The room started out fairly quiet and then went bat shit along about midnight. I was never even close to dealing high limit…yippeee…but the whole room was abuzz and insane over it and the players.

All hell broke loose when Ben Affleck arrived. He wasn’t the only star on hand. It was kind of like watching a Christmas tree spin around…the stars were coming out.

Phil Ivey, Larry Flint, Gus Hanson, Renee, those were some of the players on Table 1. Table 7 hosted Johnny Chan, David Sklansky, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Ben Affleck, Todd Brunson, and others that I can’t even recall because I wasn’t there. I was dealing to the people that really have a good time with poker, the low limit dudes and dudettes.

My last game of the night was a $15-$30 Holdem game and I had the 30 questions from several players about the stars. What were they playing, did the win, how good was their play…like I could give a qualified answer to any of those other than what they were playing.

I gave them this, “They might win $150,000 while I’m dealing and in the next half hour lose $200,000. I really have no idea how they do overall.”

They were fun and really wanted to know about the stars. One of them even left the game for a few moments to take a ‘walk by’ and see them.

*****

On the funny side of poker, I deal to Christian, a young, nice looking guy that’s probably the age of my oldest son. He plays $30-$60 Holdem and one night he slipped into the 1s of a $1-$5 7 Card Stud game I was dealing. He said the boys were too skilled for him. I don’t believe that for a second, he just wanted a change of venue. But on to the funny side.

I pushed him a pot in the $30-$60 Holdem and he threw me a $10 chip for a tip. I said, “Thank you…a lot.”

He asked, “Rough night?”

I replied, “No. I just really appreciate it.”

He said, “As pretty as you are, you should be cleaning house.”

My first thought was to say, “I used to when I was married,” but I knew he meant it in the respect that I should be dragging in all kinds of money, so I asked, “How much have you had to drink?”

We both laughed over that one.

*****

In a $4-$8 Holdem game, the 9 and 10s kept visiting with each other, even if one or both of them were in the hand. I put a stop to it, “Please, no conversation when one of you has a hand.”

One of them replied, “But were brothers.”

I laughed, “Oh. The two brothers to a hand rule should be in effect here?”

They thought it was hysterical…well so did I.

The following night I dealt to one of them in an $80-$160 Holdem game and we laughed over it again.

*****

On another note…I cruised by Table 28, $8-$16 Holdem and Joe stopped me with, “Linda, you won’t believe this one,” as he motioned to the 6s. The player had one of his cards turned face up, five way action, and the Flop was out.

I almost had to jump start my brain because of the same scenario with Lee S. a few nights ago in $1,000-$2,000. I said, “He can’t expose his cards in a multi-way action pot.”

Joe said, “He’s been doing it for the last half hour or so.”

I went to Fred at the middle podium and explained to him what was going on at Table 28. Fred set it straight. Honestly…I can’t believe a dealer would allow this to happen…shit, I must have forgot my medication…