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.