The Main Event

"King-four again," I muttered. That must have been the thirtieth time I had seen a hand like that in the past few hours. Nothing was really working for me on the opening day of the Main Event. I tried valiantly to refrain from thinking about facing my poker buddies without even making it through the first day. After all I was able to win our home tournament and the ten grand for the buy in. But that meant I had the pressure of making all of us some money. They would be all over me, if I only lasted a few hours. I could feel the negative energy building inside of me, and I did not have a clue how to turn it around.

"Hey baby, not going so well I see," said Paige as she scanned what was left of my stack.

Without looking up I replied, "yea, I have pissed away half my chips. I only have about five thousand. I am glad you made it over here, while there is still some left. I really need a good hand to get back into this." I gathered up my hole cards and peaked at them on the felt in front of me. To my great surprise the king of spades was followed by the king of hearts. I almost sighed but was able to hold back my relief.

"I love you," I heard her say.

I turned around to tell her the same, and before I uttered a word I noticed her hair ended just past her shoulders. She must have had six inches cut off her long dark curls. "I love you and that haircut."

"I figured you would. I took off a little extra for you. She did a nice job in the salon back at our hotel."

The professional player in front of me bet 400. I raised him to 1000. Everyone else folded. The pro looked back at me and added my chip stack with his eyes. "It looks like you have less than 4000 chips left." He pushed in his much larger stack and declared, "all in." I called in an instant flipping over my kings. A second later I felt a pair of bullets being shot right into my eyes. The damn guy had a pair of aces. I turned back to Paige with a hollow look.

"Come on. Think positively. You still have a chance," she said with as much encouragement as possible.

I got up and walked over to her. She opened up her arms, and I raised my mine around her neck. Instinctively, my hands reached up to rub her nape. I barely heard the dealer call out jack of diamonds, 3 of hearts, and 7 of spades. I got no help with that flop. I put my head on her shoulder as the dealer called a 2 of clubs. I was down to my last card. At this point I needed to watch my fate. I pulled away from Paige taking her hand, and we watched the dealer flip the king of diamonds on the river. Good thing she had a firm grip of my hand because my knees buckled, and she saved me from crumbling to the floor.

"Wow," was about all I could say.

At least the pro took the bad beat in stride, and he shook my hand. I turned back to Paige. I gave her a big kiss and told her that I had back my mojo. By the end of the session I had amassed close to 50k in chips.

Given that the tournament had over 6500 hundred entrants my next session would not occur for a few days. That gave us plenty of time to just relax and take advantage of the suite at the Venetian, which was my perk paid for by the guys back home. We especially liked the big Jacuzzi tub.

On day two Paige came with me in the morning to Rio. She brought her bathing suit to go to the pool. After two hours she got too bored watching me and went to take in some of the extremely hot Vegas sun. As soon as she left I got my old favorite, a pair of pocket kings. However, this time the poker gods were not in my corner. My opponent won the hand, when he made a flush on river. That beat cost me 15 thousand and after another hour of bleeding chips I was down to only 20k. At this point Paige came back, and she could see how few chips I had.

"Oh boy Jackson, maybe I should get another haircut."

Immediately, my ears perked up. That was definitely not what I expected to hear from her, but I ran with it. "I could use any help at this point to change my luck. You might want to get it done here because by the time you go to Venetian, I might be out of chips."

"OK, I will run over there now."

I decided to play really tight, until she got back to the table. I even folded a pair of queens not wanting to take a chance of losing. Forty-five minutes later Paige entered the room sporting a curly bob ending just above her shoulders. She took off another four inches.

"Awesome," I told her. "Now let's see if my cards can get as hot as you."

She gave me a great big smile, and I looked down to see I was dealt a pair of aces. The mojo was back. I finished that day with 239,000 chips, and I was in great position to stick around for two more days to guarantee getting paid more than the 10 grand.

That night Paige and I ate at Mesa Grill. Given how much hair she sacrificed to bring the good vibe to my tournament, I wanted to take her to Bobby Flay's restaurant. Unfortunately, he was not there, but we were able to meet the chef that night. Paige left Mesa Grill on such a high from the wine and our experience that she almost floated back to the Venation. I slid my hand in the waistband of her skirt and on her butt crack just to keep her on the sidewalk.

Once back in the room we undressed so quickly that I found myself taking her doggie before I even knew what happened. As my dick pushed inside of her she blurted out, "I made another appointment here at 8AM to have my hair cut again. I don't even think we should even mess with karma at this point." Just thinking about anymore curls being cut brought me to an orgasm, and Paige followed right along.

The next morning I went to the gym, ate a little breakfast, and went to meet Paige at the salon at 8:45. I saw her at the counter paying her bill, and she now sported a lip length bob. With her curly hair Paige never liked this length. It was too short for a ponytail, and she thought the curls made her face look too wide. Upon seeing her face for myself I did not agree, and I walked up behind her to lightly rub her neck. "I love it," I told her.

"If you keep rubbing my neck, I can get used to this short hair. Besides, I made another appointment for tomorrow and going shorter than this will alleviate any awkward length issues. I will just have to get used to having no hair instead.

At the tables that day I just stacked chip after chip. The other players sensed I was on a roll. They did not want to play against me too often, and on the few occasions where an opponent tested his luck I won. A few known pros fell to my winning hands. By day's end I was one of the chip leaders with over a million chips.

Paige did not leave my side all day. During the dinner break we found a relatively quiet area and ate a sandwich in peace. As we were finishing, Tracy, one of the ESPN reporters came over and asked me a few questions. I related to her the story about winning my home tourney to get the entry fee. I introduced Paige, and Tracy immediately complimented her on her hair. Paige did not let onto our secret for success in the tournament, but she did tell Tracy that she just had it cut here at the Rio.

The next morning I met Paige at the taxi stand. She walked out of the hotel with the sides of her hair a bit shorter. Then she turned around to show me her buzzed nape. As we rode over to the Rio, I could not keep my hands off the back of her velvety head. That day went pretty much like the previous one. A loud cheer went up at the point, when all the remaining players made the money. However, I was concentrating on trying to make a deep run and winning a lot of money.

In each of the next three mornings I went with Paige to the salon. The inverted bob turned into a longish pixie, then a short pixie, and finally to a close buzzed sides and back with some longer curls on top. Since my status as chip leader had garnered me great attention with ESPN and the poker bloggers, Paige finally related the haircutting story to Tracy. She gained her promise not to say anything on the air, until after I made the final table.

At the end of day six with 27 players left in the tournament I was the massive chip leader with over 40 million. Paige and I went back to Mesa Grill, and this time we met Bobby Flay. He recognized me as the chip leader of the tournament, and he sat down to have a drink with us. He and Paige became engrossed in a conversation about some cooking show, and he wound up buying our dinner and told us he would be rooting for me.

Rather than make love right after dinner we agreed to wait until the morning. At 3AM I woke and could not fall back to sleep right away. I went to spoon Paige knowing her scent would act like a narcotic and put me out for the rest of the night or like an aphrodisiac and morning would begin now. My mouth and nose gently nuzzled into her buzzed nape, and I inhaled intensely. I had my right leg resting between her legs with my knee wedged into her butt. Slowly I increased the pressure of my embrace. My arm pulled her closer, my knee drove deeper, my penis rubbed into the small of her back, and I fully massaged her head. Paige moaned loudly and pushed back against me. By this point I was so hard. I rolled her onto her back and raised her legs over her head. Her vagina opened up, and I rammed my cock inside of her as deeply as I ever had before. After just a couple of thrusts we both came for what seemed like five minute. We got back into our spoon and fell back into the soundest sleep.

Even with the blackout shades I could tell from the light that three hours had passed. "Hey Baby. What a great sleep. I am ready to win more chips. I feel so good that I think you do not even need to cut your hair today. "

"Really, I was planning to buzz my whole head down to a number two in order to ensure you made the final table. And I really want you to do it right now." With no logical reason to respond I jumped out of bed to follow her into the bathroom. Paige pulled out a clipper set from a bag and handed it to me. I undid the packaging, while Paige took a seat in front of the mirror. I attached the number 2 guide and plugged it into the socket. I then place the clipper at her forehead and ran it straight back through her buzzed nape. Each pass the clippers left little bristles of hair. Within five minutes her whole head had been shorn. I repeated the process evening out any spots I may have missed. Paige examined herself in the mirror and said, "I knew I was going to get to this drastic buzz today, and I was a little nervous. But I love it. My whole scalp tingles."

Paige stood up from the chair and kneeled in front of me. She placed her mouth over my aching erection and brought me to the verge of another climax within a minute. Paige removed my penis from her mouth and had me come all over her face and head. "You are now ready to kick some butt today," she said rubbing my cum into her shorn scalp.

With three tables left the jovial mood of the preceding days was replaced by the tension of knowing that the surviving nine players at day's end would have a guaranteed $1 million dollar pay day at the final table in November. As the huge stack at my table I started to pick off a few of the small stacks. I put them to the test and dared them to go all-in against me. Around 5pm I knocked out three players in one huge all-in pot, when I made a set of queens against a couple of busted draws and a pair of jacks. After that hand I had more than three times as many chips as the next player. It also left only 18 players in the tournament, so the director called for an early dinner in order to configure the players for two table play.

Paige and I found our quiet corner and ate our sandwiches in relative peace, as only a few people stopped by for brief conversation. "You should just take it easy for the rest of the night. You are almost a lock to make the final table," Paige expressed.

"I just have to keep the pressure on these small stacks. They are hoping to stick around and are not likely to play back against me, until they are really desperate. I can have such a big lead for the final table that I will be almost assured of winning."

"You are getting a bit cocky Jackson."

"And I have you and your beautiful haircuts to thank," I said as I reached out to rub her shorn head.

The action at my table went according to plan as two players at each table exited leaving 14 players. All of a sudden something felt amiss. I was on the button and everyone else folded. I looked at my cards and saw a pair of aces. I made a small bet of 2.4 million. The small blind folded, but the big blind pushed in his whole stack of ten million. I called immediately flipping over my bullets, and he reluctantly showed a pair of kings. I knew I had the best of the situation, a 4 to 1 favorite, but when I saw him walk over to his wife my heart skipped a beat. She was completely bald to the skin. I just kept staring at her as the dealer dealt out the flop. Seven, ten, two: no help for him, but I knew I was in trouble. I remembered back to day 1, when Paige came in with her first haircut. That time I had the kings.

The dealer turned over a queen. I had to dodge one more card. I looked over at, Dan, my opponent and his wife one more time. He pointed at her head then over at Paige, and he mouthed the word "beautiful." At the same time the dealer flipped the king of diamonds. Although the loss of the hand only put a samll dent in my stack, I did not want to tangle with him again. He had a bald wife, and she stole my mojo.

I still managed to have a narrow chip lead over him by the time the final table had settled. The nine of us had pictures taken and interviews conducted by all of the poker journals. At the bar about an hour later Paige and I already had a good buzz going, when Dan and his beautiful wife sat down with us. He introduced Anna and told us the story of her headshave.

"Quite simply, I observed Paige each of the last few days at your side with shorter hair each time. Somehow I convinced Anna of the magic of the haircut, and she was the one demanding for a complete shave. We went to a barber shop last night," Dan told us.

"He even shaved my eyebrows. I penciled these in this morning. And we had the best sex last night and this morning."

"Yea, we discovered that, too," laughed Paige. "Are you going to stay this way until November? I think I have to, and I will probably get a complete shave like you just to make sure Dan does not have an outside advantage over Jackson. And let's hope no one else catches on before we knock them out."