I received this email from my long time friend, working sister, Grace. It was so good I had to share it with the readers of Tango.

Linda, thought you would get a kick out of this.

The lineup for the table I was at when the tournament started on Tuesday was rather impressive. Barry Greenstein was in seat 1; Ben Affleck in 2; Tommy Grimes in 3; Antonia E. in 5; Johnny Chan in 7; Greek George in 8, and a tall, handsome Texan in 9.

My prayer for the down was to be calm and collected so as not to make any mistakes and give Johnny Chan a reason to glare at me or harrass me in any way.

The Texan was friendly and told me that as a fellow Texan I should be giving him special consideration with good cards and matching flops, and I agreed and told him it could be arranged….lol.

I turned to my left and told Barry that I had been so impressed with the recent feature story about him in the Card Player that I copied it and mailed it to everyone on my email list and he thanked me for that and said he really appreciated it.

I had pretended not to notice (yea, right!) that Ben was at the table and didn’t make any fuss. After a bit I did turn to him and simply told him it was a pleasure to meet him and he said it was a pleasure to meet me too. He is such a cutie and the crowd along the rail couldn’t get enough of looking at him and going googo-gagga.

While we were waiting for the tournament to start, George asks me, “Dealer, what is the rule when a player asks to see the river card in Hold’em after a hand is over and the hand ended on the turn?”

I said, “George, that is called rabbit hunting and it is not allowed at all.”

“But I’ve seen some of the dealers show players the card when they have asked,” George stated, “and I don’t understand the rule.”

“There are good dealers and bad dealers; not all dealers follow or care about the rules,” I told him.

I continued, “It’s rule Number 1,742-A in the rule book, THERE SHALT NOT BE ANY RABBIT HUNTING.”

“Or does it depend who the player is?” George wanted to know….or “Maybe it’s just Europeans they don’t do it for? I don’t understand”

George is deadpan serious throughout all of this and by now Johnny is bemused and leaning back in his chair with a big grin on his face (an unusual sight!).

“Why, I wouldn’t even show the card to Johnny Chan if he asked me to,” I stated.

And, with perfect timing, I gestured to seat 2 and said, “Now, if Ben Affleck asked me, I might have to reconsider the rule.”

The whole table broke out in laughter, cheers and applause and Antonio almost fell off his chair. Someone said, “That was a good one.”

Since the tourney was about to start and all players were present I routinely shuffled and drew cards for the button. Then announcements were made — blah, blah, blah, — and then Jack McC says, “Now dealers, shuffle up and draw for the button.”

“Wait a minute, dealer,” George excitedly asks, “What’s the rule if a dealer draws for the button BEFORE the announcement is made?”

I was in the middle of telling him that there is no rule to that effect but since players were present no harm had been done.

But Johnny pops up and says, “Actually that is rule Number 1,742-B, and it says, ‘WHENSOEVER A DEALER ASSIGNS THE BUTTON PRIOR TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT, THE BUTTON SHALT STAY’.”

Another outburst of laughter at the table!

“SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL!” the tournament starts.

The down turned out to be lots of fun, players were in a good mood (except George who looked confused and couldn’t figure it out) and I dealt in perfect peace and harmony……Amen.

Grace