It had been many dry, hot days in the desert. First walking, then staggering, and finally crawling in the dust on my belly like a rattlesnake on a mission from the devil himself.

Except that my mission was just to get home. And it was looking like that mission was gonna be a failure.

I’d been playing where I shouldn’t, as my momma and my better judgement would have told me if I’d listened. I’d hooked up with a bunch of guys who talked about a legendary game — the Empire Hold’em. They seemed like good ol’ boys to me, at first anyway, and I let them buy me a beer or two at the bar while they jawed about the Empire Hold’em and all of the legends who had played there.

So anyone could have told me that all of that cheap beer was going to make the plan seem smarter and safer than it really was — hell, I coulda told myself that, if I was in a mood to listen. But I wasn’t. I was in a mood to play.

I hadn’t had a good game in weeks, maybe years. I couldn’t even play at USA casino sites. They threw me out of the tournament league — said I had a bad attitude, and when you’re thrown out for attitude by a bunch of world-class attitude junkies…well, son, you should take that opportunity to fall to your knees and pray for humility and patience. And not get up until you get it.

It took me some time to learn the variety of games at the on line casino, but I found that there was thrill about the games at jackpotcity casino, but even with the fun of those games I was still out of the league, and for some that may have been enough to give up on poker.

But not me. I was born as ornery as a three-legged mule with a hereditary case of the burning mule crabs.

I figured that I’d just play a bunch of unsanctioned outlaw games and then online casinos for US players, and always come out on top. I saw myself as king of the outlaw card sharps, with the tournament begging me to let bygones be bygones. Sometimes when I had this fantasy, I told them where to stick it. Sometimes I was magnanimous and forgave.

But no fantasy could have prepared me for this dry, stony desert and the vultures circling overhead. And not even the most fevered withdrawal dream could have prepared me for Empire Hold’em.