The Pan Game Plays Sam’s Town, 5.15.2006

This is the first time that we’ve had an event on my side of town. The norm is that I pick up Marie, on my way to wherever we are going, and this time we decided she would pick me up. I had even toyed with walking since it’s just a skip from where I live. We arrived, found ‘call ahead’ parking, and headed into the room right at 6 PM. Of course we were the first ones there.

I’m really bad about paying attention to how many poker tables are in a room. I believe there are eight at Sam’s Town. I played the first WPBT Tournament, hosted there, in December ’04, and haven’t been back since nor had I played there previous to that in somewhere around eight or nine years. This little gig of meeting my ‘buds’ for poker is actually giving me a great look at the whole poker scene in the Vegas Valley.

There were two tables of $4-8 H running, with one seat open, when we put our names on the list. Marie bought chips, made a bathroom run, and told me to play for her. I sat down in her seat, told the dealer that the chips belonged to my friend and asked if I could play them. The dealer replied that I could NOT and that I couldn’t even sit at the table if I wasn’t playing. I retorted, “Good! I didn’t want to sit here anyway.” It was all good natured and the rest of the players chuckled over it.

There were five or six men seated at different tables throughout the room. I had the impression they were shills or props, just from the way they looked and acted. Sam’s does run two tournaments nightly and one was starting at 7 PM. It’s possible that some of them were waiting for the tournament but the way people moved in and out of the games, it just felt like they were house employees. And later in the night, one particular incident made it almost completely positively true that they did. Yet when Wayne asked several of the employees, including the Brush, they all denied that they had props or shills. I really could care less if they have props or shills; it was more of a curiosity thing with me.

The age of the average poker play in the room was me plus 10. Although the average age changed as the night progressed, it was still mainly the ‘white hairs’ that dominated the tables:

Shortly after Marie returned and took control of her chips and chair, I got a seat in the other $4-8 game. It was really too funny. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of playing with the grizzled old crew at The Oxford in Missoula MT. These guys were sitting on their case $100 and never going to get off of it for anyone. Of course I couldn’t make a hand, even though I tried to bounce the boys around a little bit when I picked up pocket 10’s – then 8’s – then 9’s but I never made a hand and they stacked my chips. The 5s was the grimmest of the grim. What a character. He simply acted like he hated everyone. One time he put out a $4 straddle on the BB and the dealer kind of appeared shocked and asked, “Is that a straddle?”

The 5s’s sarcasm would challenge battery acid any day, “No! It’s a tip for you.”

Grouching, smouching old fart. But too funny to watch as he threw chips in the pot. He played some extremely crappy hands poorly and managed to make enough to leave the game after a few hours. The 8s in this game was a kindly person that just wanted to kibitz, he did. He even offered to change seats with me when Marie came to my game so we could sit next to each other. We did. Then he took the 6s later on. This picture is in grayscale – because it just does them both justice. The cowboy hat is the kibitzer, you guess who the other one is:

The first hour we were in the game, it was impossible to get cocktail service. They did have coffee and water available in the poker room if we wanted to serve ourselves. I didn’t. When she did arrive, she was completely rude, short tempered, and tried to stomp away without getting my order and a couple of other player’s orders. Kee-rist! If I’d been the poker room supervisor, I would have written her up. Those damn unions don’t do what they are supposed to do, they allow immunity to the freaks that won’t do their job.

Suzanne arrived and managed to get a seat fairly fast. After suffering through several beats, she left the 1s and sat next to Marie. Viv arrived sometime shortly after that. She snagged the 9s, next to me. We talked the 2s into taking our picture:

Somewhere in this time frame, the tournament cranked off and we had seats open. Funny…but the other table never seemed to be short and we had a player that had been in our game earlier, jump back in, almost like a prop or shill would do.

Wayne arrived, put his name on the list, and he was in our game in no time – in the 3s. The only thing wrong with the picture is that damn cigarette he’s adorning his ear with. GET OVER IT, Wayne! Give them up! Live longer, have more cash. (Doris – this is for you!)

The game went from slow to fast to the speed of light back to slow and revved back up again. A new face took the 4s. He put three racks of chips on the table and he liked to play. He was very smiley, kept giving me a lot of eye contact and smiling, as we threw chips back and forth at each other, and he didn’t speak much English or what he did speak of it, I just didn’t catch. Damn I liked him in the game – obviously, he’s the one on the right:

He went through a lot of those chips and brought two more racks to the table. The downside is that Marie and I and he went to war in one hand. I had A-6 D, Marie had A-K, and he had 9-7. The Flop was A-7-6. Super jam, all the raises went in. The Turn brought a 6. More slamming and jamming, all the raises went in. The River was a blank and more raises went in, except Marie finally gave up about the third raise, and he thought we were cheating. He even made some comment that we were playing together to Wayne, as he racked up and headed over to the other table. (No one, in management or dealers, said a word to him and made him come back to us…damn they run that part of the room really screwy.) Maybe he left because about 10 minutes before, he flopped a set of 4’s and Marie flopped a set of 6’s (I think) and they both filled on the River. They raised each other heads-up until she ran out of $$$. And after she beat him in that hand and we both were against him in the next hand, I can see how he might have started to feel as if he was getting pinched. But…Marie and I play very hard against each other, even in heads-up, so we never ‘pinch’ anyone. They do that all by themselves.

Gordon called – they were on their way. Wow! This is the first time Carole and Gordon have joined us in a ‘play Vegas’ meeting. They used to come to my house all the time but they’ve been extremely busy. I hadn’t seen Gordon at the poker table in years so I had to have a shot of him. He took the 6s – Suzanne left us to meet her family for dinner.

Sylvia and Pam showed. They were playing – but not the game of poker – they were looking lusty and busty, little hotties, just stopping by to say ‘hi’ and see what kind of turmoil they could start with all the ‘white hair’ in the room. Good job, girls! Wayne was out to smoke a cigarette and I asked him to be part of their picture.

These girls didn’t hang with us very long. They said they were going to the cowboy bar. See ya!

Several events happened during game play that turned into a debate and the calling of the Floor Man once. The 10s took some really ugly beats, he even took them pretty well, and managed to walk quite a bit during the first hour and a half of play. At one point, when I returned to a Missed Blind Button, I waited until I was in the Straddle position and threw in $4 (they have the $1-$2 blind structured so a straddle goes to $4 and a raise goes to $6). The 10s had an argument with the dealer – I couldn’t do that, I had to put in $5. The dealer argued back, so did I. The hand was dealt. Later on, I came back to a Missed Blind Button in between the Button and the SB. I asked if I could buy the button. The dealer was new and he said I could but he didn’t know what it was called. Again the 10s went nutz-z-z-z-. We called the Floor Man. “NO!”

Ok. No problem-o on my part. The 10s went on to inform me that he had been a supervisor at the Bike and the Commerce and there was no such thing allowed as buying the button…anywhere. And the thing where I had put in $4 for the straddle, he had gone to the Floor later and asked and I had to put in the extra $1 for the missed SB. He said they didn’t do what I had done anywhere. *Hello! Linda goes off.*

I informed him that they do do that in lots of places, like The Mirage and Bellagio, and other parts of the world. He got over it. Especially after he won a massive pot in which everyone called every raise pre-flop and he flopped a diamond draw and got there when I made a Broadway on the Turn. I got out on the 2nd raise on the Turn but lots of players paid him off and raised him on the River. The pot was over $300 and he was even and happy. He left shortly after that.

Another wrinkle up my nose is dealers. I can’t help it. I’m never going to change my attitude in that area so I may as well just ‘tell it like it is’. Most of the dealers were friendly and dealt a pretty good game. Most of them dealt to us two to three times during our play. One of them in particular irritated me to death. He barked everything in staccato fashion – repeating each action as it happened – and pointed at everyone in turn. The first time he dealt to us, I said, “Hey, just relax. We know when it’s our turn.”

He snapped, “I make my money by the number of hands I get out.”

I replied, “So do some of the rest of us. Some of us are dealers too.”

He then informed me that he spent most of his time playing instead of dealing. I said, “You don’t play where I work.”

He barked, “I know!”

Did he know where I worked? I doubt it. Did he care? Hell no! He was so full of himself that he probably hurts his arm patting himself on the back. About the third time he pointed at me when it was my turn, I asked, “Would you please not point at me? It makes me nervous. I think your finger might go off.”

He did quit pointing at me. But he pointed at everyone else before the action even got to them. When he came through later, just before he put up the Flop, he said, “You can check, bet $4, or fold!”

I candidly asked, “Could you repeat those options for me?”

Wayne had since moved to the 10s. He looked at me, and asked Viv, “What is wrong with her?” with a half smile on his face. He knows exactly what is wrong with me. Damn dealers! Shut up and deal!

We got a rather hefty female dealer, more than once, that was lost with the rake and how many burn cards she had out on the table and the size of the pot. When Wayne was still in the 3s, he gave me the look when we both saw her hiding the spare burn card in the muck. *raised eyebrows* And then I watched her finger slide the chips in the pot as she tried to count them for the rake. (And speaking of rake – ARGHHHHH! Brutal. Plus they have a jackpot and a high hand bonus. Good by $5 out of every pot.)

When she came back through, Wayne was in the 10s. She became slightly flirtatious and of course, he’s attractive, very personable, and a great tipper…so why wouldn’t she? But she hit my bad side when she got pushed and turned to the incoming dealer, telling him that he needed to give the 10s a Spade Royal. It was the way she did it. It was tip related.

I spewed, “Oh…so you want the 10s to make a hand but the rest of us don’t count?”

She gave me some garbage that really was almost word for word, ‘…dealing to the person that tips and he had promised her some percentage of it or $200…’

I get really obnoxious at times. I retorted, “So…you’re a tip slut?”

She went on, still had her butt in the chair and the game had stopped, to inform me that that was the way it went, she wanted to deal to the person that would give her the most money and that’s the way all dealers were.

I snapped, “Speak for yourself.”

She left the box and the game went on.

Gordon went bust, Carole took a seat at the other end of the table. I didn’t even know when she got in the game because I walked Marie back through Sam’s Town so she could find where she parked. We looked at the Cowboy Bar for Pam and Sylvia, they weren’t around. I tried to get Marie to go dance one with me on a great little ‘foot stomper’ that wasn’t even close to being ‘country’…but she refused. We said goodnight.

Carole didn’t last long in the game and they were ready to hit the road. We lost a couple of more players. Viv had a good run and she was ready to go. Wayne was about $5 from being even. I was stuck but I can live with it. Suddenly, one of the guys jumped up from the other game and came to our game with his rack of chips. We told the dealer the three of us were done, we were going to go eat. The floor arrived and allowed three players to draw for the one seat in the other game. The guy who came to our table from the other game was not included in that draw. He picked up his rack and went to sit at an empty table. Does that sound ‘proppish’ or ‘shillish’ or what? But they denied, each time Wayne asked a different employee. WTF?

It was Mother’s Day early AM and we went to the coffee shop for food. I can never be sure about any one else but I had a great time. And I was getting up very early to watch Riot ride! Time to sleep. But that was after Wayne offered to give me a ride back to the coach and I had to wait for him to clean out the front seat of his car so I could put my butt in the seat and my feet in the jumble of empty fast food bags, empty cartons, strange dead animals, napkins, soda cups, and anything else that might grow underneath all of it. The End: