Saturday afternoon I had plans to meet Gary and Marie for lunch/dinner at the Peppermill. The Peppermill is not a casino, it’s a restaurant in the front – great food, lots of it, nice atmosphere – and a super ‘love’ rendezvous spot in the bar in the back. Sure there are machines in the bar for the patrons seated at the bar, what bar doesn’t have them? But the rest of the place is cozy, suggesting romance and more – on the spot. You have to see it to truly appreciate it. A group of us, namely Carmen Bates, Pete Popovich, self, and a few variables used to meet there one night a week after work during our Mirage days. We didn’t meet there for love, we met there to drink. But back to Saturday.

We met at 4 PM, had food, and Marie and I were having wine. Marie was going to play at the Stardust, Gary was going to play at The Mirage. I sort of slipped into gear to go to the Stardust with Marie. It has to be pretty close to 15 years or longer since I ventured through the doors of the place. I’m not sure why it struck me as strange but there were quite a few people working there that I remember. I just thought people would move on to other jobs over a period of time. But not these people. One of the dealers, Tuan – peppy, cute, and gabby – was telling me how they were going to get a bonus package from the Stardust when it closed. If they’d been there 25 years, they were going to get $10,000. I can’t imagine working there all that time and getting $10,000. I think Tuan gave up mega thousands in tips in 25 years to stay at the Stardust. Maybe not but looking around the room and the games that were going, I believe it to be so.

I first began playing at the Stardust when I came to town from 1987-89 to deal poker tournaments. The room had 23-24 tables at the time and was hopping. That’s where I first met Roy Cooke and Sissy Bottoms. They played $10-20H and were in the game or on the list for the games every time I went to the Stardust. I played $3-6 in those days and that’s what Marie and I both signed up for now. The room now has 12 tables. And is all small limit. And they do have NLH with a small blind structure.

There were five tables running and Marie and I took a seat at an empty table as there was a small list. We visited as we bought our chips from the dead spreading dealer. I set up my chips, put my camera on the table, edged it up against my chips, and we were ready to play. A few people joined us and we kicked off the game. A few people that were in a $3-6H game next to us jumped up and joined our game. I questioned Marie as to whether they were ‘props’ because most places won’t let you leave a game in progress to join a new one unless you are on a transfer list. It appeared that no one in the room used the word ‘transfer list’.

Apparently two of the tables have Shuffle Masters in them and we were at a table that was hand shuffle. I was on a little intermittent rush. Marie was on my left, the guy on my right was probably late 20’s and playing almost every hand. He kept throwing his hand away when there was no bet to him. The first time he did it, I said, “Sign of weakness!”

Most of the table laughed and he informed me that he “played by the odds.”

Whatever the hell that means. He must’ve known what the odds were that 6-7 off suit would beat A-A though. I raised it pre-flop with Aces, the Button player and Mr. Odds, called. The Flop brought K-7-3 and I led the bet when Mr. Odds checked. The Turn brought a 6, and I led the bet again. The board paired 7’s on the River. Mr. Odds checked, I checked, the Button bet, Mr. Odds raised and I threw my hand away. The Button paid to see 6-7 and THREW his cards at the dealer because he got Kings and Sevens beat. Poor guy! Mr. Odds was rebuying before I left the game and the Button grabbed what was left of his chips a few rounds later and huffed off. Hey…that’s poker in the big city, get used to it.

Who does the voting on these things?

Ken was the youngest dealer there and probably the newest. I’d guess in his early twenties. Dealer roast on the way…sorry Ken but you’re it! About 30 minutes after our game started, Ken walked up and informed me that I couldn’t have my camera on the table. I asked, “Even with the lens cap on?”

He said something about taking pictures of the cards. Yup! That’s why I take a camera with me. I never see enough of them in my working hours. I need pictures to remind me. I was in a hand and he stood behind me until I took it off the table. Busted by the camera police disguised as a dealer. I thought about asking him if cell phones were allowed on the table but I didn’t think he’d get it.

Not to worry, he came in to deal to us about two hours later. He jumped right onto my bad side by announcing, “The game will speed up. I deal pretty fast but I’ll try not to over run you.”

Kee-rist! If pointing your fingers and waving your hand at the third player behind the first player to act, just because the first player moved his hands toward his chips and the second player to act blinked, OK…he’s faster than greased lightning. His mechanics were half assed and he tried to pull all the bets in, even the ones where someone raised and two or three players didn’t call the raise.

I told him he’d be better off if he left the bets in front of the players until the action was complete. He semi acknowledged me. When two players in front of me hadn’t acted on their hands yet, and he was pointing at me, I demanded, “Slow down! Let people act on their hand.”

He still informed us from time to time that he was pretty fast. Get real KID! Then when I was UTG, as he dealt the last two cards of the round, he said, “The buttons right, the blinds are out, the hand is dealt.”

WTF!!! I looked right at him and asked, “So what does that mean to me?”

He said, “Well, it’s up to you.”

I retorted, “I knew that,” as I held my hand longer than normal before folding. Believe me, I’ve learned why players hate dealers over the years. SHUT UP AND DEAL!

The Stardust isn’t a bad room, just pretty quiet and laid back. They have a free roll tournament every week, play 15 hours live and receive a free seat in the tournament with a $1,000 guaranteed prize pool. They also have three other buy-in tournaments every week but damned if I know what they are. And they have bad beat jackpots:

One of the things I noticed, in the early years when I played there, the dealers were given certain rotations. Like new dealers only got to deal $1-5 7 Stud, they never rotated through the whole room. Experienced dealers dealt only the gravy games. Now I seriously have to question how someone could spend 25 years there…$10,000? Aghh-pht! Fire me kids!

But now it appears they rotate through all of the games. If that’s not the case, how did we end up with Ken, the really fast dealer?