When I hit the poker room, GPO, one of the posters on the forum was waiting for me…well…he was playing in a $2-5 Blind NLH game and was looking for me so I’d say he was doing what we all want to do…play while we wait. We met, visited briefly, and I did deal to him a bit later. He made my ‘down’ when I pushed him a pot and he pushed me some ‘red birds’. He told me they were more for this site than the pot but believe me, they were muchly appreciated no matter what they were for. He appeared to be having a great time and was still there when I left for the night. TKS! (thanks) Gregg.

My first down was a $300-600 mixed game with Sam G. in the 8s. There were several walkers. The 3s was an unknown and mixed it up with Sam in several pots…Deuce to 7 was what I sat down to. Olivia was in the 4s. A new face (to me) in the 5s but Sam referred to him as ‘Timbo’.

The first hand I dealt, Sam went to war with the 3s and won the pot. He flipped me $1 for a toke and I thanked him. He won the second hand I dealt without a showdown and told me, “I’d tip you, Dealer, but I had to do all the work myself.”

Hey…this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this from him. I laughed.

A few hands later and he was still going to war with the 3s. They went through bets, raises, calls, and all three draws. Sam checked, the 3s bet, Sam called and showed a Queen. The 3s had paired. Sam snorted, “I make everyone play bad!”

While I dealt the next hand, Sam asked the 5s if he knew anyone that could play better than Sam. The 5s ignored him. Sam prodded, “Do you know anyone that would have played that hand better than I did? And…I’m talking to you, Timbo. I expect an answer.”

The 5s replied, “I know at least 100 people that could have played it better.”

Sam did a dialogue dance on how the 100 people should be lined up to play him heads-up.

It was pretty funny! The rest of the down went by without a hitch. I got pushed.

******
Later in the night, I hit $40-$80 7 Card Stud. Karate Don was in the 8s. I hadn’t dealt to him in awhile and I had to refocus on something that hardly ever surfaces…the peer pressure of a player punishing another player in a service industry job. A player threatening me with ‘toke’ suspension because I dealt them off or smiled while I was dealing to them is nothing new but I watched another player get the ‘you work for a living in a service job’ raspberry. Fascinating.

Don was in the 8s and the 2s opened as I sat down. Don had five stacks of chips about 30 high and wanted the 2s. I told him I would push them for him if he wanted. He asked, “Do you know how to do it?”

I just smiled and said, “I think so.”

He retorted, “Only because it’s you, Linda.”

Oh joy, oh yippeee! I get to push the chips…oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Christ! I pushed them down the table to the 2s. The game went on.

The 7s is about six months new to Swing Shift and the $40-$80 Stud game. He’s a player but where/how/when is unkown to me. I just remember him over the last few months. He works at a restaurant across the street. Hell…he’s mentioned it before but I don’t know what the name of it is.

At one point, General Jeff (3s) won a pot and gave Don an ante. The 7s jumped right in, “Linda, I don’t want them anteing each other.”

I said, “No rebates.”

Don landed on that like a duck on a June Bug. “Who objected?”

I replied that it didn’t matter, there were no rebates from now on. Don persisted. The 7s stated that he did. Don had three cows and two calves. “The other night, I gave an ante to you every time I won a pot.”

The 7s replied, “Yes…but you gave it to everyone.”

Don went into a romance with ramble…’what an idiot’…’he was the one that got over $100 from me the other night’…’it was ok then’….

I jumped in. “The bottom line is that there are no rebates allowed now.”

Don slipped into his ‘ultra crafty’ mode…and believe me, he can be deceptively crafty at times.

First he asked me where I lived. I said, “Bellagio. I live under table 16.”

Hell yes, I was trying to make a joke out of a tight situation. Another player asked me if I lived on the upper floor or the lower floor. I said, “Lower floor.” *laughs*

Don threw me $1…”that is for telling me where you live.”

Next came, “What is your zip code?”

I gave him a fictious one. He threw me $1. He then asked me for my area code. I told him. He threw me $1. He asked for my zip code again. Another player answered with some strange number. I repeated the fictious one. He threw me another $1. He asked for my phone number. I said, “No way!”

Everyone laughed. For some reason Don kept throwing me $1 chips as he got into “what happens if we go across the street to eat at the restaurant ‘he’ works at? Are we supposed to withhold any tips because he couldn’t figure out what we were doing at the poker table?”

Don kept insinuating…without saying it…that the 7s was an idiot for getting in the middle of an ante deal.

The air around the table was thick. The 7s wasn’t out of line with his statement but by the time Don kept twisting and turning the fact that the 7s worked at a restaurant across the street and his livelihood might rely on tipping, the air was a little sticky.

I’ve witnessed players try to stick it to dealers because they work for tips but never witnessed a player try to punish another player in the game that might work for tips in another part of the ‘service industry’. Usually the players band together and attack the dealer…not each other.

Strange too was the fact that Don kept throwing me $1 everytime he prodded me with a question that had absolutely nothing to do with anything…oh well! Aint’ poker grand.