Hard to believe that all the noise and mass body milling and microphone wars from last night could be surpassed, but that’s exactly what happened tonight. The whole myriad scene runs like a flash flood, after an unexpected frog strangling rain hits the mountains, smashing into everyone until the senses are completely dulled and it’s hard to comprehend or understand how or why you’re there. Yet ‘there’ is where every one is. Everyone that’s anyone in the poker world is here or coming in…don’t be left out.

I got the easy part of the line-up tonight…started on 21 which was $15-$30 7 Card Stud. A couple of $15-$30, $8-$16, and $4-$8 Holdem Games, and one $80-$160 Holdem. Which was a must move and there was a ‘must, must, move’ also. Then $1-5 and $6-$12 7 Card Stud and one satellite down, and I was out the door, on my way home…I got out almost two hours early and I’m glad. Going back tomorrow for my 6th day…two more weeks of this six day stuff may kill me. 🙂

So-o-o-o-o let me fill in the story of the $30-$60 Holdem game that I was too tired to expound on last night.

About a month ago, I slipped into the box in a $4-$8 Holdem game. The 10s was a tall, well built, black man. He was wearing a white cap that had “Angel” on it. He kept dropping his cards out, away from him, long before the action came to him. Each time the action came to him, I turned to him and waited a few seconds and then stated, “It’s up to you.”

Each time, as he looked off into space, he waved his hand indifferently at the cards. The third time, I turned to him and said, “Please fold your hand in turn.”

He said, “I’m leaving them where you dealt them.”

Another player jumped in and complained that he’d been doing it every time unless he was going to play the hand.

Still looking at the 10s, I said, “No you aren’t. I didn’t deal your cards out there.”

He told me to ‘just deal’. I called for a decision. Suzanne came over and after I explained what happened, she spoke with him for a few minutes and told him how important it was that he fold in turn. She walked away.

We had a new player in the 4s that didn’t know anything about betting or the play of the game and he told me when he sat down that he’d never played before and would need help. He placed a ‘string bet’ and I explained to him that he needed to say raise or set his chips out all at once. He didn’t mind at all. However, the 10s said, “She’s going to bitch at you no matter what you do.”

I looked directly at the 10s with this response, “I run my game. If you don’t like it, pick up your chips and go play someplace else.”

With that said, he elected to play the game. He played almost any 2 cards, tipped me so much it was almost embarrassing and I passed him awhile later between tables. I started laughing when he made eye contact with me and I asked, “What’s your name?”

He told me it was Prince something , but I didn’t catch it all and if I did, I can’t remember it. He shook my hand and I moved to my next game.

Then on Tuesday of this week, he was in the 5s in a $15-$30 Holdem game. When I sat down, he demanded, “Change the deck.”

I grinned and said, “Yes, Sir!”

He called a raise, heads-up and called all bets with a flop that came Q-6-Q. Yup, he made an 8 high straight. He played almost every hand. He’s volatile and proved it a few hands later. He got into a pot with the 9s and after bet, raise, raise, raise, repeat on each street, the 9s made a flush. He slapped the Flop at the 9s, the cards sailed into the 9s’s chips.

Immediately I said, “HEY – hey – hey. You can’t do that or I’ll have to deal you out.”

I looked directly at him and his eyes were hidden behind the infamous dark glasses that players wear to gain an advantage.

He ignored me but I knew he got the message. This time he threw a handful of $1 chips at me, with the statement, “I don’t want them.”

Some them slipped into the rack and I thanked him, rapped them, and put them in my pocket.
I reached across the table and touched his hand for a milisecond, then said, “Come on. Let’s just play poker.”

The 9s knew he had the best of the situation and he never complained.

The 5s was extremely well behaved after that. This time he was wearing a cap with “Poet Elite” on it. I asked him about his “Angel” cap. He said one of his ‘girls’ gave it to him and that it was a lucky hat for him and he won $4,000,000 while wearing it.

The 4s, female, asked him where his ‘girls’ were…he said some of them were here and some of them were back East…Umhhh!!

I got pushed.

On to the $30-$60 Holdem game. He was in the 3s, wearing a plain, boring Nike cap this time. He was gambling and showing them all the bad hands he could and WINNING.

The 5s was an Asian female that plays in the room off and on but I don’t know her name and don’t deal to her often. She was trying to isolate him each time and raised if he came into the hand and re-raised if he raised. She wasn’t faring well against him but she kept trying.

He was wearing the dark glasses and stalling the game a little bit, from time to time, when the action came to him because he knew it irritated all of them. He also picked up extra chips and when he called a raise or a bet, he would cut off the right amount and then twitch his thumb out to the side like he was going to raise, then hesitate, and leave only the original call. He’d showed them everything and no one knew where to put him so they had to play their cards instead of trying to figure where he was and what he was trying to make. He WAS the game though.

Then we come to the part where I got really lippy with the 5s. The bet was raised to the 3s, he raised, the 5s raised…about five way action in the hand, pre-flop. On the Flop, the 1s bet, the 3s raised, the 5s threw her hand away, 7s called. The Turn, the 1s checked, the 3s fired, the 7s and the 1s called. The River, the 1s checked, the 3s fired, the 7s and the 1s called.

The 5s demanded, “I want to see that hand,” pointing at the 3s.

It really didn’t register because the room was exceptionally noisy and the other two players were turning over their hands which had me paying attention to the hand in progress.

“I want to see that hand!” she demanded again, just as the 3s was throwing it into the mucked cards. I did hear her then but his cards were stuck in the edge of the muck and I just pulled them in and out of the way as I pushed the pot to the winner.

She had a fit. “I wanted to see those cards. You were supposed to turn them over.”

I never slowed down with the scramble and starting the next deal. I said, “They went into the muck.”

She said, “No they didn’t. They were laying over here,” she pointed about a foot away from the muck zone, “And you heard me.”

I stood my ground. “They were in the muck and I do not pull cards out of the muck.”

She snarled at me, “They’d better tip you…I’ll remember you…I play every day and I’ll remember you.”

I reached up with my right hand and pulled my name tag out as far as my shirt would let it move, and said directly to her, “Linda! My name is Linda!”

She rallied with, “I’ll remember!”

Still holding my name tag out, I said, “Just to help you out, so you won’t forget, my name is Linda!”

I dealt the next hand with her still ragging about ‘they’d better tip you’ and I said, “If you don’t want to tip, that’s your business. If you have any other problems, take it my supervisor, otherwise, get over it.”

She clammed up. The game rocked. The 3s won a big pot and threw me three chips…yup that’s $10 chips, baby.

Was I protecting him? NO! I was doing my job. I guarantee you that if you’re in a game, he’s the kind of player you want in it and the only time you should ask to see a player’s hand is if you feel there’s collusion in the game…you certainly don’t want to send him to the Cashier’s Window because you’re curious what he’s playing, especially after he’s shown you ATC (any 2 cards) for hours. He was still there jamming when I left at 3 a.m. That guy came to play.

Oh…the 5s? She won a big pot a few hands after my ‘lippy’ burst…she stiffed me…which I expected. But as I left the game, she threw me a tip…that’s what I love about poker. Tempers flare, words fly, but it all blows over…it’s the nature of the game. C U there!