Time to tell – to paint the picture of the ‘winds of change’. I’ve had the greatest urge (for quite some time) to go on the road, hit some great camping sites, drop in and bug my relatives for a week or two and find all the little spots and places in the U.S. that host poker on a regular basis. No…I’m not talking about private games. I’m a little leery of private games due to all the tales I’ve heard over the years. I’m talking casino/bar places that carry a license.

On top of the ‘urge’, I am easily bored by a lot of things in life. It really doesn’t take much to bring an appreciate sigh or laugh to my lips – a sunrise, someone’s enthusiasm for life, the view from a kid’s perspective, and the list goes on – but in general, the regular ‘take’ on every day life has a tendency to make me wish I took drugs. *Kidding* I honestly don’t know how people get up every day and keep their nose in the same place, at the same job, at the same pace, year after year.

I’ve moved many times in my life and I find it to be quite refreshing, starting over, finding all the new places to see/be. Change is a good thing for me. So…I’m going to take Table Tango on the road. It’s going to be awhile before everything comes together and I’m actually out and moving down the highway. Vegas will be my home base for a number of reasons. This is the plan as I see it, keep in mind all plans are subject to change but this has been shaping in my thoughts for quite a while:

1: I looked at Motor Homes and finally decided on a Fifth Wheeler, hence the truck purchase, and had decided on a Newmar Cypress back in September. First the truck was pre-ordered and now awaits my needs to move around the city and the country. (Viv standing by the truck).

2: This is my new one bedroom apartment on wheels…although it’s not mine yet, that plan is underway and should happen soon. This is what it looks like when it’s ready to roll, ready for the truck to back up, hook up, and pull it off into an adventure.

This is what it looks like when I’m settled for a while – either in an RV park or at one of my bro’s places in N. Idaho. The slides are out and it’s ready to live in.

The living area – with the slide out for the couch:

An overview of the kitchen/dining – the slide is out for the dinette:

The cozy little kitchen with everything but the dishwasher – that’s because I’m not in the picture…*laughing*

The shower (the ‘water closet’ is totally enclosed with its own private door and not shown):

The shower, ‘water closet’, and washer/dryer closet are all in the bedroom area:

Don’t think this baby is cramped – every inch of it’s figured out for storage and it’s 37 feet long (inside) – that’s not overall length. The scary part is that my vehicle length, once I’m moving down the road, is somewhere around 60′. That’s a whole new driving experience for me.

So…I plan to pick up the Cypress – after having a few things done to ‘fit it’ exactly the way I want it, and move my belongings into it. That should all happen within the next three weeks – if the plan goes off as I think it should. In the meantime, I’m having a gi-hugeous rummage sale, have already rented a small storage unit to save my little treasurers that I can never give/sell/discard, and once all of the above is completed, my house is going on the market. My Cypress will be my new home.

I believe I will be at Bellagio until the end of April when the Five Star World Poker Classic Tournament ends. If the plan goes full steam ahead, I will stay on Bellagio’s ‘hired’ list and work their three tournaments each year. Until the end of April, I will be ‘RV’ parked in Vegas, taking weekend camping trips with my son and his family (taking my home with me J) and getting used to the overall experience of an apartment on wheels.

After that – Table Tango has gone mobile. When I get tired of being once place, I’ll just hitch up and go to the next. Sweet! I may play/deal tournaments, just cruise through a place with poker and hang out on the rail, take a week and hide from the world when I’m in the mood, AND STOP ON MY WAY THROUGH YOUR TOWN/CITY.

I have another plan about setting up a route and in that plan, I’d like some help and cooperation from readers. If everything falls into place on a road trip, and I have information from readers (you), on poker in your area, what to expect, where to go, RV parking (preferably Internet urls so I can check it out ahead of time), I will meet you and hopefully visit your favorite poker room.

Coupled with that plan, a new face is coming to PokerWorks.Com. There will be a new section, for each and every one of you to have your ‘poker story’. That is not a bad beat section or a hand history section, it’s about you, how you first got into poker, where you play, recreational/for a living, and other pertinent info that you want to share with the poker world. That’s coming. There will be more info on it soon.

If we meet and have the opportunity to visit/play poker with each other, of course you’ll be written about in Table Tango. Pictures too.

It will take a little time, but soon I’ll be ‘on the road with Table Tango’.

A toast: May your cup run over with peace, may your plate be filled with health and good fortune, may your table be set with love and sharing, and may your desserts be dreams fulfilled.

Sometimes the nights just blur into one long poker hand, nothing eventful or noisy happens, and I just blissfully deal my way through the shift. Not so tonight. I oft times have to figure that when I’m having an unusually difficult time with game control and problems with bad behavior in a game, it’s because the dealer I’m following did nothing to settle everyone down and get the damn thing moving. That’s exactly what I believe happened in a $15-30 H game in the first few hours of my night. Fuck was the key word in this game when I sat down. Cards were zinging back and forth, along with a few barbed and just plain blatant comments on someone’s play. I hate that!

It took a few minutes to get these kids to mind their manners and most of them were angry. Why? Unknown to me and I figure it’s their problem anyway. They could always go home if they’re having such a horrible time at the card table. Not all, but most of them were just – in general – grouchy and crabby and it was towards each other.

The 5s, after making numerous obnoxious statements to everyone in general and no one in particular, demanded that I get the cocktail waitress for him…even though it wasn’t phrased quite like that, his tone demanded. I called for cocktails. Within 30 seconds, he looked at me and snorted out the fact that he wanted a drink. I called for cocktails again and this time one of our servers came over and took the table’s order.

He went all-in and lost the hand. As I brought the cards out of the Shuffle Master, I asked if he’d like a hand. He arrogantly replied, “No. But I’m going to sit here and wait for my drink before I leave this…*a few seconds of silence*…wonderful place.”

The 1s informed me that the 5s couldn’t sit there if he wasn’t going play. Yup, it’s my first day on the job. And thank you kindly, Sir, for letting me know that. I ignored 1s and asked the 5s if he was finished playing. The 5s said he was done and sat there. I called the seat open. I can’t help but chuckle over this guy’s attitude and the fact that he was staying in that seat ’til hell froze over to get that drink. He really acted like he was angry with everyone at the table and they owed him something.

A few minutes later, Boba arrived with a new player and asked where the open seat was. I opened my hand towards the 5s. Still the guy looked like he couldn’t believe we were asking him to vacate the premises. He finally got up and loitered by the table for his drink, leaving after he got it. The game ran a little more smoothly after that and they settled in to play poker. I got pushed.

I hit ‘the hill’ (the name given, by dealers, to the raised section and high limit at Bellagio). Table 4 was four handed, Lee – 1s, Lenny Martin – 2s, Cyndy Violette – 7s, Joel – 8s, playing Razz and Deuce to 7, $75-150 limit. This game was pretty uneventful but funny with Joel making a lot of noise. I think he’s funny and that’s the key word here…what “I” think. You’d have to be there to appreciate it because telling it would never do justice to Joel and his loony conversations that he has with himself as the main audience.

At one point Cyndy asked Joel what he did. His reply, “I sleep. *pause* And I play poker.”

Joel gave Sam G. heat one night – for me – a few years ago, when they were playing heads-up and Sam got on my case for calling the low card (and that’s exactly what I’m supposed to do) but Sam was being sarcastic and mean that night…not when Joel finished with him though. So that’s another reason I appreciate Joel.

My next game was where the shit hit the fan, Table 5 – $400-800 Mixed. Jimmy G. – 1s, Kian – 2s, Yen – 4s, Shuen – 5s, Mike W. – 7s. I dealt Deuce to 7 about ten minutes into my down. Kian and Yen went to war before the draw, raising each other until Kian was all-in. That’s the key word in this hand – all-in.

On the first draw, Kian drew two and Yen drew one.

On the second draw, Kian drew two and Yen rapped ‘pat’.

Kian looked at his hand, pitched two and Yen sat there with his hands over his cards. I burned, and as I dealt Kian his two cards, he was asking Yen, “What do I have to beat?”

Yen picked up his hand and looked at it to show Kian, and exclaimed, “Oh shit!” and threw the 5 of Clubs face up on the table.

I asked, “You’re drawing one?” with disbelief in my voice.

Yen said, “Yes.”

Kian went ballistic. His stance was that the Burn was off and Yen couldn’t draw a card. Yen said he’d done nothing and he needed a card (he’d discovered he held a Flush). It got incredibly noisy, Kian was extremely verbal, and adamant that Yen could not draw once the Burn was off. Yen was holding his ground that he could draw as he’d done nothing (as in tapping the table or declaring).

Funny part of the whole thing was that Skip was standing right behind me with a Fill for my rack. He was the Brush for that section. I asked him for a decision, explaining what happened. Not to worry, Kian cut right into that conversation. Skip said he didn’t know the answer and would need Nate. Nate was standing a few feet away and I called him over.

The conversation from the players at my table went on and on. Amazingly no one even knew what had happened except Kian, Yen, and me – so much for player observation. One of the players asked why Kian and Yen didn’t just split the pot. Kian refused. He had Yen beat if Yen wasn’t allowed to draw.

Nate came over. I explained what happened again, in painstaking detail because Kian was hot under the collar and demanding over and over that Yen couldn’t draw because the Burn was down. Finally Nate decided he couldn’t make the decision either, he would have to get Jason, the shift supervisor.

While we waited for Jason, Joel (from the game I just left) called over and asked if we wanted him to make the decision. I would have laughed but this was not a laughing matter.

Jason arrived, by now the hand was in about the eighth or ninth minute. I explained what had happened. Yen reinforced his position that he’d done nothing – as in not tapped the table or said anything – and he should be allowed to draw. Kian continued to verbalize the fact that the Burn was off. After some deliberation and listening to everyone, Jason made the decision that Yen could draw and left the area. I gave Yen a card and he won the pot.

Kian went even more ballistic. He accused Yen of taking a shot and stated that he wanted Doug (Poker Room Manager) called. The conversation went round and round as the next hand started. Kian took a walk. The conversation turned to the fact that if Kian hadn’t asked Yen what Kian had to beat, Yen would never have noticed that he had a Flush and Kian would have won the pot without an argument.

Jason came back a few minutes later and quietly told Yen that he would run the security tape and if something showed up on the film, Jason would ask Yen to give the money back to Kian. Yen said, “Ok,” and once again told Jason he’d done nothing, like check or make a move to signify that he wasn’t drawing.

Kee-rist! There was so much going on that I dropped the deck on the Turn in Omaha 8 or Better with two players still in the hand. Fortunately for me, I always drop the deck intact, on top of the muck cards. Yen and Mike were the two players and they were all right with me just picking up the deck and dealing the last card.

Finally…I got pushed. According to reports I heard later, Jason saw something in the playback of the tape and did ask Yen to give the pot to Kian. Yen did.

My report: This hand is one of those freaky things that just NEVER happen. One of the key facts is that all the betting took place before the draw. Once Yen has stood pat on the second draw, since he’s not facing a bet or a raise, there’s no reason for me to believe that he’s going to draw on the third draw with Kian still drawing two cards. If Kian hadn’t asked what he had to beat, Yen would have held his hand until Kian completed his draw and turned over his cards. And Yen would have turned over a wheel in Clubs – much to his own surprise.

It all boils down to dealer error. I should have gone to Yen and made him rap pat or draw before delivering Kian’s cards. I just fell into the ‘assume’ role and coupled with Kian’s hasty query and the compounded craziness of the hand…well…ugh!

The rest of the night? A slice of pie and I was rolling down the highway for home by 3 a.m.

I sent out the usual email to the ‘Pan’ group, advertising that they needed to show up for the 6 p.m. card party because it could possibly be the last one hosted at my present residence – and even possibly the last one I host in a helluva long time. Yes…that secret plan that I keep talking about. Remember the big assed truck and the fifth wheeler? Those are things that are whispering the wind of change. Only at this point it is no longer a whispering wind – it’s picking up force and starting to tug at my hair and clothes as I move about my daily life. But honestly, that subject and everything involved in it is a post of its own…probably in the next few days.

Scott, Ryan, Maria, Mike, and Carole and Gordon couldn’t make it to the Card Party. The rest of the group came rolling in at 10 to 15 minute intervals. Kram, Greg P. and Amy A., Chad P., Viv, Gary and Marie, David brought Heather (she’s a new face to our group – just visiting Vegas), and my nephew, Chad. Chad P. brought two friends that just moved here, Nick and Tim. Wayne was at work and showed up as soon as he could get here (on the funny side, I called him before he left work and he said, “If anyone’s interested, there’s a helluva $10-20 NLH game going here.” – he works at The Palms – and I replied, “Why would I want to break up my card party by sending someone there?” We both laughed.) When everyone or even almost every show up, it’s really quite a houseful. We usually start in the backyard, huddled around the chimenea, with a drink and visiting, and then it’s off to ‘super grazing’ and cards.

Tim and Nick want to deal. I sent my ‘dealing mpg’ url address to Nick in an email and we visited a little bit about the dealing aspect. They both play, are young, enthusiastic as hell, and eager to be involved in poker. The flood of new faces wanting to enter the dealing side of poker is huge. The card parties are the perfect place for new people to jump in and get their feet wet because everyone in attendance either is or was a player or a dealer. The downside for them is that we don’t always want to play poker or teach people to deal so if they show up, they have to do play what we are playing or take a hike. I think they get the best of it, either way.

We played Big Deuce. Amy and me switched off playing the same stack of chips for a while. There are times that I could care less if I play cards, but I do like the company so switching off works well for me. Chad P. had to leave for work – MGM. Wayne arrived. He brought champagne so we could toast to me.

We finally switched off to poker and let the new kids take turns dealing to us. I even won…5c stakes…yippeee!!!. Kram and me went to war in a few hands but he’s easy to go to war with. He likes to scramble it up at the table and he kept goading/teasing us to play NLH. Nope! We didn’t fall for it. We just wanted a friendly little game of ‘graze and visit’.

Greg P. and me were both telling everyone we had to play in the Titan free roll the following day. For some reason, Greg picked up his phone to find out something from a friend and found out that we both missed the Titan free roll. It was held on Saturday. It’s just a little bit funny that we both thought it was on Sunday. There’s another opportunity for a bigger free roll at Noble Poker – it’s a $5,000 freebie for just a $20 deposit. I’m going to see if I can manage to remember what the hell day it’s on and be there. *chuckling*

Late in the night, Wayne pulled out the champagne and poured. Him and me were standing the kitchen talking, coffee brewing, chocolate cake waiting to be cut and devoured, when he informed me that I should think of a toast, since this was a kind of farewell. I can get all creepy emotional at times and I didn’t want to think of this as goodbye to anyone – and it isn’t, it’s just hello to change.

So when everyone had their glass of bubbly, I simply raised my glass and said, “To me,” with a small smile. We all drank. It went over quite well for me, nothing emotional about it, and we were off to the next hand. I finally kicked them all out about 1:30 a.m. My butt was dragging.

So ends my reign as the Queen of the Pan Game Hostess and Poker Dealer Instructor in Las Vegas. The winds of change are steadily increasing.

I am seriously trying to change my ways. In that, I mean I’m trying to go to work and work my full shift five days a week. But when I walk through the door on Monday and the supervisor asks me if I would like Thursday and Friday off, something in the back of my head snaps and I say, “Absolutely!” One would think that I would just tra-la-la-la right into the dealer’s box every night and be totally content to be there. I really DO like my job. And it’s the greatest show on Earth but I’m just like the next kid on the block – a slacker.

There was a time when it was almost impossible to get an extra day off. With all of the poker tournaments and new players coming in to the game, there has been an incredible rush of new faces in the dealing force. And believe me, at Bellagio, we have more than our share. That’s why I’ve been able to be a slacker – because we have plenty of happy, little people that want to sit where I’ve been sitting for over 20 years. Yup – I know. I’m dating myself but that I can’t be helped. I’ve been in the dealer’s box for a helluva lot of time. So that’s what happened this week, I worked three full shifts and had Thursday and Friday off.

Most of my night on Wednesday was fairly relaxed. No one seemed to go off the deep end, not a lot of noise, or any special excitement in the room. The game in Bobby’s room was running but I missed it. The only game that really rings as out of the ordinary was a $10-20 NLH. And the reason this game was out of the ordinary was not because of intense action or strange hands or problems. It was because I dealt to the 2005 World Series of Poker Champion, Joseph Hachem.

I am really impressed and completely delighted that he wasn’t in Bobby’s room mixing it up with the big name players. The rest of the world may not share my view but I appreciate a person that doesn’t allow a big win to jumble their sense of reason with visions of playing higher and against tougher competition and in games they might not understand or even know how to play, but they play anyway because of peer pressure. I did deal to Bill Gates, in a $3-6 H game, at The Mirage years ago. I DID really like the fact that he just wanted to play poker. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone with how high he could play – he just wanted to play. Just because a kid has a lot of toys doesn’t mean he wants to play in someone else’s backyard to show them off.

I found Joseph to be completely relaxed and in control of his game. Sure…it’s easy to be that way when you’ve taken down the score that he did but some people would find it difficult not to have ‘ego attitude’ after besting all those other players for the title. The players were pretty quiet. The 2s was walking when I sat down and obviously had gone for an “ammo refill’ from the look of what was left on the felt. He returned within a few minutes and bought the minimum, $600, making a few comments to other players implying that they had most of $3,000 that belonged to him. I never have any idea if what I hear at the table is the truth so it’s possible the 2s was in the game that much…or not…

Joseph left the game for a moment and in that game a player is dealt in if they haven’t missed their blind. He was UTG and came scurrying around the corner just as I dealt the last card to the Button. He said something like, “I made it back just in time. You didn’t cold deck me did you?” as he looked directly at me just before he looked at his cards.

He raised the bet to $120. And looked at me again. Everyone folded and he turned over A-K off.

He said, “If I had straddled it, I would have picked up 2-4.”

I was almost laughing when I said, “That was really strange. It wouldn’t have been so strange if you haven’t looked at me after you looked at your hand. Especially right after asking if I cold decked you.”

In general, I enjoyed dealing the whole down. As I left the game, I stopped beside him and asked if he was here for the tournament across the street. He said he was here until the first of the year.

I said, “Great. You’ll be here for our tournament.”

So…Linda meets another Super Hero in the Poker World. Damn I love this job…and I like having four days off in a row too. Sweet!

*Post continued*

It’s time to continue, to fill in the blanks left from yesterday, which brings me to a question. If a person is going to call a bet, or going to bet, why don’t they just put the damn chips out on the table instead of saying what they are going to do – verbalizing without moving? I can understand that statement in a no limit game but not in a limit game and I ran in to it twice – once in $80-160 H and the next time in the $40-80 mixed main game. The Mixed game is the one that it really was the worst problem in but that story is coming up.

I drifted through several low limit games and while I was dealing $4-8 H, the $2-5 NLH, along the rail, burst into a flurry of noise. One of the players jumped up and made more noise than the rest of them. But then why not? The player was Mike Matusow. One of the players in my game wanted to know what in the hell Mike was doing over there. I didn’t really know the answer but I conjectured that Mike had a friend in the game and that’s why he was playing so low. Later on I found out that he made a royal flush and that’s what all the noise was about. And yes, he did have a friend in the game.

I hit a $30-60 H and the 4-s played every hand and raised almost all of them. If someone raised in front of him, he reraised. It was like watching a lemming on its way to the ocean. I’ve dealt to him before – he’s a friendly face but I don’t know his name. E.Z. was in the 5s. He chatted with me off and on as I dealt and the game rocked on.

The 4s continued to brutalize himself. Towards the end of my down, he had managed to go through every chip and hundred-dollar bill that had been in front of him when I sat down. He’d lost all sense of reason but he wasn’t out of line in his behavior. He started leaving his cards lay about an inch from his fingers. Of course, I couldn’t reach them. I asked him several times to ‘push them in’. E.Z. reached over twice and pushed them in for me. The next hand, the four seat missed again after slamming as many chips in the pot as he could. This time E.Z. was looking the other way and I couldn’t reach the 4s’s cards. I did exactly what I’d done in the $40-80 Mixed must move game. I moved the deck from my left hand to my right hand, pushed my chair back, stood up, reached over and collected his cards, sat back down, pulled my chair in, switched the deck back to my left hand, and continued the game.

E.Z. looked back about the time I was pulling in the cards and apologized for not helping me. By now I was irritated as hell. I went off, “I don’t understand what anybody accomplishes by leaving their cards out of reach. How can it possibly make the game better? And what the hell does it change?”

E.Z agreed with me. The four seat never even looked up. When I dealt the next hand, I told the 4s I was going to deal his cards right in front of the rack and make him reach for them. Honest – I was laughing about it already. My little outburst helped me clear the air for myself.

The 4s told me, “Go ahead. I don’t care.”

He probably would have liked to stomp the table into the carpet and burn all the cards in the world at that point so he probably really didn’t care. I was laughing as I told him I was only kidding.

I got pushed into the main game, the $40-80 Mixed. This game was a nightmare. The 8s, from the must move game I’d dealt earlier, was in the 8s in this game and slamming chips as fast as he could. He was just in the process of losing one helluva big pot when I tapped the dealer out. The 8s picked up what he had left of chips and cash, made some comment about all the sterling play that he’d seen, and left for the night.

I sat down, announced a Time pot, and already had acknowledged the brush person that was sending a player from the must move game. Not to worry, no one in the game even heard the brush person. So immediately the demands were sent out, “Do they know we have a seat open? There is a most move game.”

That was the beginning of a half-hour of hell. Chris McHugh – 1s, might have been the most relaxed player at the table…other than Sammy – 2s. Chris used to play strictly 7-card stud. He’s taken quite well to this game and I’ve known him a long, long time.

Elaine was in the 4s and she was moving a lot of chips and managing to pull back quite a few of them. The 5s is a semi regular and he looked like he was going through a hell that no other man has ever seen. The stress on his face – and cracking through in his voice – can’t even be explained.

The next hand I dealt found the 5s heads up with the 8s on the River. Elaine had been in the hand on Sixth Street. There were numerous raises when the action was three-way. I simply left the bets in front of all of them because the raises were coming in on autopilot. When Elaine folded, after a bet and call on the River, I pulled her money into the pot as the 5 and 8s were chopping. The 5s went into a voice cracking stress fit wanting to know how much the 8s was taking back. I tried to explain that the last bets had simply been left in front of them.

He kept interrupting me with something that resembled, “I’m only asking a question for God’s sake. I’m only asking a question.”

It didn’t do me any good to try to explain it again because I got another repeat from him. So I let them stack up the money in front of them and count it down to make sure the 5s wasn’t giving up any more than he was supposed to.

There were bills in the pot. The 5s asked to have the bills. I said, “OK.”

As I counted out ten chips and stacked them (and matched up two other stacks next to the first one to signify three stacks of $100 each), and spread three $100 bills to show they were even, and got ready to push the bills to the 5s and the stacks to the 8s, the 5s reached over and counted down one of the stacks of $10 chips. I stop doing everything and sat back in my chair and looked at him. He got the picture from the look on my face. Shit like this irritates me to death. If he wants to know if the damn stacks are correct, all he has to do is watch me count them or ask me to recount them for him.

The 8s opened and Tony came in from the must move game. He was gambling and slamming but I guarantee he couldn’t begin to keep up with Elaine. He lost a few hands and immediately got “the attitude” with me.

The 5s managed to find a bad card in the deck. I didn’t see anything on the card but I didn’t argue with him. I called for a set up, got it, and spread the new deck.

Suddenly Tony looked over and queried, “How come we are getting a new deck?”

Kee-rist! Wonder how hard it is to pay attention.

The 6s and Tony went to war in the next hand. I left the bets in front of them since they were heads up. On the River, Tony bet and the 7s said, “I call,” without putting out the chips.

It was a split pot. Don’t think the 7s could remember that he didn’t put the chips out. He wondered, out loud, if he was getting the right amount while he was pulling back the bet in front of him. It took two other players and me to remind him that he didn’t put the last $160 in the pot.

As I dealt the last couple of hands, I told Chris this game was so difficult to deal because the players were always upset, and never paid attention to anything. He agreed with me. Maybe this game is so good for him because he does pay attention. But coupled with all of the above mentioned things going on in those games, there are other things happening too – like conversations, sweaters coming and going, players walking up and checking the game plaques to see what games are being played, and more. So when there’s major static going on, the game gets really hectic to deal.

The night wasn’t a bust or a waste. The two sessions in $40-80 mixed games were basically a drag but one can’t judge the whole shift on a couple of games.

Along about my next break, when I was at the Cashier’s Cage, a fellow standing at the next cashier asked if I was the Linda with the website. I said yes. His name is John. Hey, John, thanks for introducing yourself.

I ended up with the nuisance break at 2 a.m. – this means I take a half-hour break and have to come back and deal a half-hour before I clock out. I was sitting at an empty table, chatting with another dealer on break, when the 4s from the $30-60 H game was on his way to the Cashier’s Cage…meaning he had to walk directly towards me. As he approached, he had his hand up with a chip in it, “Can you catch this?”

I chuckled as he walked by and slipped a chip into my hand. It was his way of apologizing. I dealt my last game of the night and hit the door.

I had thought to race off to sleep as soon as I arrived home from work. Nope, I’m hanging out at the keyboard instead. The moon is full and extremely beautiful. And it makes the chill in the air seem even more extreme. Of course 57 probably isn’t a ‘chill’ to a lot of the world but right now I’m c-c-c-o-l-d. If this ends abruptly, I either shivered myself into total collapse or I fell asleep while hanging out here in cyber.

I feel the need to backtrack to Tuesday night. I left it sort of hanging in the air and there’s a lot more that I want to throw out, from the dealer side of it all, in the form of a rant. I really despise dealing the $40-80 Mixed game. When it first cranked off and became a regular, featured game everyday, the players always argued about how they would pay Time. I’ve posted about that before – and the confusion and mess it caused. Gradually, all the dealers and the supervisors must have just realized that it was always going to be a problem unless it was just taken out of the pot – the players wanted it that way. So be it!

It’s played eight handed and for some obscure reason, it’s usually spread on one of our ‘new’ – ‘bigger’ Holdem tables that came in when the room was remodeled. It’s impossible for any dealer in our room to reach the 3-4-7-8 (3 and 6 when it’s set up eight handed) seats’ chips and cards unless the player pushes them in, as there’s no ‘dealer cut out’ in the table.

So…I got to deal the Must Move and then Main Game both. The Must Move was five handed when I sat down. Tony – this game is perfect for Tony because he likes to gamble and he’s always on a draw – was in the 5s when I sat down…he moved to the 3s after a few hands. Adam was in the 4s – I could never complain about him in anyway, he’s always there to play and quite conscientious and helpful in almost all areas of game play. Thor was in the 6s. Karina was in the 7s. A stranger was in the 8s. The game was playing incredibly fast, bullets were being fired from all barrels and someone was in the wings, loading up the ammo clips for the next round.

Several comments were exchanged between Tony and the 8s – i.e. about the level of play. It was tinged with barbs and Tony was kicking butt for a few hands. Then Karina went on an incredible rush. The sky was raining chips and she was stacking them. The game was truly a bitch to deal. I couldn’t reach anyone’s chips or cards and I kept repeating, “Push them in please.” And how can one begin to think that they would figure it out and just push the damn chips in?

I made the comment to Adam that I couldn’t understand why those games were always started on the bigger Holdem tables. He said the players didn’t want to be all squashed together…not that he was giving me heat, he wasn’t. He said (jokingly) that they didn’t care about the dealers anyway. I replied, “I knew that.”

Smoke was starting to roll from Tony’s seat…he was hot and not in the manner that one needs to be hot to be stacking chips. STEAM to the max. I dealt his cards about five inches in front of his hand and he barked, “Could you get my cards to me, please?”

He really didn’t mean please. He was ready to blow. He took a few more beats. Not that he ever started with the best hand – he was always drawing – and he figures it’s a beat when he can’t complete his hand. So he did just what I’d expect him to do. He set his cards about one inch from his fingers when he was done with them and looked off somewhere like he was daydreaming.

Of course he was punishing me. I’m supposed to deal his damn cards right to him but he doesn’t have to cooperate with me at all. Two hands back to back, when he folded, I transferred the deck from my left hand to my right, pushed my chair back, stood up, leaned across the table, pulled in his cards, pulled my chair back in, sat down, and transferred the deck back to my left hand. He really showed me. Dipshit!

And you know what – I don’t care if he reads this tomorrow. No one that could ever have a serious thought about playing poker for a living should ever try to pick at the dealer when the dealer is doing their job the way it’s supposed to be done. Only an idiot slows the game down and lets the other players know they are getting ready to bleed…chips and more.

I got pushed. But there’s more, I just don’t have the energy left for it right now.

*Post poned*

Time to write. I’m not sure how to catch up. Sunday found me making a huge step…I actually put a down payment/hold on the Fifth Wheeler. And the rest of that story really is coming up; actually it’s a plan, but the time to divulge the plan is not now.

I blazed into work on Monday night, determined to work my full shift. Hell, I have to license that big assed truck and nothing is cheap in Nevada so I’d best be ‘burning and turning’ ’til my li’l fingers feel the pain. I started on Table 36, $30-60 H, then $15-30 H, $30-60 H, break, and off to Table 1.

The game was seven handed, $2,000-$4,000 but the game plaque read $4,000-$8,000. I questioned the limit when I sat down and the first bet came out. I really can’t figure out how dealers let that go. I have to look at the plaque to know what the hell I’m dealing. Perhaps I’m the only dealer that has to do that and the rest of them are psychic. That taken care of, I made it through the down without an error even though the ‘prop bets’ were flying like crazy between Jennifer, Eli E., and Barry G. I still do not understand or even try to figure out prop bets. It takes enough concentration just to deal the games and make sure everything is correct. The other players were Chau, Johnny, Minh, and one player was walking (their chips were covered by a Play-over Box) – Phil I. came in and took the empty seat just before I got pushed.

I got the magic reroute after that game. Really there wasn’t a lot of magic involved but it was kind of fun. $10-20 NLH on Table 15 – Phil Laak was in the 4s and Joe Hachem was standing behind him during the entire down. This table is right next to the Sport’s Book and a crowd gathered in there, looking over the rail at the game. I would bet all my wages for the next year that they were looking at Phil Laak and probably had no idea who Joe Hachem was. Joe was on the list and got into a game later but it was one of the Must Moves.

On my next break, as I headed through the casino for the Employee’s Area, I passed Jennifer Tilly. She was straight on, dead ahead, in the direction of the poker room. When I saw her in Aruba at the Ultimate Bet Award’s Banquet, I asked her if I could take her picture. She was damn cute, “Please do.” And then when Phil approached, she said, “Take a picture of me and my man.” I did…but it was too dark and it didn’t turn out worth a damn but thanks to ‘jasc’ it isn’t completely horrible. I said “hello” to her and she said “hello” as she sped on by.

The room began to quiet down around 1 a.m. and the game I was dealing broke at 2 a.m. giving me the ‘double bust out’. I took it and ran for the door.

Tuesday night was a stomper. I called in late as I really did go to the DMV and stand/sit in lines to license the truck. I managed to leave there, with everything in order, by 6:30 p.m. Dave was the person that issued my registration and license and took a lot of my money for State matters but he was probably the most cheerful, helpful State employee I’ve seen in a long, long time. And he wasn’t going home when he finished with me, they still had 85 people waiting. Nice to have someone wait on me that late in the day that had a smile and was thoughtful enough to notice my Driver’s License was going to expire in May and he would just do the renewal for me now so I wouldn’t have to come back. I jumped at the chance. I usually renew everything on the Internet but some things must be done in person.

I hit the room at 8 p.m. instead of my usual 7 o’clock time. I started a game with Amir and Mike Wattel, mixed $600-1200 limit with $100-200 PLO. They played a few hands, heads-up, and two youngsters came over from the game on Table 5. Most people really don’t realize how big of a game PLO is and how dangerous it can be. The two youngsters went to war in one hand, with over $15,000 apiece in the pot, one of them went home for the night.

$10-20 NLH on Table 15 was next on my list. Several people in this game were regulars. One of them, Sonny, believes I have some kind of bad mojo working with him and I’m positive that he’s hoping to find a few of the hairs from my head so he can build a voodoo doll to burn after a hand in this game. But before that hand happened, Jim and Cowboy were in a hand, about $600+ in the pot and they agreed to ‘chop’ it. Before they did anything, I said, “You can’t chop pots in this game.”

One of them said, “Just push him the pot,” motioning to the other player.

I sounded like a Jilted School Marm when I snorted, “You are not allowed to chop pots and it’s a serious infraction of the rule.”

What they planned to do was have one of them fold, I push the pot to the one with a hand, and he would just chop it, and push it. I was trying to stop this from happening. Thankfully, Montana Mike had just arrived from a Must Move game and he said, “Get a decision. He tried that with me before and it’s bad for the game.”

While I was calling for a decision, Cowboy told me to just deal the hand out. Jim showed top pair with an Ace kicker and Cowboy threw his hand away. I called for a decision again and Cowboy told me there was no reason to get one because no pot was being split. I stated that a request for a decision and clarification was asked for and we were going to get a decision. We did. The decision is – NO SPLIT POTS. Don’t worry…Jim and Cowboy both knew what the decision would be.

During the next few hands, Jim -9s, Cowboy 7-s, Jim quietly said, to Cowboy, “360.”

And I knew exactly what he planned to do. And it is HORRIBLE for the game. Chopping pots is bullshit! Anyone that thinks it improves a game should go home and stay there – let the rest of the world play poker as it’s meant to be played.

Now we get to the hand that Sonny is building the voodoo doll over. But honestly, where was his brain? I would have to put some seriously thought into this hand before I ever pitched all of my chips in the pot.

Sonny – 8s, was the SB. Seven players called $20 pre-flop. Sonny raised it to $200. Jim thought about it for a moment and folded. More than half of the field climbed right in for $180 more. The Flop came J-6-? – with two diamonds. Sonny stared at nothing and after about 45 seconds, jump started his own brain and asked, “Is it to me?”

While I was saying ‘yes’, Montana Mike jabbed him with, “You raised out of the Blind, so you don’t know it’s to you?”

Sometimes players say what I’d like to say…

Sonny bet $200. The ‘fold wave’ took place to Pablo – 4s, who went all-in for close to $700. Jim leaned into my ear and informed me that he folded a winner. The 5s called Pablo’s all-in. The ‘fold wave’ moved around to Sonny who blurted out, “All-in!”

The 5s thought about it for 3 ½ seconds and stated that he called. I burned and turned the Turn and River leaving all the money in front of each player – without pulling it into the pot. A diamond hit the River and the 5s turned over 7-4 of diamonds with a “I win” kind of thing. That he did. He started to count out his chips and Cowboy told him to let the dealer do it. I counted him down, neatly laying out his bills in overlapping lines of five. He had $2,550 all told.

While Sonny was going ballistico, showing A-A, and that was never any good BTW, Pablo had already folded and was counting out his next buy-in, Cowboy and Jim took a break from the game so they could split up the pot they weren’t supposed to split – away from the table.

Sonny had put out $1,000 and he was still muttering, “He call $200…he call $200…” as he glared at me and stood up and kept muttering and mumbling. I reached towards his stack and did a ‘hand wave’ – like send in your chips damn it…you’re short. He grabbed some bills and barked something like, “You need more, take it!” and threw his 100’s up in the air, some of them landing on the neat rows of the 5s’s bills.

I snapped, “That’s completely out of line and unnecessary.”

I pulled Sonny’s bills out of the way, counted them down, reached over into his stack, since he was stomping back and forth and snarling, and helped myself to $2,550 of his money, which I pushed to the 5s, who threw me a $20 tip and said, “That’s for you dealer!”

Woo hoo! I was really happy with that toke.

Jim and Cowboy returned to the table. Cowboy asked if I got it all figured out. To which I wanted to reply, “Yes and I have your stroll away from the game all figured out. Did you get your half of the pot?” But I didn’t. Not to worry, I ratted them out to the supervisor on my next break. Hey…it’s bullshit. If you’re going to play the game – JUST PLAY THE DAMN GAME. Stop trying to make your own rules…there are other players at the table with rights too.

I dealt the next hand and Sonny literally slammed his cards into my area right by the rack. I snapped at him, “Settle down or take a walk!”

Skip was up around the tables doing some surveillance and he asked what the problem was. I wasn’t the only person that pointed to Sonny. Sonny mutter mumbled through the last few minutes of my down and I got pushed – with him trying to stare a hole through the side of my head.

The best of it was that Sonny was only in first place before the Flop. Jim would have flopped a set of Jacks if he’d played the hand. Pablo flopped a set of sixes. And Sonny, with nothing to draw to except a bare assed Ace, had the biggest fit over empty air…and I’m still trying to figure out how he could just go all-in with that Flop, with two other players in the pot, and especially one of them being Pablo. Sonny’s played with Pablo before and if I were in a hand with Pablo, I’d be really leery because that boy ain’t in there on a draw or a feeling.

There’s more to the night but it will be for another time. I’m dragging.

First here’s a reply I received from Daniel regarding the Blogger Tournament.

—– Original Message —–
From: “Daniel Negreanu”
To: “Linda Geenen”
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 3:39 PM
Subject: RE: Linda – Bellagio dealer and the blogger tournament

>Hey Linda, it doesn’t look good for the 10th. I am shooting a poker show
> on exactly the 10th for CBS… tell em all I said hello, and maybe I can get
> a few things to you to give away as prizes if you are interested.

Of course I replied that I understood he was busy and yes, we’d love some prizes. And I removed his email address from the above email. I figure if he wants anyone else to have it, he’ll give it to them.

Secondly, the opportunity to play in the Special PokerWorks.Com $2000 free roll at Titan Poker on the 19th is rapidly approaching and time is running out. Get registered and meet me there.

And thirdly, the real world got in the way of everything on Friday. And not only that, those kids that live in the real world are grouchy as hell. Has anyone told them about the Poker World? Perhaps they need to get out and play poker now and then just to relax and ease up a little.

It started with me going to have a ‘tint’ put on the two side windows in the front of my truck…the back windows were done in at the factory. The guy that took my information, and had talked to me on the phone the day before, was a wee bit of a crab and snappy as hell until I told him I thought we were just missing each other in the conversation. He agreed and eased up. The bad news is that it was supposed to take around 45 minutes. I waited for an hour for them to get the truck into the garage and then it took 15 minutes. And yes I had an appointment. I’ve never figured out why everyone that works out of an office feels their time is so important but mine isn’t worth poop. It sucks.

Then it was off to Gaudin Ford to have a ‘code alarm’ installed in my truck. But not to worry, I got shifted around through four people, and sent to the wrong desk more than once, and none of them seemed overly friendly until I finally stated to the guy, that almost bit my head off for asking a question about my truck, that he was the fifth person I’d been sent to and everyone seemed a little bit out of sorts and grouchy. He got right off of it and became a real person, even escorted me to the right person that was going to take care of having the code alarm installed. Nice. But this touch with the real world was really worse than the first considering the number of people I had contact with before one of them mellowed out.

I left my truck for service and the parents of the sweet, baby boy, Riot, “ma – ma” and “da – da” picked me up for lunch. Riot really is a riot. And he’s at the age where everything he does is funny. He’s spitting out words like crazy. His “Oh No!” keeps me smiling. He waves to everyone and says, “bah – bah” and that’s just too funny all by itself. He’s a lunatic for a phone. He grabs it and almost chokes it to death while he makes sounds at it…and I do talk to him on the phone when I can’t spend time with him. Presenting his royal cuteness:

And now a step away from the Real World.

The WSOP Circuit Series kicked off at Ballys and I’m not sure I can stand the thought of another tournament right now. I may make it over there, I may not, and I know it sounds a little ridiculous that I haven’t been there already but listen to this news alert, I didn’t even go to the Rio during the WSOP. I get plenty of poker and tons of tournament news and we have three major tournaments a year at Bellagio and I deal the Aruba/Ultimate Bet Tournament and at Bellagio, we pick up all of the high limit when a tournament is in town. It’s hard to get all jacked up about going somewhere else to see more of what I spend 40 hours a week doing.

So…with all of that laid out behind me, I went to Monte Carlo tonight to meet five guys for dinner at Blackstone’s. One of them, Craig Singer, I’ve known for quite some time, and he’s the reason I was invited. Craig’s acquired the affectionate name of Sweater from his friend Doug. Long Story. Craig played in Bellagio’s 2004 Five Diamond World Poker Classic heads-up, $25,000 Buy-in Tourney.

And no…we aren’t an item, but we are good friends. Doug and Craig are the poker players out of the five. The meal was great; the company ‘over the top’, and they were going off to the Aladdin to have a few drinks and then possibly Craig and Doug were going to The Mirage to play poker.

If they’d been on their way to play poker, I would have tripped along and played too. The thought of drinking just didn’t grab me by the throat and make me want to be there…besides, it was Joe’s birthday and maybe they didn’t really want me tagging along. Hell they were in Vegas to have fun. I sort of shut down when it comes to screamer parties and lots of drinking. But poker? Shuffle up, baby!

Oh…and do I have my worlds mixed up? Which one is the real world?

Um-m-n-n-h-h-h…a few beers and a single table NLH $50+5 buy-in on Party after work cranked me right into high gear.

I got some stupid ass chat from one freak, asking: Is you’re a s s as loose as your play, Sweetie?

I gave him one of my favorite replies: I’m only nine and I’m playing on my dad’s account. What does that mean?

He replied: F U

To which I promptly replied: What does that mean?

He left me alone after that…and I got to bust him out of the tournament…I took second in that one but busting Mr. Freak was the highlight of the game.

So let me get on to what I was going to post about to begin with. When I hit the room, I immediately started searching for Derek ‘Tex’ Barch. We had arranged to meet for a visit before I began my shift. No game in Bobby’s Room – definitely didn’t have to look for him there. I hit the top section to find Johnny Chan, Amir, and Layne Flack playing Chinese Poker. I sat down by Layne and asked, “Where’s the Barchmeister?”

Layne replied that Derek had played all night and finally went to sleep sometime in the late a.m. I asked Layne if I could take his picture, “…anything for you, Sweetheart.”

I took it…he was being goofy and it’s hard not to laugh when he’s just being himself. I took two pictures; this is the closest to a serious face I could get out of him.

In an hour I was dealing that game. They were playing half Chinese and half PLO $100-200 Blind. Johnny was walking when I sat down. I announced, “Time Pot,” as I prepared to deal PLO. I asked Layne if I should take time from Johnny. The reason I asked rather than just taking it? He could be finished for the night and left his chips for a few minutes.

Layne reached over and snagged a $25 chip from Johnny’s stack and said something like, “Why not. Just because he’s Johnny Chan doesn’t mean he doesn’t pay Time.”

*Chuckling*

I took Johnny’s Time out of the chip and pushed back what was left over. Amir took off on a conversation about playing in California some years ago. He’d jumped in a game and after he’d been playing for a while and one of the players left, someone asked, “Do you know who that was?” Amir, “No.” And the other person said, “Johnny Chan.” Amir did a, “Who’s that?”

The whole thing was funny. It took a little more telling than that but that’s the gist of the whole thing. Amir would play the devil himself and never back down. Amir is the kind of player that is completely dangerous…sometimes I’ve wondered if he knows what he has. He plays with reckless abandon at times and just fires chips like he was launching rockets at the enemy during a beach landing. I’ve been dealing to him for quite a few years and he can get crazy at times hence the picture running through my brain when he played Johnny when Amir didn’t know who Johnny was. Not that it bothers Amir now that he knows who Johnny is.

Johnny returned. They played eight hands of Chinese with the person on the Dealer Button receiving two hands. Chips were zinging back and forth. A woman was behind Amir, possibly his wife – I don’t know, and when Johnny had the Button, he let her set one of his hands while he set the other…of course he looked at it first.

Once Layne acted like he was going to hand me his cards so I could set his hand. I started laughing, “I don’t have the faintest idea how to play this game and what or how anyone pays anyone.”

Sometimes it’s so difficult to set the flavor and scene of what’s going on in a game when I get there. Yet that is a key factor to the whole scene. There is always an undercurrent carrying nervous energy, tension/excitement over winning or losing or the consequence/fear of losing. Add egos, different nationalities, cultural customs, language barriers, and a few million other things and the curtains go up on a stage that is surpassed by none.

David Williams sat down by Layne and they talked about a variety of things. Amir got a phone call and had a patient that was being admitted to the hospital. Mike Wattell walked up and asked what the game was…stating that he didn’t want to play Chinese but would play the PLO. The $10-20 NLH game was running full bore a few feet from this game and most of the players were watching the action in this game. The game on the other side of me had Yen, Sonny, Jimmy W., Ali, and someone else in it. The game plaque in my game was incorrect as to limit and what they were playing and I called for a Floor Person to correct it

Layne had his hand set and put his arm and hand out into the middle of the table – he was in the 4s – and he was making a goofy face and I started laughing. I grabbed his hand and said, “You are so damn funny.”

He chuckled, “I’m stuck. I don’t know how to be unhappy. I laugh when I win, I laugh when I lose.”

Layne told David that him and me used to go together when we both lived in Montana. How in the hell can you not just crack up? I did.

About that time Amir was starting to crab about playing Chinese and trying to get Mike to play with them. As soon as they completed eight hands of Chinese and went to PLO they all agreed they would get rid of Chinese.

Johnny had the Button and threw out $400 and said he was putting the straddle on it.

Ironically, there was a note on the wall, in the office, by the time clock that stated “NO RACKS ON THE TABLES” AND “NO STRADDLES ON THE BUTTON IN A THREE HANDED GAME”. This was the first time the note had been posted. It’s pretty common in a three-handed game to NOT allow a straddle on the button. But something must have happened recently that the need for the sign was posted.

I almost spit. I said, “There’s a note on the wall in the office that specifically states no Straddles on the Button in three-handed.”

Johnny didn’t argue. He pulled his chips back.

I said, “Really there is…”

Layne said, “Oh…we believe you.”

Johnny said, “”I’ll just put a blind raise on it then,” as he pushed his four $100 chips back out onto the table

Layne said something like, “There’s a note that says Johnny Chan can’t straddle on the Button.”

They started laughing. So did I.

It was close to the end of my down and a few hands later, Amir and Layne went to war. Before the River, the pot had over $30,000 in it. Layne bet around $25,000 on the River and Amir put some thought into it before he folded.

I moved to the $10-20 NLH game. Most of the players kept watching the game I just left and within 10 to 15 minutes, Layne lost his chips and left. OUCH!

The conversation at the tables went back and forth about who was left in the TOC and eventually the word came in that Mike Matusow took first place. And I don’t care what the rest of the world says or feels about Mike, I like him. I can remember him first playing at the Mirage, when he was still a dealer at Sam’s Town, and wondering if he talked in his sleep because he sure as hell never shut up when he was in a game. I found him to be obnoxiously noisy and full of himself in those days. Perhaps he still is but the point is, I’ve acquired a fondness for him. I’m happy for him.

*****

*Begin Interlude*

I was a busy kid in coming up with a few wrinkles of my own for the Blogger Tourney 12/10/05. I contacted Michael Craig…yes he’s a friend of mine…The Banker, The Lawyer, and The Suicide King, and asked him if he would please speak to us at our gathering pre-tourney. He’s accepted. I sent that info to Bill Rini. I’m excited about it.

Then I sent Daniel Negreanu an email through his site, and immediately received a cyber reply that Daniel receives a lot of email (no shit?), and that he might not get back to everyone that emails him, blah, blah, blah. Ok. I figured it was a lousy way of contacting him anyway. So I hoped to stalk him out at Bellagio when he came in and ask him to attend our Blogger Tourney.

*End Interlude*

I happened to be sailing by Bobby’s Room on a break when I looked over and saw him standing, visiting with the players, as he was ready to leave the room. He hadn’t been in the game; he just obviously came in to talk to them. I waltzed right in, “Before you leave, can I talk to you for a minute?”

He just jumped right into my arms and gave me a big hug and I gave him one back. He said, “Sure,” and followed me out of the room.

I started with something kind of lame, “You know the world of poker bloggers is getting bigger and we are having our 2nd Annual Fall World Poker Blogger Tournament on the 10th of December. Everyone would just love you…well they do anyway…if you came by – for even a few minutes and said ‘hi’.”

He was totally focused on what I was saying.

“If I’m not in Toronto, I will. How about if we did something like the winner of the tournament gets to play me heads-up for a $2,000 free roll?”

I was flabbergasted. And excited. And hope he is in town and he doesn’t space it out. I would never really hold him to that statement because he’s a very busy kid and it wasn’t a commitment kind of statement, it was a ‘what if we did’ kind of statement. I told him I’d sent him an email through his site but I didn’t like his chances of getting it. He whispered his private email – behind his hand – and told me to send him one there. I thanked him profusely. Hell yes! I sent the email almost as soon as I got home for work. It would be so kewl if he made it.

Funny part of it was about an hour later I was dealing an $8-16 game and the players were talking about the ‘big names’ playing in Bobby’s Room and one of them piped up with, “I saw you talking to Daniel Negreanu,” his voice appeared to be tinged with awe.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. I replied that I knew just about everyone and had been dealing to them for a long time. I left it at that. And here’s where I have to leave this…my butt’s dragging…Sand Woman Land is calling.