i saw....

...the most amazing-looking woman in the casino today, not as in amazingly beautiful, just dressed and groomed in a noir-ish style that seemed impossibly elegant and dramatic. She was Korean of course. She wore a white leather trenchcoat, black scarf, blue-striped dress shirt over a white sweater, and a grey fedora, all of them expensively detailed, tastefully patterned, and immaculately fit to her body. I've never been in the presence of clothes used to such maximum effect, whispering both of new money and old mystery. She had short platinum-dyed hair and a face with so many surgical modifications it actually appeared to be a mask - the Phantom of the Opera mask, with eyes slightly receded behind a bloodless surface. She looked like Blade Runner and the Lupin III anime rolled up in Switch from the Matrix and Brigitte Lin in Chungking Express. She totally had a hidden gun, or a husband that she needs you to kill, or a bionic forked tentacle-tongue, or something. I am sure that her chewing gum cost more than I make in a week. I do not have a picture.

ho ho ho

The minimum bet on our baccarat table is $200. But we always get people who want to bet $100 or less and we have to remind them. The other day, some back-line papa placed a single $100 chip on the betting circle next to me. For some reason I didn't say the simple reminder. Instead I turned to J-, the player sitting next to me, and said "J-, bet a thousand there." This was a bit irregular because as a practical matter we never advise players when, where, or how much to bet, although many of them are superstitiously convinced that we know which spots will win because we are, after all, professionals. So for no real good reason I violated this policy. I didn't really expect her to listen to me, anyway. I just wanted someone to bet more on top of the $100.
....So she does it; she places $1000 in chips on top of the $100 chip, making it a legal bet. Now I'm in the soup; this is a player that I sort of like, she winked at me once, and has a generally good nature. And, if there's one superstition I've gained from working in the casino, it is this: The Players I Like Always Lose. The only way I can ASSURE that someone will lose, it seems, is when I hope in my heart that they will win. So, as the cards come out, I'm really ill about this, because I don't want her to lose the bet on my silly advice. Not because I'll get yelled at, but because she is the kind of player nice enough to not yell about it.
....And she's more a $300-400 bettor typically, so a $1000 bet is kind of a big event in her day. She wouldn't make it unless she had a Very Strong Feeling, or otherwise felt it ordained by someone with Professional Gambling Superpowers, i.e. me.
....But she won! The bank overhit, player bets won, and I looked like a genius. I both couldn't believe it, and was completely relieved. At last someone I was rooting for had won a hand! I felt like Santa Claus. I quickly told her that would be my only advice for the day (lest she hound me for further groundless predictions) and went back to work, that is, back to being professionally indifferent towards every single outcome.