Time to write. I’m not sure how to catch up. Sunday found me making a huge step…I actually put a down payment/hold on the Fifth Wheeler. And the rest of that story really is coming up; actually it’s a plan, but the time to divulge the plan is not now.

I blazed into work on Monday night, determined to work my full shift. Hell, I have to license that big assed truck and nothing is cheap in Nevada so I’d best be ‘burning and turning’ ’til my li’l fingers feel the pain. I started on Table 36, $30-60 H, then $15-30 H, $30-60 H, break, and off to Table 1.

The game was seven handed, $2,000-$4,000 but the game plaque read $4,000-$8,000. I questioned the limit when I sat down and the first bet came out. I really can’t figure out how dealers let that go. I have to look at the plaque to know what the hell I’m dealing. Perhaps I’m the only dealer that has to do that and the rest of them are psychic. That taken care of, I made it through the down without an error even though the ‘prop bets’ were flying like crazy between Jennifer, Eli E., and Barry G. I still do not understand or even try to figure out prop bets. It takes enough concentration just to deal the games and make sure everything is correct. The other players were Chau, Johnny, Minh, and one player was walking (their chips were covered by a Play-over Box) – Phil I. came in and took the empty seat just before I got pushed.

I got the magic reroute after that game. Really there wasn’t a lot of magic involved but it was kind of fun. $10-20 NLH on Table 15 – Phil Laak was in the 4s and Joe Hachem was standing behind him during the entire down. This table is right next to the Sport’s Book and a crowd gathered in there, looking over the rail at the game. I would bet all my wages for the next year that they were looking at Phil Laak and probably had no idea who Joe Hachem was. Joe was on the list and got into a game later but it was one of the Must Moves.

On my next break, as I headed through the casino for the Employee’s Area, I passed Jennifer Tilly. She was straight on, dead ahead, in the direction of the poker room. When I saw her in Aruba at the Ultimate Bet Award’s Banquet, I asked her if I could take her picture. She was damn cute, “Please do.” And then when Phil approached, she said, “Take a picture of me and my man.” I did…but it was too dark and it didn’t turn out worth a damn but thanks to ‘jasc’ it isn’t completely horrible. I said “hello” to her and she said “hello” as she sped on by.

The room began to quiet down around 1 a.m. and the game I was dealing broke at 2 a.m. giving me the ‘double bust out’. I took it and ran for the door.

Tuesday night was a stomper. I called in late as I really did go to the DMV and stand/sit in lines to license the truck. I managed to leave there, with everything in order, by 6:30 p.m. Dave was the person that issued my registration and license and took a lot of my money for State matters but he was probably the most cheerful, helpful State employee I’ve seen in a long, long time. And he wasn’t going home when he finished with me, they still had 85 people waiting. Nice to have someone wait on me that late in the day that had a smile and was thoughtful enough to notice my Driver’s License was going to expire in May and he would just do the renewal for me now so I wouldn’t have to come back. I jumped at the chance. I usually renew everything on the Internet but some things must be done in person.

I hit the room at 8 p.m. instead of my usual 7 o’clock time. I started a game with Amir and Mike Wattel, mixed $600-1200 limit with $100-200 PLO. They played a few hands, heads-up, and two youngsters came over from the game on Table 5. Most people really don’t realize how big of a game PLO is and how dangerous it can be. The two youngsters went to war in one hand, with over $15,000 apiece in the pot, one of them went home for the night.

$10-20 NLH on Table 15 was next on my list. Several people in this game were regulars. One of them, Sonny, believes I have some kind of bad mojo working with him and I’m positive that he’s hoping to find a few of the hairs from my head so he can build a voodoo doll to burn after a hand in this game. But before that hand happened, Jim and Cowboy were in a hand, about $600+ in the pot and they agreed to ‘chop’ it. Before they did anything, I said, “You can’t chop pots in this game.”

One of them said, “Just push him the pot,” motioning to the other player.

I sounded like a Jilted School Marm when I snorted, “You are not allowed to chop pots and it’s a serious infraction of the rule.”

What they planned to do was have one of them fold, I push the pot to the one with a hand, and he would just chop it, and push it. I was trying to stop this from happening. Thankfully, Montana Mike had just arrived from a Must Move game and he said, “Get a decision. He tried that with me before and it’s bad for the game.”

While I was calling for a decision, Cowboy told me to just deal the hand out. Jim showed top pair with an Ace kicker and Cowboy threw his hand away. I called for a decision again and Cowboy told me there was no reason to get one because no pot was being split. I stated that a request for a decision and clarification was asked for and we were going to get a decision. We did. The decision is – NO SPLIT POTS. Don’t worry…Jim and Cowboy both knew what the decision would be.

During the next few hands, Jim -9s, Cowboy 7-s, Jim quietly said, to Cowboy, “360.”

And I knew exactly what he planned to do. And it is HORRIBLE for the game. Chopping pots is bullshit! Anyone that thinks it improves a game should go home and stay there – let the rest of the world play poker as it’s meant to be played.

Now we get to the hand that Sonny is building the voodoo doll over. But honestly, where was his brain? I would have to put some seriously thought into this hand before I ever pitched all of my chips in the pot.

Sonny – 8s, was the SB. Seven players called $20 pre-flop. Sonny raised it to $200. Jim thought about it for a moment and folded. More than half of the field climbed right in for $180 more. The Flop came J-6-? – with two diamonds. Sonny stared at nothing and after about 45 seconds, jump started his own brain and asked, “Is it to me?”

While I was saying ‘yes’, Montana Mike jabbed him with, “You raised out of the Blind, so you don’t know it’s to you?”

Sometimes players say what I’d like to say…

Sonny bet $200. The ‘fold wave’ took place to Pablo – 4s, who went all-in for close to $700. Jim leaned into my ear and informed me that he folded a winner. The 5s called Pablo’s all-in. The ‘fold wave’ moved around to Sonny who blurted out, “All-in!”

The 5s thought about it for 3 ½ seconds and stated that he called. I burned and turned the Turn and River leaving all the money in front of each player – without pulling it into the pot. A diamond hit the River and the 5s turned over 7-4 of diamonds with a “I win” kind of thing. That he did. He started to count out his chips and Cowboy told him to let the dealer do it. I counted him down, neatly laying out his bills in overlapping lines of five. He had $2,550 all told.

While Sonny was going ballistico, showing A-A, and that was never any good BTW, Pablo had already folded and was counting out his next buy-in, Cowboy and Jim took a break from the game so they could split up the pot they weren’t supposed to split – away from the table.

Sonny had put out $1,000 and he was still muttering, “He call $200…he call $200…” as he glared at me and stood up and kept muttering and mumbling. I reached towards his stack and did a ‘hand wave’ – like send in your chips damn it…you’re short. He grabbed some bills and barked something like, “You need more, take it!” and threw his 100’s up in the air, some of them landing on the neat rows of the 5s’s bills.

I snapped, “That’s completely out of line and unnecessary.”

I pulled Sonny’s bills out of the way, counted them down, reached over into his stack, since he was stomping back and forth and snarling, and helped myself to $2,550 of his money, which I pushed to the 5s, who threw me a $20 tip and said, “That’s for you dealer!”

Woo hoo! I was really happy with that toke.

Jim and Cowboy returned to the table. Cowboy asked if I got it all figured out. To which I wanted to reply, “Yes and I have your stroll away from the game all figured out. Did you get your half of the pot?” But I didn’t. Not to worry, I ratted them out to the supervisor on my next break. Hey…it’s bullshit. If you’re going to play the game – JUST PLAY THE DAMN GAME. Stop trying to make your own rules…there are other players at the table with rights too.

I dealt the next hand and Sonny literally slammed his cards into my area right by the rack. I snapped at him, “Settle down or take a walk!”

Skip was up around the tables doing some surveillance and he asked what the problem was. I wasn’t the only person that pointed to Sonny. Sonny mutter mumbled through the last few minutes of my down and I got pushed – with him trying to stare a hole through the side of my head.

The best of it was that Sonny was only in first place before the Flop. Jim would have flopped a set of Jacks if he’d played the hand. Pablo flopped a set of sixes. And Sonny, with nothing to draw to except a bare assed Ace, had the biggest fit over empty air…and I’m still trying to figure out how he could just go all-in with that Flop, with two other players in the pot, and especially one of them being Pablo. Sonny’s played with Pablo before and if I were in a hand with Pablo, I’d be really leery because that boy ain’t in there on a draw or a feeling.

There’s more to the night but it will be for another time. I’m dragging.