Trapped – $50-$100 PLO

Help Mrs. Wizard! There’s a lobster trap off the coast of the Poker Pit and I’m trapped in it! Oh my sins of Neptune…I’m being throwing into the cooking pot and it’s filled with a roiling mass of $50-100 PLO! 1s – Tony, 2s – walking, 3s – Herschel (a few posts on him last year) 4s – play over, don’t know his name but I remember him, 5s – Asian, unknown to me, 6s – S.C., appears around tournament time, 7s – Eskimo, 8s – name unknown but familiar, 9s – none other than the dreaded Devilfish.

Someone crank up the flame, I’m starting to cringe as my butt hits the seat and the 5s throws a $5,000 Baccarat chip to S.C. and wants him to change it. My antennae are up and I know I’m asking for more heat but I do my job. “That chip is not in play and not allowed on the table.”

The heat goes up. “It’s a Bellagio chip.” – “Why would you say anything?” – “Just stay out of it.” from three different places around the table.

I do the stumbling fall, trying to jump out of the pot that’s starting to simmer, “It’s a gaming regulation. I can get written up for allowing it on the table and possibly lose my job over it.”

Not only am I trying to escape the heat of the water but now it’s filled with incoming flack.

Dodge this! Devilfish was firing at me, “Why do you want to make noise about it? Just look the other way.”

More heat as I proclaimed again that it was a Gaming Regulation. The 4s – play over said, “Linda is always straight forward and is one of the best dealers here.”

I thanked him.

The 5s demanded that I call for chip change then. I did. I called for Carmen. She appeared next to Devilfish. He tried to smooth talk her. I told her I was getting heat for announcing that a Baccarat chip couldn’t be on the table.

She asked me who – I pointed right at Devilfish. She told him not to give the dealer a bad time for doing her job right.

In the meantime, the 1s snagged the chip, slipped $5,000 in black over to the 5s, stuck the big chip in his pouch and told them they were all dumb butts…not necessarily in those words.

Carmen left. The 5s won a pot and told me that he didn’t like tipping but he was going to tip anyway and threw me $3. He informed me that the next time I should just go with what the table wanted and not say anything.

Hell…I just can’t shut up. So turn up the heat. I declared, “It’s a gaming regulation. I can lose my job over it!”

About this time, Herschel jumped in. He can be a meany butt at times but he was wonderful here, “We’re only going to be playing a few days. She’s going to be here after we leave. If she gets fired, we aren’t going to give her a job…leave her alone.”

By now I was on edge. Really concentrating on making sure I knew what was in the pot and trying to keep from being someone’s lunch.

A few hands later, Devilfish and S.C. went to war in a hand. They had over $15,000 each in the pot and the last $7,000, or so, of their bets was in front of each of them because they elected to run ‘it twice’.*

Devilfish was all-in.

On the first run, S.C. showed trip Jacks and Devilfish showed two pair. The second run, Devilfish declared he had a flush. He did…a small one.

He grabbed at his chips and started to pull them back. S.C. laid his hand down but honestly I couldn’t see it. I’m not making excuses for myself, his chips were in the way.

The 1s exclaimed, “He’s got a bigger flush!” pointing to S.C.

Sure enough, S.C. won the whole pot. I pushed about $35,000 to S.C. after I killed Devilfish’s hand.

The Fish was having a fit, making comments about the 1s and how he shouldn’t have said anything, blah, blah, blah.

I’m sure that the Fish could see S.C.’s flush and was just going to try and get his half of the pot back…plus a share of the middle. I hate this kind of poker.

I apologized for not seeing the flush. The Fish went on and on and on and then took a walk.

Turn up the heat, my shell is bright red…S.C. told me I should have seen it. I agreed and apologized for the last time.

The 5s told me that apologizing didn’t make it right. It was my job to see it. No shit? Well turn down the heat once in awhile and give me a chance, buddy.

The whole table talked about ethics and some players. I won’t get into exactly what was said. All of them agreed that NO ONE had seen the flush in S.C.’s hand, with the possible exception of the Fish. Ummmmm-nnnhhhh.

The 1s said the only reason that he saw it was when Devil Fish announced his own flush, the 1s looked at S.C.’s hand.

Someone mercifully kicked me out of the slowly boiling pot just before I stopped screaming. I was on my way to cooler waters and free of the trap.

*I checked with Carmen later and ‘running them twice’ is no longer allowed and hasn’t been for about six to seven months. Sh-e-e-it! Wouldn’t it be sweet if all of us dealers knew that? And everyone conformed? And all the dealers did their job the way it was supposed to be done????