I started in Fontana. The second heat of the $25,000 Championship Tournament was in progress and I dealt three tables of it before they stopped for the night. This was my first experience with $10,000 chips. Crazy. I’ve worked with $25,000 chips in live games but never $10,000 chips. I skipped through the tournament without a scrape or light bruise. Sweet!

I was back in the Poker Pit at 9 p.m. and my first game was an over active little $2-5 NLH game. Lots of chips moving around. One of our regular players was in the 6s. He’s got a great poker attitude and plays very well. He ended up going to war with the 1s in a hand that cost him all of his chips and he started with the best of it – ain’t that the way it is thought? He was the BB, the 1s put in a moderate raise. He went all-in for $131 more. The 1s thought about it and called. He held K-K. The 1s showed 7-7.

Flop – safe. Turn – safe. River – 7! I jumped when the 7 turned off the deck. Sheeesh!

He did a small exchange on how bad he’d been running and he always got his money in with the best of it but just couldn’t get it to stand up so he had to quit. He wasn’t whining, just talking. He told me he wasn’t mad at me…and he was laughing. *chuckle*

He left the game. He came by later and told me he’d be waiting for me in the parking lot. *all out laughing*

Another $2-5 NLH game that sucked the big one. They were all waiting for each other to fall asleep. That’s they only way they could hope to steal a chip.

$1,000-2,000 Mixed. Five handed. It turned out to be a pretty good game for me because of the 2s, Will, he comes in infrequently. Believe he lives in CA.

$80-160 H that leaned towards, “Hey…where’s the action?” – “I’d rather be home watching tv.” Thank God those games are only a half hour long. The only action that happened in this game was when the game in front of me blew up with an argument between the 6s and the 8s. Everyone in the $80 game was tuned into the argument.

The game in front of me was $20-40 7 Stud. Gus (the one that wanted to shoot the dealer but use a .38 instead of a shotgun so I’d live through it – another post) was in the 6s. Bill was in the 8s. Both longtime regulars, with no sense of humor when they lose a hand, were having a fit with each other. I could hear Bill exclaim that Gus had told him he wished Bill would choke on it (when Bill beat Gus in a hand) and they were bristling and mouthy at each other. Bill jumped up at one point as if he would lean over the table and take a swing at Gus.

Tim – Floorperson – arrived and semi calmed it down but not as fast as he should have. While Tim was there telling them to stop, Nate walked by and did a massively long winded, “SHHH-HHH-HHH!” kind of thing.

Tim threatened them both with taking the night off if it didn’t stop. Bill left a few minutes later and when I hit the game about ten minutes later, four people were cashing out. Ugh! Some of them were the ones I want in a game I deal. Oh well…I dealt that miserable excuse for a poker game with three way action for a bit. Then a few more people sat down. The only funny part of this game was when an elderly gent sat down in the 3s. He purchased chips from one of the players that was racking up and leaving…$800…and left the chips in the racks.

After I dealt his first hand, I said, “Racks aren’t allowed on the table, Sir.”

He did a, “WHAT?”

The 2s responded, “She said you have to take your chips out of the racks.”

The 3s said, “Oh…I thought she said no rocks were allowed at the table.”

*mega laughing*

The next game hit the top of the chart for unbelievable. It was straight Deuce to 7. Six handed when I sat down – with only six chairs at the table. The Time Pot was over…and BOOM! Two players that would have been in the Blind left. It was now four handed, 2s – Lenny M., 4s – name unknown but plays during our tournaments, 6s – Lee, 7s – Complete unknown.

There was so much going on, it’s almost impossible to explain all of it and put it into some semblance of order.

Lee would appear to be in the 5s – there was no chair in the 6s position…just empty space. That’s what started the whole thing. Lenny left the table on his blind and returned a few minutes later to push his chips down to the empty space in the 6s position. He wanted to take his Blind there. Lee began chirping and having a fit that they were seven handed and there was no seat open there. Lenny told me to call a Floorman. I did.

Nate came over, I tried to explain and Lee kept butting in, broken English and all, interjecting over the top of me. Nate stopped him to let me explain.

The 4s demanded that I deal.

Lenny demanded that I not deal because the wanted to take the blind in that seat.

The 7s told them all that he was leaving if they just didn’t stop arguing and play poker. And threw in a lot more than that, it went something like this, …that was why he hated playing at Bellagio…they complained all the time…if they got a comp for $20 they couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t for $24…the dealers hated dealing to them all (wow! how did he know?) and on and on and on.

Lee was pulling a seat out and pushing it to the empty space, jumping in it, jumping up, pushing it back to the place it had originally been in, jibber-jabbering all the time he was doing that.

Nate decided Kamell had to be called. After Kamell arrived, Lee continued with his antics of jumping in and out of chairs, jibbering and laughing, the 7s told Lenny that he could move if he wanted but he wouldn’t get position on him anyway because he, the 7s, was leaving, and he dropped all of his blue chips on the table for me as he racked up and headed for the Cashier.

I sat there, waiting for the smoke to clear and listened to Lee. Another player arrived.

Kamell spoke with Lenny for a few moments.

The new player wanted to play mixed games. Another argument started. The 4s only wanted Deuce. Lenny, the new player, and Lee decided to start a mixed game. The cards were spread to draw for the Button and game choice, the 4s racked up and left, the unknown from the 7s came back by the table and told them – specifically mentioning Lenny – that they should be ashamed of themselves and that they should look in the mirror and when they did…kill themselves.

Lenny told the unknown that he should start by doing that himself. Kamell came by the table and Lenny told him the unknown wasn’t letting it drop. The unknown was walking as he was talking.

Ke-e-e-rist!!! And how about all of that? I got pushed. Lenny stayed in the seat he was in when I sat down. Go figure!

*****

When I left Bellagio, the cocoon was being torn away and the wings of the beauty were emerging, in other words, the walls that have masked the newly remodeled Poker Room were coming down. I did manage to sneak a ‘walk through’ earlier in the night. The door from the Sport’s Book was unlocked and other people were walking in and looking it over. It’s purty! And big! Nice remodel!

After I left Bellagio, I was trying to batten down the hatches, hold onto my hair, and grab trees and bushes for support to keep from being blown away by the ever irritating, completely obnoxious, wind gusts that shoot across the desert of late. Even when I made it to my sweet little truck, the wind slammed into it and I wondered if I’d be blown off the freeway and land somewhere in Red Rock Canyon.

Jerk, lunge, slam, pound – could it be a giant was playing basketball in the bed of my truck? Wow! Brutal. And scary. One time while coming into work, with major construction going on, a piece of plywood careened across the freeway. Other times while heading down the Strip to reach employee parking, pieces of ceramic roof tile have hit the street and broken into a zillion pieces…who knows what else they hit.

I like a breeze…not but this straight out of hell, rip your face off wind. Come on Mama Nature…ease up.