Hey…I think your name is Ben…you sent me an email and SpamKiller ate it when I tried to rescue it. I would be happy to answer if you resend. I hate it when I have to have wars with software programs. Damn things! Why can’t they just work like they’re supposed to?

*****

Monday night – no respite from all the noise and games. I dealt mostly high limit games and was even asked to work OT tonight. Jimmy needed 23 dealers to fill the graveyard shift. I asked to be first on the E/O on O/T. *laughing* I only had to deal a few minutes into O/T and I was out the door. But before I left, I had one of those experiences with a long time player that left me wanting to knock him off his chair…for more reasons than one.

$40-80 7 Stud. A game filled with dinosaurs. The dinosaurs? Give me stud or give me death, moaning and groaning around for years and the dinosaurs just can’t figure out that other people are trying to win too. And the dinosaurs are from the old school – the one where it’s always the dealer’s fault.

Enter Joe R. I’ve posted about Joe before. There are a lot of complexities in dealing with him and to him. We used to have a few laughs and joke around a little bit when I passed him or dealt to him but not anymore. I’ve felt a lot of sympathy for him over the last few years. He’s been dealt devastating blows by life and he’s aged…almost like one day someone sucked the life out of him. It’s hard to see him this way. It’s even harder when he still wants to backhand the cards across the table when he takes a beat. He always had a fit when he took a few beats, even when I first dealt to him at The Mirage in 1989, after all, no one was ever supposed to beat him. Not much has changed in that area.

Joe was in the 1s tonight – a few new faces at the table – and Joe lost a hand because he elected to check it out with Walter on Fifth Street. If Joe had followed through with his betting, he would have won the pot. He was irritated that Walter caught two small pair and Joe made some comment. I could take the comment as being made at me or at Walter and I chose to ignore it.

The game turned into a little ‘chip slammer’. Lots of action and Joe started with Aces and four people joined in a max raised hand. Apparently another player started with Aces too but the 2s made three 8’s on the River and Joe was the only one that paid him off. Card slammer…backhand those babies into the middle of the table and grumble/mumble to the max.

I’ve put up with a lot of tirades from Joe and mostly they just go right over my head but this one really got me. It showed me that he has no ethics and that was part of what irritated me.

Joe and the 8s went to war. On 7th Street, the 8s was high with a pair of Sixes showing…he bet, Joe called. The 8s turned up Queens and Sixes and left one card face down.

I said, “All cards please.”

The 8s turned up another six for Sixes full of Queens. I said, “Sixes full of queens.”

Joe backhanded his cards into the middle of the table and as I pushed the pot to the 8s, Joe growled, “You’re a fucking genius…your just a fucking genius.”

In essence, he was trashing me because I asked to see all the cards…clearly our house rule, in order to claim the pot, you must show all cards. And I’m postive the 8s knew he had a full house, he just didn’t turn it over correctly. He may have been opting for a slow roll but I don’t know the man and I’d bet money he wasn’t slow rolling. I also don’t believe that he was unaware of the full house and there was no way I was ever going to get by him by pushing the pot to Joe if Joe showed two bigger pair. Obviously Joe could beat Queens and Sixes and he felt that I should have shut up and not asked for whole the hand. Which brings me to the point that Joe just lost a trillion points on the Poker Ethics Meter with me.

I pulled the deck together and calmly said, “I may not be a genius, but I am definitely not a FUCKING genius!” directly to Joe.

He shut right up. Good thing for him because I was ready to blow a cork at the idea he would think I was supposed to bypass the 8s’s down card and not ask for the whole hand at showdown.

Guess that’s why dinosaurs are extinct…they couldn’t adapt.