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!