Get in gear you lazy turtle! Wait…I’m not in Aruba. But my catching up with what’s going on currently is kind of like ‘running on island time’.
Monday night – the 10th, found me back at Bellagio. Festa al Lago was in high gear and I even got to deal five downs of it in The Fontana. Of course I had to embarrass myself on two different counts when someone went all-in and I counted down their chips. I gave the wrong chip count. I have the worst time with that. Perhaps I’m a blonde in disguise, or still in Aruba, but whatever the case, I wish I could just get with it. I know what a stack of $500 and $1,000 and $10,000 are yet when they have stacks and stacks of all of them and I have to count them down, I lose it somewhere. Ahhh…maybe it’s because I try to E/O instead of working. If I worked, I’d become familiar with counting mixed chip stacks on a daily basis…right?
I got rerouted back into the main poker room about three hours into my shift. We have quad-zillion new dealers and none of them want to go home so along about 1 a.m., even though I didn’t sign the E/O, Jason came by and asked me if I wanted to go. I hesitated for one silly second and then said, “Yes.”
Tuesday night was a different story. I pulled the big eight hours. It was grueling; I was crawling at the end of that shift. Serves me right for not working all my shifts – it’s kind of like being in training, it you workout all the time, it’s less painful than an occasional grip and rip. I managed to hit all the black chip games and that’s kind of like fright night simply because there’s no money advantage in dealing them. It’s actually more like a money disadvantage. Something always seems to happen in them though that’s worth writing about.
Three handed, $300-600 Mixed, $400-800 on Razz only. The 1s was taking a beating on the Triple draw games and when the game went to Razz, he wasn’t faring any better. He was also high card most of the time and forced to bring it in. He was getting into the “Unbelievable” part of his poker game – the part where he was completely frustrated, irritated, and wanted to rip the deck apart and he kept saying, “Unbelievable.”
The only funny was when all three of the players received a Queen for their up cards and the 1s had the Queen of Hearts which forced him to open – the other two Queens were Clubs and Diamonds. The 1s was really losing it, “Unbelievable. That’s unbelievable,” as he looked at me.
I normally zip the lip here but I said, “You’re right. It is.”
Jimmy W. was in the 6s and as he folded, he showed the Queen of Spades as one of his down cards and said, “Now that’s unbelievable.”
Hell…I laughed. It was pretty unbelievable. Believe it or not, the 1s and 3s went to war, both with a Queen showing. The rest of the up cards came pretty much, ugly, ugly considering it was Razz. On 6th Street, the 3s gave up and the 1s finally managed to stop the bleeding…seepage was in effect.
I dealt to a lively little seven-handed group playing Mixed games. Marco was in the 6s, Max P. in the 7s. Omaha was in when I hit the table. A few hands later, the 1s and Marco were at showdown on the River. The 1s declared two pair and turned his hand up. Marco held his hand for almost a minute and laid down Aces and Nines to win the pot.
The conversation turned to slow rolling. Max was chuckling and his statement carried over well instead of having a negative effect. He said he hated to be in a hand with Marco on the River – even if Marco thought he was beat at showdown, after looking at his cards for some time, he always found a winner. And damned if it didn’t happen just like that…only throw in a twist.
Marco and Max ended up heads-up on the River. Max turned his hand up – the Board was Q-J-little-little-little – and Max had a pair of Jacks. Marco looked at his hand and looked at his hand and looked at his hand. Marco said something to Max that I couldn’t hear and pitched his hand into the muck. Max picked his hand up like he was moving it out of the way for me to push him the pot, then laid it back down. I started pushing the pot to Max.
Marco did an abrupt, “I had Queens…”
I said something like, “You threw your hand away,” but I stopped pushing.
Marco, “I showed him…” as he motioned to Max.
Me, “Honey, you have to show me. I’m the one that pushes the pot.”
Marco gave up, “Ok. Give it to him then.”
I looked at Max. I knew from the way he looked at the table – without saying anything – that he did see Marco’s hand and he knew he was beat. I also knew that Max wasn’t going to take a cheap shot on Marco and claim the pot. No one said a word. So I took it upon myself to make the decision to push the pot to Marco, with the statement that he needed to turn his cards up on the table or I could be in jeopardy with security and the cameras.
A few hands later, Tom – 8s, misread his hand and discovered that he had the best hand at showdown…after the other player had already shown his hand and was ready to stack the chips. Hey…guess it was just ‘slow roll city’ and they were all OK with it. No one seemed to get ruffled or antsy. Phew!
BTW – Bobby’s Room has another table in it…from two to three. Two of the tables have been running this week. I have managed to miss that room every night…no, not as in *boo hoo* I missed it. As in *yippee* I missed it.
Now it’s time for coffee and a return trip to the tables at “B” tonight at 7 p.m. Yup…it’s my morning for a change. Instead of looking for Sand Woman Land, I’m trying to get the sand out of my eyes. See you there!
