“I’m Jackie Nevada, and yeah, I go to Butler. I bet Duke even,” Jackie said, “and won twenty grand.”
Harry had a grin on his face now behind his sunglasses and plaid sport coat. “You’re kiddin me. Takin bets at school?”
“Mostly,” Jackie said. She was sitting with Harry now, heads turned to each other, the Rolls cruising along the highway. “By the time we played Duke everyone’s so high on Butler, they bet the game even. I did give Butler a point to some of my dad’s customers. Duke won by two, so I still beat everybody.” Jackie said, “Actually Reno Nevada’s my stepdad.”
Harry said, “Why they call him Reno?”
“It’s his name. He wanted to call me Sierra before I was born. Sierra Nevada would’ve been cool, but he named me after my mom instead. She walked out on us before I had a memory of her. They never married and Reno wasn’t even my dad. I did see pictures of Mom posing nude in the backyard Reno left on the dresser one time and I had an intimate look at my mother. I favor her somewhat, but she’s more of a babe than I’d ever be.”
Harry was frowning at her. “You never saw your own mother?”
“Lots of people haven’t seen their moms. Or their dads.”
“What’re you doin now? Where you going?”
“Shelbyville, that casino called Indiana Live? I’ll play poker the rest of the day.”
“I was thinkin of stoppin there,” Harry said. “Yeah, I could watch you go through your twenty grand.” Harry grinning, to show Jackie he might be kidding.
She said, “If I still had it I’d clean out the fish in an hour or so. Only last night at Elaine’s I wasted it, lost it betting on ace-king, went all in before the flop and got beat by a pair of sevens. Reno thought I’d lose a few hundred and leave, get a little exposure to a big game. But I had all the money I won on Duke, till the cigar smokers took it away from me.”
“Honey, you’re out of your league the minute you walk in Elaine’s. I can’t believe she let you play.”
“She looked at me,” Jackie said, “I think she saw herself, well, at a much earlier age. The guys were okay. They smoked and talked about buying horses and running them at Keeneland.”
“Hell, that’s Lexington,” Harry said. “I won the Maker’s Mark with a horse name of Black Boy and my colored chauffeur quit on me. Got in some funny business with a nurse stealing kidneys and was shot dead. I bet I know the fellas you played with. What were their names?”
“The only one I remember was Lou. He said, ‘I’m Lou, sweetheart.’ But they didn’t talk much while we were playing.”
Harry said, “The driver I had that got shot was called Cuba but said he was from Africa. I thought he was a hardworkin boy till he quit on me and I hired Avery.”
Jackie saw Avery watching them in his mirror and met his serious eyes for a moment. She said, “I played like a girl who’d memorized what hole cards you’d look at and fold. I’m playing no-limit with five gentlemen smoking cigars, staring at me, and threw away twenty grand, every dollar I had except three hundred in my sneakers.”
“You let ’em psyche you out.”
“It pissed me off and I knew better. Don’t ever play when you’re mad or upset.”
“That’s right, walk away.”
“I wanted to say, ‘Oh, is it my turn?’ Something girlish to throw them off. But I never felt I had it together.”
“They scared you.”
“One hand I had an ace-five and bailed out.”
“That’s what you do playing hold ’em,” Harry said. “You get out, you don’t let that lone ace vamp you.”
“Yeah, but the ace turned into a pair with the river card and a king-jack took the pot.”
“That’ll happen,” Harry said.
“But if I stayed I’d of won twelve grand. I’d get the feeling I can take these no-limit guys, get down and play to win. It was one of the very few times I didn’t go with my ace.”
“How many times you win with an ace in the hole?”
“How often are you dealt one?”
“You’re telling me you’re lucky,” Harry said. “But you don’t win at poker bankin on luck.”
“I win because I know the game,” Jackie said. “If I don’t have a feeling about my hole cards I throw them in.”
“You left Elaine’s with three hundred?”
“In my sneakers. I forgot to tell you, the police came by.”
“Elaine was raided?”
“She said it happens every once in a while. Part of doing business.”
“They throw you in jail?”
“I was booked, but walked out when nobody was looking. I still have enough to start at a five-ten table. Work my way up to ten-twenty.”
Harry said, “Honey, you’re a fugitive. They’re gonna be after you.”
“I’ll wear dark glasses,” Jackie said.
They were both quiet now riding in the Rolls.
Maybe for ten seconds before Harry said, “If I didn’t know your plight…” paused, and Jackie said:
“One night I was waiting for a bus with a half dozen ad layouts, mounted, trying to hold them together, and I dropped them in the street. A man stopped by as I was gathering them up. He said, ‘I couldn’t help but observe your plight.’ ”
Harry said, “Is that right?”
“That was only the second time I’ve heard anyone use the word.”
Now he was frowning.
“You said, ‘If I didn’t know your plight… What? You don’t think the dark glasses would work?”
She could tell she had him interested.
Harry said, “I was thinking, What if I staked you?” Jackie took a moment. “For how much?”
“Whatever you’d need to make a run. Ten grand?”
“You’re kidding.”
“Honey, I raise thoroughbreds, run ’em at tracks all over the country. I don’t have to kid about money. I pay a million bucks for a filly and love her like she’s my own.”
“Till she runs,” Jackie said.
“Well, if she doesn’t win enough times.”
“You fall for another filly.”
She could see him grinning now.
“That’s right, but the amount of affection I show the girl can make her a winner.”
“How would that work with me,” Jackie said, “your being affectionate?”
“Honey, I’m seventy-five years old. We’ll have drinks and I’ll make you laugh and give you a kiss on the cheek. You keep everything you win. I’ll be a happy dog havin you pet me once in a while.”
“What if I’m in a game but low on chips?”
“I see you can win, I’ll help you out.”
“And if I lose my stake…?”
“It comes to that,” Harry said, “I’ll drop you off anywhere you want.”
Jackie leaned over to kiss his old man’s cheek and tell him, “Harry, you just made me the happiest girl in the world.”
I t took her four hours and ten minutes to win eighteen thousand at two different no-limit tables that afternoon in Shelbyville; Jackie playing against people who hired truck drivers, people who bet on grain futures produced by farmers they didn’t know or care to. Jackie was having a bottle of beer now, Harry Burgoyne a double scotch.
She said, “All they did was try to bluff.”
“And you could tell.”
“They weren’t good at it.”
“Fellas I play with at Keeneland, I think they’re always tryin to bluff me. I know it, so I stay in too long, call their raise, but every time I do, one of ’em beats me.”
