The $2-5 blind NLH games are a riot. The first one I dealt almost turned into a war with me and a couple of players before I dealt the first hand. One of them had zip/zero chips in front of him and $145 for his re-buy was on the table. I told him he had to buy $200. He argued that he’d been playing. I said it still was a $200 buy-in. He then queried the table because obviously I didn’t know what I was talking about. It went on a for a few more minutes as I got a fill. He did pull out $200 and the Chip Runner raced off to get his chips but he still argued with me, a friend of his took his side, that he could/should then go all-in for $199 and hold back $1 so he could buy short. I told him he couldn’t do that. They argued that he could. I got lippy, “Ok. This is my first day and you guys obviously know more about it than I do. But if you try to do that, I will call for a decision.”

Funny part of it was that the woman in the 1s believed it was my first day…even telling me so about 20 minutes later. I don’t think it was because of my dealing skills – she just couldn’t imagine anyone saying that if it wasn’t true. Too funny.

The friend of the guy that wanted a short buy-in, we managed to solve our differences within a few minutes and I found out that he’s a dealer also.

The 9s was jamming everything, Asian, have dealt to him before and he can be pretty hard sounding. In this hardness, it’s his cover, he is having prankish fun and he’s really not mean although he does reach a limit when he’s losing and will snort and bark. He did end up barking at me and I called the Floorman. He went broke in the hand and left only to appear in the $10-20 blind NLH a little bit later. Before he left us, he was heads-up, facing an all-in bet which would bust him. He thought about it for a minute or longer and ended up turning one of his cards face up to get a reaction from his opponent. No reaction. He called the bet and went bust.

Another player in the 4s pointed out that he thought the hand was dead when a card was shown, he added that it was in most rooms he played in – including The Mirage. I stated that to my knowledge, as long as the play was heads-up, cards could be shown but I would get a decision. I did. The decision was that it was legal in heads-up play.

There was a helluva lot going on in this game. Lots of noise, action, reaction, and I was thankful to get pushed into a sedate little $30-60 Holdem game.

*****

My next game was $15-30 Holdem. The 3s had obviously never lost a hand in his poker playing career until I sat down in the box. About the third hand I dealt, he went heads-up with the 1s and lost. She tipped me and he snorted, “Did I tip you?”

I didn’t even look up or acknowledge this idiot question. I would have liked to have said, “You should! I could put your money to a lot better use than you are.”

He won a few pots and then towards the end of my down, he lost another one. “You are the kiss of death!”

I pushed the pot and as I pulled the deck together and shuffled, I gave him direct eye contact. He looked away. I wanted to fall out of my chair laughing but I kept a straight face. After all, you players that know what’s going on really need people like him in the game.

*****

Previous post – the ‘blonde’ – name is Carmel. I get a charge out of her and the havoc she seems to create in the games. It’s not as if she sets out consciously trying to create it yet there it is, the big Havoc Whirlwind, spinning around her when she steps into the poker room. Perhaps the whirlwind is a manifestion from her subconscious and only appears in the poker room or at the table, but from the way she carries herself and acts, I would guess it jump starts as soon as WAKE UP hits her senses.

I was in my third $2-5 blind NLH game and she was in the first one I dealt. A seat opened in my game and she was supposed to move into it (must move game).

The twist? A good looking black guy, (he was the one that was offered $50 to bust her last night – see previous post), was in my game. She didn’t want to play with him at her table. She went to the Floor Person.

The guy in our game told us why. She had tried to call Security on him on the previous night. She called him an asshole, he called her a bitch.

She thought he should be removed because of that…the ‘b-e-itch thang’. Of course calling someone an asshole is always ok. The Floor Person must have told them both to drop it because Security never made the scene.

The Floor Person, on this night, did let her slide until a seat opened in the other main game so she wouldn’t be forced to play in the same game with him – that’s not unusual if someone is really in conflict with another player.

After I moved to my next game, I could hear them laughing and joking in the game behind me, “I want security…”

I’m sure she could hear them because she has moved to the table in front of them and most of the spin had to be for her benefit.

There’ll be another episode. That little Havoc Whirlwind isn’t about to lay down and whisper the last, soft sigh of a spent breeze.