His name is Asher. The guy that flopped a pair of 10’s and was beat on the Turn when he made Jacks and 10’s in the $10-$20 Blind NLH…previous post.

Friday night found me starting in the pit, dealing almost all Satellites and a few live games. Most of the satellites were for the $5,000 buy- in NLH event on Saturday.

When I landed in the dealer’s chair of the satellite that Asher was in, it was three handed. Freddie D., Asher, and Cy. Asher waited until I shuffled and dealt and then did a, “I still think you must have exposed a card…”

I looked right at him and calmly, flatly stated, “No. I didn’t.”

“There’s no way he could have continued with the hand unless he knew…”

I replied, “He made a straight when you made two pair. He had an open ended straight draw on the Flop.”

“I’m not saying you did it on purpose…it’s bothered me for five days.” It hasn’t even been five days since it happened.

Me, “I never expose cards when I deal. My hand is always level with the table when I hold the deck.”

“I don’t think you did it on purpose…”

Calm as a mommy trying not to slap the brat that keeps pulling her daughters hair, I replied, “If I rolled my hand with the deck in it, you would be able to see an exposed card since you were in the 3s. It would be impossible for him to see it in the 10s.”

He dropped it for awhile and went on to win the Satellite. He tipped me, pretty damn well for what I see in Satellite tips, and still persisted…even though he was smiling, “I still think you must have exposed a card…”

I laughed. “No. I didn’t. What’s your name?” as I put my hand out to him. We shook hands, he left.

I’m sure he still believes that I created a drift in the integrity of the hand but he’s completely off base. I still believe that if he’d won the pot, he would never have thought any such thing…but that doesn’t make him a bad guy.

*****

The differences in players and their attitudes about everything…

Table 11, $500-$1,000 Mixed Games. Unknown – 1s, David O. – 2s, Abe – 4s (2 and 4s both having been on the WPT), and Ralph P. – 7s.

Two young cuties, along with their escorts, waltzed over to survey the table. They had the look of WPT watchers just checking out Bellagio’s action. The girls walked right up behind David and one of them even bent down to look at his hole cards when he looked at them.

I did a, “Hey-hey-hey!” to back the girls up a little but David stopped me almost before I got the second ‘hey’ out of my mouth.

“I don’t mind,” as he opened his hand so they could look at it. They stepped up closer, almost leaning on the table, as he talked to them about poker.

In the meantime, two young guys were standing about seven feet behind Ralph and he demanded, “Clear my back! I don’t want someone behind me,” directed at me.

I asked them to please step away. Just as they started to move, David invited them over to watch too, saying something like, “It doesn’t bother me, I’ve been on TV.”

Funny in a way…the girls and their escorts eventually drifted off but when I returned from a break and entered another game, the two guys that were chased away from Ralph’s back, were still sitting behind David.

*****

The room is packed, tamped down tight, and ready to blow. There’s a capacity listing for the room on a small plate, up by the ceiling, near the main entrance to the room. It feels as if there are three times that many people in the room during my shift.

I still find myself searching for the answer to the eternal question: “Where do they come from and how do they get here?”

*****
I was part of this project. Sweet!
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’