Hello new home! Tonight I’m going in at 5 p.m. to help start the transition from the Poker Pit to my new home…Bellagio’s Poker Room. I might even end up being the first person to deal the first hand in the new room. That would be like ultra sweet…all kinds of sweet with more sweet piled on top of sweet. Yummy.
From what I understand, dealers will be in the room, waiting at tables for players to come from games in the Poker Pit. As the players come in to take their seats, the games in the Poker Pit will close and the games in the room will begin…let the games begin. YIPPEE!
I’ve listened to the ‘natter natter’ of players stating that we are trying to compete with Wynn and as soon as Wynn opens, we will lose our business and to that I say, “BULLSHIT!”
Competition is healthy and good for all industries but we aren’t competing with Wynn for the poker business…they are competing with us. We aren’t going to lose our games or sit dead or go dark. We are the leader of the poker world in Vegas and one of the best poker rooms in the world for live and tournament action. We aren’t going any direction other than UP! So come in and join us.
*****
The live poker scene. I hit a $4-8 H game in which I thought I was dealing to a high limit asshole that went broke somewhere in Hades and was chewed up and spit out of the core of Pain and Agony Done Went Broke to spend his time with mortals instead of the Nether Spirits that never find peace.
He was in the 9s, had chips in front of him, agitated and crabbing over the slow play of the players in the game, and jumping in and out of his seat like he’d been shot in the butt with rock salt.
The kids in this game…literally, kids, were jawing and having fun, some of them green as hell and had no idea what they were doing but they were having fun. The 6s folded his hand to a check. I did what I always do, “It’s a courtesy to check, never let them know what you’re going to do until you’re facing a bet.”
He didn’t get it. He folded to a check again on the next hand. I told him he should check because folding to a check was a tell on his play and he just gave up the protection of another player in the hand. The 9s went butt brain idiot on me and told me not to tell the 6s how to play his hand.
I said I wasn’t telling him how to play his hand, I was explaining poker etiquette.
The 9s snorted something like, “And you know how to be rude too!”
That left three players in the hand, including the 9s. Off comes the Turn and the 9s folded, the 10s checked, and the 3s bet putting the 10s at the mercy of the non protection thing I was just talking about. I started to say something to the 9s about it when he grabbed up his chips and raced off to a table transfer.
I sort of snorted, “Gee…the resident pro just left.”
The whole table took off on what a total asshole he was. But don’t worry, he was waiting just a few tables ahead in my line-up. When I hit that game, he was in the 5s. I stood behind the dealer I was tapping out. As she pushed him a pot, he said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m a dealer too. I know what it’s like.”
WTF???? Why on God’s little Earth and green felt tops can someone be a dealer and act like that?
I sat down. I dealt the first few hands and at one point, I gave the 5s direct, colder than a well digger’s ass, eye contact. He looked at me, I looked at him. I wanted to knock him off his chair.
He won a big pot and threw me a $4 toke, explaining that he didn’t normally tip that much but it was in the form of apologizing. He went on to explain that he couldn’t believe how young the kids were in that game and he must be getting old…he had no patience for them and he thought he was better off leaving the game than being ‘pissy’. NO SHIT!
I asked him where he worked. The Sahara. I made a mental note never to go there. Why would I want to play in someone’s game that makes my time in the box miserable? I don’t want to play in his game and act like a Jack-a-low because that is a reflection on me.
Come on…figure it out! Poker is changing. The tight lipped, ‘I’m going to die if I don’t win this hand jackass’ that knows everything, and does this for a living is a dinosaur. If you can’t adapt, you ain’t going to survive in today’s world of players that are running hell bent to jump into the action. That means as a dealer and a player. Get a grip, take a look, test the wind, go with the flow…or get left behind.
*****
Get ready for monumental changes at PokerWorks.Com. A new interface, a bold exchange, new ideas, new thoughts, and tons of information. Everything is changing. Check back often.