Sometimes the weekend leaves me feeling as if I need to go back to work to rest and catch up on taking the time to breathe. This past weekend seemed to unfold in a rush of activity, very little sleep, and before I knew it, it was early Monday morning and Sandman Land was calling. A few of us did the ‘cave hike’ on Saturday a.m. The cave sits in the wall of a canyon, hidden from view, in a canyon across from Red Rock Canyon. It’s touted as being the biggest cave in S. Nevada – it’s bigger than Bellagio’s poker room, even with the remodel. The moisture inside the cave was amazing…all that rain we had is still seeping down through the rock and earth. Flowers were in bloom everywhere along the trail which made the hike even more awesome.

I hosted my usual Pan/Big Deuce game on Saturday night, dinner on Sunday night to celebrate Chad’s Birthday, a few hours of sleep, and back to work.

Work!!! Sometimes I honestly feel as if it’s not work. I do enjoy my job. It’s sort of like watching a sitcom and I’m in the perfect seat to observe the show. The show started like this:

Table 2 – three players left in the daily tournament. David Levi and two unknowns. David went bust during my down and the other two, a guy and a gal (she had all the chips) were still dueling it out when I pushed out.

Table 4 – $80-160 H. Only a few familiar faces. Three $80’s were in progress and this was the main game. A war started on Table 5, directly in front of me, about contesting a seat change. The Floor Person had to be called for a decision. Somewhere in all the noise and confusion, the seat change issue was between Ritchie and Eskimo. After the smoke cleared, the game just dissolved into nothing. A few walked and others just cashed out. Hey…works for me. I thought I’d be sitting a ‘dead-spread’ when I got there.

I cruised through rest of the down and hit Table 5. For just a heartbeat, I thought I was going to get away without having to deal anything on that table. It had been a Mixed Game with a $100-200 limit. KEE-RIST! Here they come. Unknown – 1s, Minh – 3s, Vinny – 4s, Ritchie – 6s, Cuckoo – 7s (walking). They kept trying to hustle Bobby out a Deuce game on Table 13, (Tables 4, 5, 13, 14, and 15 are all ‘up top). They had to play a higher limit than the $80-160 Deuce that was going on Table 13 and Bobby semi acted like he would come over if they upped the limit. They decided on $200-400 straight Deuce and I called the Floor Person to bring me a game plaque and limit change. Bobby put a $5,000 chip down in the 5s and went back to Table 13. Vinny jumped into the 8s. While the Floor Person was looking for a limit sign, they decided to play $300-600.

They drew for the Button, I dealt. Minh was on a terror with raising every hand and drawing two and three cards. Ritchie was in stitches, continually making comments about Minh’s raising and how the limit was too low for Minh and he didn’t care about the money. Minh normally plays the Big Game limits.

Minh and Vinny went to war. Minh took three cards on the first draw, Vinny took one. Start the raising wars. Minh took one card and stayed pat on the last draw. Chips were flying, stacks of blacks were shoved into the pot and Minh turned over a wheel. I thought Vinny was going to go ballistic on me but he managed not to spit and go too crazy. He did throw the Button into the rack on the next hand when it was moving to the 1s. I cautioned him, “Don’t throw anything into the rack.”

The comedy starts here. A few hands later, on the first draw, as I gave Minh his two cards, one of them did a slight pop up towards Minh. He told me it was exposed and granted he was the only one that could have seen it but still…I turned it up and called for a decision. Hell, I have no idea what is supposed to happen there. The card was a King.

Ritchie and Vinny both had a bit of a fit, exclaiming that no one would have seen the card but Minh, it was ridiculous for him to say anything, that if it had been a wheel card he would have not said a word, blah, blah, blah. Skip arrived. I explained to him what happened. The argument was still going on with Ritchie, Vinny, and Minh about the card and who would have seen it and a few million other things. Minh’s English is very broken and not only was he right in the middle of the Dialogue Dance, he was kicking up the tempo.

Skip told me to shuffle the King and the rest of the deck. Vinny barked at him for his decision, Ritchie balked at it. I waited. Skip thought about it for a few seconds longer and decided to go get Pete (shift supervisor). I waited.

Vinny snorted at me, “What’s going on dealer?”

I said, “I don’t know.”

He barked, “You just cost me $3,000 and you don’t know?”

I looked at Minh, Minh returned the look and I swear we both shared the same thought…Vinny was losing it.

A minute or more went by. Pete arrived. I explained what had happened.

Cuckoo came back and sat down.

(tip – never venture from a page in wordpress without saving first. Woops! rewrite what you spent an hour on)

I explained the situation over again to Pete. His decision, since it was the first draw, the King would become the burn card and Minh would receive a new card. Done deal. Vinny, Ritchie, and Minh were at war in this hand. Minh won the next couple of hands.

Vinny exclaimed, “She likes you. That’s why you are winning.”

Sure kids. I control the shuffle master, the stars, the wind, the sun and moon. Need something done on the supernatural plane? Call Linda. She can get the job done. WTF!

My turn to retort. “Sure I like him but what does that have to do with poker?”

Minh jumped into action here. One of the things I love about him is that if he believes something to be so, broken English and all, he’s going to let you know about it.

“No…she love everybody. She love Chau. She love Chip. She love Doyle…”

Vinny interrupted him, “But she doesn’t love Cuckoo.”

I almost fell out of my chair on that one. Cuckoo and I’ve had our share of bad times but we manage to patch up now and then. I looked directly at Cuckoo, “We’ve shared hugs away from the table. Tell the truth, Cuckoo.”

His reply was even funnier. “Yes…but we don’t have to explain anything to him. He’s from Korea.”

Out of nowhere Vinny decided he wanted to touch the tattoo on the back of my neck. “What is that? A bird?”

“Yes.”

The game went on. Lots of raises from Minh. Chuckles and retorts from Ritchie about how Minh wanted to give his money away and the deck wouldn’t let him. Vinny won a few pots. I got pushed…thank you, God. I know you are always looking out for me. Come hell or high limit…er…ahhh…are they one and the same?