Thursday night, mass mayhem, heat, and too much noise in the room…somewhere off in the nether regions of poker, players were jumping up and screaming over a beat or a win – that usually would be in the $2-5 NLH game, but it was happening everywhere it seemed. It’s become a common occurrence because, after all, a poker table is like being on stage. You can hold the floor anytime by making the most noise, having the most chips, groaning or screaming the loudest – and you have a captive audience…not only those trapped at your table trying to get their money back or trying to win more, but the whole playing field surrounding your table has to put up with your noise. Sometimes those energetic bursts are funny, other times they are a nuisance and shred the last jangled edge of MY nerves…that happened to be the case. More than once I wanted to scream, “EVERYONE…JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

I didn’t. I just kept repeating, over and over, to myself, ‘Deep breath, Linda. D-e-e-e-p breath….’ It must have worked, I made it through the full shift. Even though I was four on the Play List and six on the E/O, there was never a snow ball chance in Hell that I was going to make it out of the line-up.

A thread that always surfaces – it’s $30-60 H, unknown player takes the 5s, a few minutes into game play the discussion of who’s playing in Bobby’s Room comes up. The 5s queries the 2s, “If you were the best poker player in the world, do you think you’d have a chance at beating that game?”

An answer came that wasn’t what the 5s thought he should hear so he rephrased the question and threw in, “I think you’re missing what I’m asking.”

I knew on the first question that he was implying they were all cheating and that you could never beat them. After the 2s replied, “No,” and the 5s continued with more statements, I opened my big mouth. I stated that I just did not agree with that at all…that I’d been dealing to them for years.

He told me they could do it so that I would never notice. He could be right but I still don’t agree with him. I’ve watched them and listened to them for years while dealing to them and I just don’t believe it happens in this day and age in most casino poker rooms. First of all, a cheater is usually the one that can catch another cheater because they know what to look for, and I believe that with poker stepping into the mainstream, survellience, shuffling machines, dealers that can’t even handle a deck – let alone know how to set one up, and random seat changes, games, etc., that it just isn’t happening.

I happen to question why anyone would want to set down in that game. It’s my strange ‘brain twists’ stepping into the forefront right now. I did deal to Bill Gates in a $3-6 H game at The Mirage years ago. I think he has the right idea. He just wanted to play poker. If I were a tri-zillionaire, I would do other things with my time and money. I could see coming in and playing every hand in a $15-30 or $30-60 game upon occasion, but playing with any group in particular…nope…and players in lower limit games have a lot more fun when they play than players in high limit do. There have been a few players though – especially in high limit – that I’ve dealt to over the years that were so mean and gnarly to dealers (including me) that if I were a tri-zillionaire, I would play in a game with them. When I won a pot from them, as I pulled it towards my stacks, I would innocently look at the dealer and ask, “Who was in that pot with me?”

When the dealer replied, I would push it all towards the dealer and state, “Oh…then you keep it!”

I believe that would be the greatest pay back to the jerk/jerkette that I could mete out for all the years of suffering through their ‘mean and ugly’ modes. I might even start belly laughing as I pushed it to the dealer. I do have a mean streak.

But on that side of poker, the jerks/jerkettes are few and far between anymore in comparison to when I first hit the poker rooms in Nevada. It’s really a slice of pie to deal the games if you just do your job and there’s very little player heat. Nice!

On a really nice side, I met Scott from Boston. He was waiting for me when I hit the room and we had a chance to visit for a few brief moments and I dealt to him later in the night. He told me that I didn’t have to write about him…but how could I not. He pumped up my ego so much that it would be a shame to just let him stay tucked away in my thoughts. He manages a restaurant and is entertaining the thought of dealing. He also plays poker and runs a home game. He told me that when he first found my site, he printed out pages of my writing and took it for reading materical on a flight he was making. He went on to say that he thought of me as a rock star. *WOW* And when I left the game he was playing in, he simply said, “Rock on, Linda.”

The cream always does come to the top. And I find most of it…or it finds me!