My flight left Vegas in the early a.m., 12:20 a.m., on the morning of the 23rd.

HELLO ARUBA! The flight was fine…as far as flights go…really bumpy and ugly at a few points. Too bad I stopped drinking a few months ago…just kidding, no really I did stop but it’s not too bad. It’s much better for me but I kind of miss those rosy evenings when I got lost in a bowl of wine.

Every hotel/resort with a casino here is opening poker also. Funny, you’d think poker was the place *clapping, laughing, tears of joy*. Of course it is and anyone that isn’t aware of it by now is really missing the boat.

We had our dealer’s meeting yesterday and some of the crew worked tournaments in the afternoon and late into the night. This kid opted out as there were a few too many dealers. I spent the evening trying to associate my brain, body, and spirit so I get could into the swing of dealing straight NLH tournament downs for the next week or so.

As of yesterday, there were over 500 online entrants that had checked in, more on the way and also people coming in that will buy a seat in the final event.

The weather is perfect. It’s even cooler now than it was last year in mid October when we were here. I’ve been out to the beach early a.m. for walk/slow jogs. It’s truly beautiful, the breeze, the sound of the surf, the sand that’s been washed clean of footprints and mankind during the night…almost as beautiful as hiking in the desert in Nevada.

I’m staying at the Wyndham…beautiful place and exquisitely wonderful is the fact that we have our own room, no bunking up with other people (thank you, Ultimate Bet). That’s a huge plus for me. As I was told a few days ago by a friend, “You’re weird.” NO SHIT! I told her to never forget it either. I like my space, my privacy, and the air vacant around me so my brain waves have plenty of room to stomp and shout without intrusions from someone else.

On the subject of brain waves, it’s time to eat so I have the energy to whip up a real hurricane of them. Then time to deal. Then…the skies the limit.

*****

My first night of dealing really was NOT dealing. I took Swing Shift and showed up at the designated hour but the only thing running was buy-in tournaments and there were plenty of dealers. Immediately I opted to E/O if it was possible. Hey…I didn’t come all this way to deal poker! Just kidding, of course I did but I also hate working vacations so…

Suzie told me hang out for a bit and make sure everything was smooth. Within an hour I was out the door into the humid, wonderful night air walking down the beach sidewalk to my new temporary home…the Wyndham. Wonderful!

A note on the rooms. Last year we were housed at the Brickel Bay, the players stayed at the Holiday. This year players/dealers were spread out between the Radisson and the Wyndham. There’s absolutely no way to compare last year’s rooming experience to this year other than to say this is a Rolls Royce upgrade to a roller skate. The Wyndham is beautiful and has so many wonderful amenities, you can’t stay possibly make a bad choice by being here. The rooms are graciously sized and comfortable…down comforters, extremely comfortable beds, and to top it off, colorful and tastefully decorated.

When we originally booked for this trip, we were under the impression that we would have to share a room with another dealer. I made my arrangements to room with Grace, long time friend and dealer. After we arrived, we were all given our own room…Thank you, God, and Ultimate Bet! What an incredible deal for all of us…especially me as I’m sort of weird (did I say sort of?) and I’ll be the first to admit that my sleep patterns are strange and hard to deal with even for myself, let alone someone rooming with me. Grace and I did book for an additional three days of which we are responsible for the cost of the rooms…BTW…we will be sharing our room for those three days so if you see Grace in Vegas and all of her hair is ripped out, it’s because I drove her crazy.

*****

The 25th brought the Ultimate Bet Welcome Banquet at the Pool Area of the Radisson. I opted out of that and chose a veggie sub from Subway for my meal as I went an internet cafe…without the cafe. Ok, same type of scenario, rent internet time, make long distance calls, etc…just no food or drink allowed. And I had to be there before shift time at 7 p.m.

My second night of dealing consisted of two dead spreads and Suzie asked me and Grace if we wanted to go deal live games at the Excelsior Casino. The Excelsior is in the Holiday Inn. The Ultimate Bet Tournaments were held in the Ballroom at the Holiday last year and had nothing to do with the poker room in the Excelsior. So…we said “Yes!”

We figured the worst that could happen is that we could get there, not deal, and leave when we felt like it or get there, deal, and still leave when we felt like it…after all, we had no obligation to anyone and weren’t under contract with anyone other than Ultimate Bet. The Excelsior was going to be hosting a ‘big’ live game later in the night and that was one of the reasons that some of us were asked to go.

We walked the beach side to the Holiday, taking our time, and went in and introduced ourselves to Marta, the poker room manager. She was extremely busy and very friendly, asking us to take a seat in the back and relax for a few minutes because she had to put her dealers in live games before she could/would do anything with us. We accepted and relaxed at two empty tables in the back of the room. Several dealers that were in our group were now playing in a game next to us. Michael, the Casino owner, came over and introduced himself to us. He told us that all the dealers in the casino had to share their tips, poker/pit, etc. We were asked to leave all of our tips in the center tube in the rack and write down how much we made each down, we would be compensated for them when we were done for the night but the tips in the rack would be picked up every hour and put into boxes for dividing between the crew later. We agreed.

Within a half hour, Marta started a $5-$10 spread limit Holdem game at the table I was at. It was easy to deal and quite active, lots of money slamming into the pots. Grace ended up going into the ballroom to deal. New games were starting as fast as Marta could find people to deal them because Ultimate Bet held a drawing each night, and had for the last five nights, for a $6,200 seat in the Tournament…it was almost time for the drawing. I moved into a game that was $2-$4 Blind, NLH…just starting and by the time I sold chips and dealt one hand, I was pushed to the next game which was a $2-$5 Blind PLH game.

About this time, Ben Affleck, Russ Hamilton, The Devil Fish, and a few more showed up to start a game. They were still talking and getting the game set up as I went by to a $4-$8 Holdem game. The rail was lined with beauties all leaning in to get a look at Ben. Even more amazing was that the rail didn’t collapse with them pressing into each other and leaning over it. I can’t help but wonder how he can even stand to go out in public…

In the $4-$8 game, the player in the 10s waited until I dealt the 2nd hand before he asked me if I was “Linda…Pokerworks Linda?”

He was hysterical. David from Canada, he said he’d written me about the order of the posts – back some time ago – and wanted them to load oldest to newest, did I remember? Yes, I did! He went on to say that he knew I was coming to Aruba and he started checking out all the female dealers, even if they were 20, even though I’d said I started dealing in 1940 or sometime in there…lots of laughter here…he was determined to meet me. It’s funny that I would meet him at the Excelsior because I wasn’t even supposed to be dealing there…life is strange. David beat the hell out of his good friend, Jim, that started with A-K and David started with A-Q catching runner, runner, to land a Straight on the River. *Begin Edit* I just got a note from David that it wasn’t ‘runner, runner’, he flopped a two card straight and a four flush. Slap my fingers and my mouth. Damn it! Guess I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have been but did I forget to add that every time I turned a card off the deck, David yelled, “Red Ace!” Maybe that’s why my brain went into ‘runner, runner’. They had money flying back and forth to each other for almost every card that came off the deck and the Red Ace was worth $100…I think…if I’m wrong I bet he’ll let me know. *End of Edit*

About this time the drawing for the $6,200 seat was starting. Lots of noise and confusion, screaming, excitement from all the players in the room. There were two dealers in my game that came from Vegas to deal the Ultimate Bet event.

There are no numbers on the tables so a card was brought around to each table and we were designated as ‘table 8’. Everyone at my table was screaming, “DRAW TABLE 8…TABLE 8…TABLE 8!” Either the screaming and mindset paid off or something was crazy in the world of luck because – sure enough – the winner was going to be drawn from Table 8.

Now the players at my table were all screaming at each other and trying to make a deal…the winner of the seat was to give everyone at the table $100 in cash. Russ Hamilton arrived with someone in a suit from the pit and Michael, Casino Manager/Owner. The noise and screaming jumped into a mind numbing roar as they all finally agreed to the $100 to each player deal and then all started screaming for their seat # to be drawn.

Russ spread 10 cards, face down on the table while the screaming went into ‘you’re never going to hear after this’ mode. Seat # 4 was chosen…his brother was in the 5s and they jumped up, screaming, hugging, and ‘high fiving’ each other. He handed over the $100 to everyone, the dealers at my table screamed for everyone to give me $5, they did! Woo Hoo! I got pushed…20 minute downs there.

My next game was back to the $2-$4 blind NLH game I’d been through earlier, I dealt it and the $2-$5 blind PLH game again and was out for a break. The place got much quieter as the drawing was over and the games were breaking down. The Big Game had started and Marta told me she would try to send me through it. Did I care? No! I can deal those games every day in Vegas.

Grace and I were asked to relax for a few minutes and see if we were still needed…we were not. Marta took a few minutes to visit with us and I wonder how many of us that live in the States would handle her job well. She started her day by standing out on the street passing out flyers – along with some of her dealers – for the poker room; followed by starting games and dealer line-ups, and on and on and on, late into the night. She explained that her dealers were afraid we would come in and take their jobs so she had to reassure them that we were only helping out and they had to deal before we could…we were fine with all of it and she was delightful, leaving us with, “Thank you for coming and I hope you will cooperation with me again.”

I only dealt about an hour and twenty minutes. It was fun, no pressure. They are allowed to smoke in the room but not at the table, that didn’t stop them, however. Although no one around me was smoking, my throat hurt within an hour. The poker room has a sunken floor and a lower ceiling…the smoke seems to grow in the area.

On a really down side of our trip – a few of our dealers were out on 4wheelers and two of them were hurt when one of the 4wheelers went down. Nicole was seriously injured, she’s in the hospital, stable but has a broken pelvis and other injuries. Neil had minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises. We’re all in shock over it and hoping/praying for the best.