Sometimes I try to find a way to fit everything I’d ever done/dealt/played/felt/heard/read/experienced/wrote about poker into a cubicle or container that I could compress down like ‘the cube’ in Transformers just so I could open it up when I want to and forget about it the rest of the time. Not possible.
It’s a flood at times. A flood that shoots a hateful thread of dread when even thinking about poker. Yeah, I still dream about it – mainly dealing in an impossible situation or being on a break and knowing I’m due back in the box RIGHT NOW and I’m across town (where ever the hell that is) and I’m either trying to change a ripped shirt but no one has a uniform shirt like mine or I’m looking for a ride and no one will give me one or I’m trying to find a phone to call my Floor Supervisor to tell them I can’t make it and there’s no phone or some silly shit that sticks in my head when I wake up. It’s stress related. And I am under stress. My brain flies into panic mode and puts me in the dealer’s lifestyle again in a dream. Does my brain know this isn’t helping jackshit?
Well…
I’ve had more than one Skype chat with my friend PokerHack. She dealt and played for years, worked the floor at times too. I should have met her at the Mirage during the first year it was open, she played there a lot, but we can’t remember each other. She was probably the quiet one that never said anything when the rest of them were bitching and yammering. We’ve talked about how totally brutal dealing can be and we still laugh at jackass players that think it’s a breeze and you don’t have to have a brain to deal poker. They should take a year’s spin the box – dealing all limits to all players – and then be forced to tell the truth about it.
My truck driving sis and I had a conversation over a glass of wine last night after dinner. We were talking about writing down everything – me about dealing, her about truck driving, and she quietly said, “No one really knows how ugly the lifestyle is.”
She’s talking about the nonstop driving gig from coast to coast for 6 weeks at a time. And from the stories she’s related and the fact that she cooks in the sleeper compartment with a microwave and some pre-fixed food they take while Monte drives, and bouncing trucks, horrible roads, trailers with no shocks that bounce and pull you across the road, storms, other idiots that think truckers should just fold up into an envelope and let them by, refrigerator doors that fly open and all the food shoots across the sleeper area, no bathroom unless you pull over, logs to keep, accidents (like their trailer caught on fire once back by the truck connection due to a tire problem), some loons that try to run them off the road – one that was crazy and kept pulling in front of them and slowing down and then speeding ahead of them when they passed him and ended up flying off the road in a wreck, sitting and waiting for hours to unload or load up, the lumpers (that’s a story), toll bridges, and a million other things. It’s a living, that’s about all you can chalk it up to in the end. She does have some great stories though.
Sis used to deal poker years ago up in Montana too. And she’s played a lot – it was more so way back when, but it doesn’t dim some of the memories. So she knew exactly where I was coming from but I can only surmise where she’s coming from by the stories she has told me.
I asked the PokerHack to write an article about the ‘last couple standing’ at the WSOP this year, Erika Moutinho and David Sands. Collusion is always an ugly topic when money’s at stake (small and big) and I wanted the article to point out the downside of couples involved in say…a final table with millions on the line. Obviously if Moutinho won, it would give them both a very bright picture since they are a couple. And if they both final tabled, it would bring about a lot of noise from other players that fell along the way and some of the grinders and young bloods that can’t wait to heat up an online poker forum even if they didn’t play the tournament.
BTW the Hack did a great job on the article.
A friend of mine sent me a note today that Rakewell – Poker Grump blog – had posted about the Hack’s article. I went to read, and of course got involved in the comments.* I think one thing that disturbs me most with people is that just because they haven’t experienced it, doesn’t mean it isn’t so. I’m definitely not the all seeing, all knowing idjet of the poker world but I believe that I’ve seen a lot more than most after 35 years in the dealing/playing/management box.
And always keep in mind that low limit has more leeway in the fun and relaxed atmosphere than high limit does and that’s what the article was about, the huge $$$$ factor, and two people that share life’s bond playing for it against a field.
Is there life after poker…if I can quit dreaming about it, there might be.
*Ken P. stepped up and wrote a post about Poker Grump’s post. I liked it so much, here’s the link.
Well between us, we have over 35 years experience. Take that and someone who started out to be a dealer and evidently settled for playing and the scales of knowledge about what goes on behind the scenes are definately tipped in our favor wouldn’t you say?
I do wish if he wanted to try to blast me as not knowing WTF I was talking about he would have at least quoted me correctly.
No where did I say spouses, couples, friends, etc. were ‘not allowed’ to play at the same table. Maybe he uses a different dictonary than I do. In mine ‘discouraged’ doesn’t mean ‘not allowed.’ And in every poker room I worked at in CA, it was always ‘discouraged’ even if the players never knew it.
Looks more like a ploy to get blog hits to me. I don’t have to prove myself or defend myself to Rakewell or anyone else. We both did our time ‘in the trenches’ and were playing when most bloggers and players of today were still sucking their thumbs. Don’t like what we have to say? Don’t read…very simple.
Linda, I’m genuinely puzzled. You write, ” I think one thing that disturbs me most with people is that just because they haven’t experienced it, doesn’t mean it isn’t so.” Although this is written with the broad “most people,” the context certainly suggests that you’re implicating me, among others. But nowhere in my post did I say that “it isn’t so,” or anything close to that. I was quite careful to phrase my skepticism only in terms of the assertion in question not matching my own personal experience and observations. Furthermore, I stated my open request for more information on how PokerHack arrived at the belief in question. I did so precisely because of the recognition that her experience might differ from mine, and, if so, I was curious about it. Now in her comment she seems to say that she was going from her experience in California poker rooms. OK, fine–I have almost no experience with California poker rooms, and for all I know they might all have signs asking friends not to play together, and rigorous policies to separate friends from the same table when they are discovered.
The peculiar thing about your criticism is that it’s aimed at the wrong person. I did not make a broad generalization. I stated my personal experience, made clear that it was limited to Vegas casinos, and asked for further information about what experience lay behind the claim. The one who was making the broad generalization about is PokerHack. Her assertion was explicitly about “most brick and mortar poker rooms.” It was not limited to “most poker rooms that I have been to.” It was not limited to “most California poker rooms.”
So here’s my question for you. Looking at that sentence again now, do you think that it is factually accurate stated as broadly as it is?
PokerHack: You puzzle me, too. Ironically, when accusing me of misquoting you, you misquote me. My post consistently used the same word that your article did: discouraged. I also used the phrase “asked not to play together,” which, to me, seems synonymous with “discouraged from playing at the same table” (your phrasing).
I’m also puzzled what you mean by saying that this was “always ‘discouraged’ even if the players never knew it.” If, hypothetically, there is a policy in the house rules but nobody ever lifts a finger to enforce it, would you still say that the action in question is “discouraged”? I wouldn’t–but that might be merely a difference in semantic choice.
Finally, I’m puzzled by your defensiveness. Your reaction to somebody questioning whether a factual assertion you made is true or not is to say, “I don’t have to prove myself” and “Don’t read”? I’m baffled by that attitude. I’ve made more false assertions in my blog than I can count–either by carelessness or because it turns out I genuinely misunderstood something. When a reader brings to my attention that I was wrong, I’m eager to fix the problem, either by editing the post, adding an addendum, putting something in the comments, or doing a follow-up post explaining it. I honestly don’t understand why you sound so hurt and, frankly, huffy about it. I’m not saying that you’re an evil person; I’m saying that I think one factual assertion in your article was erroneous, at least when stated as broadly as it was. Maybe I’m misreading, but your tone sounds as if you were personally offended, when there was nothing personal at all in my post, and I’m baffled as to why you would react the way you expressed here, rather than just sticking to the basic, simple question of whether the sentence I quoted from your article is true as written or not.
Bah. I can’t tell whether my comment was successfully submitted once, twice, or not at all. After each attempt, it shows me a page with a blank comment box and my name entered, so it’s impossible to know what happened. If duplicated, that wasn’t my intention. If neither worked, well, I’ll try again later.
Rakewell, the wordpress version I use is set to require comment approval, unfortunately it doesn’t let you know it’s waiting moderation. Even my comments show up as needing approval. LMAO
And Rakewell, your post on your blog feels like an outright attack, whether you meant it that way or not.
I have dealt Montana, Mississippi, Reno, Tahoe, and Las Vegas, in more than one room. I’ve played in all of them. A very long time ago I was never suspicious of cheaters and always thought people were blowing smoke out their ass when they talked about it. Now I’m not as naive. It’s going on all the time.
The Hack played in Las Vegas some years ago, in different establishments, and played and dealt in California. She has a lot of table experience.
You were calling her out; since I’m the editor and asked specifically for an article targeting those issues, you were calling me out. You want to prove a point. We don’t have one to prove. You are picking fly shit out of pepper.
Leave it at the fact that we don’t agree. We don’t have to agree. I have my experiences and you have yours. It’s not the end of the world as we know it today. But if you refuse to accept the possibility that something just ‘isn’t’ because it’s not in your field of experience, you are extremely narrow minded or don’t care to accept the fact that there’s more out there than you know about. Either way, it works for me.
I didn’t even have to go on vacation to get excited.
Linda, weren’t you writing about a “rut” or some such? And now I have to go read Poker Hack’s scribbling. Just to see, you understand, what all the fuss is about.
I hate that green in Pokerworks, go back to the warm colors.
Yeah. I know. I miss the old cards too.
Just thought I would add: I was a ‘road warrior’ (with my SO at the time) for a few years and we played several rooms in OR/WA/CA/AZ and NV. Without exception (unless there was only 1 HE table) when we walked up to put our names on a list, we were put on lists at different tables; when we said yes – we were together. And yes, that happened in Vegas too.
When playing in CA and Reno with my good friend, we were always asked if we wanted to be at the same table in a way that I KNEW meant it would be better if we weren’t. Since she hates playing with me it was never a problem.
The places I worked (in CA) Management told us shift supervisors to try to seat partners and friends we didn’t know at different tables to avoid any potential problems. This is not something we advertised.
Vegas represents a very small % of the number of poker rooms in the USA, and just because it may not happen in Vegas (which it does) doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen elsewhere.
This whole thing reminds me of the rounders who would come in to play and question the rules because of their ‘I play in VEGAS so I KNOW how it should be’ attitude. Vegas is not the be all and end all of the poker world anymore.
So Rakewell, that is where my experiences come from. And yes I am defensive when I feel attacked. Then again I understand some people love controversy, debate and arguing, I for one don’t.
I concede the ‘most’ should probably have been ‘many’ and ‘some’ rooms discourage friends…. but I stand by what I said from my personal experiences and those of friends like Linda who have vast knowledge of the inner workings of poker rooms.