Ernie! My first dealing experience with him was at the Mirage years ago. Jewish, elderly, snow skiing maniac, very active and appears to be quite healthy and able to play poker for another 100 years or so…has me laughing at his paranoid, lucky dealer superstition. We go through periods of time where he will not speak to me or even look at me…then we revert to what he must feel is a comfort zone, he talks to me non-stop while I’m dealing.

I dealt to him three nights in a row last week. The first incident was $30-$60 Holdem. When I approached the table, he was in the 2s and looked up at me and stated, “If you deal me a bad beat, Linda, I’m leaving!”

Not to worry, he called a raise from the 5s, (the 5s didn’t play a hand the first ten minutes of my down), heads-up and the Flop brought an Ace. Ernie called all the bets and the 5s showed him pocket Aces for a Set. Ernie flipped out, slammed his chips into the rack and left with comments like, “See, Linda, you did it to me!”

Me? Curious as to how he figured he got a bad beat when he never had the best hand.

The second incident. A new $15-$30 game started. Ernie was in the 9s. Kay was in the 10s with a Frog on top of her chips. The Frog was about two inches long and had gems for eyes. The 6 and 7s were young guys that were boisterous and chuckling and just looking at them had me smiling and laughing with them.

The 6s asked Kay, “Would you please cover the frog’s eyes? They are staring right at me!”

She looked straight ahead and ignored him.

The three of us cracked up as he took off again, “I don’t think I can play with those eyes staring at me.”

It was so ridiculous it was hard not to laugh.

Ernie jumped in, “You really shouldn’t be laughing.”

I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to choke. “Ernie, come on. Where’s your sense of humor?”

Ernie, “I don’t think you should say anything to her. Just leave her alone.”

Me, “Ernie, you don’t think that the frog’s eyes bothering him is funny?”

Ernie, “Oh! I didn’t even see the frog.”

So much for poker being a group awareness program.

The third incident. A $15-$30 Holdem game. Marla, a long time acquaintance, from the Montana days, was in the 6s. Ernie was in the 2s.

Marla and I exchanged ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’ and I mentioned I was going to Aruba again to deal the Ultimate Bet Tournament. The 4s jumped in and wanted to know if I was ‘the Linda’…he said the subject of Aruba was what brought me to his attention. Yes…’the Linda’…as in PokerWorks Linda. His name is Steve and he’s from Philadelphia. Very pleasant table manners and he convinced the guy in the 5s that he needed to visit this site too. Thanks, Steve.

Ernie decided it would be a day when he would visit with me. First he started with Suzie leaving the Swing Shift Supervisor position. He said he’d been talking to another dealer earlier in the day and he told the dealer that Suzie was quitting so she could go to work for Steve Wynn when that place opens and the dealer agreed with him. He asked me what I thought.

I replied that she was still going to be a Bellagio employee and would be working our big tournaments and that she was going to work other tournaments like the Ultimate Bet in Aruba. And that I did not believe she was going to work for Steve Wynn.

He retorted, “What makes you think so?”

Me, “She told me so.”

Ernie exclaimed, “OH!”

A few minutes went by and he asked me if I still played poker.

I said, “Yes. Every now and then.”

He asked if I got mad at the dealer like he did.

I said, “No, never even think about it.”

He laughed. And out of a clear blue sky, barked, “You’re wrong about Suzie. She is going to work for Steve Wynn.”

I just smiled. He told me he’d bet me and if she did, I had to buy him dinner. I told him I wouldn’t bet on it and he finished with, “Ok, I’ll buy you dinner.”

He got called to another game, I got pushed and told Steve it was nice meeting him.

Suzie, damn it, you’d better not go to work for Steve Wynn. Although I don’t think Ernie’s buying me dinner had anything to do with a bet.