Friday night is poker night at the Salon. The Salon's owner, Giorgio, runs the poker games for the money and deals the cards for guys most of who fancy themselves to be professional poker players. In reality, they are just guys that are gambling addicts in the making. If they ever showed up in Vegas, Atlantic City, or New Orleans, they would lose the kid's tuition, bosses payroll, and probably an injury to a loan shark all in one night. The Salon offers the place to learn whether you have the skill and Giorgio's has his ringer to insure that no one wins too big and keeps people coming back by not letting them lose too much to the other players. Of course, Giorgio gets a cut of the action in the form of a house fee to play. His Salon makes okay cash, but the Friday night game makes more than his hairdressers do in a week.
His ringer's name is John. A nice piece of work, John is. Enough of a mathematician to count the cards and figure the odds, John has the ability to read a player's hand after three or four rounds. Once he knows what you have, he keeps you going until your money is his. John seldom loses on these card nights with the locals. Once John wins enough money, he goes to Vegas to spend what he has won. Giorgio never asks how well John does. It is an unspoken rule between them that they never discuss the games outside of the Salon. The games themselves are as friendly as gambling can get. It's not poker night with the guys at work, but it isn't high roller action either.
Most of the gamblers are men with the exception of this college girl. She showed up one night with a guy. Beautiful and bitchy, she got hooked after playing a few hands. Giorgio noticed that John carried her that night. He purposely drove off other players and folded when he knew she held something winning. That night, she walked out with five hundred dollars. A few weeks later she came alone. The boyfriend disappeared. The more the girl played, the more annoying she became. John continued finessing her game. Giorgio couldn't figure out why, other than John wanted to fuck her. She was pretty. Long legs, red hair, flat stomach, and low cut blouses or halters made her nice eye candy. Her presence added sexual tension to the game, which made the men bet too fast too soon. Once College, as John called her, started playing, his take grew. Guys made such fools of themselves when she played.
Unfortunately, her mouth and comments grew faster than her skill. College began thinking she was better than she was. John tolerated it because her barbs and cattiness made guys throw more money in the pot. Giorgio had misjudged John in think it was sexual. It wasn't. It was all about money. The only problem was that College started to become a liability. Guys spent too much and couldn't make the game every week. New players played once and never came back. Giorgio began to worry if College left there would be no game left. If she stayed, the money would dry up too quickly. Most importantly, he was become tired of the girl's mouthing off and wondered how he was going to get rid of her. The problem was that she had won too much of the money for him to simply tell her not to come back. If she moved to a new venue, they would lose players who came there, or worse, set up a poker night herself. Too many numbers had been given to College by guys thinking that they could get into her pants and she was greedy enough to set up her own thing.
While think this, John tapped Giorgio on the shoulder. He too saw the need to get rid of College. She made the mistake of offending his card playing ability at the last game. He saw John eyes briefly flicker with anger when he heard her words. No one else noticed, but Giorgio did. John wanted to take her for everything, but more importantly, he wanted to humiliate her and make certain that she learned a lesson. He told Giorgio to invite the regular guys who had been losing to College. John wanted the night to be special and for Giorgio to have his best Salon hairdresser available.
College showed up wearing a beautiful short cocktail dress, fishnet stockings, expensive Italian high heels, and a confident grin. She had recently bought an Eclipse with her winnings and had several hundreds in her purse. The first hour John carried her as the other players dropped out one by one. By the end of the second hour, it was between her and John. Usually, John would call the game after College dropped a few hundred. College teasingly played with her hair and mouthing off to John to continue, but he would walk away saying he had to get up early. College would trash talk about how she could take him, but left with more money than she came in with. This night was different. John waited for her to beg him to continue playing and insult him. She obliged and John said, Why not. It's only money. At that moment, Giorgio knew she was about to get slammed.
The players still around sensed something was going to happen and pulled up chairs to watch.
