One night this week, I ran into all the games that I’d managed to skip for the last few months…there they were, a giant lump, with me pitched into the middle of it. Not dealing for almost a month probably made it a little easier to digest since it appeared to be more entertaining than irritating.

I started on 40B, meaning that within a half an hour, I would be dealing Bobby’s Room. The hardest part of dealing this game is the ‘prop’ bets that some of the players have. Good God…no…don’t think for a half a second I understand any of it, because I don’t. I really don’t have time to even try to think about it because it takes enough concentration just to deal the games and keep the bets straight, give change, and everything else that’s involved in dealing. About half of them were doing the ‘props’ and when they had certain cards, chips were flying through the air to the winner of the bet…along with chips that were being bet on the play of the hand. There were so many chips in transit sometimes I wasn’t sure if I should deal or wait or what the hell was going on.

Chau had a small, bright orange hazard cone by his chips that read I’M ON TILT and during one hand he set it out in front of him and raised. It was funny.

Jim M. was in the daily tournament – that was my next table. Sure…remember? He’s Silent Bob. Totally hysterical from my POV and true to form, he never stopped talking. It got down to Jim and a new player and they cut a deal, with Jim receiving the title of winning the tournament. I ran into Jim later in the night in an $80-160 H…more on that coming.

Table 5 was my next stop. $400-800 Mixed with Layne F., Lee S., Freddie D., David L., Jimmy W., Eskimo, Amir, and Will. Within the first few hands I dealt, Layne won a big pot and went into a ‘read her name tag…took you long enough, Linda…I knew it would happen someday…just didn’t know what year…’

It was funny. We’ve always had a little camaraderie because of the Montana thing.

Freddie had been walking and returned to the 5s. He was wearing some pretty sharp looking shades and Layne complimented him on them and then asked if they were prescription, etc. Freddie handed them to Layne, Layne put them on, and I put up the Flop – 3-3-3.

Layne exclaimed, “Oh my God! I could never wear these, I’m seeing triple!”

Everyone…including me…roared. Well, except for Eskimo and Jimmy.

The game was pretty intense and a lot of chips passed back and forth during my down…these guys were jamming. But they were easy on me and that is a good thing.

I hit a $2-5 NLH. It should have been a slice of pie but the 4s seemed to take a suggestion I made as being personal. He was standing up, looked at his cards, and raised it…and stayed standing. He was an older gent and quite tall. The chair and sitting was probably bothering him. Trying to be polite and not really knowing what a decision would bring, I said, “I don’t know if it’s the rule in this game, but in tournaments, you have to be in your seat or your hand is dead.”

He huffed at me, “Well I’ve been coming here for 30 years and that’s not the rule and this isn’t a tournament.”

Well kiss my grits! I replied, “This is my first day but I do know the difference between tournaments and side games.”

He clammed up and so did I. I’m not sure where he’d been going for 30 years but up until a few years ago, NLH was not a daily game in most casinos. And Bellagio opened in 98…let’s see…30 years?

Next on the list was the $80-160 H with Jim M. in the 1s. He had me laughing through most of my down, talking non-stop, and going through all kinds of faked emotional stress over the 4s’s girlfriend/sweater that had her chest pretty much bared to the world. At first Jim made a comment to her that he was old enough to be her granddad and he couldn’t stand to look. He lowered his head and put his hand out like a blinder while he talked shit for the next few hands. Shit talking? Like asking the 4s to have her zip up the sweat top a little bit. She was giggling and laughing. She did zip it up a little, and then he asked her to unzip it a little.

Sometimes in Vegas where you see it all, I really wish you didn’t see a lot of it. It was embarrassing. More so to the girl, IMHO.

And Jim put the icing on the cake when he said, to me, “I bet those aren’t the tits her mother gave her.”

Then it was off to a three handed, $200-400 Mixed game with K.K., Jimmy G., and David L. Ugh! Jimmy was having one of his bad days and it’s difficult to deal with his attitude and comments. He always acts like it’s something personal going on between the dealer and him…like the moon is out of sync and it’s causing a reaction of discord or something bizarre is throwing the elements out of whack, when in essence, it’s just the run of the cards.

The strangest part of this game was during an A-5 hand in which David was the Button. K.K. discarded two, Jimmy tapped ‘pat’, and just as David discarded two, Jimmy discarded one. Huge turmoil. David and Jimmy were going back and forth…Jimmy arguing that he’d misread his hand, David arguing that Jimmy waited until he knew David was drawing two, Jimmy doing a, “Do you want me not to draw?”

It was obvious David wasn’t happy with the way the hand was going so why argue about it. I called for a decision.

Before the Floor got there, David was conceding that Jimmy needed to leave the discard away from the muck and have someone verify that it was a legitimate misread. Well hello, Layne! Layne bounced over from Table 5, looked at Jimmy’s remaining four cards and the discard, and declared, “Absolutely. There’s no question about it!”

Ok…damn it! The Floor arrived, it was too late, and the boys all agreed that if Layne said so, it was legitimate so the game went on. And yes…Jimmy won the hand.

*post-poned*