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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another outburst of laughter at the table!

“SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL!” the tournament starts.

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

Grace

I’m baffled by people that WORK in the poker room, that would include employees of the casino and the people that play there for a living, and all of the idiot things they do to make the game worse and run people out of games.

There are so many idiot things that my granddaughters would graduate from highschool before I could get them all listed here but one in particular that I find to be totally obnoxious, idiotic, brain dead, nonthinking stupidty just showed up again last night. I’ve seen dealers do it when I’m playing, but never a Floor Person.

The idiot thing I’m cussing about? A new player enters a game, $4-$8 is a perfect example, and pulls out five $100 bills and pushes them out to the dealer. The dealer takes one and pushes the rest of them back to the player and sells only the $100…the new player isn’t even sure he’s supposed to have that much on the table so he pockets the other bills and plays with the $100 in chips.

Why not just call for Player’s Chips and tell the player someone will be by in a minute to get his chips and would he like to be dealt in while he waits? Too easy, it would make the game too good having all those damn extra chips on the table. If I ran a poker room and I saw a dealer do that, I’d fire them on the spot.

The idiot crime committed by a Floor Person? Kim M., has been a dealer with us for years, recently became Floor Person in charge of lower limit game lists. I was dealing a $1-$5 Stud game and she brought me a new player. He pulled out – you guessed it – Five $100 bills while she stood there.

I asked if she would get him chips. She looked at him like he’d just teleported himself in from Mars, spread the bills and said, “You don’t need this much money for this game!”

She was standing by me and I seriously thought about jumping up and karate chopping her in the throat and getting the chips myself, but I had a game to deal. Instead, I looked at her and firmly said, “Kim, just bring him his chips.”

She did. Aghhhh! She brought him two racks of blue chips and three stacks of $5 chips. He looked like he was completely puzzled by the mess and had a, “What the hell am I going to do with all this?” expression.

I asked him if he’d like to trade one of the racks in for more red. He said, “Yes.”

I got her to do that before she walked away. He gamble, gamble, gambled, never won a hand while I dealt even though he made some pretty big hands. Just think if he’d only bought a $100, he might have given up and left because the Floor Person told him he didn’t need more than that.

He even complimented me on how nice I was…so was he and I hope he recouped and won a few pots but not only that, I hope he enjoyed the time he spent at the table.

*****

The night seemed to last three weeks. I never looked at my watch until I had been there ten days and it was only 11 p.m. SHIT!

I hopped into a $50-$100 Blind Pot Limit Holdem game towards the end of my shift. They changed it to $100-$200 right after I sat down. Randy – 1s, Bruno – 2s, Mohammed – 4s, Minh – 6s, Patrick – 7s, Name unknown – 8s.

Mohammed was the ignition switch. He put the live $400 on every time it came around and flirted off quite a bit of money in the first part of my down. The pots were never over $4,000 – $5,000 (hey, I couldn’t stand the heat here so I’m not knocking it).

One hand went heads-up between Randy and Mohammed with Randy going all-in. Mohammed turned a small flush and Randy made a bigger one when the River brought the fourth Club. The Button was in front of Patrick and when Randy showed his Flush card, Mohammed did an explosive, “FUCK!” as he slammed the button.

The Button was an obedient little disk and just flew off the table, landing about four feet behind me.

While Minh tried to talk Mohammed into taking a walk, Mohammed did the whole spewing, “Fucking cheating assholes, fuck!” more spewing, more swearing. He had three $100 bills left and wanted to see the next hand before he left in a ‘fit’.

Randy dug into his pocket and brought a $1 bill for me on each pot he won…(No! this isn’t a gripe just a funny part of the tale…), he said, “When I get to the $100’s it will be time for me to leave.”

I replied, “That’s the part that would keep me dealing.”

Well…maybe you’d have to be there.

Just run this around in your crowded little think tank…get back to me on it.

When you walk down the street, or into the neighborhood supermarket, or go to work, you pass and greet a lot of the same people. They say, “Hi,” and you return, “Hi,” or “Hi how are you?”

You really don’t want to hear how they are; you’re just being courteous in greeting and query. Not that you wouldn’t comfort them if something horrific happened but on a general, run of the mill kind of day, you expect to slip right past them and disappear in the curtained mist of your busy, daily life.

Ha! No curtained mist on Table 1. George P. in the 1s tried to make me the pain and grief of every poker hand he’s had to stomp on and make sure it’s dead before he mourns it and buries it, throughout his poker playing career.

He posted the Big Blind and the Small Blind, possibly lost $500 between the two of them…the blinds are $100-$200…Pot Limit Omaha.

All I did was open the Shuffle Master, remove the deck, cut and deal for each hand. Nothing horrific happened and I was hoping to slip on by with a “Hi,” but he stopped me so I could hear his life in poker with me. “Linda, she is not my dealer! She offers me gum…she is not my dealer.”

Ummhh! Yes I did offer him a piece of chewing gum the other night and was rebuked with, “I have European gum, I do not like this gum,” as he eyed the Wrigley’s Polar Ice gum I held out to him. It’s really not a big deal because I’ve heard him insult the vegetables that are grown in America…”These are not vegetables. They are plast-ick! You cannot call these vegetables.”

Then he continued, “I will go to the bar and have a drink…no offense…I will not play with you as a dealer.”

Shit! Bad beat for me, baby…haha-hahhha-hah!

He played his Button hand. It cost him $10,000 because he just can’t give up a hand…even if it’s a bad one. He stood up, held his cards, looked at his cards, stared at his cards, probably did something immoral to his cards and I stared at the Board and waited for him to stomp his hand to death and then bury it so we could get on to the next hand. It took about five minutes.

He again informed me that I was not his dealer. He was going to the bar. As he walked away, he told the 2s to be sure and let him know when the next dealer came to the table.

As soon as George got eight feet from the table, Ziggy – 5S, busted out laughing, “It’s definitely Linda’s fault. She’s not his dealer.”

I shared that laughter.

George came back towards the end of my down and waited for the next dealer. He wasn’t happy with the next dealer either…even before a hand was dealt.

So…I escaped into the Curtained Mist only to bump into other people that I would have liked to slip by but none as abrasive or ridiculous as “Crete Forever!”

The $25,000 WPT Championship kicked off on the 19th with a record 343 entries…

All kinds of homeless chips running across the green felt tonight. Most of the games I dealt were pretty easy going. One big BLACK spot on the night was dealing to J.C.P. in a $80-$160 Omaha 8 or Better game. There’s no reason to explain or add anything about him here, he’s drowning in a sea of black karma and there are no life vests in sight.

I ran into two high limit games…no, I don’t consider $80-$160 high limit…one was on Table 11. The game was $200-$500 Blind Pot Limit Omaha. It was four handed with none other than George P. in the 2s. At one point a gent came to the table and wanted to play but he wanted to lower the buy-in to $10,000. Ben and the other two players were willing but George said no way. After the guy left, George went on to explain that Ben was the good guy and he, George, was the bad guy.

During this down, a guy came staggering over, looking for Table 10. I told him it was the next table and even pointed to it. He tried to pull out a chair and sit down, asking if this was $4-$8 Holdem. Well yeah…he’d had a little too much to drink but he was the only funny part of the game.

The other high limit game was three handed with the guy that George wouldn’t accommodate by making the buy-in $10,000. $50 and $100 Blind Pot Limit Omaha. A total dud from a dealer point of view.

*****

One freak that I deal to from time to time, plays up and down…mostly down because he’s explained to players in a $1-$5 Stud game that he’s perfecting a ‘craps system’. Don’t think that won’t keep you broke.

He plays anything from $1-$5 up to $15-$30. Tonight he must have finally figured out all the quirks in the ‘craps system’ because he was playing $20-$40 Stud. He sat down about half way through my down, anteed, gave up to a raise, and then told me to deal him out. I did. We’ve had more than one war because he’s lost a hand when I’m dealing and I’ve dealt to him a lot of times over the years. He’s paranoid, superstitious, rude, and those are his good points.

He moved to the 6s and decided to ante. A few hands later we got a new player in the empty 4s. Vinnie was in the 5s and walking and his chair was pushed way over into the area of the 4s. When the new player arrived, during a hand, I asked him to just move Vinnie’s chair over.

The Freak jumped all over me, telling me not to worry about the player and his seat, ‘JUST DEAL THE GAME’.

The new player looked at me and we both laughed…so did everyone else at the table. The Freak kept demanding that I deal the game and I finally, flatly said, “I will deal the game. Don’t tell me how to do it.”

He TOLD me to put a yellow button in front of him (as in deal him out). I did. He sat there and glared and stared and glared at me. Me, master of my energy and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, set my shields and ricocheted those hate rays right back at him.

When the next dealer was standing behind me, the Freak threw the yellow button into the rack. I hated the way he threw it. I picked it up and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to keep it?”

He sneered at me, “Put it in your pocket, it’s what you deserve.”

I said, “If you just take it with you, you never have to tell the dealer to give you one.

He cut me off, blabbing about what I deserved and some other sizzle that meant he couldn’t express himself well.

I put my hand out to him…as in talk to the hand.

Vinnie had returned to the game and he said, “Just consider the source, Linda.”

I nodded.

The Freak made some comment that went like, “…but you are so much smarter than me…”

God! Don’t think I didn’t have a reply for him here…but I just gave him more of the hand.

The table was laughing at him, I was moving to the next game. And yes, I am smarter than him. He’s the one that’s trapped with his thoughts.

Have a seat…the ramble’s starting. I began playing and dealing poker in 1980, in Missoula, Montana, at the Oxford. The Oxford’s claim to fame was ‘brain’s & eggs’ – advertised on the menu as ‘He needs them’.

I jumped into poker without ever looking back. That time in my life was filled with lunacy…a lot of it was my own lunacy but there were a few extenuating circumstances that added to my big leap.

The games were crazy. Poker and live keno were the only form of gambling that was legal in the state (no machines to suck away the cash) and people were ready to play poker. Those games were the true meaning of the words No Foldem Holdem. But after a few years, as happens in all Fairy Tales, the fatted calf began to lose a lot of weight.

Machines were legalized, with horrible payout structures, and people began throwing their poker bankroll into the Machine Demon’s Mouth. The whole area ran on minimum wage and a lot of players kept themselves broke by playing poker, keno, and machines.

The games sucked, running for 20 hours one night and for three to four hours a night for the next week. Too many places opened up and each place tried all kinds of bonuses and specials to bring the players in. Soon the competition was like the old gas wars. There was no fat left to spread anywhere.

In 1987 I dealt my first big tournament in Nevada. From December of ’87 to July of ’89, I made trips from Montana to Nevada and back, and dealt all the big tournaments. I made the move to Vegas in 1989 and helped open The Mirage.

The Mirage was unbelievable. We opened with 30 tables and added another one within a few months. Poker rooms around town closed…we had all the business. The place never slowed down but it wasn’t only the poker room, the whole casino was almost impossible to walk through even late at night.

We were jammed 24 hours a day. On holidays and weekends and when professional fights were scheduled, all the lists were 50 and 60 names long.

In 1993, I moved to the Gulf Coast and helped open the Gulfport Grand. I stayed a year (that was as long as I planned to stay and knew when I left Vegas, I would return). The same scenario as the Montana ramming/jamming and The Mirage ramming/jamming took place in Gulfport.

Within a year, the Coast exploded with 22 casinos in a range of about 25 miles. Things started to slow way down, just like the Montana days.

Almost exactly a year later, in 1994, I returned to Vegas. Treasure Island was just in the process of closing their poker room and it took me about three months to be rehired at the Mirage because Treasure Island poker employees had first preference.

The Mirage was still jamming. I took the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift and the first two years I was on it, I worked overtime at least two nights a week.

Around ’96, the same crunch started to hit…poker opened up across the USA. Too many places offered what had once been unique to Vegas. The slump was on, the games sucked, instead of ramming and jamming, the room was slowing down.

I began to feel that poker was losing its ground and soon there would be no new players to fill the empty seats and all the regular players would end up like the Montana Death Knell. Of course you’re asking what is that. The reason Montana poker players are so tough is they have been fighting over the same $100 for 20 years.

Every year things looked a little leaner and grimmer from my point of view. The games were never crazy or filled with new players wanting to just be there and play. I seriously wandered what I was going to do make a living in the next few years.

I moved to Bellagio when it opened in 1998. The games were better over all than the last few years at The Mirage but not rammer jammers except on a holiday week or weekend or a fight event.

Then Internet poker hit the big upswing and we lost a lot of players. Yes, there are a lot of players that learned to play on the internet and in the long run, each facet of poker helps the other but in the meantime, the games looked pretty damn grim.

Then the strangest of all events happened. The Poker Genie jumped out of her bottle in the form of the WPT and the world has gone crazy. Poker is a household word, everyone watches it on television and everyone talks about it and everyone wants to play.

There are new Internet poker games appearing constantly. Brick and Mortar rooms are cranking up everywhere…even in casinos that never had a poker room and those that closed their poker room years ago are bringing poker back.

The fatted calf has arrived in poker land…things are good. I don’t have to look for another job and I can hang out with the kids at the green felt and do what I do best. Hey, I was born with a deck of cards in my hand.

HELP! There’s a stampede coming, they’re surrounding the tables and the podium and running over everything in sight in a mad dash to get into a game or get on a list…any game and any list.

Some of us believe that after the tournament, things will quiet down to a dull roar but that’s not even close to being true. The Horseshoe will be hosting the WSOP and we always end up with the overflow…lots of overflow unless the Shoe has taken a huge turn for improvement under new management. We expect to host the majority of the high limit games. This is not a giant jump into Dealer Heaven. I, and a lot of other dealers, wish the high limit would stay there. Let us have our room back where we can hear ourselves think, visit with new players, and make money too…nice dream, Linda…WAKE UP TO REALITY, DAMN IT!

Well let me fill in a few blanks and try to stay out of the way of the stampede while I do it. High limit is spread throughout the room. What would normally be a sweet little $4-$8 Holdem game is now a $300-$600 Mixed game or a $50-$100 blind Pot Limit Holdem game…you get the picture. It’s a time warp…or a time drift…and there are no prescribed drugs to get through it.

I dealt to Jim M. AKA Silent Bob in a $25-$50 Blind PLH game. He had his wife sitting behind him (first time I’ve ever seen her) and he introduced her to me as Mrs. Silent Bob. I did the ‘shake hands in the air’ while looking at her. She appeared to be calm and cool while Jim appeared to be drink-drank-drunk and gambling. (Not to mean that she was calm and cool in her reception of being introduced to me). Jim followed up with the statement that everyone thought he was gay but he really was married.

Jim went to war with the player on his right in several pots. One of the pots was pretty big with the other player going all-in for $3,100. Jim finally gave up his hand.

Jim wasn’t faring too well in this mix while I was dealing. When I hit my next game, about half way through the down, he was up, facing my table and swearing. It went something like this, “They think they’re so fucking smart and they don’t know anything…”

Jim is one of the funniest players I’ve ever dealt to…previous posts about him.

*****

James Woods was playing $30-$60 Holdem tonight when I clocked out. I got to shake his hand and say “Hello” in the Sports Book after he was returning to his game. I think he’s a great actor.

*****

Sweet Jerry! Not a name I would give him but one that he goes by and how he got it I haven’t the faintest idea.

He’s the bottom line in sexual harrassment…the reason that sexual harrassment suits are filed…a guy that plays poker but can’t figure out that it isn’t done with a hard on, it’s done with chips and cards.

He makes all kinds of idiotic statements to any female, player or dealer, implying that he’s the only guy left in the world that can rock you all night long. He advertises as if he can crank your libido into high gear, bring you to the ultimate, sweat drenching climax of your panting, breathless life and you would never want anyone else. He does all this in a harsh, panty tearing manner and you are supposed to drop down on all fours, ready for your master’s touch.

I find him to be ‘entertainment’. The fact that he thinks he’s the only guy left in the world is pretty damn funny to me.

A month ago I dealt to him in a $15-$30 Holdem game and he was in the 1s. He made some idiot comment to me that went like, “I love your long hair, baby. I’d just love to bury my face in it and wrap it around my arms while I got you where I want you.”

Umhhh! Hello neanderthal, why don’t you drag me to your cave too?

Last night, while sitting a deadspread in the tournament area, he came by my table. I stared off across the casino, hoping that he’d pass by me without saying anything, it didn’t work. He stopped right in front of me and demanded, “You ready for a hot, hard guy like me when you get off work tonight?”

I laughed, “Hell no!”

“Why not?” as he peered at me with a drink in his hand.

I couldn’t help but laugh harder, “I couldn’t handle a hot, hard guy when I got off work.”

He appeared relieved but still wanted to stab me, “I knew it! I knew you couldn’t handle it!” and then went on down the line of defenseless, female dealers sitting deadspreads.

I heard that he’s a dealer at The Mirage. I used to deal to him at The Mirage before I moved over to Bellagio. Hysterical!

Thank God the stampede isn’t running around with a bulge in their pants…woops, yes they are…it’s the chips and cash in their pockets.

I returned to work tonight and it’s hard to believe that the place had ever been ‘down’. It was exactly as I left it last Friday night. Tournament and satellites were running in the pit area, the room was jam packed, slammed to the max and probably filled with noise and confusion but I started in the tournament/pit. I got rerouted once and ended up dealing the last few tables in the pit over again.

The tournament schedule has been rearranged. Some of the buy-ins have been changed on the tournaments that are up and coming. Some of the tournaments are just ‘cancelled’. There’s no way to put everything back together and try to run those tournaments…after all, we have a WPT, $25,000 Buy-in NLH Tournament which must go off as scheduled and it’s our finale.

*****

All kinds of rumors flying and flipping through the air. I try not to get into the rumor mode but I do listen to players and have conversations with people away from the table.

The word out right now is that Eric Drache will manage the Golden Nugget’s new poker room which is supposed to open around the 26th of April. Word is that it will have 20 tables. Almost ironic that Eric used to manage that room and then moved to the Mirage.

Steven Wynn’s new resort is supposed to have a poker room with over 30 tables.

The Red Rock Station, not sure when it’s supposed to open, is…can this be possible…supposed to have 60 tables????

In the meantime, the Horseshoe has reopened, the WSOP is on…no idea about their structure or schedule, try checking out their website.

Can the world keep this many tables running in Vegas? Eventually corporate decides that slot machines covering the same square footage brings in more money…that’s my experience with poker and casinos. Poker is definitely jumping into the face of the world but will casinos actually give up this much space and time to poker? Time will tell.

*****

All of the ‘name brand players’ are out and flitting about in tournaments and live play. You have to be there!!!

I had the night off, not due to a power outage but due to a Dr. visit earlier in the day that left me lacking the desire to show up at work…I was excused. My first night back to work in the five days will be tonight.

The latest news report on Bellagio’s reopening from the Las Vegas Review Journal, can be found here.

I’ve heard nothing about the tournament schedule but I’m sure it’s revised and some of the tournaments are probably cancelled (that were previously on the schedule) to accomodate the WPT finale. More news to follow after I hit the scene tonight.

There’s no chip clatter or people chatter going on at Bellagio tonight. The poker room is manned by Suzie, (Swing Shift Supervisor), a cashier, a few security guards, and lots of empty tables. The whole casino is dark.

The unthinkable has happened…Bellagio has shut down. The culprit? A truck hit a transformer on Frank Sinitra Blvd. (the street that runs behind Bellagio) and wiped out Bellagio’s power line/source. That’s the initial stance on what created the problem.

The tournaments are on hold.

Las Vegas Review Journal report

Las Vegas Sun report

His name is Asher. The guy that flopped a pair of 10’s and was beat on the Turn when he made Jacks and 10’s in the $10-$20 Blind NLH…previous post.

Friday night found me starting in the pit, dealing almost all Satellites and a few live games. Most of the satellites were for the $5,000 buy- in NLH event on Saturday.

When I landed in the dealer’s chair of the satellite that Asher was in, it was three handed. Freddie D., Asher, and Cy. Asher waited until I shuffled and dealt and then did a, “I still think you must have exposed a card…”

I looked right at him and calmly, flatly stated, “No. I didn’t.”

“There’s no way he could have continued with the hand unless he knew…”

I replied, “He made a straight when you made two pair. He had an open ended straight draw on the Flop.”

“I’m not saying you did it on purpose…it’s bothered me for five days.” It hasn’t even been five days since it happened.

Me, “I never expose cards when I deal. My hand is always level with the table when I hold the deck.”

“I don’t think you did it on purpose…”

Calm as a mommy trying not to slap the brat that keeps pulling her daughters hair, I replied, “If I rolled my hand with the deck in it, you would be able to see an exposed card since you were in the 3s. It would be impossible for him to see it in the 10s.”

He dropped it for awhile and went on to win the Satellite. He tipped me, pretty damn well for what I see in Satellite tips, and still persisted…even though he was smiling, “I still think you must have exposed a card…”

I laughed. “No. I didn’t. What’s your name?” as I put my hand out to him. We shook hands, he left.

I’m sure he still believes that I created a drift in the integrity of the hand but he’s completely off base. I still believe that if he’d won the pot, he would never have thought any such thing…but that doesn’t make him a bad guy.

*****

The differences in players and their attitudes about everything…

Table 11, $500-$1,000 Mixed Games. Unknown – 1s, David O. – 2s, Abe – 4s (2 and 4s both having been on the WPT), and Ralph P. – 7s.

Two young cuties, along with their escorts, waltzed over to survey the table. They had the look of WPT watchers just checking out Bellagio’s action. The girls walked right up behind David and one of them even bent down to look at his hole cards when he looked at them.

I did a, “Hey-hey-hey!” to back the girls up a little but David stopped me almost before I got the second ‘hey’ out of my mouth.

“I don’t mind,” as he opened his hand so they could look at it. They stepped up closer, almost leaning on the table, as he talked to them about poker.

In the meantime, two young guys were standing about seven feet behind Ralph and he demanded, “Clear my back! I don’t want someone behind me,” directed at me.

I asked them to please step away. Just as they started to move, David invited them over to watch too, saying something like, “It doesn’t bother me, I’ve been on TV.”

Funny in a way…the girls and their escorts eventually drifted off but when I returned from a break and entered another game, the two guys that were chased away from Ralph’s back, were still sitting behind David.

*****

The room is packed, tamped down tight, and ready to blow. There’s a capacity listing for the room on a small plate, up by the ceiling, near the main entrance to the room. It feels as if there are three times that many people in the room during my shift.

I still find myself searching for the answer to the eternal question: “Where do they come from and how do they get here?”

*****
I was part of this project. Sweet!
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’