Hop in – time to take a cruise through poker land. All of the ballyhoo and shake, rattle, and roll of the last four weeks is gone. There’s even room to cruise between the tables without shoving bodies out of the way and you can hear conversation as it’s meant to be heard – without screaming.

Table 25 is our first stop; $15-$30 Holdem. Nothing outrageous or noisy here but some jamming going on.

Off to Table 26, $1-$5 7 Card Stud, dead game, live bodies but they were barely breathing.

Table 27, $4-$8 Holdem. Funny game. One youngster that barely appeared to know why he was at the table was on a rush. George, a long time player from the Mirage days was in the 1s and not having a good time – he never is when he’s not the one on the rush – and he finally took a walk. Everyone else was glad he did. The youngster racked up and left while George was walking.

Break time and the next game was $4-$8 Holdem on Table 28. They were j-a-m-m-i-n-g to the max.

Table 29 brought another $1-$5 7 Card Stud game…ugh! No fun here. They were more like comatose.

Table 30, $8-$16 Holdem. Joe was in the 5s and pretty much non-stop talk. He can be pretty funny so it wasn’t painful. This game was just deal it, get through it, take another break.

Then Table 1 – $200-$400 Mixed Games. Curtis and O’Neal were playing heads-up and Sam G. was sweating Curtis. Curtis was way beyond having too much to drink. He talked up his game and play to Sam and at one point, told Sam he might have to run him off because he wasn’t winning since Sam got there. Curtis won every hand except a few Blinds in the Omaha 8 or Better session and we moved into Deuce to Seven.

Curtis never played any of the first seven hands beyond the Blind. On the eighth hand, he raised it, O’Neil called, Curtis drew one and O’Neil drew three.

Curtis bet, O’Neil called, Curtis drew one and O’Neil drew two.

Curtis bet, O’Neil called, Curtis and O’Neil both drew one.

Curtis checked and O’Neil bet.

O’Neil showed Curtis a hand and Curtis had called with an Ace hoping that O’Neil had paired. Curtis started crying, “She never deals me a winner. She hasn’t dealt me anything in so long. I always lose when she’s dealing…”

Hey – did I say I didn’t need ear plugs?

I got pushed, Table 2 was $60-$120 Omaha 8 or Better with a kill. It was easy. No one screamed or cried or threw themselves on the floor or the cards at me, for that matter. I did have one exchange with our new Brush person, Kim, that I didn’t really care for. She was a day shift dealer and recently became a full time brush. I have always felt that dealers make better Brush and Floor People because they’ve been in the trenches and know what it’s like – but in this case I’m not sure.

When I sat down, the rack had $40 in Blue chips, $100 in Red, and all the rest were $20 chips…meaning I needed a fill. There were three games running in the Top section and Kim was basically standing around doing nothing. That’s fine. But I asked her for a fill and she said she would find someone for me. She left the area, returned and said someone would be there shortly. Another Brush would have just done the fill. At least 10 minutes went by and she had spent most of it sitting at Table 3.

I asked, “Kim, what about this fill?”

She shrugged me off with, “I told them…”

I went with, “You don’t do fills?”

She gave me the same routine – she had told someone.

Another 10 minutes went by and I repeated my request to her…now I had $30 in Blue in the rack. She left the area again and came back to tell me, “He will be right here.”

Five minutes before I got pushed, Tim came up and did the fill. It took 25 minutes for this to happen and she could have done it in the first five. Ugh! Afraid to work? Hell if I know. It just makes my job so much tougher.

The next game – Table 5 – $30-$60 Holdem. An easy going crowd – not a lot of action – no one was bleeding and the waters were calm.

Cruising on to Table 7. Mixed games, $1,000-$2,000 and $1,500-$3,000. Eli E. – 2s. Chau – 3s. Daniel N. – 5s. Johnny C. – 6s. Gus H. – 7s. Lee S. – 8s.

Lee was drinking and funny. When I sat down, announced, “Time pot,” and spread the new deck, he pushed a brandy snifter next to me and asked if I wanted a drink.
I replied, “Yes, I do!”

“Chuckle…chuckle,” from the right side of the table.

They rammed and jammed, lots of conversation going on amidst the chips flying into the pot. Lee looked up at the TV and exclaimed, “Look at that girl, she’s absolutely beautiful!”

Daniel and Gus both looked up and Lee continued, “I’d give her $400.”

Daniel asked, “Is that how you rate them?”

Lee’s reply was something like, “Certainly not by their IQ…”

Then, during a Holdem hand, something that I would think anyone that knew how to play poker would have the sense not to do…and know why it shouldn’t be done…happened.

Eli E., Daniel, and Lee were in a pre-flop raised hand. Lee had the Button. Lee opened a King before the Flop. I exclaimed, “You’re not supposed to show any cards when it’s three way action. Heads-up is different!”

Lee never missed a charming beat, “Is this a tournament? Is Jack McClelland here somewhere?”

I said, “You can hurt someone’s action by exposing a card.”

He continued, “I thought Jack McClelland was at home asleep by now.”

Daniel looked almost as if he was going to agree with me but laughed instead.
No one else at the table said a word. I said, “Ok. I won’t say another word.”

Lee said, “Ok…”

The Flop was 6-6-3. Someone bet, I’m not even sure if it was Lee. Eli and Lee ended up heads-up on the River and both of them checked. Eli showed A-K. Lee told Eli that he won, then exclaimed, “Wait a minute. I shouldn’t have said that. I’ve never even looked at my hand.”

He peeled open his down card and it was a 3. He stacked the pot…along with a few apologies and exclamations about the fact that he shouldn’t have said Eli won until he’d looked at his cards.

I’m still in awe of the fact that people that play that limit wouldn’t understand that exposing a card in multi-way action could cause a problem.

My last game of the night was $80-$160 Holdem. Deader than a damn doornail. Very few spotty outbursts of action and mainly chop the blinds. Horrible…but the players were ‘dealer friendly’.