*Post continued*

It’s time to continue, to fill in the blanks left from yesterday, which brings me to a question. If a person is going to call a bet, or going to bet, why don’t they just put the damn chips out on the table instead of saying what they are going to do – verbalizing without moving? I can understand that statement in a no limit game but not in a limit game and I ran in to it twice – once in $80-160 H and the next time in the $40-80 mixed main game. The Mixed game is the one that it really was the worst problem in but that story is coming up.

I drifted through several low limit games and while I was dealing $4-8 H, the $2-5 NLH, along the rail, burst into a flurry of noise. One of the players jumped up and made more noise than the rest of them. But then why not? The player was Mike Matusow. One of the players in my game wanted to know what in the hell Mike was doing over there. I didn’t really know the answer but I conjectured that Mike had a friend in the game and that’s why he was playing so low. Later on I found out that he made a royal flush and that’s what all the noise was about. And yes, he did have a friend in the game.

I hit a $30-60 H and the 4-s played every hand and raised almost all of them. If someone raised in front of him, he reraised. It was like watching a lemming on its way to the ocean. I’ve dealt to him before – he’s a friendly face but I don’t know his name. E.Z. was in the 5s. He chatted with me off and on as I dealt and the game rocked on.

The 4s continued to brutalize himself. Towards the end of my down, he had managed to go through every chip and hundred-dollar bill that had been in front of him when I sat down. He’d lost all sense of reason but he wasn’t out of line in his behavior. He started leaving his cards lay about an inch from his fingers. Of course, I couldn’t reach them. I asked him several times to ‘push them in’. E.Z. reached over twice and pushed them in for me. The next hand, the four seat missed again after slamming as many chips in the pot as he could. This time E.Z. was looking the other way and I couldn’t reach the 4s’s cards. I did exactly what I’d done in the $40-80 Mixed must move game. I moved the deck from my left hand to my right hand, pushed my chair back, stood up, reached over and collected his cards, sat back down, pulled my chair in, switched the deck back to my left hand, and continued the game.

E.Z. looked back about the time I was pulling in the cards and apologized for not helping me. By now I was irritated as hell. I went off, “I don’t understand what anybody accomplishes by leaving their cards out of reach. How can it possibly make the game better? And what the hell does it change?”

E.Z agreed with me. The four seat never even looked up. When I dealt the next hand, I told the 4s I was going to deal his cards right in front of the rack and make him reach for them. Honest – I was laughing about it already. My little outburst helped me clear the air for myself.

The 4s told me, “Go ahead. I don’t care.”

He probably would have liked to stomp the table into the carpet and burn all the cards in the world at that point so he probably really didn’t care. I was laughing as I told him I was only kidding.

I got pushed into the main game, the $40-80 Mixed. This game was a nightmare. The 8s, from the must move game I’d dealt earlier, was in the 8s in this game and slamming chips as fast as he could. He was just in the process of losing one helluva big pot when I tapped the dealer out. The 8s picked up what he had left of chips and cash, made some comment about all the sterling play that he’d seen, and left for the night.

I sat down, announced a Time pot, and already had acknowledged the brush person that was sending a player from the must move game. Not to worry, no one in the game even heard the brush person. So immediately the demands were sent out, “Do they know we have a seat open? There is a most move game.”

That was the beginning of a half-hour of hell. Chris McHugh – 1s, might have been the most relaxed player at the table…other than Sammy – 2s. Chris used to play strictly 7-card stud. He’s taken quite well to this game and I’ve known him a long, long time.

Elaine was in the 4s and she was moving a lot of chips and managing to pull back quite a few of them. The 5s is a semi regular and he looked like he was going through a hell that no other man has ever seen. The stress on his face – and cracking through in his voice – can’t even be explained.

The next hand I dealt found the 5s heads up with the 8s on the River. Elaine had been in the hand on Sixth Street. There were numerous raises when the action was three-way. I simply left the bets in front of all of them because the raises were coming in on autopilot. When Elaine folded, after a bet and call on the River, I pulled her money into the pot as the 5 and 8s were chopping. The 5s went into a voice cracking stress fit wanting to know how much the 8s was taking back. I tried to explain that the last bets had simply been left in front of them.

He kept interrupting me with something that resembled, “I’m only asking a question for God’s sake. I’m only asking a question.”

It didn’t do me any good to try to explain it again because I got another repeat from him. So I let them stack up the money in front of them and count it down to make sure the 5s wasn’t giving up any more than he was supposed to.

There were bills in the pot. The 5s asked to have the bills. I said, “OK.”

As I counted out ten chips and stacked them (and matched up two other stacks next to the first one to signify three stacks of $100 each), and spread three $100 bills to show they were even, and got ready to push the bills to the 5s and the stacks to the 8s, the 5s reached over and counted down one of the stacks of $10 chips. I stop doing everything and sat back in my chair and looked at him. He got the picture from the look on my face. Shit like this irritates me to death. If he wants to know if the damn stacks are correct, all he has to do is watch me count them or ask me to recount them for him.

The 8s opened and Tony came in from the must move game. He was gambling and slamming but I guarantee he couldn’t begin to keep up with Elaine. He lost a few hands and immediately got “the attitude” with me.

The 5s managed to find a bad card in the deck. I didn’t see anything on the card but I didn’t argue with him. I called for a set up, got it, and spread the new deck.

Suddenly Tony looked over and queried, “How come we are getting a new deck?”

Kee-rist! Wonder how hard it is to pay attention.

The 6s and Tony went to war in the next hand. I left the bets in front of them since they were heads up. On the River, Tony bet and the 7s said, “I call,” without putting out the chips.

It was a split pot. Don’t think the 7s could remember that he didn’t put the chips out. He wondered, out loud, if he was getting the right amount while he was pulling back the bet in front of him. It took two other players and me to remind him that he didn’t put the last $160 in the pot.

As I dealt the last couple of hands, I told Chris this game was so difficult to deal because the players were always upset, and never paid attention to anything. He agreed with me. Maybe this game is so good for him because he does pay attention. But coupled with all of the above mentioned things going on in those games, there are other things happening too – like conversations, sweaters coming and going, players walking up and checking the game plaques to see what games are being played, and more. So when there’s major static going on, the game gets really hectic to deal.

The night wasn’t a bust or a waste. The two sessions in $40-80 mixed games were basically a drag but one can’t judge the whole shift on a couple of games.

Along about my next break, when I was at the Cashier’s Cage, a fellow standing at the next cashier asked if I was the Linda with the website. I said yes. His name is John. Hey, John, thanks for introducing yourself.

I ended up with the nuisance break at 2 a.m. – this means I take a half-hour break and have to come back and deal a half-hour before I clock out. I was sitting at an empty table, chatting with another dealer on break, when the 4s from the $30-60 H game was on his way to the Cashier’s Cage…meaning he had to walk directly towards me. As he approached, he had his hand up with a chip in it, “Can you catch this?”

I chuckled as he walked by and slipped a chip into my hand. It was his way of apologizing. I dealt my last game of the night and hit the door.