An interesting facet of poker, Shaun, a $15-$30 – $20-$40 – $40-$80 7 Card Stud player was in a five handed game when I tapped the dealer out. Shaun was in the 7s, he called the River in a three way action hand.

Hunmhai was dealing and even though she understands English, she still has problems with some sentences and phrases and has no idea what they mean. Believe me, I have had many conversations in the Help’s Hall with her, over the years, on what someone meant when they said, ‘blah, blah, blah!’

Shaun looked at her and said, “Protect the muck. I want to see all hands.”

He repeated the statement twice. The 1s, Marty, opened his cards and, Mike, the 2s, threw his hand into the muck. Hunmhai didn’t do anything other than wait for Shaun to fold or open his cards. Shaun had a little, fizz ball tiz…”I told you to protect the muck, I wanted to see the hands.”

She sat there. I knew she had no idea what he meant when he said, ‘protect the muck.’

He insisted that she call the Supervisor. I went to the office and told Kamell that they wanted a decision on table 17. Shaun explained everything to Kamell like this. “I told her to protect the muck. I wanted to see the called hands. She’s supposed to put her hand over the muck and keep the players from throwing their cards into it.”

I couldn’t even keep my mouth shut here, “There’s no dealer in this room, especially me, that’s going to put their hand over the muck. I’ve had player’s try to throw their cards through my chest. When they know someone wants to see their hand, they throw it harder to make sure it gets into the muck.”

Kamell informed Shaun that I had made a good point. Hunmhai jumped up and left the game, giving me a quick ‘thank you’ as she went by. I sat down, announced, “Time pot!” as Shaun still argued his point with Kamell.

Shaun didn’t ante, I gave him a yellow button, Marty gurgled and strutted, he had been loser and playing for the last 48 hours and had finally gotten even, Mike in the 4s said everyone should just shut up and play because he had not been doing well in the last few months and he really had to work at controlling his temper, Mike in the 2s said he was done, I dealt a few more hands and the damn game broke up.

Shaun sat there after everyone left and we went into a discussion. He first said that he had had a talk with Kamell a week or so before and Kamell had stated that he would bring up the fact that the dealer is supposed to protect the muck when a player wants to see a hand. Later that night that same night, Shaun asked a dealer if Kamell had brought it up and she said, “Yes.”

I wasn’t at that meeting so I don’t know what happened there. I told him again that I would never put my hand over the muck, for any reason. He said if he was a dealer that he would and he wouldn’t care if anyone threw cards into his hand.

I flatly told him he was crazy. That he had no idea of the mindset that he was dealing with in all the limits of the room and that I was not paid enough to throw myself over the muck just to make sure a player could see someone else’s cards.

He argued that it was rule. I stated that it was not a rule, it was a courtesy in the lower to mid limit games and that if we had a player that abused the courtesy, they would be told that they could not request to see any more hands.

We were not arguing, we were discussing. I like the fact that if he felt the dealer was incorrect, he wanted the Supervisor called so it could be straightened out. Lots of players want to argue and have a fit long after the time period has passed in which the problem could have been rectified if they had just insisted on calling a Supervisor.

I want to laugh at the fact that he thinks if he was a dealer, he would just do anything to get along with the players. He’s never seen the ‘overview’ because he plays one game, and limits that are closely related. He’s never slipped into my shirt pocket and followed me from limit to limit and game to game, nor had to deal with all the personalities and attitudes from all over the world. It’s easy to say what you would do when you’ve never been there.

He’s not stupid and he’s obviously a winning player. I know a few players that really dislike him simply because he’s very calm when he plays and he’s a winner. Funny…I never told him about that part.

I get a kick out of watching him progress through poker and life. We still laugh over the fact that one night, a sweet young, good looking thing, came up behind him and asked if she could watch him play. Some of her friends were playing in other games and she had no idea what was going on. He said, “Yes!”

Like a dumb butt, head buried in the sand, player, he didn’t know she was trying to put a move on him. I was dealing the game. She hinted about dancing…finally I almost shouted, “Why don’t you take her dancing, Shaun?”

He looked like a bambi in the headlights…realization started to settle in.

I continued with, “Light is open right now. Take her dancing.”

He did. The next time I saw him, he said he had a great time . He laughs now because he didn’t even get what she was hinting at and I almost had to slap him in the face to get him to move his game to the dance floor.

By the time I got done with him and the discussion of seeing player’s hands, I had him convinced that the dealer really did not know what he was talking about, (and she didn’t from a conversation I had with her the next day), and now he was saying the dealer should move the muck over so a player couldn’t discard into it, instead of saying we should put our hand over it. Hey, it’s not much but it’s a small move in the right direction.

*****

I dealt to Norm R. tonight in $20-$40 7 Card Stud, just in case I haven’t mentioned him before, he’s been around since my early days at the Mirage. He’s extremely intelligent, witty in a twisted sort of way, and I get a huge kick out of him.

I screwed up with the antes in one hand. He asked, “Is the pot right?”

I knew as soon as he asked that it wasn’t. I counted it and said, “No!”

He told me that I had given the guy in the 4s change for a $5 chip but I left the chip lay in front of him. I started laughing as it was corrected. I said, “I knew when you asked that it was wrong.”

He asked, “Well what was I supposed to do?”

Me, “Exactly what you did.”

I couldn’t help but smile. As soon as a regular asks a question like that, something’s amiss and they know exactly what happened.

He got called for the $40-$80 game. He took a look. Marty was in the game. Norm said, “He’s been here for 24 hours.”

Me, “Must be Stucksville!”

Several players chuckled. Norm continued with, “He can’t keep up this pace.”

I dealt a few more hands and out of a clear blue sky, Norm said, “Twenty thousand leaks under the sea.”

I started laughing. It turned into a gut buster. Norm covered the lower half of his face so no one would know he was laughing too. He finally said, “That’s the title of Marty’s new book.”

I kept laughing. Then he said, “He looks like a Eunuch, you know!”

I never said a word but laughed even harder. When I left the game, I said, “Thanks everyone,” and to Norm, I finished with, “Thanks for making me laugh.”

He’s full of wonderful, little, surprise bursts of insight. All you have to do is pay attention.