the time pot.  Dealers changed every 20 minutes at the Grand Prix at the Golden Nugget. Every time we slid into a new table full of bright, smiling ‘I’m gonna die if I don’t win the next hand’ faces, we collected time.

Obviously I’d never heard of time pots.  It’s not my fault the rest of the poker world knew about them and I didn’t.

I can only remember being really lucky twice when I sat down and had to collect time during this entire three week long tournament.  Once was when Seymour Leibowitz was in my game – a PLO game – and before my butt could hit the chair, he asked if I knew how to take time.

“No…” it probably dribbled off into a self pity whiney wail.

Seymour never slowed down, it was as if he didn’t hear me but he saw the downcast look on my face, he told me he’d take care of it and called me ‘doll’ while he demanded that each player put up time and proceeded to set it up for the drop slot and the remainder sat in front of the slot to go to the player that won the pot.

In retrospect, why was it important that it sat in front of the drop slot?  Whoever won the pot got it anyway so why not shove it into the pot? Unless they felt it could be classed as part of the pot and that would increase the amount a player could bet.  But it was usually around $15-$20 and I can’t figure it making that much of a difference. Anyone?

The second player that took all the stress out of the time pots was Bob Ciaffone.

But the rest of the time it felt like it was a war.  Most games it came out of the pot automatically – and still does – but there are always exceptions.  Hell, the last time I heard Bellagio’s $20-40 Mixed Game had a different set of rules depending on who was in the game and how the game started for the day.

Once when I was pushing a really great dealer named Barb, as I sat down and announced, “Time pot!” the players informed me they had just paid.  Barb was still behind me gathering her cushions, and I turned to her.  “They said they just paid you time.”

She started laughing, put her hand on the table by the 1s, leaned over, and told the boys they had to pay time.  None of them said a word after that, but Doyle threw her a Green Bird.  I admit to eating my heart out at how easily she moved through the shift without ever seeming to get riled and she got tipped too.

Yah, I was there for the tips.  I can’t remember getting a Green Bird out of that tournament, although it may have happened.

Players that are not in their seats are expected to pay time too.  It could be $6 or $10 every 20 minutes but it’s amazing how many players will tell you not to take time from the absent player’s stack.  If you don’t take it, the rest of the players – especially the winner of the pot – is pitching in the absent player’s share.  But let me add that some of the retardo-lattes that don’t want the absent player to pay, also believe that you are going to take less in the time pot because you are missing a player. And they had fits about it if you just did your job.

And then I chuckle over the absent player’s return where the retardo-latte tells them, “She tried to take time from you but I wouldn’t let her.”  That even happens now in present day poker games.  Think of it this way, the returning player could be stuck in the thousands, or up in the thousands, is a $6 time drop going to change their life one way or another? Oh yeah, those $6 charges add up every hour over the years, but most players don’t come to sit out and it’s just part of doing business.

I mentioned ‘putting it on the piece’ in this Grand Prix thread and this goes right along with my greenhorn high limit dealing and how stupid I could be.

For the life of me…I can almost picture this woman…but not quite, and no name even starts to surface in thinking about the game.  It was $400-800 Seven Card Stud 8 or better and the action was completely insane and she was sitting right across from me.  She had a huge stack of chips and they just got bigger during my down.  One hand started with four or five way action and all the raises were going in.

Walter was in the 1s and probably the main reason the action was so hot in this game.  Stuck and steaming was my impression of his poker play most of the time…I could be wrong because I had very little time at the tables under any conditions but it was just a feeling.

Chips and $100 bills were flying into the pot.

When the hand was over, it was split between Walter and the woman.  She reached into the pot and grabbed all the $100 bills and started counting them into two matching piles as I stacked up chips.  I didn’t argue with her.  She tossed one stack to Walter and settled the other one into her own stacks as I pushed chips.  All well and good.

A few days later I dealt to her in almost the same scenario, she was across from me, it was 7 Card Stud 8 or Better, the action was insane, the pot was massive – only she was sitting this one out.  It came down to two winners and I just grabbed the stacks of $100 bills and tossed them at her.  She looked at me like I’d lost my mind and asked what I was doing. I told her that she had reached in the pot the other day and grabbed the bills and started splitting them.

“Yes, and I won half the pot so it was my money,” as she tossed the bills back at the pot.

Damn!  No flame thrower could have matched the heat in my face.  I felt like I had taken a stupid pill during most of this tournament. Even if I was on par with the dealing quality of a lot of them, I’m my own worst enemy – I was sick over the fact that I didn’t know jack about dealing anywhere other than the Montana games.  That was all changing, but in the meantime my instant replay kept running my mistakes over and over and over in my thoughts.  UGH!