I’ve spent the last few days being horribly, down on my knees, gut wrenching S-I-C-K! It just doesn’t happen to me and I didn’t handle it well at all. I ignored the world and tried to sleep as much as possible. It worked! I’m so damn much better now than I was a few days ago.

I went to work, the room was quiet and I asked to escape after a few hours. Nate let me go.

Speaking of escape, I managed to avoid the high limit games for the last five or six nights of work. I must have on my light tripping, fantasy enhanced, dealer dancing shoes to do that. Sweet!

I love those down to Earth, insane action, mid to low limit poker games where people have no idea what they’re doing but they just want to play.

*****

I’m back on Karate Don’s list. He gives me the wild eyed, rolling eyeball look when he passes me and can barely squeeze out a grunt in reply when I say, “Hello, Don.”

What did I do to deserve this honor? I dealt to him in a $40-$80 Stud game and he lost. Just before the end of my down, as he was giving me the ‘Look’, he picked up his chips and went to the next table in my line-up. It was a 7 Stud 8 or Better game. Don took the 2s and he fit right in with the lunatic in the 1s. (The 1s is the Gutter Snipe in the 12/03/03 post)

As soon as I hit the chair in that game, Don’s eyes were rolling. After a few hands, he was explaining to the 1s how he knows the dealers and he knows he can’t win, etc., etc., etc.

Hysterical! It’s been about a year and half since he’s had the jinx on with me. That’s a long time for someone that’s paranoid. He may be winding up for another LOA from the Poker Room, as in 86’d.

*****

I dealt two tables of the Friday’s at Five Tournament last week. I jerked them around at the first table by trying to deal 7 Card Stud. The Button was in the 10s and I just whipped into Stud Mode. They took it well, and yes, it was unintentional.

The second table, I had three gents that went all-in. Everything happened pre-flop. I had some of their bets in the middle but most of the chips were setting in front of the individual player when they turned their hands up. One had Q-J of Clubs and the other two held A-K. The two players with A-K split the pot.

Mark G. was in the game and he said, “The first thing you have to do is straighten the pot out.”

I said, “I know. I need help.”

Mark did help me with it for which I was very grateful. All three stacks had different amounts of money in them.

The 1s quietly said, “Good answer, ‘I need help’.”

I said, “Well, I do.”

He replied, “I mean it really was a good answer. A lot of people would have just tried to do it and messed it up.”

Another thing that happened in this tournament. Marcel L. was in the 7s and up walking around while the deal is going on. This is pretty normal for him. I dealt him in and he was up, visiting with a player in the next game, when the action came to him,
Charlie grabbed Marcel’s hand and held on to it while he asked Marcel what he wanted to do. Marcel hurried to his seat, looked at his cards, threw the hand away, and then returned to visit at the other table.

At this point, Charlie informed me that it was the dealer’s responsibility to immediately kill the hand if the player wasn’t in their seat when the action came to them and that he had only held on to it because Marcel was a friend of his. Really cute!

I said, “Ok. I haven’t dealt enough tournaments to be firm on the rules. But you’re the one to blame for holding on to his cards, right?”

He agreed.

Particularly in tournaments, I feel it’s very difficult to be on top of all situations as a dealer in our room. Tournaments are not something we deal every day and they are fairly new to Bellagio, this is our third and they are spaced far enough apart that one never gets the full scope of tournament dealing. We also may or may not even deal the tournament when we have one in progress, we may be dealing mostly live.

We have never been given a rule book on tournament dealing or even had a meeting on any rules or ways to work with specific games, limits, etc. It’s tough. I honestly believe that none of our dealers want to make a mistake. I know I don’t. So help us with a kind voice and a smile, please. Hostility just makes it worse.