Tomorrow is a work day/night for me. My tomorrows always fall on the time I go to sleep – that doesn’t always work with every one else’s world. I’m often amazed at people that GASP when they hear I work 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., as if it’s a time out of the twilight zone and no real person would ever work those hours. Well guess what! I do and I like it! I like going to bed at 7 a.m. I watch the sun come up, the air is fresh, very little traffic, and the new morning horizon spreads out as a beautiful painting that was presented especially for me by Picasso. I cherish that time.

When the weather’s warm, I walk my neighborhood – sometimes for miles. I let all the nuisances of the day slip past me and relax in the comfort of my own space and time. I eventually wind down and slip off into Sandman Land and usually sleep until 3 p.m. Now…what the hell’s so different about my schedule and a person that has to get up at 3 a.m. to make it to work by 7? Nothing. I just have the best of it because it suits my body clock. I don’t care if you work during the day…

This is my new drive/entry way My youngest son, Darian, and I are starting a home based business. My place is the website model. Soon my back yard – the project that has lasted longer than life – will be finished…honest…for real this year – and I’m going to have custom, acid stained floors throughout my house. I’m tired of carpet…that dust holding, allergy creating mess that always needs to be tended to and no matter how new it is or how many times you ‘shampoo’ it, it never seems to really be clean. When the floors are finished, my countertops will be acid stained concrete. Love it! There’s no limitations on the designs and ideas. You, the home/business owner, are the only factor that would ever make it boring and common place.

My sis left this afternoon. I hate to see her go but it’s time. She has a life and a place in MT and she refuses to move here…she says it’s the traffic. I laughed at her. She lives in a city that had about 60,000 people when I left and now must have over 100,000 people in it. Don’t worry, nothing has changed in the traffic design since I left. You have to cross the Clark Fork River (in more places than one) to navigate across town…hell – get ready because you’re stuck! She didn’t see the humor when I laughed. Well she’s going home to 13 degree temperature tonight and I’m slumming in Vegas. Love ya – see ya. I’m glad I’m here.

A flash back to Saturday night. My sis and I had planned a big food extravaganza for twelve people. We cooked, drank wine, people came, we drank more wine, cooked, got food ready, more people showed, drank wine…finally ate – K-e-e-rist! Wayne went right in and attacked the dishes. Where is this man from? I wondered if he was for hire or what???? What would I have to do to keep him on full time? Ok…I’m just musing at the fact that a man would jump up and tackle that mess…it just ain’t real.

Then we played Dealer’s Choice poker. It was great fun and the only downside was that Jim AKA The Monkey didn’t show. Big tears…I love that guy. Apparently he couldn’t break out of the Colorado prison that he’s in…that would be IBM and life…or is it life at IBM…umhnnhhh

There’s a plan to have a Clan Poker Tournament in March…maybe my house. Lots of food, everyone helps…maybe a sleep over for people that need a room…no bed and breakfast here, just find a spot on the damn floor…join the Clan if you want an invite.

Enough…the time clock awaits tonight. I’ll be there with my best smile and work attitude on…after all, I only have to work two days and I’m off for two again…YIPPPPEEE!

I’ve used up four of my five days of peace and quiet away from the land where poker chips rain from the sky and time is held in an eternal deck of cards being shuffled and dealt to images that may disappear but never leave. I have one more day…

Tomorrow it’s time to take my sis back to the airport for her return to MT…which BTW the weather forecast is somewhere around 13 below for her return home. She might just decide to stay here until spring. We didn’t do a lot of anything or much of nothing. It was fun! I’ll see if I can talk her into another trip soon. Maybe in March when I plan on having a Poker Clan BBQ and home poker game at my place.

On a note from last week at work – Ron R. returned to visit. He brought me a bottle of wine and a great, warm smile. He brought his dad too. Introduced him to me as Mean Gene…NOT EVEN. Gene looked way to friendly to be mean about anything. Ron was almost instantly in a $2-5 Blind NLH game. I got an E/O and escaped early but before I left the room, I dragged a promise out of Ron that he would write a trip report. So-o-o-o-

The room was just as busy last week as it had been during the holidays. I’m wondering if this week will show any slacking off or if it will still be a huge whirwind of noise, body heat, and chip clatter. I’m betting on the latter.

See you there on Thursday!

Eleven of us played, MissT – Tanya, JohnnyHarp – John Harper, Ickster – Vickie, LR Geenen – Linda, General K – Isaac, Pan-demonium – Vivienne, FlatBlack – Zach, Jon – Clan Founder and LOSER, heh, heh, heh, Felicia Lee, Blaize, Glenn. The names are given in seating order beginning with the 1s.

I of course ordered . Immediately! I brought stick on tags so we could all make our ‘clan’ names and our real names visible so everyone would know each other. I also brought a seashell from Aruba and designated it to go to ‘first out’ for being a FISH! I brought a polished rock from Bellagio for the grand winner so they would be known as the real ‘rock’.

Ten of us put $1 in the kitty for a ‘last longer bet’. Zach brought baby shoes for the bounty on his head. Jon brought a $100 bill, rolled up, stuck under the bridge of his glasses, for the bounty on his head. Tanya brought a bounty she’d made for the person that busted her.

While I was drinking wine and folding 9-4, 8-3, Q-4, 9-2, 6-3, and a nightmare of other garbage hands, I took pictures and tried to keep a small log of what was going on at the table. The other Clan members promised they would chime in and add their version to everything. I know it’s hard to believe but they made fun of me at one point – stating that I was writing detailed descriptions to begin with and the more I drank the less I wrote…lies! I wrote very little period. I did take some .mpgs with my camera…and some head shots of the Clan – as of this moment my web server is down (and has been for over an hour) and I haven’t been able to publish the pictures to it. When my server is up and I can post again, this will be the page the head shots are on.

Early in the tournament, Jon raised $400 and after everyone folded, he threw out the $100 bill/bounty on him…and showed A-A.

Vivienne was first to go. She went heads-up with Blaize – Flop Q-?-Q, 2 spades. The last card was 9s and Blaize filled up with Q-9. Vivienne made the Flush. Ouch! She got the seashell award.

I had A-K BB and called a $200 raise from John H. We were heads up – he was the Button. Flop was a J and 2 littles. I checked. He bet $75. I folded. He said he flopped a set of Jacks. He raised my blind every round until I went Bust. Don’t worry, Buddy, there’ll be another tournament and another winner… He also raised twice with ‘the hammer’ – 7-2 off and showed it when he won the hand.

My button – I look down to A-6 of Clubs. Bingo – Felicia raised it to $250 – Blaize raised to $800 – Vickie raised it to $1350. Goodbye A-6. This was the 2nd best hand I’d picked up in about four rounds of the table. Vickie won without a caller. She had Aces. She held Aces three times during the tournament and within the first two blind levels, Aces were out 6 times.

A few hands later I picked up Q-J. I know this hand is crap but it looked like A-A after all the off beat – unsuited – never connecting cards I picked up. I believe the blinds were at $50-$100 and in the next few minutes we were going on break and the blinds were going to $100-200. I didn’t have to play but 4 or 5 of us took the Flop. The Flop was 8-9-little. Checked all the way around. The Turn was a Q. Blaize went all-in. He had me covered and I thought about it for about 45 seconds. I called. He showed K-K. I was out. Blaize had knocked out two of us.

Lots of noise and laughing was going on during the rest of the show. It went something like this:

Jon raised with 9-9. Isaac called (damned if I can remember his hole cards). Jon flopped a set – like A-9-? – a Q on the Turn gave Isaac an Ace high straight – the board paired an Ace on the River filling Jon up and sending Isaac out of action. It was an exciting hand. We were all cheering for Jon to lose every time he went all-in (sorry, kid, if you just weren’t so damn cocky).

Blaize picked up A-J, Vickie picked up A-A again and won that pot against Blaize. He picked up a Club draw on the Turn but A-A held up. Yippee, Sista!

Somewhere in here, Jon raised (I think Tanya bet or she was blind) and while she debated calling him, he was showing me and my camera 10-10. She did call with a draw and an over card. She missed the draw.

John broke Felica – she had K-K, he went in with A-4 Off and an Ace popped off right on the Flop.

Big hand – H-U-G-E hand for Blaize. Zach had J-J, went all-in. Jon over called all-in (If I’m wrong on the way the action went here, I’ll get corrected by ‘you know who’) with 2-2. Blaize went all-in with A-K. Jon had them covered, Blaize had Zach covered. The Flop was K-3-K and nothing else came to help. Zach was out and Blaize now held the coveted Baby Shoes. Blaize had busted three of us.

Vickie busted John – he had J-J, she held A-10S – no help on the Flop – an Ace on the Turn gave her the winner.

Glenn picked up K-K against MissT’s 3-3. Glenn went all-in and won. Tanya was severely short stacked now. The next hand was her BB and Glenn raised it enough to set her all-in. She could pay the small blind and look at one more hand. She threw her hand away and played the small blind in the dark. Blaize raised with J-10C. Tanya turned over Q-3 off. Flop A-10-? Blaize busted 4 of us…what a record. She handed him the package she’d brought – the homemade bounty she put on herself. A framed picture of Q-Q – someone else needs to fill in what the text is under the Queens. Blaize now counted coup on four of us.

I was cheering my sis on. It was 4 handed and she was one out of the money. I paid her and my entry fee – $100 + 10. When I pulled out the $100 bills, she informed me that she had $10. Ke-rist! I was laughing.

Almost the next hand, Jon went all-in with Presto (5-5). Blaize called him with K-J D. Flop was K and 2 diamonds. Jon lost his $100 bounty to Blaize. Blaize now had five of us and all the bounties.

A few hands later Glenn went all-in with A-10. Blaize called with either J or K-9. Queen was the high card on the Flop, 9 on the Turn knocked Glenn out. Sorry but my camera was running on these by now. I stopped taking notes a long time ago and I was on my 2nd or 3rd Another notch on Blaize’s deck of beats- he’d beaten six of us.

Then Vickie went all-in with 6-9S (don’t ask me why, I didn’t teach her that) and Blaize had A-J (I can’t tell from the .mpg if it was a J or a K). The board came Q-Q-3-4-K. Blaize won the last longer bet, first place and succeeded in busting seven of us…along with the fact that he claimed all bounties.

Congratulations, Blaize! Now will you join the damn Clan?

We then set up a Dealer’s Choice $2-4 Limit game in which the dealer called game choice. It was a little zany but a lot of fun. The Tournament started at 6 and we started to thin out about 11:30. I managed to get back $100 from my sis…she won’t cough up the $10 damn it! I should have let her pay it to start with…

I think everyone had a great time, if they didn’t I don’t know how they missed.

I’ve received more than one response to my last post. People are thinking of me and where I am with what’s going on around me. I truly appreciate the thought and caring that goes into their taking the time to write and comfort me with support and thoughts they’ve specifically put together for me.

I want to stress that I’m not – NOT – out of sorts with anything or anyone – I’m not depressed, sad, or lonely – I’m not giving up on anything. I sometimes need to take the step inside and feel the world through my spiritual sense instead of the time clock and noise and confusion of daily living. It’s quite painful, at least for me; open wounds are not always external and hiding them from everyone around you doesn’t necessarily make them go away or get better.

Writing is theraputic for me. It also helps me understand and appreciate where I was at certain times in my life. I make a living in poker and most of my working life has been entertwined with poker, but it is not who I am. I don’t want to read back over these pages and feel that my life was one big poker story – it is not. These pages are as I want them to be – my life, work or play, laughing or crying.

*****

I have five days off – my sis is here from Montana. We will be competing in the Poker Clan Tournament at the Plaza on Monday at 6 p.m. Jon, Clan Founder, has put a $100 bounty on himself…bragging rights alone would be worth a Million. Should be great fun – anyone in town that wants to come down and visit with The Clan, please do.

Back in a day or so with more refreshing poker updates…intermingled with what’s going in my life from time to time.

Poker ‘post’ poned for the day.

I’m in the time warp of my thoughts. It’s pretty scary – even for me. No one but me knows how close I am to the edge of losing it, stepping into the zone where there is no reality, no conscious thought; just oblivion to everything that permeates around me and no desire to struggle with the vague shadows that try to remind that I know them. I don’t need a shrink…I could probably mess one of them up if they stepped into my sublime darkness where no glimmer of light dares enter.

I’m at the pinnacle again – where I see the horror of mankind’s darkest deeds; world destruction; loss of hope; children that never have a chance to laugh and enjoy the sunshine; watching people with life long disabilities and physical pain struggle each day just to survive; the forgotten elderly; the blessed few that have everything and think it’s a ‘given’; the Earth burn and change as we destroy it; the way we treat ourselves and the ones we supposedly love; along with a million other things that distort my concept of what we are supposed to be.

I can easily imagine climbing to the top of the highest ridge in Calico Basin and running over the edge, arms spread, with one final scream as I plummet to the bottom – becoming one with the red sandstone as my body splits and my blood is absorbed to become one with the stone. My spirit would drift up, out of the broken remains of the human form, to join the wind as it whistled across the washes and desert, returning as a vaporish mist on a cold morning, riding the tides of change and the seasons of the heart – remembering all that I held dear and releasing everything that created pain.

Perhaps I think too much. At times I step out of the boundaries of the conscious mind…that is where I am now. Soon I will develop another callous or wall that will protect my spirit and I will, once again, be ‘OK’. Right now I am not ok. I’m vulnerable and unable to find a shield.

While this may sound suicidal, it is not. I have to create a world within myself that I can live in – you don’t have to be there – I do. I have to be happy with it and right now it’s very painful. Life is painful – how I deal with it is what makes me what I am. I’ve recently read MissT’s post on Morbidity. I appreciate her thoughts and where she is but that’s not where I am. My struggle is not with death – it is with life.

I have no claim to any thought or emotion – at least a billion other people must have had them before they came to me – but I am the recipient of the flood of awakening, by choice or trial, I am there. I relish the emotion. It shows that I am alive, I am aware, I have the ability to learn, I know the difference, and I have choices. I choose to taste life. I choose to savor and cherish. I choose to begin again, with the fresh breath of anticipation, I can make a difference and be a better person.

So it is written, so it is spoken, so it shall be!

I think if I can just get through my shift tonight, the world will still be rotating on it’s axis – the planet won’t self destruct and burn into a black ball, and my face won’t slide off and melt into the carpet. I’m past believing I can make it through one more night…this kid hasn’t taken an E/O or signed up to play in a few weeks. Working wire to wire is tough, especially in nonstop noise pollution, people commotion, and having to pay attention to all the game formats and limits, players, cocktails, fills, chip runners, and a few million other things. All I can say is TGIF.

*****
Someone jumped up by Table 3 tonight ($10-20 NLH) and while a player was seated at the table, eating, the ‘someone’ grabbed the player’s $100 bills and escaped through the casino. No word on whether the ‘someone’ was identified or apprehended and unknown as to whether Bellagio has any responsibility in that area. Scary as hell…how brave are they?

*****

The $2-5 blind NLH game rules at Bellagio, usually four games a night, pots that are huge and everyone came to G-A-M-B-L-E! Love to deal it although it gets a little hectic at times as players come and go through must move games and going bust. Wed. night I dealt the first hand of a new game, A-A vs. K-K. How strange after spreading a new deck. K-K bit the dust and left after the initial $200 Buy-in – A-A doubled up.

Last week, Q-Q, J-J, 10-10 in the same hand. 10-10 put most of the pressure on the hand. Q-Q went all-in (BTW the player with Q-Q is a lady – Karen M. – she reads here and she’s in the same profession I used to be in, legal profession. She’s an asset to poker and represents a classy femine side instead of these girls that think nipples and butt cheek hanging out is what it’s all about) and won the majority of the chips in the main pot. J-J claimed the side pot and 10-10 left for the night.

Tues. night found me pushing a pot that had almost $2,500 in it. One game tonight was full of noise and chatter and the players in seats 7 through 10 put the live straddle on it. When the straddle hit the 9s, the 10s put a dead $20 on it with a promise to call $150 more without looking at his cards. The game was very active and a lot of fun to deal.

*****

The only harsh spot I hit tonight was from a sweater in a $4-8 holdem game on Table 26. The player asked me about food. I told him the only thing open at 2 a.m. was the Coffee Shop. The sweater was good sized, leather jacket, late 20’s, and asked if they could get room service. I told him if he had a room number, they could call room service and have food delivered. He said they had a credit card. I said I didn’t think so.

He proceeded to get totally demanding, belligerent, and stupid, telling me to bring my supervisor over to wait on them. I said I didn’t think so. He got overly loud and demanded, “Can your bitch perform?”

I told him he was talking to the wrong person, if he wanted to speak to my supervisor, to walk over to the office and speak to him.

He said Vegas was all about service and he was expecting to be waited on…blah, blah, blah.

His friend, the player, quieted him down. It was a good thing because I didn’t think Pete was going to react very kindly to him at that hour – especially at the end of a long, hard shift. The game broke and they left but I can’t help but marvel at these people that believe they are doing the casino, or anyone else, a favor by getting drunk, making a lot of noise, and demanding service…especially as a sweater at a $4-8 table.

Are they passing out drugs somewhere that I’m not aware of? Shit! I’m always the last to know.

My first game was $4-8 Holdem, entertaining, looney, only three people at the table really knew what was going on all the time. One of them, Richard L., was in the 1s, Doc, completely drunk on his butt when he hits Vegas but he still knows what’s going on in the game and he’s funny as hell, in the 4s, and a stranger in the 7s. The rest of the table was a bunch of young bucks ready to gamble and ramble. The 8s said he was a friend of Daniel N. and they’d played poker together in Canada for years but he still wasn’t ‘game aware’…maybe that’s why Daniel is a world class player and the 8s isn’t…who knows?

The 10s had ‘attitude’ doubled up and shoved into a small glass bottle with a strip of cloth hanging out of the top. Hello cocktail! He was flipping out because Doc had called him “M&M” and his name was “Flash”! He elected to take a walk, “…because I’m not going to let you put me on tilt.” Hell…he was so tilted he didn’t know which side was up. He returned a few minutes later and Doc started calling him Flash.

Every hand I dealt, Doc looked at me and said, “Protect me, Linda.”

I just chuckled. Believe me, it’s the other way around, the rest of the world needs protection from Doc.

I misread one hand in this game, thankfully I’d not pushed any chips and no damage was done…especially to me. It was straightened out immediately. I hate it when I do that.

*****

$20-40 7 Card Stud was next on my agenda and while this isn’t funny, it kind of is – the 2s and most of the players at the table were all strangers except the 1s, Gary, and the 8s, M.Z., he rarely plays anymore although he used to play every day. A few minutes later, John joined the game when a seat opened.

The 2s had a lot of chips and played a lot of hands. With $24 in the pot in antes, a $5 bring-in, a raise to $20 heads-up between the 2s and M.Z., they checked the entire hand out and the 2s won with two small pair. He asked me if I would split the pot up between them. I told him they couldn’t split the pot as I pushed it to him. He threw out two $5 chips and asked me to give it to the 8s. I told him there were no rebates allowed, it was a house rule, and pushed them back to him. He persisted in asking me if I would do it just his one time. I told him I was sorry but it was the rule.

The next hand, John asked the 2s if he would give back the money he’d beat John out of on the last hand…John did it in a pleasant manner and then followed with the explanation that that was why players didn’t give back half the pot or throw rebates to each other. Thank you, John!

Not to worry, a few minutes later, I watched M.Z. talking to the floorman and looking at me. I’m sure that M.Z. felt that I was wrong and he should have received a rebate on that hand. Ok…if one player receives a rebate, wouldn’t it be fair for everyone to get a slice of the pie? Go figure!

*****

As the night progressed, I dealt more than one, wonderful, strange, gamble it up, $2-5 blind NLH games. You would literally have to be there to see all the things that are happening at one time and then…only then…could you truly appreciate my abilities as a dealer. The first thing that happened in the second one I dealt, Dave – illustrious leader of the lost and confused – came up with the clipboard and announced that this game would be a must move game. He asked me to give each player a card and we would take the high card as the first name on the list and the next card, etc. But Dave’s reasoning was the first card after the high card dealt would be second. That just ain’t the way it’s done. I dealt everyone a card face up and ran the order of the cards for Dave, and asked for each player’s name so Dave could record it. Shit! It took five minutes of my down.

Right after that game, I moved into another one. This was insanity. No one’s fault really, just the way it came down. I had two seats open, players were coming in from other games, several players went broke in hands and I sold all the chips out of my rack…no cash on the table in this game. I couldn’t beg, borrow, or steal a chip runner, and even if I could the line was 19 customers long at the Cage…one cashier on duty. Nothing was moving except the action.

Dave announced I had a player coming in; the player for the 1s told me that he would get his own chips. During hands dealt, players going all in, mass confusion, seat changes, and catastrophic events known only in the poker realm, the new player was at the cage for ten minutes. During this time period, I called Kamell, (shift supervisor) and told him I needed a fill and couldn’t get player’s chips. He tried to help but the back up at the cashier left everyone in a mess.

While this was going on, Dave arrived with a new player for the 1s. I told him I didn’t have a seat open and that I hadn’t called the seat open. At the same time my player arrived…finally had his chips…and Dave queried him as to where he was coming from. I interjected. I told Dave that he’d been sent ten minutes ago and had gone to get his own chips and I hadn’t called the seat open. Dave gave him the third degree on what was his name, where was he at on the list, etc…

I jumped in again and told Dave that I hadn’t called the seat open because it wasn’t open and the seat belonged to this guy. Dave left with that confused look on his face. In the meantime the action was hopping, the game was in overdrive.

The 3s opened. Hello Flash!. None other than the little M&M AKA Flash arrived for it. The 1s said he would like the 3s, Flash said he wasn’t moving. I said the 1s had priority as a player in the game and Flash said the floorman told him to sit there and he was sitting there. Can’t someone light the strip of cloth hanging out of that damn bottle?

The 1s relinquished and said it was “OK,” and Flash was in the big blind. I asked him if he was ready for the blind and he replied, “No! I don’t like the way I’ve been treated.”

Well kiss my grits!

I must have done a “W-H-A-T?” The 7s, found out later his name was Chris, was laughing with me and about ready to fall off his chair. Max, God bless him, was in the 10s and made some statement about “you should wait…you’ve got the best dealer in the house and you want to wait for someone else”.

I dealt the hand, dealing Flash out, and looked right at Flash, “How have you been treated?”

He replied, “I just don’t like to be treated that way,” as if I’d done something evil to him.

Chris told everyone at the table that Flash wouldn’t last a half hour in the game…he’d be broke.

The next dealer tapped me out when I had the Flop up, Chris gave me full eye contact and said, “Just drop the deck and walk away, Linda.”

I finished the hand and talked with Chris for a moment after I left the game. I was on a break and while I was sitting visiting with my supervisor, Chris stood up and pointed at the empty 3s, “See. I told you he wouldn’t last a half an hour.”

Chris was right. All that was left of Flash was an empty chair.

Get a cup of coffee…or better yet a glass of wine…this baby’s a long one.

I’m a ‘why’ person. I try to understand and figure out people patterns and behavior and keep running the circumstances through my brain until I come to a conclusion…one that I can live with anyway. But I still can’t figure it out. There’s no rhyme or reason as to why it went the way it did. W-H-A-T? The way what went the way it did?

A step back in time to New Year’s Eve. Everyone on swing shift was working a 10 hour shift – arrive before 5 p.m. – guaranteed to be out at 3 a.m. The strip was locked down by 6 p.m. with no automobile traffic allowed and it was going to be limited access by everyone and anyone that needed or wanted to be around the Strip for the night.

My start in the line-up was supposed to be 27B but I was routed to Table 8 instead – it was $100-200 Holdem. While I was dealing this game, Bobby Baldwin did a walk through and I gave him a cheerful, “Happy New Year!” He responded with a smile and returned the greeting. Hey…he’s my top of the top, no questions asked – B-O-S-S.

Most of the night was pretty run of the mill, people celebrating being in Vegas and the New Year – playing poker – having fun…until I hit Table 14. I am bad. I took three pictures of players in the $2-5 blind NLH game in between dealing hands. The pictures were of players, regular customers, they had their own camera and wanted to be photographed…hell…it was New Year’s Eve! I think I got away with the first two…but on the third one, Pete (supervisor) appeared. He leaned over quietly and asked if I had taken a picture. I said yes. He said security had just called and it was a ‘no – no’. Ok! They got their pictures and I didn’t get written up or fired. SWEET! First and last offense…honest officer…it won’t happen again.

At 10:30 – when I’d been there five and one half hours – I spotted Joe and another player on Table 18 with their chips in a rack. That was my next game. A little history is needed here. In a previous post – 12/9/04 – Joe gave me heat because I asked him to take his chips out of a rack when I entered a $15-30 holdem game. He had a little tiz about ‘Linda’s rules’ type of thing and he was on the transfer list to another game. Something else happened with another player (rule wise) and I straightened it out. Joe told me that if I brought up one more rule, he was out of there…well ok…see ya! He got the transfer shortly after that and moved to the next game.

Previous to that, I met him almost three years ago…one of my first experiences with him was when I was playing and he was sitting next to me. He was animated and talked almost nonstop about life and marriage and how much he believed in marriage with the right person but his just didn’t work out – along with a few other topics that he seemed to be an authority on. He played on a semi-regular basis at that time.

Enter Jillian. She’s the subject of posts during the summer of 2003. She was leaving for college in the fall and played almost every night during the summer. Joe and Jillian became friends. Chris entered the picture here. He was playing in a game with Jillian and me during this time period, giving away more chips than the law allowed, and over the course of a few weeks, Joe, Jillian, and Chris appeared to spend quite a bit of time together, at and away from the table.

Chris suddenly left town at one point. I received several emails from him, just general info on where he was, what he was doing, and about playing poker.

One night at the table, Joe and Jillian were talking about Chris. It was all negative. I can’t remember the entire conversation but it had something to do with Chris ‘burning’ Joe after Joe had offered friendship, a place to stay, and a few other things. I mentioned that I had gotten an email from Chris. It was almost as if I’d done something wrong for receiving an email from him…you would have to have been there to felt the initial reaction.

Jillian eventually moved back East to continue college, she comes in occasionally to play when she’s in town, and Joe plays $15-30 Holdem intermittently.

Skipping forward to New Year’s Eve: I had no desire to sit down in the Dealer’s Box and tell Joe and the guy next to him that they couldn’t have racks on the table. This is a huge irritation with me…why can’t the dealers ahead of me just do their damn jobs? There are plaques on the podiums that clearly state no racks are allowed on the table. Why is it an issue with anyone? It’s a rule, just go with it!

While I was on a break – before entering Table 18, I went to Carmen and asked her if she would tell Joe and the guy next to him to remove their chips from the racks. She did. When I sat down, the guy next to Joe had converted his racks into three $500 chips and had them underneath a short stack of blue chips beside several stacks of red chips. Joe’s chips were out of the rack and he was absent. He returned. He’d obviously been drinking and was in the oblivion stages where no one was going to say anything to him that would slow him down and he was focused on anger.
In a belligerent manner, he asked, “Where are those $500 chips?” directed at the guy next to him. The guy was laughing and told Joe he’d put them in his pocket.

I could tell by the manner that Joe stated the question that he was in attack mode and I tried to make light of it by stating, “They are under his stack of blues, Silly Kid!”

This was the starting gate for ‘ugly as it can get’. Joe went into a ramble about how he couldn’t keep his chips in a rack but the guy next to him could take $1,500 off the table and put it in his pocket and no one cared. Again I told Joe the chips were under the stack of blues. He persisted, “The house has fucking rules for everything but they don’t care if a guy takes his chips off the table and puts them in his pocket. If they don’t care, then I don’t give a shit!”

A woman at the table I’d never seen before, jumped in with, “You swore!” She was laughing.

Joe asked, “What word did you notice, was it shit or fuck?”

“It was fuck,” and she continued to laugh as if it was the first time she’d ever heard the two works together in the same sentence and she was a plant in the audience at a comedy show.

Joe was nonstop swearing now. I asked him to settle down and play poker. He laughed at me, “Go ahead and call the floorman, Linda, all they’ll do is tell me stop, they’ll walk away and I’ll still be here.”

He rambled on, the subject of the chips being in the guys pocket came up again. I told him again they were under the stack of blues and I had told him when he first brought it up. Joe said he couldn’t hear out of his left ear and had only so much hearing in his right ear…we’ve all heard this from him and it’s a ‘canned’ speech.

I was losing my patience with him. I stated, “You have selective hearing.”

He said he didn’t; he jumped off the subject of his hearing and continued to have a fit because he had to take his chips out of the rack and everything had to be, “Linda’s way.”

I called for my supervisor. Pete arrived. I told him what was going on. Pete did just about what Joe said he would do. Pete asked Joe to stop, Joe rambled, Pete asked Joe to stop again, and Pete walked away.

I kept dealing.

Joe said, “Linda, you are an asshole! You are never nice to me,” intermingled with more swearing and anger.

I looked at Joe and asked, “Where is this coming from? Just stop it and play poker.”

He kept calling me an asshole, telling me it was a “Linda’s rules” thing and to call the floorman if I wanted. So be it! I did.

I seriously thought about laughing out loud. The whole display was ludicrous and uncalled for…it had to be a joke that Cardz was playing on me…right? Right! It wasn’t.

Pete arrived. I explained the situation, Pete told Joe to take a 20 minute walk while I dealt. Joe was indignant. He’d just paid his small and big blind and he was going to play the full round. Pete told him to walk, he kept arguing and asking Pete if he wanted to break up the game. I dealt around Joe. It was a verbal war between Pete and Joe and I think if I’d been in Pete’s spot, I would have called Security at this point. I believe that Pete tried to reason with Joe because it was New Year’s Eve and there’s really no place to go once you’re in a casino…the Strip is locked down and nothing moves.

Several people refused to take the blind in the game, several people began putting their chips in racks to leave. Joe was right…it/he did break the game. Joe was up talking to Pete at this point and made the comment that I shouldn’t even be there because I was friends with someone that should be in jail, “…her little internet thing…” (I can only surmise that he’s talking about Chris and I have nothing to do with any of it…Chris, Joe, or their differences or problems…hell all I did was receive an email.)

I called the Brush because I had four people left to draw for seats, even the brush left me stranded at this point. Two people said they would play anyway and the Brush walked away.

The 10s was racking his chips and he said I was completely right in the way I handled the situation and that Joe should have been throw out a long time ago.

One of the players that still wanted to play told me it was all my fault. I should have understood that Joe had been drinking and just left him alone. Funny…but Joe was the one that wouldn’t leave me alone.

I called the brush back, he had three seats, my table cleared out, Joe stood and harped at Pete. Pete stood between me and Joe and I turned my back to them and looked across the room. Pete questioned Joe as to why he would keep harrassing the dealer. Joe was on a rant. After what seemed an eternity, Joe’s chips were collected, he was away from the table, Pete walked up to ask me if the other players had been placed in another game and to lock up the dealer’s box. Joe was now at the middle podium talking to the Brush.

The box was locked. Joe was staring and waving at me as he talked to the brush. I’d had it. I loudly snorted, “Happy New Year, Joe!”

He came charging towards me demanding, “What did you say?”

I turned around and headed for the office. I could hear Pete tell him I’d said Happy New year.

I’m baffled. I have no idea where any of this came from. I didn’t know that Joe and I had any problems. One thing that really irritates me out of all of it is what is it with “Linda’s rules”? Does anyone out there in poker land know that Bellagio pays my salary and Bellagio has rules? If I enforce the rule that it isn’t my rule, it happens to be the house that I work in and as an employee I should do what my employer asks me to do? Should I allow one person to do something and not allow someone else to do it? Ke-e-e-rist! Where are these people coming from?

Back to reality. I managed to step out of an employee entrance and watch some of the fireworks with a lot of the cocktail staff. I’d lost my taste for everything, including mankind and the new year. What a way to bring it in.

*****

On the upside of everything, I had the perfect New Year’s Day. I hiked Calico Basin with Wayne, we had dinner at the Palms, played poker at the newly opened Gold Coast room (one of my old haunts), and New Year’s Eve drifted off – like smoke in the wind – into another time and place…a memory already replaced with warm memories worth keeping of nature and special people.

The end of the year 2004 – total frustration, irritation, and just plain ugly. But… the Omaha 8 or Better post concludes.

A week ago, Double A and Jeff P. were in the game. Jeff happened to come up for air and looked at the board, the bets, and the hands – after everything was finished on the River and I was splitting up the pot. He made a comment that I had made a mistake and something was wrong with bet/split or whatever the hell it was. He was wrong and everyone corrected him. (Not that it made any difference to me. I would rather find out before I pushed the pot than after I pushed it if a mistake was in progress).

Double A started laughing and declared, “The only time Jeff ever tried to help and he was wrong.”

It was funny. Jeff never gets in the middle of any of it because he’s always out somewhere in a ‘nether world’ unless he’s playing a hand. I had to laugh over Double A’s observation.

A flash back to last week, the night before Christmas. The $20-$40 Omaha 8 or Better with a half kill. Double A, Jay, Jeff, and a few other regulars were in the game. The room was a screamer, noise blasting out the roof tops, people milling every where. A seat opened. I got Skip’s attention and he called the names on the list, eventually telling me I had a player on the way. A few minutes later a woman sat down in the 10s with about $120 in $5 chips. I told her the buy-in was $400. She pulled out several black chips and pushed a $100 bill towards me. I sold the ten $10 chips I had in the rack and a chip runner went for the rest of her chips.

During this time period, as I’m dealing a hand, the Ace of Spades was boxed in the deck…hell if I know – this is the second time that’s happened in my dealing career…I stated, “This card is as if it doesn’t exist,” as I gave the next card off the deck to the player that would have received the Ace of Spades if it hadn’t been boxed.

H-e-l-l-o uproar! Everyone started talking at once, including the woman that didn’t have her chips. I managed to overcome the uproar to state that house rule was the boxed card was as if it was a piece of paper and nonexistent. It was a war for a minute or so with most of the table agreeing with me but a few of them thought I should have skipped the person that would have gotten it and dealt him the last card off the deck. Not sure why they felt that would happen if the card was nonexistent. Oh well.

As soon as that got settled down and the woman in the 1s had her chips, the real player showed up for his seat. Mass confusion again as Skip came over and I had to explain the woman had sat down. She argued with me – pointing and yelling – that she had asked if the seat was open and I had told her yes. I really had not said anything to her other than it was a $400 buy-in. She argued with Skip that it was her seat and I’d told her it was open.

Skip told her that he’d told me I had a player on the way and that I would not know who the player was so when she sat down, of course I would think it was her.

The whole table was, as usual, in a state of agitation and exclamation about everything and anything as the hand progressed and bets were slammed into pot.

Jay jumped into it and said it was the dealer’s fault because I told her the seat was open. Those weren’t his exact words and he was goofing around but it didn’t come across as being funny at the time.

I looked at him, “You have a real mean streak in you!”

We had a small, bantering exchange going on while the hand finished. The real player went to get his chips, the woman took a walk and left her chips there, and the table was on brain tilt…that is if we can give them all credit for having a brain.

The real player returned, Skip had to be called again, this time he picked up the woman’s chips and was heading for the cage with them when she returned. She was having a fit with him because she was missing two $10 chips. She came to the table with Skip, rack in her hand, spewing words at 1,000 miles an hour at me on how much she bought in for and where were the other two chips, blah, blh, bl, b (words at 1,000 MPH lose something).

Tan (one of our dealers turned player) was in the game and she was right behind him. He turned around and moved one chip over in the tube in the rack and told her they were all there, she had too many chips in one tube. She disappeared.

I looked at Tan and said, “You’re hired!” Sure that’s what he wanted to hear since he just quit a few months ago.

The 3s told us the woman that just left was a host in a CA casino. Naturally – people that work in the business are sometimes the hardest to get along with.

I’ve teased Jay since about being mean. I dealt the game a few nights later and where he is usually the bright spot at the table, with a smile and some witty conversation or at least some ‘Jeff darts’ and ‘Jeff barbs’ going on, he was as somber as everyone else. The whole game was a drag to deal.

Every now and then someone new joins the fold and remains but those instances are few and far between. With a few exceptions, most of them appear to be totally miserable, like a group of vultures hissing and pecking at each other while they are waiting for a live one to walk by and die in front of them. They are talking about going to Wynn Casino when it opens…I hope they do. I’d much prefer to deal to people that can still breathe if they lose a pot…and I wouldn’t mind making a buck or two at the same time.

I try to stay away from the $20-40 Omaha 8 or better game, literally, and writing about it is mentally grueling for the most part. It’s like a dead society – a group that gets together to try and beat each other to death, verbally, and with poker chips. On rare occasions there is a flood of new players and the regulars seem to treat them like they are intruders rather than a new avenue of income or someone that should be welcomed into the fold.

Jeff P. – has been on the scene since the beginning of my history with The Mirage. In those days he played $4-8 every day. At one time I thought he had a slight chance at having a personality. Now I find him blending into the draperies and carpeting of Bellagio, nondescript, unhappy, and silent except for his attempts to parry verbal blows weilded by Jay. His focus, at the table, is always on ‘his girls’ (that would be anyone that walked by and looked female) and who’s going for food and what’s on the menu, and his losses.

Most of the dealers can’t stand him because he’s a stiff. When they tell me he never tips them, I laugh and state that I make about $12 a year off of him. That might be high. He’s often expressed to me, away from the game, that he might not tip but he never gives the dealers a bad time. Ok – point?

Double A – a wonderful soul that really would be better off spending his time doing something to replenish his soul…there’s no soul restructuring at the Omaha table. He’s inquisitive, well intentioned, has a heart of gold, and a great sense of humor but he’s struggling with the reality of poker, money, and life…whether he knows it or not.

Jay G. – Intelligent, quick to jump into any conversation and carries on one with himself if no one else bites – he’s ready to launch a verbal rocket at Jeff if Jeff even looks at his chips or cards to call a bet or raise. The funniest part of Jay being at the table is that he’s doing the Dialogue Dance with everyone and most of them don’t even know they’ve been invited off the wall…it goes right over their head. Jeff, however, knows that he’s receiving incoming fire and he tries to fire back with a defense program instead of offense. Hysterical!

Kenny – he’s never happy. I heard him laugh once in the last two years. He could be a real asset to the game and himself, if he climbed out of the death spiral and figured out that poker is a game played with cards, luck is a factor, and you can only conquer the game if you can step away from the picture and assess what’s going on and not let your mind show you the Twilight Zone every time you enter a hand.

Pete – he’s been in the biz a long time…know him since The Mirage days. He’s only in the game on my shift if he’s stuck. He can be pretty harsh if he’s having a bad day but none of that is shoved in my face so I drift through his ups and downs without a lot of swing either way.

These are the five people I would expect to find on any given night in this game. There are a lot of players that have been around for a long time that might show up at any hour of the day or night but these five are the consistent core of this game on my shift.

This game is ‘dealer brutal’. There’s no bright spot, no hope of making a few decent tips out of it, and it’s very demanding as far as dealing it and keeping track of everything that going on. It’s $20-40 with a half kill…jumps to $30-60 and a lot of the regulars never help the dealer, if anything they create more flack than a newcomer with their sarcasm and bad attitudes. It’s like dealing the low end of high limit. Your never making anything out of the down but you’re going to get a lot of attitude and flack.

Most of the time everyone is stone silent, like their guts are trying to push through their breastbone and their eyes are popping out of their heads because they want more hands per hour while they are holding their breath worrying about whether or not they are going to win a pot because the rent was due last month.

This is how some of it goes:

One player that I’ve nicknamed ‘Babalonia’ likes the 2s. She always has attitude. It’s either ‘deal me out’ or she’s trying to jump start her version of what the bet is and who did what…even if they didn’t. Hello confusion! She’s UTG. As I shuffle and deal the first hand, for some reason, Cardz (The Card Fairy’s demonic cousin) was at work and Babalonia’s card flipped off the deck, jumped across the table, and almost landed in her lap.

I was embarrassed and indignant that I’d suffered a mechanical problem and dropped the deck as I stated, “Send them back.”

The cards came in with a lot of flack from Babalonia and the 3s, “Why is it a misdeal?” – “This game is slow enough…”

Another “Why is it a misdeal?” from Babalonia brought this response from me, “I’m embarrassed because the card popped off the deck.”

That didn’t slow her or the 3s down and if he’d thought about dropping it, he wasn’t going to because she fanned the fire, “It’s not a misdeal…”

I already had the deck shuffled and was dealing by now, “I’m one of the slowest dealers in the room…as you’ll see.”

She went on with the rant…into the next hand. I said, “If you want me to call a floor person I will. It is history. Let me know.”

What the hell was a floor person going to do a hand later? Don’t bother answering that one. She took a walk. I wish she’d found the short pier.

She came back right at the end of my down. A new set-up was brought in and when I set the new deck on the table for the incoming dealer, Babalonia whined, “We just used the green deck.”

I was standing up by now, new dealer was in the box, and I turned around and queried, “Really?”

Babalonia said, “You put in the wrong color of deck.”

I did not. She wanted a reason to be unhappy…so be it! I exclaimed, “Damn…another dealer error – maybe I’ll get fired over it!” as I walked off.

That’s Babalonia’s realm…if the correct deck color isn’t put in, the whole damn world is falling apart and life as we know it on this Earth is never going to be the same again. Can you imagine having dinner with this chick? Or doing other things with her? No – No – please don’t try to put pictures in my head!

The post goes on…tomorrow.

*****

In the meantime, let this time be the ‘times of our lives’ – the days that we look back on and remember as being the best of times – bringing in the New Year – Happy 2005 everyone!