Get the hell up you Turtles. It’s another early start day for us…Turtles and Lizards have to be there by 11:15 a.m. Get off the floor and stop laughing. Of course you’re wondering how 11:15 a.m. could be considered early. It all depends on your perspective and your normal sleep hours. Mine ain’t day time. I’ve been called a vampiress more than once in my life and now I believe it. Daylight hurts!!!!

But before we got there, we stopped for breakfast at the place where the iguanas hang out. This was the start of my food disappointment on Aruba. Every time I ordered, no matter where it was at, they were out of something I wanted…but they failed to tell me until after I’d placed the order. I ordered scrambled eggs with cheese and English Muffins. The Kids Across the Hall ordered Eggs Benedict. My eggs came without cheese and I was told they were out of English Muffins and they had ordered white toast for me. “NO!”

They brought me wheat toast and took the eggs back to add cheese. But D-A-M-N, the Kids Across the Hall got their Eggs Benedict on English Muffins. So…they were just out for my order? Shee-it, Mon! That makes me crabby.

We slammed down our breakfast and headed for the poker tables at the Radisson…Hello, Suzie! This is the continual motion, never stop, wonder woman that takes care of us in Aruba…we all love her. As Melissa Hayden put it, “No one wants to disappoint, Suzie…I mean…how could you disappoint Suzie?”

With no further intro needed:

While we were waiting for our line-up to be set and milling around, there was a blackjack tournament – that Ultimate Bet sponsors threw together just for the hell of it – running on a few tables in the satellite area. And here’s the million dollar question. Where do past WSOP Champions end up?

Answer? Aruba…of course…cheering for the blackjack players. Russ Hamilton won the WSOP in 1994 and Mansour Matloubi won it in 1990. You just never know who you’re going to see at a poker tournament…no matter where it’s held.

Still chuckling over this one…my start in the line-up was Table 27 in the main tournament area. This is what it looked like after I set my chips down in the Dealer’s Chair.

It just plain flat wasn’t there. All the other tables were where they should be. I yelled at Suzie, “This is a first. I’ve never been assigned a table that wasn’t there.”

She sent a few of the healthy guys to pick up a table from the back and bring it up. Yup…I was going to be expected to deal again. Drat!

I took my camera with me on this dealing venture. I just hung the strap over my knee after I slid into the box. I milled around and took pictures of people while I was on break, looked over the crowds, and in general had a great time. These are the easiest tournaments in the world to deal. No one behaves like they know everything and they aren’t rude or mean when they take a beat. It’s just poker. Just the way it should be played.

So it began again, Day One, Flight Three. I stopped to visit with Mike Matusow for a moment. His butt was dragging. He’d had a hard time with flight arrangements and no sleep. It had to be brutal for a lot of people.

I just sort of cruised on down the line…deal a few tables…take a break…deal a few more.

One hand that really was amazing happened about four hours into my day. The 8s was empty when I sat down and about 10 minutes later we got a player from a broken table. The 4s was the BB. The player UTG raised it to $2,000. The 8s raised it to $4,000. Everyone folded to the Button. The Button pondered for over a minute, looking back and forth at the players, fidgeting with his cards, and finally giving up his hand.

The BB called the raise and raised it $10,000 more. UTG…the original raiser pondered life, God, poker, his kids to be, and possibly his grandchildren to be…or at least that’s how long the lapse seemed. He eventually folded.

Now the pressure was on the 8s. He counted himself down, a little over $9,000, and he started the card fidgeting, looking at his opponent, fidget, look, fidget, look, counting down his own chips again, asking, “Do you have those Aces?”

The BB replied, “Call me and find out.”

The 8s, “The first hand. I can’t believe it’s the first hand…” He finally called. Of course he turned over K-K.

The BB turned over A-A and won the pot. The most amazing part was that UTG said he had Q-Q and the Button said he held 10-10.

Somehow the conversation developed into that I dealt at Bellagio. The BB asked something like this, “Were you in on the Andy Beal game?”

My reply was probably a little curt, “In on it? There was never any collusion in that game. They played heads-up.”

He backtracked. He didn’t mean it that way. He was reading the book, The Doctor, The Lawyer, and The Suicide King, and he was fascinated by the whole story. We did visit during my down about proposition bets and players in high limit. Everyone at the table was fascinated by the whole story line. It is a great book. It describes the whole of a player, not just their table presence.

On the last table I dealt, Men (master or not) was in the 5s and Karina was in the 6s. They were having a conversation in which I heard her say, “He makes pretty good money for a dealer. What does a dealer have to know anyway? About five things.”

Men replied, “They need to know how to call a Floor Man.”

No Shit? In general – when they deal to him – they definitely need to know that…just to survive. I was honestly disappointed in Karina’s statement. I’ve known her a long time and I would hate to think that she’s regressed into the idiot player mentality where she thinks dealers are mindless lumps.

I was out of the line-up after that table. The Kids Across the Hall were out soon too. We escaped…out into the sultry night air. Yippeee!!!!