As previously stated, PokerWorks.Com is changing – drastically – for the better. The new pages will be online within a short time. The whole interface is changing. Be prepared! Don’t think you’ve gone to the wrong site or were redirected. The look and feel of Table Tango is changing also. Lots of updating and work still needs to be completed in that area…and it will – where the hell is that gallon of wine? Just kidding! It’s an improvement of everything. So get ready. But remember, if you bookmarked Table Tango, that bookmark will be defunct when the new site launches.
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I received this email from Mary, after a post I put up about a Sahara poker playing dealer. She agreed I could share it with you.
**Begin email**
Linda,
I read your piece on the dealer from the Sahara. When I was in Vegas recently the MGM poker room had just opened that week. I stopped in to check it out and play a few hands. I was not overly impressed with the room, but the folks at my table were interesting.
Among them was a dealer from the Sahara who was the meanest, crabbiest, rudest human I have played poker with ever. (I of course made a note to self to NEVER play at the Sahara). He had only been in Vegas about six months I believe. I think he was trying to earn at least part of his living playing and things were not going as expected, thus the reason he was playing 4-8. He impressed me so much that I was just telling a dealer at my card club about him yesterday. It was odd to read about him in your blog. He had apparently lost thousands in the time that he had been in Vegas to the “damn” tourists. When he stalked away from the table a gentlemen who plays for a living gently explained to me that the amount of money he lost was a lot for a poker dealer. It was a kind thing to say and a nice gesture to make on the part of the player.
The “pro” player himself was quite the character. He was looking at rooms to rent by the week up toward that end of the strip because of the new poker rooms. He was currently renting downtown. He and I had a lively discussion about the various games around town. How the games at Binions were disrupted due to the filming of a movie and how he did not like to play in the tournaments there because of the high vig. He told me that the longest he had ever gone without going bust was 6 months and how health insurance was beyond his reach. I got the impression he was a grinder who never got much above 6-12 either due to insuffient bankroll or lack of skill.
I wish that all the young people who think/dream about going ‘professional’ could have met these two.
**end email**
My second game of the night was spent in The Bobby Baldwin Room. Fairly quiet, the game broke up about halfway through my down because Chip had to leave. One of the funny parts of the conversation:
Doyle and Todd were both in the game. Todd had lost several hands to Eli. Eli, Todd, and Doyle in a hand, Doyle stated, “Don’t worry, Son. I’ll take care of him for you.”
I don’t even remember who won the hand. It was just the cute, protective father statement.
Then when Chip said he had to leave, Doyle started racking up too because he rode with Chip. Eli was razzing Doyle about leaving, Doyle said he rode with Chip. It caused a burst of laughter and comments like, “Your son is here, you could ride home with him.” – “Take a limo.”
Easy game, laughter, and I was on my way up to The Hill. Sam G. was in the 1s and ramble/gamble going on. He tipped me a buck on every pot I pushed him…really unusual. At one point when I stopped to question a player getting a hand, Sam told me to deal, if he was tipping me, he expected me to do what he said. *fall off my chair laughing here*
It’s all in the life of a poker dealer. Right? Right!
I made a colossal mistake in a $8-16 H game. Lots of action in the game. The 10s is a new dealer to our room (not a new dealer, just new to the room).
I put the Flop up, bet and raised, with six callers. I failed to give back $2 in change to the 7s. The 10s stopped me to explain that I hadn’t given the change. Not a problem there. I want the pot to be right. I gave the change.
The problem happens NOW! I put up a second Flop. Chit Mon! This is a first in my dealing career. I just burned and spun off three cards, started to turn them face up (yes, they were exposed), and did the double take. *moans from the players with cards*
I called for a decision. Leave the Burn, shuffle, and proceed. I did, with numerous apologies.
Good God! What have I learned in the last 22 years of poker…whatever it was, it went out the window in that moment.
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A little nit that’s making me crazy. Yes, I love the Shuffle Masters. But…I hate the fact that some of our dealers think, when they leave the box, that they are supposed to open it, put in the old deck and leave it as is for the new dealer.
That means the damn lid is open, a protrudence and irritation – about eight inches high – to reach over to try and collect time or anything else. I ask them to just set the used deck down and let me take it from there. They get a little huffy!
It’s like starting a shuffle, you start, you finish the hand, otherwise you set the deck down and exit the box. FIGURE IT OUT YOU DIPTARDS!