Something that’s always made me crazy…even wrote a “Poker Tale” about it some years ago…and it happens all the time, everyday in one game or another.

A week or so ago, I’m dealing to Adrian. He’s in the 1s, sitting facing me, watching an overhead TV, completely disinterested in the fact that a poker game is taking place and his money’s at stake. He looks at his hand and then carelessly leaves it lay out a few inches in front of him…his gaze and attention returns to the TV.

The first few hands, I looked at him, he gave no visible signs of life, and I mucked his hand. Somewhere around the fifth or sixth time it happened, I pointedly asked, “What would you like to do?”

He mumble, jumbled something like, “Take it!”

I told him he would have to be in control of his hand. He told me was. I told him he wasn’t and I wasn’t going to guess if he wanted to play or not. He said his hand was in front of him. I agreed and told him that he would have to be in possession of it and fold when the action came to him. He stated, twice, “Give me a button then.”

I did. He was watching TV and I threw a ‘Yellow Button’ in front of him which means he’s sitting out.

As soon as I dealt him out, he questioned me as to why I didn’t deal him a hand. I told him he’d ask for a Button, he said he didn’t and that his cards were always in front of him.

I called for a Decision. The woman in the 4s has never been happy with me…a previous post about a player named Angel and her wanting to see his cards when they hit the muck…she did an exasperated shoulder shrug and commented about my always causing a problem. I ignored her.

Jon came to make the decision. I told him that I had asked Adrian to take control of his cards until the action came to him. Adrian told Jon that I had just elected to deal him out. I countered with, “You said, ‘Give me a button then’.”

He replied that he had stated his cards were always in front of him.

I stated, “I wouldn’t have dealt you out unless you asked for a button.”

He implied that he’d never said anything about a button. Jon told me to deal him in and told Adrian that we expected ‘forward motion’ from a player.

The down side of it is that the player in the 4s in this game, was guilty of doing the same thing a few nights ago, and I tried to get him to take control of his cards and act in turn.

Dave was in the 10s and we had a short conversation about how, no matter how much you try, some of these people are just not trainable. I still believe that I have to try…otherwise I wouldn’t be me.