A lot of people read the events of my night at work and think that it’s all dark and dread, mixed with a handful of ugly and hateful, whipped in mean and nasty, and sprinkled over hot oil until it bubbles and begins to burn. Not even! There are a lot of fun people and a lot of laughs. Especially new people that are coming in to play poker for the first time. They really are some of my favorites.

I had the pleasure of dealing to a lady that appears to be of Middle Eastern descent. She’s very attractive, very gracious, and very willing to play poker…to the extent that she called every hand the first night I dealt to her. She was in the 6s in an $8-$16 Holdem game. She never knew what to bet or really what she was doing and unfortunately, when she picked up K-K on the button, she didn’t raise and got beat by the small blind that limped for $4 more with A-3 Off. He caught a 3 on the flop and a 3 on the turn.

She never had a fit or even acted exasperated as her chips escaped, hand after hand, she just looked to me each time to let her know when it was her turn to act and how much she could bet. I went through all the instruction with her about tapping the table and checking, etc., etc., etc. She was so damn grateful, when she won a pot she threw me $5.

She always had a smile for me each time I looked at her and I couldn’t help but smile back just because of her smile. I asked her if she normally played Holdem or Stud.

She said she’d never played any poker before, she motioned to the pit. I had to give her an A+ just for walking into the poker room and trying it.

When I got pushed, I was on a break and had the time to go find her a ‘Hand Ranking’ card. I laid it on the table in front of her and told her she could just leave it there so she would know what beat what. She wanted to know if she could have it and take it home with her…’yes’!

One of the players in the game tipped me and said, “That’s for being a good dealer, Linda!” He’s young, plays very tight, and not overly generous when he wins a pot, so I guess it really was a compliment.

I dealt to her several times in the next few days. She was playing $4-$8 Holdem on both occasions. She still had a beautiful smile and was very happy to see me. I appreciate people like that.

Then I dealt to a very young lady in a $4-$8 Holdem game. She had a sweater, another very young lady. She was in the 1s, flushed and excited, sucking on a beer, throwing chips in the pot, bluffing with a 2-3 off-suit when the 2s kept telling her he had her beat each time he checked and she bet and he called…he was cute too, a burly, brawny 30ish guy that didn’t want to hurt the young lady’s pocket book by beating her…when he called the River and turned over a winner, she never even flushed. She said she’d been watching the WPT on TV.

I had a great time with her. I asked her if she liked poker and she said it was the most exciting night of her life, other than her sister’s wedding. I told her it sounded as if she had more fun on her sister’s wedding night than her sister did…she agreed.

Her sister was the sweater behind her and when a seat opened up, we got her sister into the game. They were both cute, laughing and jamming, agreeing to loan and borrow so they could play, although neither one of them needed it while I was dealing.

So…sometimes I have to step into the middle of it and try to keep the local and the tourist happy. A youngster that was ‘holly wooding’ up everything he did before he acted on his hand and having a great time in a $4-$8 Holdem game was getting the ugly eyed, bitching from the 6s about how slow and stupid the youngster was.

The 6s informed the table that ‘in high limit, they would never tolerate that,’ and I replied, “For the skill level here, they’d wait a week for him to act on his hand.”

The 6s acquiesced and settled down. He was looking for a scapegoat because he was losing and the most likely person to blame was the player that was laughing and having fun. Kind of reminds me of kindergarten.