Both Thursday and Friday were screaming. If you like a little peace, serenity, and harmonious soul sensations, the poker room was definitely not the place to hang out. Bellagio’s Fridays at Five Tournament is back in full force. Nice turn out for the last two Fridays and David Levi took 1st place in both of them. He’s got quite a record with Bellagio Tournaments.

*******

One of my nights this week included a $400-$800 Mixed Game. Everyone was in high gear and the pace was rubber burning, engine blowing, steam, steam, STEAM. Tension couldn’t even compete for a place to hang out in that arena…it was too tough!

One hand ended up with Danny D. and Don Z. heads-up, Omaha 8 or Better. Don had the pot won until the River and ended up getting a quarter of it when the smoke cleared. He was livid, managed a nonstop string of curses, while I took half of the bet in front of him and pushed it to Danny. There were two $100 chips in the middle and Danny said, “Slide those two chips over here.”

As I pushed them to Danny, Don demanded, “Do you even know why you’re giving them to him or are you just doing it because he said so?”

I replied, “One chip for the high half of the pot and the other chip for the low half of the pot left of the button.” I wanted to say, “Duh!” It just wouldn’t go over well…

A few hands later and David B. went to war with the 2s and 8s. David was in the 4s and tossed out a $5,000 chip (flag) for his bet on the Turn, followed by raise, raise; and a bet and raise on the River had $4,000 in front of the 2 and 8 and the $5,000 chip in front of David. David had the high and the other two had the low.
I said, “Alright. Help me with this.”

They never want to change the big chips into small change and it’s definitely a nightmare trying to figure it out at times.

Jimmy W. was in the 1s. He said, “Give David back his chip and $4,000 out of the pot. They each take back their $4,000, then split the main pot accordingly.”

Someone started to say something and Jimmy said, “Don’t listen to anyone but me, Linda.”

I said, “Ok!” and did as he said. It was perfect.

Which brings to mind another time when I was dealing to him. He was playing heads-up with Jack G. They were talking about dealers that never paid attention to the game and didn’t know how to play the game so they were never aware of what was going on.

Jimmy said, “I think all dealers should have to sit in the player’s chair so they know what it’s like.”

Jack looked at me and said, “I think all players should have to sit in the dealer’s chair before they can play.” 🙂

Jimmy said, “On second thought, cancel my first thought!”

Tyson – he’s cute, spunky, Asian, been around a long time, and totally funny. He plays $30-$60 Holdem and one night, when the game was short handed – three Caucasians and three Asians – the chips were literally being poured into the pot, the action was so fast. One hand came down to all raises pre-flop, all raises on the flop, with three players.

Tyson looked at me and asked, “Who’s in? Just us yellow colored players?”

I almost spit. He had a mischievous little gleam in his eye and enjoyed his own joke…and he was right, it was all the Asian players.

Another night, a woman walked by our game wearing a flimsy top that left nothing to the imagination. She definitely had the figure for it and had her shoulders back and head up. Some comments were made about her attire and what did she think she was doing?

I piped up with, “Hey, one night at the Mirage, a woman walked through the poker room wearing a see through, plastic outfit. The only hidden spot was her pubic area.”

Tyson ripped out with, “Hey, take it easy. That was my mother!”

Hysterical! We all chuckled.

Tonight, he was rocking and rolling, double clutching the game into high gear as he raised, re-raised, and re-raised his way through several hands while carrying on a conversation with the player next to him. He has the smoothest action when it comes to two/three betting a player heads up, the chips roll out as if they were attached by a string, sliding out across ice.

A player passed our game with a lit cigarette. Boba, supervisor, immediately exclaimed, “Sir, this is a nonsmoking room! You have to put that out.”

Without missing a beat with a raise and watching the hand, Tyson yelled, “Give me a drag first.”

Love that guy!

Can you imagine, if I had 1/10th of 1% of all the money that’s ever crossed my palms…all the cash involved in buy-ins and pushing the chips to the players, all the times I’ve made change for someone to tip the cocktail waitress and me, all the times I’ve collected time, all the change made for the rake, all the antes and blinds that have been pulled in, all the pots that have been pushed, all the pots I’ve won and stacked, buying my own chips…Good God! The amount would be staggering. I could take all of my friends, family, and a few people I didn’t even know and party until the Earth dried up from exhaustion just watching us party. Wow! Now that I got past that thought…

*****

A few months ago, I dealt a $30-$60 Holdem game and I put up the Flop and said, “Five players.”

The 6s said, “One dealer.”

I looked at him like he had an eye in the middle of his forehead. I’d never seen him before and he turned out to be extremely live. He just grinned at me and stared back.

Every time I announced the number of players in the hand, during the rest of my down, he replied with, “One dealer.”

I couldn’t help but smile every time he said it.

*****

A few weeks ago, I’d had an extremely hectic night with all high limit games. Finally, in the last hour of my shift, I dealt a $4-$8 Holdem game. The player in the 5s had just received a bottle of beer from the cocktail waitress and as I put up the Flop, I asked, “Do you think the cameras would pick it up if you pushed that beer over to me and I shot-gunned it?

A woman in the 3s and the 5s roared.

A few minutes later, he had the beer between his legs, on the chair. Hey…I have no idea why guys do that but I see it quite often.

I ordered, “I like my beer really cold, get it back on the table!”

I owned them after that. We laughed all the way through my down and I was in need of ‘laughter insanity’ after the games I’d been dealing.

*****

The room’s still very busy, lots of high limit, noise, and people. No one is going home. I heard years ago that poker players have no home, I never believed it then but I do now.

Major poker burnout! That’s where I’m at right now. A million years or so ago, when I first fell in love with poker, I could never imagine a day where I wouldn’t be involved with poker in one form or another…whether it was working in the industry or playing. Right this minute, I can’t imagine that I could spend another week in it in any capacity.

Ok…it’s temporary insanity and it will pass. But I’m in the bottom of the Nether World right now…my energy is gone, my thoughts refuse to associate with anything in the real world, and I don’t know how in the hell I’m going to talk myself into another night of dancing the dance and shining on my best attitude at the green felt shoot out.

I’m not angle shooting at the escape hatch but this is it for today. Maybe if I can crawl into a coma and wrap myself up in a dream, I can trick myself into being t-h-r-i-l-l-e-d about waking up to Monday and a new work week. See you there!

Mike D., AKA Israeli Mike, had another blow out last week. His out of control vehicle crashed and burned but he failed to notice because no one pointed it out to him. I was across the room, dealing a $15-$30 Holdem game when I heard, “MIKE! MIKE!”

Someone at the table he was at was trying to slow him down. He was up, from the 2s, walking behind the dealer, in a menacing manner, focused on the 7s.

Suzanne got to him just as he made it to the 7s. She’s the Front Brush Supervisor and she stepped between him and the 7s. Carmen appeared and took over. Apparently Mike was ready to behave like a caveman and bludgeon the 7s because the 7s had made a comment that Mike didn’t like.

Bummer! Like he’s never made a comment the rest of the world didn’t like. It blew over and Mike’s still playing in the room. RATS!!!

Someone in the game I was dealing, said, “They aren’t going to fight. People that are going to fight just get right into it, they don’t talk about it.”

Everyone in my game laughed. Another gent in my game was in shock that this type of behavior would even be tolerated at Bellagio. I am too!

I dealt to the 7s, the brunt of Mike’s angst, the following night. He’s chatty, likes to talk up his game and everyone else’s while he’s playing.

Something happened with him that I find to be a little bizarre…especially if he’s a seasoned player. The game was $75-$150 7 Card Stud. He was in the 3s and wearing headphones. The 8s had the low card bring-in, the 2s threw out three $25 chips, I said, “Raise!”

The 3s released five – $5 chips, as if to call the bring-in, and I said, “It’s been raised.”
He pulled back the five chips and said, “I raise,” and threw out six $25 chips.

I said, “You can’t raise.”

He yanked his head phones off and said, “I intended to raise.”

I said, “You called the low card bring-in after I stated the raise. You can’t raise now after indicating you were just calling.”

He did a little mini tiz on me about what he thought and how he should be able to raise, but went with my decision while he protested. I’m curious where he plays that his action would be considered legal game play, especially at this limit.

This is a two post in one day. I really meant to fill in some space when I came home from work yesterday but I couldn’t get the mush in my brain to cooperate so I gave up, drank Bailey’s and coffee, and watched part of the Atlantic City WPT that I had taped. Yeah, I’m just more than a little bit behind with some things but it works for me. Continue reading “Who’s the real piece of shit here?” →