $285 in chips, the juice being 5%.

"You been out West?" Bisquit asked.

"I been staying 'round Lubbock." Johnny checked each man's hands for bandages and looked all around the table for jewelry and shiny objects. Then he counted each man's chips and made a mental note of whether they were winning of losing. It seemed the smoking end of the table were taking a pounding and the new young player had a mountain of chips.

Johnny knew all the players except the youngest one, another college age player who had learned poker from books, television,and the internet. They young guy had on a baseball hat from Texas Tech, sunglasses, and a teal polo shirt. He expertly riffled his chips over and over in the poker player's ritual like worry beads or the Rosary. He had more chips than anyone, around sixteen hundred.

"I heard you on the radio, Tim." Johnny said, "You said 'when Men were Men and sheep were nervous' which really made Chris mad."

"You haven't been calling in to any of the talk shows, you been on the road?" Tim asked. They had gone to Monterey High School together almost fifty years back. Liberal Tim was a regular fixture on three local morning talk radio shows. Most callers absolutely hated him and coughed forth vieled threats of bodily harm.

"I'm like that lucky old sun, I got nothin' to do but roll around Lubbock all day. I just haven't been playing much poker, here or on the road." Johnny said. "I usually play up a storm around Christmas. I heard you call in knocking Karl Rove one morning and Barbara Bush the next. Liberal Tim. Being called that in America's most conservative city could be dangerous. Some of those folks hate you Tim."

"Actually, Lubbock was found in a national poll to be the second most conservative city in all of America. Provo, Utah was first." Tim said.

Johnny folded every hand the first round. He noticed that the new young player was very aggressive, a frequent raiser, taking down most pots. Age and patience were now Johnny's greatest poker weapons.
"Young fella." Johnny said, staring straight at the young man's eyes which he could not see behind the ubiquitous shades. "Me and you are about to play a big pot. Duck your head, we are going through a tunnel."

This got a rise out of the older men but the young man said nothing.
"What yall eating?" Bisquit asked Nora. Her daughter in law, Jennie, hovered near the table bringing coffee and food and scoring generous tips, as did Nora.

"Spaghetti and meat balls. Home made cheese cake. Or sandwitches. Turkey and Ham." Nora was taking in very good tips as the dealer with most pots raised. Her step daughter was the waitress and cook. Bisquit ordered a plate to eat there at the table. Tree Top went broke to the new player who was really on a rush, holding boots and shoes.

"You hold more hands than any manicurist in town." Johnny said. "I'm gonna trap you."

Half an hour later, Johnny caught Ace King, right behind the big blind and he smooth called the ten dollars. So did seven others and the new young player raised it eighty dollars just as Johnny had expected. It was pot limit Texas Hold 'em. Johnny called the eighty and raised two hundred which was all the chips he had in front of him. The young man studied a while and his cell phone rang. "I'm playing poker. Hold it a minute."

"I know you have a small pair." The young man said and looked at Johnny for some type of tell. After a longer delay and the players are used to he said call, and showed Ace Queen exactly what Johnny was hoping for. Then the young man returned to his cell phone conversation as Nora slowly turned the cards. "I'll meet you outside the bank in twenty minutes. You can bet both Dallas and Tech." He was dead to a Queen and he caught two of them. He pumped his fist in the air and said, "Yes." Johnny didn't bat an eyelash. He threw Nora three more hundred. Johnny felt nothing. The young man's heart was pounding. Johnny watched the lad's shirt jump with some amusement.

After the young man cashed in over two thousand and left, Dee nodded toward the kitchen and he and Johnny went off for a pow wow.

"That was Dylan." Dee said. "Your nephew"

"How do you know? I doubt it." Johnny said.

"It's sure him. Dylan O'Malley. Without those shades, he's a ringer for Moody. He's a hell of a player, been beating those new Indian casinos in Oklahoma. The Kid sent him here to Nora's game. He knows who you are I figure. We was talking about you before you came to squat. Were your ears burning?" Dee said.

"Aunt May said he was a college student. Bessie still lives in Stephenville. He's about twenty-six. I haven't seen him since Matt's funeral in '85. You know Bessie hates me, probably turned him against me. If he is a gambler, she sure hates it. Why didn't he say something to me?" Johnny asked.

"He got your attention. He got all out attention. I heard he won $17,000 off these Tech kids and this Chinaman. He has been over to Nora's a couple of times. Maybe he is cold trailing you. He drew you out slicker than greased owl shit."

"He didn't get no cheery. May said he was gonna make a lawyer. Does real well in school. Moody provided for them. What does he do?" Johnny asked.

"He was doing it." Dee said, pulling his cowboy hat down. It was a prop he moved around often. Only a few years back Western attire would make up half the poker table but now it was an international game."He's a gambler. Like you and Moody."

"I'm mighty sorry to hear that, Dee." Johnny said.
[/list]

[Johnny Hughes]

[Twelver]

I'm hooked....chapter 3 please

[Dumb Snowman]

[kennyg]

Nice story...sadly I'm not very creative and can't really add any ideas.

[Cactus Jack]

As a failed novelist, I have only one suggestion....


DON'T DO IT!!!!

Writing is an addiction that cannot be cured.

However, your autobiography would be a very interesting story to read indeed.

CJ

[Johnny Hughes]

You are right and I am uncertain if I will ever fiinish. My other novels found no publisher. I have one on the web www.johnnyhughes.com