Long time no write! I had five days off, jam packed with action, stress, dismay, fun, strange sleep patterns, too much food, shop here and there and everywhere, and my beautiful granddaughter, Jasmine. She left early Wednesday. I tried to revert back to my normal sleep patterns and awoke to hit the Dentist’s office at 3:30 and then home to shower and get ready for work.
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There are 25 tables in the pit combined with the 30 in the room, we now have 55 tables to man. Doesn’t sound like much, right? I’m wondering how many new dealers there are to take up the overflow and how they will handle the games and players.
In general conversation, with a few of our regular dealers, I heard that the new dealers were being routed around the high limit and the regular dealers would be expected to deal the high limit. Umhhh! So they get the gravy and the easy games and we get the gristle and the stress? Sounds pretty damn unfair to me. It may or may not be true. Time will tell.
Satellites begin today for the Five Star World Poker Classic and there are over 125 entries for the $25,000 buy-in WPT Championship. Huge!
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I taped the WPT Aruba event last night on the Travel Channel because I was sure I’d be dealing it. Wrong! They showed the first season event. Disappointment.
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George the Greek is back in our room. If any of you watched the Aviation Club De France WPT, you saw George…pounding the table, yelling, “Crete forever!” and a few other things. I’ve dealt to him many times over the years and the experiences are joy filled, wonderful adventures…NOT. They are just the opposite. There are a lot of posts about George in the old pages that will eventually be moved to this ‘blog’ as time permits.
One thing that left me chuckling…Vince Van Patten misinterpretated a statement made by George. When Eric faced off with George, George waited forever to act on his hand. Eric said something like, “I’m falling asleep, George.”
George pounced on him with a, “You are too young to sleep, sleep when you are dead,” type of thing.
Vince jumped on that and interpreted it to mean that George told Eric to, “…sleep with the fishes.”
Funny…that’s how rumors get started.
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Five days off and I had to be retrained. I made a mistake in the 2nd game I dealt. It was $80-$160 half 7 Card Stud 8 or Better and half Omaha 8 or Better. Two players on the Turn and River and I completely misread the hands. Missed the high on one hand and thought they had the same low so I quickly chopped the chips in front of one player and slid them over to the player I thought had 3/4’s of the pot. Ugh!!! They didn’t chop off my hands or even yell at me but it took a few minutes to get it straightened out.
Then I made another one in the 4th game I dealt. Four way action to the flop, the 5s bet, everyone threw their hand away or so I thought. I dropped the deck like a hot rock and slid the pot to the 5s, just as the 9s called the bet. Silent Primal Scream here!
The Flop was gone, so was the 5s’s hand…so was my sanity. I called for a decision. Boba asked the players if they would split the pot, they agreed. Thank you, God, and the players too. He sternly told me to see him in the office later. He didn’t mean it but I know I don’t want to make mistakes and now I was ultra leery of every move I made. I was on edge through the rest of my night. Thankfully I kicked the cobwebs out of my head and got in to the focus mode.
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Late in the night I dealt a $20-$40 7 Card Stud game. The 4s claimed to be Phil Ivey’s brother…after being asked his name by Pete, another player. The 4s pulled out a Bicycle V.I.P. ID that apparently read Vince Ivey…that’s what I gathered from the conversation.
Pete told Vince that he really didn’t look like he could be related to Phil. Vince did a double talking, gear shifting, dialogue tango while prodding Pete about “Why not?”
Vince never stopped talking, he talked to anyone and everyone, even when they tried to totally ignore him. He went into a rant about how he played poker with his brother and his brother showed him no mercy and beat him to death in the game. He rambled about everyone’s play and his own cards and what he was doing there and how he was the fish.
I finally said, “Wow! You sure talk a lot more than Phil does.”
He stated there would be no more tips for the dealers and then asked, “Phil who?”
Finally he racked up and got ready to leave. He asked if I would miss him. I replied, “Sure.”
He called me a liar and told me he would have tipped me except he knew I was lying and the only people that would miss him were the players. He asked for change for a $5 chip and I gave him $1 chips. He tossed $1 to each of the players that were present and threw one to me.
I asked him if his dad had been in town a little over a month ago. He said, “No. My brother was here three days ago.”
I continued, “Your dad wasn’t here for a birthday celebration?”
He said, “No.”
He stood up, picked up his chips and leaned over to the 2s…Dimitri was sitting behind his friend while the friend played Dimitri’s chips. He demanded, “Only English next time…you get it?”
They ignored him. He tried again. The friend asked, “Are you OK?”
Vince finally left.
I had to chuckle. I dealt to Phil Ivey’s dad, maybe two months ago, when he was in town for a birthday celebration. I also saw Phil’s dad sitting behind him the night before.
Rave on Vince!!!!! If you’re really Phil’s brother…what happened?
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I was part of this project. Sweet!
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’