Steve Loses at Poker by Shant

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This is a true story that happened when I was in high school. Nothing has been added, this is actually the way it happened…

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We grew up in the late 60’s in a small town of only 400 people. Most of us had known each other since we entered kindergarten and had been good friends all the while we were growing up. There were no places where you could get a job during the summer so we spent a lot of time hanging out together.

This guy named Steve Jessmer lived in a nearby small town. He lived on the other side of the county line so he went to a different high school than we did. I can’t remember how we met him. We didn’t see him much during the school year, but he hung out with us a lot during the summer.

Steve was an okay guy and we all liked him. He was about 6 feet tall and weighed around 180 pounds. His best feature by far was his hair. It was a combination of light auburn and blonde. When he was outside in the sun his hair glistened just like gold.

His hair was really thick and perfectly straight. His hair was super fine however, resulting in it having almost no body at all. No matter how often he combed it, he could not get it to stay in place.

Steve’s hair was much longer than all the rest of us. Being in a small town, we were a little behind the times and guys had not yet started growing their hair long. Just about everybody had their hair parted on the side with the sides brushed down and slightly back. Everyone brushed their hair on top to one side and combed the front slightly back.

There were a few guys that still had really big hair and wore it in a pompadour style, but the majority of guys had traditional looking haircuts.

Steve tried to wear his hair in a pompadour, but with his hair so long and so fine he could never keep it in place. It refused to stand up. The sides were probably about six inches long and the top was easily over ten inches.

One night Steve came over and just the two of us hung out together. At one point, he was standing in front of the mirror in my room and he took out his comb and started combing his hair.

We had never said anything about each other’s hair before, but on the spur of the moment, I said, "Man, don’t you ever get tired of having your hair always hanging down and covering your face? It would drive me crazy always having to be pulling my hair back so that I could see."

"You know, I cut three or four of the guy’s bangs for them when they get a little too long. Why don’t you let me trim the front for you so that it’s no longer covering your eyes? I bet it would look a whole lot better."

"Are you serious?" Steve said. "I really love my hair. Yeah, it’s a pain keeping it out of my face, but I think it looks great. I would never want to get so much of it cut off. I’d really miss it."

"You know, I’m not a jock or a great student. The only thing that sets me apart from everyone else is my hair. I stand out wherever I am because of it. Everyone notices my hair because it is so long."

"I sometimes think about cutting it, but it’s the only thing that I have that I am known for. If I cut it short then there would no longer be anything about me that stands out."

Oh well, I had tried. I had always wanted to cut his hair whenever I saw him. I hoped maybe someday my luck would turn and I would get the chance.

During the summer months a group of us played poker one night a week. One night I was having a really good night and was way ahead with my winnings. The dealer dealt a hand and after a few times around the table, only Steve and I were still in the game.

When all the cards were dealt, I raised. Steve was totally out of money so I figured he would definitely fold. He surprised me when he said, "I don’t have any money left but I think I have the winning hand. I tell you what, if you let me stay in this hand and I lose, I’ll let you cut an inch off the front of my hair."

It surprised the hell out of me when he said that. We had only talked about his hair that one time, but Steve obviously remembered that I wanted to cut his hair. "That’s tempting," I said. "I’m pretty sure that I have a better hand than you do, so I’ll agree to that."

Steve showed his cards. He had two pair. I had three of a kind, so I won. I couldn’t wait to cut off an inch of his pretty hair.

When the evening ended, I turned to Steve and said, "Are you ready to pay up? Come on in the bathroom and I’ll get my scissors and cut off that inch of hair you promised me."

Steve followed me into the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror and combed all his hair on top straight forward. It totally covered his entire chin!

He then sat down on the toilet seat, and said, "Go ahead. Take off that inch of hair, but no more than that!"

This was going to be such a rush. I had never cut anyone’s hair that was so long. I wished that I could cut a lot more off, but was glad that I was getting to do this.

I combed his hair on top straight forward once again and slowly started cutting at one side and worked my way across to the other, making certain that I cut off a full inch.

"There, that wasn’t so bad was it? There’s not a hell of a lot of difference losing an inch of hair when it is so long like yours. No one would even notice that you cut it. You sure you don’t want me to cut it shorter?"

"No, I don’t want any more than that cut off. I really thought I was going to win that hand, but you’re right, it’s not that big a deal."

One night after our poker game ended, four of us were walking home and we passed the one and only barbershop in town. The barber, who we referred to as "Old Man Yentzer," was at least 80 years old. He was a funny old guy, and we all did our best to avoid having him cut our hair.

The next nearest barbershop was over twenty miles away and if you couldn’t get there, you sometimes had to let him cut your hair. You always knew that if he cut your hair it was going to end up a lot shorter than you told him to cut it. Every once in awhile he really butchered one of my friend’s hair.

He had converted a small house into his barbershop. Instead of walking in to what had once been a living room, you now walked into his barbershop.

His kitchen was in the back and he lived on the second floor, so he was always there. I don’t know if he had a tv upstairs, but he had one in the shop and usually when you walked by in the evening you could see him sitting in his barber chair watching it.

The town hall was right beside his shop and this was where we usually met up and hung out together. We stopped and sat on the steps. It was only about 8:30 and no one wanted to go home yet.

Steve had lost most of his money that night. He really was not a very good poker player. One of the guys said to him, "Hey Steve, why don’t you go in and let old man Yentzer give you a haircut? We’ll even pay for you to get it cut." The guy was just kidding around with Steve because no one thought he would ever cut his long beautiful hair.

"I know I need to get my hair trimmed. My dad gave me money and told me to get a haircut but I lost it all at the poker game. He’s going to be angry if he doesn’t see me with my hair cut."

"If you guys are willing to pay for the haircut and I get to tell the barber how I want him to cut it, I’ll do it. I’m talking just a trim, maybe a few inches off the front. No way do I want to get my hair cut short."

We immediately agreed and each of us threw in some money and came up with the amount for the haircut. We couldn’t wait to see this happen because we all knew what would take place when old man Yentzer got Steve in his chair. We couldn’t wait to see how much hair he was going to lose.

Steve had never gone to Mr. Yentzer and he had no idea what he was in for. We all knew that he’d end up with a much shorter haircut than he wanted and we couldn’t wait to see Mr. Yentzer attack his hair.

We walked up onto Mr. Yentzer’s porch and knocked on his door. He didn’t know Steve, but he knew the three of us that were with him, and didn’t hesitate to open the door.

"Well this is a surprise. I usually don’t get very much company. What have you young fellows been up to this evening?" he said.

"We just finished our weekly poker game," I told him. "Steve is in need of some help and we know of course that you’re not open this late, but we were hoping maybe you could help him out."

Steve spoke up and said, "I’m in kind of a jam. My football coach told me that if I wanted to continue playing that he wanted to see me with a haircut at our next practice. I had decided that it wasn’t worth cutting my hair in order to play, but now I’ve changed my mind. Would you be willing to cut my hair now?"

"Sure," Mr. Yentzer said. "I’m not doing anything and I’ll be glad to help you out."

Steve sat down in the chair and Mr. Yentzer caped him up. "I’m hoping that if I get my hair trimmed a little, that will make Coach happy and he won’t insist that I cut it any shorter. How about if you take about two inches off the sides and leave the front long enough so that it is still touching my nose? I hope he’ll be satisfied with that."

"Don’t you worry," Mr. Yentzer said. "I’ll clean you up so that your coach is happy," he said with a big smile. "You’ve really got quite a head of hair there."

We were almost giddy. We knew from experience that when Mr. Yentzer had a big smile on his face that he was up to something. He combed the sides of Steve’s hair straight down instead of leaving them brushed back. His hair totally covered his ears when it was combed like that.

He then started at Steve’s part and combed all his hair straight down and over to the side. We couldn’t even see Steve’s chin because his hair was so long. We also knew he wouldn’t be able to see what Mr. Yentzer was about to do.

Mr. Yentzer picked up his scissors and started on the sides. He combed out a section and chopped off over four inches, not the two that Steve had told him to do. His hair was now no longer touching his ears.

After he finished cutting the sides and back, he took his comb and started at the back of Steve’s part and lifted up a large lock of his hair. With a quick snip, he cut off probably about six inches! Steve could still not see how short Mr. Yentzer was cutting his hair. There was so much hair falling everywhere! You could not believe the huge amount of hair that was in Steve’s lap.

When Mr. Yentzer got to the front, he lifted up Steve’s beautiful ten inch forelock and chopped off six inches like he had done to the entire top. Steve’s hair was now just touching eyebrows. For the first time he could see how much hair he was losing and he was really pissed!

Steve had a pained look on his face. This was not how he wanted his hair cut, but it was too late now to do anything about it. He didn’t say anything as the old man continued cutting his hair and finished the haircut.

"There, that’s the way you should look if you are playing football. Your coach is going to be really happy with your new haircut," Mr. Yentzer said. You could tell that the old guy knew he had cut Steve’s hair a lot shorter than he had requested, but he figured he would probably not cut this kid’s hair ever again, so why not have some fun?

When we got outside the shop, Steve exploded. "I can’t believe that old fart cut off so much of my hair! It’s probably going to take at least six months to get it back to the length I had wanted it to be. The only good thing about this is that my dad should definitely get off my back about me getting a haircut."

About a month or more passed. It was getting close to when we would be going back to school and start our senior year.

We finished our poker game one night and walked back to the town hall and sat on the steps like we usually did. One of the guys had taken a bottle of bourbon from his father’s cabinet and we were all passing it around and getting a good buzz on.

"Hey, Steve," Tommy said. "Remember the night that old man Yentzer cut your hair? His lights are still on. Why don’t you go in and get a haircut to start the school year? We’ll pay for your haircut again if you’re willing to do it."

‘Yeah," Joey said. "I bet you don’t have the nerve to go in there and have him cut your hair again. I dare you to go in and have him give you an even shorter haircut this time. You don’t have the balls to do that!"

Steve had drank more bourbon than the rest of us and was feeling no pain. I don’t know what possessed him to say anything, but he surprised all of us when he said, "Sure, why not?"

"You guys don’t think I have the nerve to cut my hair shorter? Put your money where your mouth is and I’ll really give you guys something to watch! After having him cut it so much shorter than I wanted, I don’t give a crap about my hair."

We all chipped in for the haircut. We couldn’t believe what Steve was saying. It must have been the alcohol talking because we knew how much he loved his hair and couldn’t believe that he was going to go in and get it cut even shorter, but we sure weren’t going to stop him.

We knocked on the door and Mr. Yentzer opened it. "Well, it’s my young friends that were here last month. Come on in and visit for awhile. It’s good to see you all again."

Steve immediately spoke up and said, "My coach liked my haircut so much that he told me he would be willing to give me a lot more playing time since I had cut my hair. We’ll be back in school in just a couple of weeks and I want to really surprise him and get a shorter haircut and hopefully get to play even more."

"I want you to cut my hair short. Cut it however you want!" Steve said.

We couldn’t believe what we were hearing! We were all terrified of Mr. Yentzer getting his hands in our hair, fearing that it would end up looking really awful and here was Steve telling him to go ahead and cut his hair however he wanted. We knew this was going to be mind-blowing.

"Sure," old man Yentzer said with a huge smile on his face. "I know the perfect haircut for you. It will be a big change but you’ll look really great and everyone will notice it. No one will recognize you when they first see you after having all that long hair you had at the end of the school year."

Steve sat down in the chair and said, "Cape me up! Let’s do it! After you’ve finished with me, I’m going to dare my buddies here to do the same thing. I bet they don’t have the nerve though." Little did Steve know how right he was. There was no way any of us would let Mr. Yentzer cut our hair really short.

Mr. Yentzer had an evil grin on his face. He combed Steve’s hair all perfectly into place. Last time when he cut Steve’s hair he had only used his scissors.

This time we saw him reach for his clippers. He placed his hand on the top of Steve’s head and tipped it forward and ran the clippers starting in the back all the way up to the crown. The wide swath of hair removed was mind blowing. It didn’t seem to bother Steve at all!

Mr. Yenter used a #2 guard and he buzzed all Steve’s hair off the sides and the back. Seeing that Steve didn’t say anything, it stoked old man Yentzer to put the #1 guard on the clippers and run them up to about two inches above the top of his ears. You could see skin everywhere.

He then took some butch wax and applied it to Steve’s hair on top and then took a brush and brushed it all straight up and back. His hair on top was still about four inches long and we couldn’t wait to see what the barber was going to do.

Mr. Yentzer took the guard totally off the clippers. He took his comb and lifted up the front of Steve’s hair to its full length and in one swipe buzzed off about three inches. That left Steve with only an inch of hair! We had never seen him with his hair so short!

The old man continued buzzing off his hair all the way to the back. He was giving Steve a flattop! There was no way in hell that Steve had ever had a flattop. We doubted the thought ever entered his mind when he sat down in the chair and said he wanted a short haircut that that was the haircut he was going to get.

After Mr. Yentzer uncaped Steve we left and sat on the town hall steps for awhile. Steve had started to lose his buzz and all of a sudden it hit him what he had done. "I can’t believe you guys let me cut off all my hair! I hate this dorky looking flattop!"

Our senior year flew by. We saw Steve every once in awhile and it was obvious he had not had a haircut since Mr. Yentzer chopped off almost all his hair. His hair was now almost six inches on top and the sides. Once again, his hair was always covering his eyes.

That summer somehow Steve got a job and worked for two brothers that had a farm at the edge of town. I can’t imagine how he ever met them. They kept to themselves and lived in an old run down house. They were really nasty guys and practically ever spoke to anyone. No one liked them, and to be honest, most of us were afraid of them.

A couple of weeks after school ended, we started up our weekly poker game. Steve showed up at the town hall knowing that was where we would meet. When we saw him we couldn’t believe his hair. Instead of it being six inches long, he now had a buzzcut!

"What the hell got into you?" I said. "Last year you hated the flattop Yentzer gave you and you said you were going to grow your hair out again, and now it’s even shorter than the flattop you got."

"Believe me, I didn’t want this haircut," Steve said. "One day after we finished work, the two brothers told me to get in the car because we were going for a ride. The next thing I knew, they pulled up at Yentzer’s barbershop."

"You get your ass in there and sit down in that chair," one of the brothers said. Steve was actually intimidated by the two brothers and immediately did what they told him to do.

Steve sat in the chair and Mr. Yentzer caped him up. "I haven’t seen you in quite awhile. Looks like you haven’t cut your hair since I gave you that flattop. I thought it looked really good on you."

"Our boy here is in need of a good haircut!" one of the brothers said. "We hate all that long girlie hair he has. It’s time for him to start looking like a man instead of some pretty boy! Give him a haircut!"

Little did Steve know that the brothers had talked with Mr. Yentzer earlier and had told him how they wanted him to cut Steve’s hair.

"Don’t you worry there, I’ll clean you up for the summer," Mr. Yentzer said. "You don’t need all that long hair when you are working outside in all this heat."

Wasting no time, the old barber took his clippers with a #2 guard and placed them at the front of Steve’s hair. He turned them on and then buzzed off a patch of hair down the middle from the very front to the crown! He then buzzed Steve’s entire head like that.

Steve said, "I couldn’t believe this was actually happening to me again! Why is it no one wants me to have long hair?"

We played poker all summer long and whenever Steve joined us you could see he had been back to Mr. Yentzer. The two brothers took him to the barbershop every two weeks and had Mr. Yentzer buzz all his hair off all the time.

Fall came and we all headed off to college. I never saw Steve again and wondered if he ever got to grow his hair out again. It just seemed like it wasn’t in the cards.

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