Thanksgiving, or Happy Bird Day, looms just over the horizon. Work for some of us, a four-day weekend for others. Eat as much as you want…just don’t groan about it later. Remember you did it to yourself. Enjoy…most of all…enjoy. Drive safe and stay well.

*****

Norman. A few years ago, I asked him if he was going to cook the turkey. He said, “No. I’m staying home. It’s a day of mourning for all the turkeys that die.”

Last night he asked me what made cocktail waitresses different from other employees. I queried, “They belong to a union?”

He laughed over that one and finished with, “They don’t have to cover their asses.”

*****

I played on shift…a huge influx of new dealers. Our big tournament starts in a few days and management is making sure we have plenty of them. I sat in a $4-$8 Holdem game through most of my shift, managed to eke out a few $$ after having Aces, Kings, and Queens beat. The game was great, just lock and load, fasten your seat belt, and play your own hand because you could never give them credit for having anything…most of them anyway.

I got to visit with Sam from Alaska, he comes in about five or six times a year, and Mark, another player that’s been on the scene for a lot of years but I’ve never played in a game with him and never had a chance to just ‘chit-chat’ before. It was fun.

I got called into the line-up to push two games and then back out to play. The first game was $30-$60 Holdem, I sat down, changed the deck, announced, “Time Pot.”

Four players pounced on me, “This is a new game, we aren’t paying time, why would you think we’d pay time?…blah….blah….blah.”

I called for the Floor Person. Jimmy jumped down my throat with his version of, ‘We aren’t paying time. This is a new game’. I said, “Fine, just let me do my job.”

I called for a Floor Person again. The Floor was on their way and Jimmy kept giving me heat. I said, “Just let me do my job. I announce ‘time pot’, you say it won’t be one, I call the Floor, and they give me the decision.”

He said something like, “You have to get the last word in don’t you.”

Shit! It has nothing to do with the last word. It has to do with doing my job. I really don’t care if ‘time’ is passed or not, it’s just not my decision.

Then I went to deal a $100-$200 Holdem game. Terry was in the 4s. She’s something else. She made a comment when I sat down about how I might push her a pot or something that pertained to the fact that she wanted to win…I didn’t catch it all and didn’t even get into it.

I did push her several pots. She made a big show of pulling out a small stack of $5 and $1 chips, that were rubber banded together, with the statement, “Special dealers get a tip from my special stack,” with that she threw me a $1 chip.

Wow! I’m so special. I got a piece of gristle with a speech tied to it. Sorry…that’s just my sick sense of humor coming out here.

Well back to the laughs and fun of the $4-$8 game after I got pushed. Yoo Hoo!!!