David Rabbi was at the first tournament table I dealt. And, true to form, he acted like a jackass. I haven’t dealt to him in quite some time but there’s one thing I’d make book on and I never bet on anything besides a poker hand, I’d bet that for the rest of his life, he’ll always believe that he could have excelled if someone else hadn’t stopped him from doing it. Namely poker dealers…we are the reason that he can’t overcome poker.

David raised, 1 out of the big blind, everyone folded and the Button, Mori, raised. David called. The Flop was A-A-little. David bet – Mori called. The Turn was a middle card. David bet – Mori called. The River was a King. David checked, Mori bet, and David called, mumbling something about A-K.

Mori showed A-K and David zinged his cards into the rack with a sarcastic, “Thank you!” aimed at me.

I ignored it and pushed the pot to Mori.

David muttered and mumbled something about ’10 years’, when in reality I’ve been dealing to him about 12 years and it’s way too long. He’s still a classless, slime trail in the live action and tournament trail of poker.

The next hand found David in the big blind, he went all-in, heads up, and won the pot with A-K, no pair. He didn’t thank me then. What’s up with that?

He was completely 86’d years ago from The Gold Coast Poker Room for shoving a dealer into a wall when she went past him on break. Why would he do that? She’d dealt him off in a tournament – stupid bitch! Didn’t she know who he was and that he’s always supposed to win? There are countless tales of his abuse aimed at dealers over the years. He’s part of the reason that tournaments have ‘sit out’ rules.

Someone else sent him packing about 45 minutes after I left the tournament table…positively had to be the dealer’s fault.

*****

The $1,000 – $2,000 Game was up and running as usual. Color me jaded here but sometimes it’s so hard to gear up to deal these thankless, stress filled games.

Two guys in a $4-$8 Holdem game towards the end of my night kind of refreshed my whole attitude about poker. They didn’t know diddly squat but they are what poker’s all about.

I pushed one of them numerous pots and never got tipped but it hardly mattered. They were in the 2 and 3 seat. I asked the 3 seat to push his bet out because I couldn’t reach his chips and showed them both how to look at their hole cards so they didn’t have to lift them up a foot off the table for a peek. They both exaggeratedly pushed their chips out for me after that.

One of them called down with Jack High, no pair and the 10 seat won the pot with an exclamation, “He didn’t even have a pair.”

Quietly I said, “Don’t remind him, he just wants to play.” Everyone got the picture and play they did.

When I left the game, I walked around behind both of them and scratched their backs for a minute and said, “You guys are doing just fine.”

They both said, “Thanks, Linda. We’re just killing time and want to play.” *big smiles*

I couldn’t agree more. I love people like this. No hang-ups, no headaches, no ego, no bullshit – they just want to play.