I started my night in an unfriendly, little $300-$600 Mixed Game on table 1. I announced, “Time pot!” as I planted my tush in the dealer’s chair, checked the game plaque so I knew what I was dealing, pushed the ‘green light’ on the Shuffle Master and put in the used deck and took out the newly shuffled one, quickly scanned the rack to make sure it was right, and then just before cutting the cards to deal the 2nd hand of Omaha 8 or Better, I took a $100 chip from the Small Blind and made change and took the time. I then moved a button over to designate that hand #2 was being dealt.

I dealt the hand and it ended up being the Button and the Small Blind with the Button raising. The odd change from time was in front of the Small Blind, Brian, as he called the raise. Magic was in the 4s, and the Big Blind, and he grabbed change from his Big Blind of $300 and pushed it to Brian. He was wrong!!!! Not just because he made the change, but he gave Brian the wrong change. It took him two attempts to get it right. D-a-m-n! It feels kind of good to see a player trying to make change and run the game and even they make mistakes.

This whole game isn’t worth getting into. It wasn’t any fun. They were adamant about “Don’t touch the chips or give change.” Hey, I never touch the chips when it goes to heads-up in an 8 or Better game so I don’t need the lecture.

Right after that game I was in a $200-$400 half 7 Card Stud and half Deuce to 7 Triple Draw. Carmen was trying to answer a question from Yen, 3s, while O’Neil, 6s was interrupting her. Apparently they had a little war going on between them about Yen insisting that O’Neil call his last $50, because of the ante in 7 Card Stud, during a hand of Deuce.

In the meantime, the 7s, a youngster, kept dropping his cards on top of my hands when he got a hand beat. I find this to be very insulting and irritating. My hands are always back, clear at the edge of the table when a hand is completing…I never lean on the table and lean out with my arms blocking the players view of cards, chips, and other players. So in order for him to drop his cards on my hands, it’s very deliberate. I picked the cards off once, like I would a spec of lint on my shirt, and dropped them face down onto the felt. He apologized then and went into a bit of conversation about how he felt that he was being cheated when he played.

I said, “Really!”

He said he knew he wasn’t but it felt that way. Don’t worry…just before I left the game, he dropped his damn cards on my hands again. Wonder how he’d like it if I stood up and dropped my chair on his head?

Well here we go with table 3 and my qualifying round for winning the W. D. O. Y. Award…yes…The Worst Dealer of the Year. It’s the good old $80-$160 Omaha 8 or Better with 1/4 Kill. Not to worry, Boony was in the game and we’ve had our little differences…up until now our differences were that I just wasn’t pushing him winners…hence a post to the ‘Diary’ last year. This time I made a mistake. One player was all-in, Boony and another player had $220 each, sitting in front of them, $20 chips. Boony got quartered.

I started out knowing exactly what I was doing. I gave $120 of Boony’s $220, to the other player which was right, but then for some reason, I went right into Brain Lock. I chopped up Boony’s last $100 and Boony ended up with $40. Needless to say he had a fit…hey, I didn’t say I blamed him.

The other player relinquished everything I’d given him, the 3s tried to grab the chips to straighten it out, I told him he couldn’t, Boony yelled, “Is this your first day, Linda?”

I said, “It looks like it.” It was a yelling mess for a few minutes. I apologized but that wasn’t good enough. The chips got squared away, the all-in player got half of the main pot and Boony and the other player got a quarter. The 3s told me that since I didn’t know what I was doing, I should let them help me. I told him that eight people yelling at me wasn’t going to make it any better, no matter how much help I got.

I related this even to another dealer, Dave, a few hours later and we both agreed that we are so tired (6 day work weeks for 3 weeks) and so many players in from all over the world that try to run the game themselves, and so much tension and stress, that we literally lose our concentration and focus in the midst of everything that’s going on…he’s having some of the same problems I’m having. Another thing we agreed on, most of these are California players and he said if he had to deal in California, he’d quit and become a taxi driver. Ditto here, baby!

I always pride myself on being a good dealer, for a lot of reasons, not just pushing the pot and reading the hands, but being aware of body language and what’s going on around me along with great mechanical skills that I’ve fine tuned over the years.

Well tonight kind of blew that right out of the water…I think I qualify for the worst dealer of the year award. I made a mistake in the $50-$100 Pot Limit Omaha game when Jan – 5s, bet $2,000 using four $500 chips, and the player in the 1s called using $100 chips.

The 1s stacked them out neatly in four stacks but there were only four to a stack. I just didn’t see it. I pulled the bets into the pot, and thankfully didn’t slam the pot together so they couldn’t be identified…those four stacks were still setting on the edge of the pot barely tipping over.

Sammy F. caught it. As brutal as he is to some of the dealers, he was extremely gentle and soft spoken with me. He said, “Linda, he only called $1,600.”

I did something like, “Oh my God!” I looked at the pot and sure enough, he did. I pushed the 1s’s bet back out and he corrected it. I apologized profusely as the 1s showed Jan a Flush which was King high.

Jan held his hand for longer than necessary and then chastised me for missing the call. I apologized again. He went into a wee bit of a rant, “What if I had an Ace high Flush, my pot would be short…..”

Again, I told him I was sorry. Hell, I feel worse about it then he does. I know it sounds crazy but I like to be on top of what’s happening in the action. As it turned out, the 1s won the hand but this type of lapse on my part is really bad.

A player came into the game a few minutes later to play over, chips were counted down and a play over box was in place and I started to deal the player in. Ugh!

Sammy said, “No!”

I countered with, “It was done last night.”

Sammy looked at me like I was a 5 year old that didn’t quite understand why I couldn’t fly a kite in a lightning storm and said, “He’s playing over.”

I just went with it. But believe me when I tell you, they were being dealt in last night.

Earlier in the night, I dealt a $20-$40 Omaha 8 or Better game with a Half Kill. I did another ‘pot mistake’ there. The 10s was the Big Blind of $20, the bet was raised. He threw in a $100 bill and pulled back his two $10 chips. I counted his change out of the pot and gave him back $80. As I pulled the pot in, I knew I had to have $160 for four players and there was only $140…I had to think about it before it dawned on me what happened. I told him he owed $20 more to the pot and explained what I did. Luckily for me, Jim was in the 8s and he verified my error. The 10s put his money in without saying anything.

Making a Fizz ball mistake is one thing, (something that doesn’t affect the pot or the hand), but this type of mistake makes me really leery of my own ability to focus on the game and then I get a little ‘stretched’ as the shift goes on. I beat myself up, threw me against the wall, drop kicked myself through a plate glass window and now I’m ready to write a green felt tale.

I started my day/night in the Tournament. Antes were $200, Blinds were $800-$1,600. Three of the players at my table I knew by name, Bruno, Bob Stupak, and Dave AKA The Devil Fish.

I barely looked up during my down because I didn’t want to miss anything in the action at the table. Several hands were long and quiet while a player faced a large bet or raise but no one went broke and there were no screams of agony. At one point, while waiting for an exceptionally long time for a player to make a move, four players were walking around and all of a sudden, “Oh, when the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof
And your shoes get so hot you wish your tired feet were fire-proof…”

It was Devil Fish, microphone in hand, singing Under the Board Walk, a sweet old tune performed by the Drifters.

Then I was out of the table, on a break, and looking for Andy Bloch. Suzie brought him up to me as I was dealing heads up Razz to O’Neil and Vasilli on table 1. They were shooting it up in a little $300-$600 duel so I did manage to get a few words into Andy. He was heading home.

Now just to show you how much attention some players pay to what’s going on in the game, table 1 has the Shuffle Master installed. It takes approximately 45 seconds for the machine to shuffle. The first hand was raised, fold, and the machine was still shuffling. Vasilli asked me if I would go ahead and shuffle and deal the next hand instead of waiting for the machine. I smiled at him and said, “Sure, just for you.”

It worked out well, I had the hand shuffled and dealt by the time the machine finished. In almost all instances when there was no action past 4th Street…machine one hand, Linda one hand, alternating shuffling action. Half way through my down, O’Neil said, “Use the machine too.”

Well…Ok!

My next game was Doyle and Barry playing Chinese Poker. They were playing two hands each. The player in front of the Button got the 1st and 3rd hand and the Button player got the 2nd and 4th hand. Lyle arrived and so did Minh. They had a little mini argument about what games they would play and in what order and I ended up dealing a few hands of Deuce to 7 Triple Draw before I got pushed. Funniest part of it to me is that they never argue about the limit. It was $2,000-$4,000 Blind Pot Limit when they hit the Omaha game and No Limit when they hit the Deuce to 7 Low Ball.

Then off to $80-$160 Omaha 8 or Better with a 1/4 Kill, and then $30-$60 Holdem in which the 7s won two hands back to back and then couldn’t wait for me to leave as he kept motioning and groaning, “Come on, Linda. Do something.”

He liked to play…he was sure I did it to him every time. He went out to smoke on the last hand I dealt. He was leaning over the rail from the Sports Book when I left the Dealer’s Box and he yelled…yup…yelled, “Go on! Get out of here!”

I started laughing and told him I would check with my supervisor and see if I could come back through in half an hour. The night seemed to last forever. I could’ve sworn that I was at each table for five years but the Time Clock said I’d only been there eight hours when I clocked out. Must be a full moon.

Last night found me dealing a Satellite with Erik S. and Mike M. seated next to each other. Erik asked if I was the one with the website…yes. We had a little exchange back and forth on what did it cost me to run the site, did people, including management mind my writing about the game, Bellagio, and them. Erik is a very calm, easy to deal to player…no steaming there…it’s the first time he’s ever really spoken to me about anything away from the play of the game and I enjoyed the exchange.

Erik had a humorous smile on his face when he looked at Mike and told Mike I wrote about him.

I emphatically said, “I love Mike. He’s defended me against a few of the high limit ghouls that want to punish me just because I deal.”

Mike agreed that that’s one reason he hates to come in and play, the grim faces of the players and the fact that they attack the dealer when they’re losing. He said he’d rather play online. When Mike’s on a ‘down rush’, he says things like, “I’m just an empty chair.”

Meaning that he’s never a contender to win a pot. While in the sense that he’s losing isn’t funny, the fact that he views his position in that manner is.

No damn it!…this isn’t negative. A lot of things in life are so sad and ugly, you couldn’t stand the day in, day out, if you didn’t find some humor in the situation and laugh. Look at Red Skeleton, even though he injured himself falling down, show after show, people always laughed at his act. Ok, I’m past that now.

From Mike’s side of the story, he ‘used’ to be a poker player. I believe he still is and knows it…he’s just in his ‘blue funk’ mode.

Three more satellite downs and I was off to table 1 where they were playing $50-$100 Blind, Pot Limit Omaha. No sugar in this game…the only friendly face at the table was Ben R., always a pleasure to see him in any game I’m moving into. They were all arguing and hounding each other. Eskimo was walking when I sat down, Ming (comes to town upon occasion) was playing over another stack of chips…total noise and confusion…chips slamming into the pot, one player all-in heads up, both players had their chips out on the table, three players demanded, “Just deal, don’t worry about the change!”

Another player said, “Give him back his change!”

As I tapped the table and burned to put up 4th Street, I said, “Alright you guys, some of you want me to give him change, some of you want me to deal. Make up your minds.”

They clammed up but it was momentary. Sammy F. was sitting across from me in the 5s. He was the small blind and elected to call $50 more when it came around to him. He threw out a $500 chip and started reaching for his own change from the pot. I grabbed his hand and said, “I’ll make the change.”

He shrugged, looked at me as if I’d lost my mind, and asked, “What difference does it make?”

I countered with, “If nine of you are reaching into the pot, how will I ever know what’s going on in the game and what’s in the pot?”

He tolerates me…sometimes even smiles at me. Most of the dealers have a very hard time dealing to him because he has his little tizzes and sizzles over anything and everything. But if you just get past his explosions, he’s not that bad. He’s the post from last year in the Diary that Carmen found tape to put across his mouth because he had a bet with one of the players that he would be quiet and leave the dealers alone. The tape is used in the slots, it reads “Out of Order” and it’s hysterical when you associate it with him. He’s out of order most of the time but is definitely part of the tapestry of poker.

They were noisy, unbearable to deal to, arguing between themselves, and another little sizzle when Ming changed his play over position by moving to another seat that was allowing him to miss paying the blinds.

When I asked if he had to post, all of them went into the “NO” like I was a retard for asking…all except Sammy. He said, “You know the rule. Of course he has to post. Don’t even ask because then you make the person that objects look bad.”

Argh!!!!! Can’t win here. I told him that everyone said “No” so he left me live through that one without continuing the lecture.

Everything changes in these games, depending on who the starting line-up is. One day they don’t have to post, the next they do. A lot more on my menu for that night but it’s time to move on, time to think about sleep.

Earlier this week, I pushed into an eight handed $2,000-$4,000 Mixed Game. The only person I’m really not familiar with was in the 8s, but I’ve seen him somewhere along the green felt trail over the years. That’s an amazing limit. One pot would pay off my mortgage, my truck, all my little ‘nitty’ bills, and set me up with a savings account to boot, yet they fling those Flags, ($5,000 chips) into the pot with reckless abandon…as if they had a factory at home and produced more each time they needed them.

It’s fascinating and bizarre to watch this game – even if you’re familiar with it. This game is the one game that you never get a bunch of petty crap from players, as a dealer, unless you really aren’t paying attention or make mistakes. They just GAMBOL. The only one that is prone to act like a crybaby is Sammy F. and even he can be really quiet at times…such is the way it was in this game.

The line-up: 1s – Chip R., 2s – Lyle B., 3s – Gus H., 4s – Doyle B., 5s – Minh., 6s – Sammy., 7s – Barry G., 8s – Stranger.

The first game was Deuce to 7 Triple Draw and only 6 players are dealt in. Two players in front of the Big Blind, receive yellow buttons, and are dealt out. At the end of the hand, when the button moves, the yellow buttons are moved to the next two players. Well let’s cut to Lyle. He always brings a gold brick to the table and sets it in front of his chip stacks. It’s a standard with him. Now he has little, lumpy gold nuggets that he’s added to his collection. The nuggets are about the size of a breakfast sausage. No yellow buttons in front of the players now, just gold nuggets. Each time a hand finished, I moved the gold nuggets to the next player.

The first hand I dealt was a ‘time pot’ and the winner of the pot would pay it. Lyle had a sweater behind him and they were conversing and not paying too much attention to the game. Lyle won the pot and after I pushed it to him, he stacked it and went back to talking to his friend. I shuffled the deck and said, “Lyle, I need $80 for the time, please.”

He just kept talking.

I said again, “Lyle, the winner is supposed to pay time. $80 please.”

He waved at Gus, “Then he has to pay.”

I started laughing and I was dealing by now, “No. The winner of the first pot has to pay time.”

He threw me a Black chip and after I finished dealing the hand, I broke it down, took the time, and he said, “Keep the $20.”

Yahoo! Big bonus for me. It might be all I make out of this game.

Gus was running over everyone in the Deuce, drawing two and three cards and making the best of it each time. He ran over Doyle and then backed up and ran over him again. It’s not that Gus outplayed Doyle, he just caught what he needed on every draw.

The game was changing to Deuce to 7, single draw, $1,000 ante from each player, $2,000-$4,000 Blind, No Limit. Get real, huh? They had a short discussion on whether or not each player got dealt in, Minh took a walk, Sammy said he wouldn’t play this game, so Minh and Sammy got Missed Blind Buttons, and the talk went to Minh and how he always walked on this game; they forgave Sammy because he wasn’t familiar with it and didn’t like it, but Minh…they were talking about not letting him play the other games and forcing him to come back in on this game. Hey, they make their own rules with this type of thing…

Well back to the game. Gus was the $4,000 Blind, Doyle grabbed a stack of Flags and cut out 20 of them in front of him. Everyone folded around to Gus. Gus looked at his hand for about…say…a whole 15 seconds, and called. Apparently they had a cap on what each player could put into each hand, $100,000 as there was no more betting and they would never have checked it out.

Gus put his hand out to me and said, “Wait!”

He asked Doyle if he wanted to ‘run them twice’. Sometimes in Pot Limit Omaha and other board games, players may elect to run them twice or three times. That means that whatever action each player chose (as in drawing in this case), stood for all the ‘running of the cards’. If, on the first run, Gus won the hand, and on the second run, Doyle won the hand, they each got their money back. If Gus or Doyle won both ‘runs’, they just got the pot, nothing additional was added to it. They agreed to ‘run them twice’.

Gus drew one and made a 9 both times and Doyle had stood pat with a Jack. Grim City for Doyle.

In the midst of all of it, David G. came up and started talking to the group. They asked him why he wasn’t playing and where he’d been. His reply was something like, “I got tired of losing…”

Well, not to worry, the following night he was right in the thick of it, playing the same game with the boys, and girl, (because by now Jennifer was in action).

I got pushed. My trip through fantasy land didn’t end there, lots more games and noise followed for what seemed like days but was probably only a few hours.

I’m too tired to be alive so I’d better get right into a ‘green felt tale’ lest it never gets told.
Sam G., Archie, O’Neil, Tommy (not a regular), and Lee. Six handed game with one walker. $200-$400 A-5 Triple Draw and Deuce to 7 Triple Draw. Tommy is prowling the game, he’s got a missed blind button. Sam, Archie, Lee, and O’Neil are playing.

I announce, “Time Pot!” Spread the new deck, scramble, shuffle up, take a $100 chip from the small blind, break it down and have the change on the table and the chip in the rack when Sam yells, “Deal the damn cards!”

Ha! I glanced over at him like he was a nuisance fly on a cow pie and finished putting the time drop in the drop slot, moved a button over in the rack, (this is how we know how many hands we’ve dealt of each game), cut the deck, and dealt.

My job is to take time before I deal the first hand in $100-$200 and higher, and I never vary from it, especially for Sam and any others that object, except in the $2,000-$4,000 game where the chips are so big you almost need a ‘color change’ to break one down. In those games, the player that wins the pot normally pays the table time for everyone playing unless a player has missed their blind, then time is taken from the ‘missing player’s’ stack…one more “unless” here, if you’re the live one and missed your blind, they will pay it for you.

Archie wins the first few hands and is sane…hey, it’s only momentary. He loses the next few and he’s steaming. Slaps his chips, some of them shoot forward like a bet, then he reaches out and slaps them back to his stack. Like, BAD DOG, get on the paper! Another player asks if that’s a bet. Archie gives him a look that would send Godzilla quivering to his Mommy for protection.

He glares at me, “Scramble the cards.”

“Ok!” I spread the deck out in a small circle and scramble.

Now he barks, “Scramble all of them, honey, not just a few!”

Ridiculous. How in God’s name do you scramble them all at once? Maybe I should ask for a basket so I can throw them in, shake them up, and then dump them out on the table…or better yet a blender!

I gave him direct eye contact, as I continued to scramble, and said, “I will.”

It’s hysterical when, not only do they want you to scramble, they want to edit your scramble.
It’s like dealing with a 5 year old that’s always been allowed to have a temper tantrum when things don’t go their way.

Well Sam was obviously playing someone else’s money and losing. He got down to his last $400 and Hershel came over and said, “Let me play for you.”

Sam got right up. Hershel was playing in a $25-$50 blind, Pot Limit Omaha Game right by us. Hershel looked at a few hands and then raised it to $400, going all-in. He lost the hand and went back to his game. Sam sat down grumbling but then Hershel sent over a stack of Blacks for him so…

Blacks? They’re $100 each.

Then Tommy was having a cow and a calf and it must’ve been a breach delivery. He whinged his cards down the table as he motioned and pointed at me. Yup, I’m the bitch with the eye in the middle of my forehead that always knows how to make a person lose. Usually I stay awake at night planning it all out… But he just kept rammin’ and jammin’.

The game changed to Deuce to 7. O’Neil was watching TV when I changed the game plaques and announced it…he’s also very hard of hearing so I reached over, touched his hand, and when he looked up, I pointed at the game plaque so he would know what we were playing.

Tommy’s turn to go nut-z-z-z-! “Just deal the cards!”

“He doesn’t always hear the game change.”

“Doesn’t matter!” he barked. “Don’t say anything. Just deal the cards.”

“I’d do the same for you sir.”

After losing three or four more hands to Lee, Tommy threw the last hand, face up, into the rack as he jumped up to walk. Before he got his butt out of the chair though, I looked at him and said, “Thank you. Thanks a lot.”

He almost ran to get away. It’s that bitch thing again…he probably thought I’d put a hex on him for good. Umhhhh! Not a bad idea.

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!

The room was filled with high limit games tonight. Fortunately I missed them. I started in a $30-$60 Holdem game that was held at a 7 Card Stud Table…yes…they were cramped and the game wasn’t even full. They were arguing with the dealer, Marsha, about players being dealt in that had not missed their blind. The Supervisor was called. Long and short of it, I don’t want to get into because I wasn’t there from the beginning, so I started my night in a game of noisy arguing guys…but it worked out. I had them laughing and gambling in just a few minutes and thankfully they were in the mood to do just that.

The tournament was still running out in the pit, three to four tables, a few satellites running for tomorrow’s tournament which is 7 Card Stud, and the room was a screaming mad house of noise, games, players, poker…yipppeee! Let’s hear it for poker.

Johnny World and Gus were playing on table 7 with Jennifer H. and Lyle B. I had to go say “Hi” to them and compliment them on how cool they were in the WPT show on Sunday’s Travel Channel. I gave John a little ribbing about the scene where he had the red bandana tied around his head. He’s fun and always pleasant. Gus had his usual impish grin and a smile that dances across his eyes when he says hello. Sweet!

Layne F. was playing the tournament. Had to give him a hug and ‘Hello’. He’s a high energy, always on the move, ready to dance at any poker table, JAMMER. He must’ve been really dancing because he said he’d just lost $51,000 on a pair of Aces in the tournament. He was in the room when I saw him and that may have been his last hand unless they were on break at that time.

Doyle B. has been playing the last few days. I really wish he’d let me write his life story about poker and his relationship with Chip R. Well…cross my fingers…

So far, from a dealer point of view, the money isn’t as good as when the room’s quiet. Right now we have too many dealers for the games in progress and there’s so much noise and confusion that it’s hard to keep players settled into a game…they’re running out to play satellites and changing games.

Well on to a few tales from the felt:

Last night found me dealing a satellite for today’s tournament. There were 10 stacks of chips at the table and 8 players when I started dealing. The limit was $50-$100. A few of the players were locals but most were tourists. The 8 seat won the 3rd or 4th hand I dealt with A-A. As I pushed the pot to him, he asked, “Do I have to tip you now?”

Everyone sort of tittered and I said, “You never HAVE to tip.”

Someone responded, “You can whenever you want to.”

Soon the absent players showed up and the blinds went up. One player busted out and the 8 seat picked up A-A two more times and won both of them. The third time, he won a big pot that was 3 way action with all the raises pre-flop. It went to heads up on the Turn but he got to raise on each street as his opponent bet into him. As I pushed this pot to him, I said, “Yes! You definitely have to tip me now.”

Everyone laughed except him. He said, “I haven’t won anything yet.”

Me, “Just kidding.”

*********

Last week a youngster named Ramsey was playing the $4-$8 Holdem Games. The first night I dealt to him, he kept folding his hands in front of his cards and chips and obscuring them from everyone’s view. I asked him to push his cards out a little because he might be passed in the action. He did. But I had to ask him another three to four times before he finally started doing it every time.

The following night I dealt to him again. He did exactly the same thing and hid his cards from the table’s view. I asked him again to please make sure we could see his cards so we knew he was in the action.

He responded with, “Someone else yelled at me last night for doing that.”

I started laughing. “It was me and I did not yell. I asked you.”

He got totally apologetic and went on and on about how he didn’t mean yell. This brings a question to my thoughts to which there is never an answer…why is it that if a woman says something to a man, she’s YELLING at him?

So…a few nights later, dealing again to Ramsey, he brought up the fact that we ‘started on the wrong foot’ and that ‘you are my favorite dealer’. Cute!! We didn’t start on the wrong foot and I doubt that I’m his favorite dealer but come to find out, he’s a singer in a band. The band’s name is ‘Structure’ but he wouldn’t sing one, little, teensy note for us…even though we asked him.

*********

The other side of the ‘singing’ thing brings us to Jillian. I have asked Suzie to have it made a house rule that Jillian CAN’T sing at the table when she’s playing poker. So far, no response except a chuckle.

Jillian is in her early 20’s, a Meryl Streep look alike in a softer version, tall, shapely, lean, ready to rock and roll her way through the poker world until she leaves for NY for college in the fall. She’s fun, sparky, arrogant, and goes to war when she has a hand. What’s wrong with that? That damn MP3 player and her loud, off key singing, coupled with the twitch and body jerk, leg cross and uncross kick, bounce into the table with the beat, every time something comes on that she likes. That’s what’s wrong with that.

One night when I was playing in a game, she kicked me at least 15 times as she sang, bounced, chair danced, crossed her leg and uncrossed it, until I finally said, “Damn it! Jillian stop kicking me.”

She stopped, looked at me, and said, “Well my legs are long.”

I replied, “Well mine aren’t exactly short and I’m not kicking you.”

She moved her chair over a few inches and still continued to chortle and gyrate with the music. Don’t you just love it?

I did have a little fun with the singing thing though. One night while dealing to her, she left the table for a cigarette break. The 3s asked, “Why does she only play for a few minutes and then leave the table for an hour?”

When she returned to the game, I told her there was a question as to why she left the table for an hour at a time. She asked, “I do?”

I said, “Well apparently yes. But I told the player that you sing at Light and play poker on your breaks. That seemed to make him happy.”

We’ve laughed over that one several times. What’s Light? Bellagio’s classy nightclub.

The Poker Room is starting to rip apart at the seams. The Bellagio Five Diamond Poker Classic kicks off tomorrow. The original plan was to take two tables out of the 30 table room, bringing it down to 28 tables, and putting those two tables out into the pit area with 12 others which would make up the satellite/tournament area. The room still has 30 tables and 12 have been added in the pit area next to the Sports Book and Poker Room.

Regular players that come in every few months, along with players that haven’t been in the room in over a year are arriving en masse. Along with the players, we also have new dealers hired for the tournament overflow…a lot of those are familiar faces also. The next few months should prove interesting as the WSOP begins right after our tournament We get all of the live action on swing shift. Plus…there are always rumors that the “Shoe” will lose the WSOP.

The WPT aired on Sunday night, the 31st. It was the first tournament filmed and it was filmed at Bellagio. It represents poker in a very glamorous, pleasant atmosphere. Extremely well done with explanations of poker jargon and showing the player’s hole cards and play, it will bring a flood of people that want to learn to play poker. Salute!!!! The more the merrier.

The finale of the WPT’S first year will be the last tournament of The Bellagio Five Diamond Poker Classic, $25,000 buy-in No Limit Holdem, and begins on April 14th, 03. As of this date, there are 47 registered entrants into that tournament. The final table will be taped and added to the WPT televised events.

******

A few fun things from the green felt:

One night in a $30-$60 Holdem game, when A-A bit the dust on the River, the player with the losing hand, said, “Eight times, pocket Aces tonight. Never any good.”

Lee, a friend/player, looked at me and said, “No times pocket Aces, Linda!”

He pointed at his short stack of chips. We both busted up.

******
$15-$30 Holdem, every time his blind got raised, the 6s would look at me, fold, and say, “Pocket Jacks! Never any good, Linda!” We both laughed.

Just before the end of my down, he said the hand I was dealing would be his last hand…he was one out of the blind and it was time to go.

I said, “Don’t get trapped now.”

He looked at his hole cards and raised. We both made eye contact and both laughed.

I said, “Uh-oh!”

He got two callers. The flop was A-?-?…he checked, a bet and a call. He showed me J-J, started laughing as he pitched them, and picked up his chips. I knew that’s what he had when he raised.

The player in the 10s, said, “Wow! He had them in the blind twice before.”

That really made me laugh. No way in hell he would’ve pitched them if he’d had them in the blind.

*****

Steve W. – playing $30-$60 Holdem…he’s a rammer jammer, major chip slammer, blames the dealers for his losses but damn I like him a game…never get a chance to watch paint dry when he’s in there…it’s always action, action, action.

He raised on the button with 7-3 OS. Felice, in the big blind, raised. Steve called heads up. He flopped a 3, bottom pair, and they went to war. She finally gave up and just called after six bets went in.

The turn was a 7. More war.

She checked the River, he bet, and she paid him off. He showed her the hand and she almost choked. She never showed her hand but she told the table that she was putting a $1,000 bounty out on Steve. Anyone in that game, playing during the time she was at the table, she would give $1,000 if they broke him. She was dead serious.

They did a little squabbling back and forth about the other person making comments and needling each other after a beat, then it blew over.

They went to war later in $80-$160. They were still slamming when I left the game so I don’t know the result. The bounty wasn’t in effect after the $30-$60 any way. Would she have paid someone the $1,000? Umhhh!

Steve was playing $4-$8 Holdem tonight…wonder what happened there?