Wow! The wind is trying to blow us off the face of the Earth…at least us kids in Vegas. I’m crawling. Between the dust I’m stirring up by cleaning out, sorting, getting rid of, and preparing for a garage sale – and the wind kicking up all the dust in the valley – my lungs and sinus passages are begging for a body bag that has a filtration system in it to protect me from my environment. Help, Mrs. Wizard, can’t you cast a ‘no dust around Linda’ spell? I struggle on. Cleaning out the file cabinets, moving that acre of dust out of a closet that’s been unopened for months, shifting through papers and mess that comprise a lot of my life…because I’m a saver. My nephew, Chad, probably said it best, “Wow! This is an unusual rummage sale. For all the ‘user manuals’ and remotes to be with all the VCRs and everything is incredible.”
Umnnhhh! Maybe it is a little much but that’s a Linda thing. When I move into the new dwelling, there won’t be any room for any muss or fuss and everything will have a place. I can clean it in about an hour. No room on the walls to hang anything, no secret drawers or closets to stuff full of papers and mess, all in all that’s a very good thing.
But coupled with the wind that’s shooting half of the valley into the breathable air, it’s colder than a well digger’s ass. I’m freezing my tush off.
So let’s do poker.
On the up and coming Blogger Tournament at the IP on the 10th of December: I have Daniel Negreanu’s assistant, Travis’s phone number, and plan on calling him tomorrow to find out what kind of goodies Daniel would like to donate to the blogger tourney. I also received an email from Ron Rose, he will be in Vegas along about Monday and he is up for meeting the Bloggers for a bit before the tourney begins. Michael Craig, “The Banker, The Lawyer, and The Suicide King” will be a guest speaker at our shindig. I sent an email to Mike Matusow and asked him to come too…remember that I really like Mike. Haven’t heard back from him yet.
I worked the full week, with the exception of a few E/O’s. I didn’t race through the door every night, ready to go home, I went thinking I would work. The room was busy as hell. I did get out of the line-up somewhere around 10ish on Thanksgiving night, and on Friday I escaped around midnight. I played on Friday until the escape hatch opened. It was brutal. I didn’t lose a lot but I was never a contender for a pot. Fold was my number one wrist action. I have ‘carpal fold’ in both wrists. A few of the dealers drove me insane…one kept digging into his pocket and pulling out the $1 tokes and trading them for a $5 chip out of the rack. Ughhh! Manny was coming through my table and I took a walk. I was outside the poker room by the Sport’s bar when someone yelled, “Linda.”
I turned around to find a tall youngster, leaning over the rail from the poker room, asking me if I remembered him. To which I bluntly replied, “No.”
He went on, “Henry, from Card’s Speak.”
Then the bell rang and everything fell together. We got to visit off and on as I walked on a few dealers. Henry was playing $30-60. He’ll be at the Blogger Tourney on the 10th.
Sure…I’m a dealer…and the question could be boiling out of your thoughts about my ‘walking on a dealer’. Here’s why: some of them deal the game so shitty, and do all the stupid, disgusting things that are not part of their job, and they get on my nerves. I never walk because of a beat or a string of bad hands. I walk because a dealer doesn’t do their job and I get irritated if I sit and watch them screw up my profession.
So let me get into me dealing this last week. This is so stupid that it’s hysterically funny. I hit a $2-5 NLH game. The 7s plays intermittently, fairly young, tall, well built, and extremely sure of himself in his poker related statements. One would almost think he wrote the poker bible, if there was such a book. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve had to choke down some rude responses, from time to time, when he takes off on an opinionated statement about poker. He’s not a bad guy, just knows everything and wants to make sure the general population knows that he knows everything. So…he’s in the 7s, wearing headphones that almost dwarf even his head (considering he’s bigger than the average person).
The 10s was in the process of losing a buy-in when I tapped out the other dealer. He barely speaks any English. I make sure I stop to see what he really wants to do when it’s turn to act, because there’s some hand waving and motioning going on that I wouldn’t want to misconstrue for a fold, bet, or all-in. He’s peppy and upbeat. We are managing quite well, even though I don’t know a word of his language.
After the Flop, the 7s and 10s end up heads-up. The Flop brought J-little-little. The 10s bet something like $40. The 7s, never removing his headphones, said, “All-in,” and gestured at his chips.
I turned to the 10s and asked him what he wanted to do. He gestured, in a long waving motion towards the table and said something – but hell if I could figure out what he said. I pointedly said, “He is going all-in. Is that what you want to do?” as I nodded at the 7s.
The 10s made the same long waving motion towards the table and said something that resembled ‘all-in’. I made it a point to ask again, if he wanted to put all of his chips in the pot. He said, “Yes.”
This process between the 10s and me took almost a full minute. As soon as I was positive that the 10s wanted to push all-in, I looked at the 7s and said, “Turn them up.”
The 7s said, “Have him turn his hand up.”
I said, “You are the first person to turn up your hand.”
The 7s persisted, “Tell him to turn his hand up.”
I couldn’t believe I was getting this from the guy that acts like he wrote the Poker Bible. I said, “You are first. Turn up your hand.”
By now three or four other players had jumped on the bandwagon, demanding that the 7s turn up his hand.
The 7s looked at me like I’d just torn a few pages out of his Bible. “I want to make sure that he’s going all-in. Have him turn his hand up.”
I may have been a little snotty by now, “You are first to turn over your hand. Turn it up.”
“I want to make sure he’s going all-in.”
I went off on him, “I just spent the last minute making sure of what he wanted to do. And you should give me a little more credit than that. Turn up your hand.”
The 7s finally turned it up, showing J-10, and the 10s turned up J-9. The 7s won the hand. The 10s dug for another buy-in.
As the 7s stacked chips, he said something pertaining to the fact that he didn’t think the 10s had a Jack even, and he didn’t want to show his hand unless he knew the 10s was going to put all of his chips in the pot.
Me, “If you took off the headphones, you’d know what he was doing. I made sure of it. And no matter what happens, when I’m dealing, you are always going to show your hand first in that circumstance.”
Kee-rist! Take off the headphones and join the damn game.
The 10s immediately lost his next buy-in. By now, even though it’s not in my job description, I was feeling a little tug of ‘ouch’ for him. I asked him if he played poker. He said it was his first time. I asked if he would rather play in a $4-8 limit game to start with. He didn’t understand a word I said. I asked what language he spoke. Vietnamese.
I then asked Leslie (brush) to call Thang to my table. Thang was working the daily tournament. Thang arrived. I explained what I had tried to ask the 10s and asked Thang if he would explain to the 10s. He did.
The report was kind of funny. “He says you are saving him money, Linda. He usually plays baccarat and he’s saving money by playing poker. His sister plays poker and he’s learning.”
Thang was chuckling, so was the 10s, so…shut up and deal, Linda. I did. Thang left. The 10s lost his next buy-in when he flopped Aces up and the Turn got him. He left for the night. I got pushed.
*****
A couple of great emails from readers that read my ‘going full time RVing’ post:
*Begin emails*
Linda,
Happy thanksgiving and congrats. Just read your latest blog about your new future plans. Congrats on a semi-retirement well earned. I promise to introduce myself in person before you hang them up. I feel bad for saying that I am a bit sad about this. Reading your blog has been the first thing I do at work in the morning for the past 2 years. In fact, the days where you dont post my day starts a little slower.
Hopefully, i will see you in a couple of weeks. I will be in town 7-9th of December and will definitely stop by. Since the tourney will be in town, I will likely be playing mostly at Wynn since bellagio has a horrible ante structure for its middle limit mixed games, but i definitely plan on coming by to say hi.
But I digress, the mobile home looks awesome and I wanted you to know I wish you all the best. Happy travels,
Mark
****Linda’s note to Mark – But Mark, I’m not going to stop posting, hopefully I’ll be able to do a better job it of it, due to more time****
_____
Hi Linda,
I just read your post about your grand plans. Sounds wonderful. Let me
know if you ever need the scoop on the Seattle, WA card scene. I look
forward to Poker Works from the road.
Good luck with the plans.
-Tyler M.
*End emails*
Sweet. It’s so great to hear from people that are going with me – you bet they’re going with me. I’m the eyes and ears and the mobility factor and they are going through me. Doubly Sweet!