Whats The Name Of The Lombardi Presentation Song

ice

I'm sitting at the counter of a bar on Via Settevalli. I look at the sign "poker room" above the door to the pool.

is a mixture of saliva, mashed peanuts and beer foam, the one that springs forth from the mouth of this old, when he decided to talk to me.

- We need courage to enter in that room.

not answer him, shooting down a sip of my beer and ran her hand over her mouth.

- This evening they say will be playing the Penguin - continued the old man.

- It's a good player? - Ask him.

- Here you have never seen, I do not know anybody, but he called today and reserved a place for cash .

are the 23. Within the hall. I head to the bank to change money with chips. There's a girl. He chews gum with his mouth open, his hair flat and stuck to his face. Will not even twenty years. I say "two thousand" and I ask you to indicate the table. With the tongue coated tip to the right, smiles at me and winks.

front of me is bald with a Hawaiian shirt and leather waistcoat, his left arm has two shades of tan, right, has to be a truck driver. To the left of the dealer is a guy who listens to the iPod and moves his head frantically. To my right a man who tries to keep the tremor in the legs, is very thin and pale, dressed in a gray suit and a wide floral tie. The old man takes first place on my left.

I am thirty years. Game since I was sixteen. Play because she's my mother went with a professional poker, leaving me alone with my father.

I only watch the first few laps. The man to my right, every time the dealer looks at him, put chips on the table. One of those who in slang is called "maniac". Play every hand, did not give it a shot and even when it is certain that he had lost his last bit of money. After less than an hour at the bar will be gone for at least three times chips.

Leading the game is the bald man who stands before me. Has a significant nest egg in front of him, scattered all over the cloth. I can not stand. The chips should always be arranged to see their opponents as you can play. That was not a fair player, I understood immediately.
last lap I heard the snap of cards. When your fingers get tired, it sometimes form small cramps in my hands and gave the cards while the dealer I felt the finger and thumb clash. This occurs when the bastard tries to pass the paper, specially made at the bottom, above. Taken for granted that the dealer peeled and agreed decide not to enter into any hands until the break.

the break I get up and follow the Dealer that goes to the counter. The gossip, not to attract attention, remains at the table to count the chips .

- What can you offer me a drink to try to bribe me? - Says, smiling as I sit and look at him in the face. Explodes in a childish expression, nodding and smiling at the time say:

- You now go to the Floorman and tell him you have to go home because your stomach hurts.

- What? The belly, but are you crazy? - Tells me totally changing expression.

- Relax beautiful, I saw the trick you did with your friend brainiac, but now I'm

tired, you've cleaned the chicken and I want to play.

- I do not know what you're saying, I. ..

raise my jacket and show him my friend Bobcat tucked into the waistband of his pants.

- Smile! - And give him a pat on the back pretending to joke. The carry-over of the type of hair almost completely impregnated with sweat showing his stubborn white.

- Bravo, you see that you're already starting to feel bad?

like a zombie gets up and goes to the restaurant manager. The Floorman precisely.

It's time to start over. I sit in my place while the new dealer starts the first round. The bald rubs his temples. The maniac probably not even noticed the change, so has his head stuck arms for losing all that money. The old man, sitting next to me, lowered his head before bringing it to mine. - Do you think the penguin is at our table?

I shrug my shoulders in response. - I think not! - More - Angel is the only one who wins and I know it is not him, the other for the time they did play too stupid to be professionals.

- You could be old, basically I do not know you - I tell him.

- Maybe be so good as to merit a nickname to the table - while he raised his head and goes to her place to read the cards.

I look at the fingers of my opponents caress the green baize, play on with chips, they seem to walk the children running across a field. None of these is a real player.

I went in search of professional poker. In sottobar, in casinos, apartments in "safe". I used to invite people they know from the tables, where I had lost on purpose to impute to me the image of the chicken and then another evening, the real one, I played as I can and taken away at least ten times the amount invested.

Within an hour I take off all the peeled chips. Leaving other, tell them to let go of the table cash to avoid the risk of being very early in his underwear.

offer to drink the old man this time makes me questions, but looks at me in agreement.
People are the cards in their hand. I managed to convince everyone that I was playing with the highest point of them. My blood alligator. This is a gift that gave me life from day to day.

Of that particular day I remember the sound of the radio-controlled toys. I was sitting on the floor. I was five. A red corduroy overalls, barefoot in front of the terrace. The SuperFox of Nikko and out of the window jumping on the edge of the tiles.
My mother came up behind me, holding his hands over his eyes and approached me said:

- Do you remember that movie we saw a few days ago, the animals of the ice?

- I remember the warm voice and at times sobbing.

- Do you remember that my mother had to leave the puppy for a long time and left him with his dad?

Mossi head up and down, still close between the hours his hands started to shake.

- See my baby, your mother must now leave for a long time, but you'll see, I will return as do the mothers of those pups, I'll be my baby, my baby will come back.

I remember the hot tears on my hair blacks. I remember that freed her head and looked at her. "Mama do not cry" I would have liked to say.

I turned to see her not crying. The remote-controlled machine had hood and the wheels continued to spin in a vacuum.

The last words I heard from my mother were:

- Hello baby, hello my penguin.