There’s never a time or place that poker doesn’t have some form of steam or heat going on – whether it’s with a player, the action at the time, the table as a whole, or everything in general. Drifting through various games and limits while sitting in the dealer’s box, brings to light a whole new world of poker that the average person just never sees. I used to think I would write a book called I Spent My Nights Burning and Turning. Burning and turning is not an original thought. I heard it years ago in Montana, from someone that passed a long time ago due to an accident. I know I write a book every few months with posts here. There’s many a book in these pages and in between the lines.
As amazing as it seems, the world feels that the people that need to be recognized in poker are the Pros. I find that thought to be completely retarded, bordering on lunacy. The poker playing world is not made up of Pros. The poker playing world is made up of people that play every day or only on weekends or at home with friends and family or on the Internet or in casinos everywhere or in tournaments or any and every place they can find a game. So why the ramble? Because the only thing that seems to interest most people is high limit and the people that play it.
Realistically, there are only a few that can afford to sit at $4,000-8,000 night after night. And they are always looking for a ‘live one’ because they find no meat on the bone if they sit down to bash it out with each other. In a way, it’s really a sick scenario. Liken it to a wolf pack searching the trail for fresh blood. Yet it’s no different than any other game in life where one seeks to come out of the deal with money and power. It’s amazing how many people would really like to have the money to buy into a game with Doyle Brunson or Johnny Chan or Jennifer Harman or…(the list can get pretty long here). And can you imagine the heat you’d face in that game????
Why is that? I don’t get it! If you’re really trying to win $$, you just pitted yourself against the toughest in the business. If you just want to give away your money, donate it to me…please. I don’t want to play poker with ‘name brand’ players. My idea of poker and a good time is with a group of people that just want to play and as soon as one of them cashes or goes bust, someone else is waiting to take their place.
I watched ‘heat’ go on last week on a night I dealt my full shift. It happened in a $150-300 mixed game. I’ve never seen David Levi upset at the table but he was so upset that he was standing up over the table (the table was in the middle of the room), screaming at the dealer. Talk about heat! The dealer was Dana – I’d been pushing him in the line-up all night. Dana is incredibly easy going and a very good dealer. And he’s a very big man. Which always brings another thought to my mind…why does a small guy want to try to goad a big man?
Graveyard had just arrived and Shauna went to the table to slow down the screaming. It took a few minutes. David picked up his chips and left the table. I don’t believe it was because he was asked to leave, I think he just left out of frustration – another form of heat. The game looked like it was breaking up but it held with four players and I pushed into the game at 2:30 a.m. I was hoping it would just go away. I knew two of the players in the game – Nina was in the 1s, Louie in the 4s, a stranger in the 7s and in the 8s.
Louie is a good sized lad, calm, quiet, nice smile, but I’m sure he has his days where he can get a little wrinkled – another factor that involves heat.
I dealt 7 card stud; it went to heads-up between Louie and the 8s (he was receiving a massage during my entire down). I don’t know where my brain went but I dealt the 7th card up to both of them…after mass action in the hand. The 8s was almost sputtering. I apologized and told them I could call for a decision or if they wanted, I could tell them what the rule was. They went with my statement, they could still bet their hands and the hand that was high before the card was exposed would control the action. The 8s checked and Louie bet…the 8s started to splitter/splutter and Louie asked him if he wanted to just split the pot. The 8s said yes. I pushed the pot to Louie, apologized again, and the game went on. (I escaped the heat there).
The 7s was so full of himself that I can’t believe he didn’t have a party organized on his behalf where everyone just bowed and scraped by his feet and ‘ooohhed’ and ‘aaaahhhed’ when he nodded his head or moved his hand. Incredible! He threw bets and raises out with reckless abandon and when he won the antes or the blinds, he showed a garbage hand and exclaimed, “I have more gamble in one hair on my body than all of you put together!”
I knew it was wrong but I started laughing. He asked if I thought he was funny. I told him I just couldn’t help but wonder how many hairs he had on his body. Of course it was the wrong thing to say but it was what was in my mind. He said we could get together later and I could check it out. *Gag*
Louie winked at me.
I laughed again. The 7s continued to act like I really thought he was interesting. He tried singing, “blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop-top…” and then made some statement about the Grateful Dead, even naming a lead singer (I can’t remember the name) that had nothing to do with the Grateful Dead but he acted like he knew that guy was with The Dead. He told me to make sure I let him know when I got off work. Just another kind of heat going on at the table.
No…I didn’t look him up when I clocked out.
The heat is really on – summer is coming to Vegas!
And I got an eviction notice – more heat. Nevada Palace RV Park is closing in six months. They are going to blow this place up and build a new casino.
The End:
