Along about 2:15 a.m., while lounging on an empty table on break, Jimmy asked David (a new dealer) if he needed a break or was ready to push at 2:30. David said he’d deal at 2:30. Jimmy asked me if I wanted to clock out for the night. Y-E-S!!!!

I almost felt guilty when I told David he would be dealing the game from hell…but not guilty enough to stay another half hour. Table 16…usually a great spot in the line-up…but tonight it was the $100-$200 Blind Pot Limit game that usually runs in the high limit area.

David looked like a Little Lambkin being led to slaughter when I told him what the game was and he said, “I’ve never dealt Pot Limit before.”

I gave him a brief run down on taking time, how the pot size was figured, and then took him over to the table. All the usual suspects were there. George P., Ben R., Sammy F., Hamid D., Robert W., and others.

I tapped Robert W. and introduced him to David, loud enough so the table could hear. It went like this, “This is David and he’s going to be your dealer in a few minutes, he’s never dealt pot limit before so help him out if he needs it.”

While Robert (wonderful person that he is) was agreeing, Hamid turned to me and barked, “What the fuck! Why should we get a dealer that’s never dealt the game before?”

I said, “Help him out then. You don’t want him to make a mistake.”

Harmid, “Fuck! Why should we have a dealer that doesn’t know what he’s doing?”

I said, “He’s coming through the game. Management sent him here. Just help him if he has a problem.”

Poor David. Getting the ‘blow up’ from Hamid and he hasn’t even sat down. I walked back to the Page area with him, explaining that Hamid really wasn’t a bad guy, just a hot head. David took it all pretty well.

I clocked out and hit the road.

The next night I dealt to Hamid in a $800-$1,600 Mixed game. He was spanking his chips and having a fit as usual. A woman walked up and gave him the ‘long lost, where you been, and how the hell do you look so good’ routine. The game was running three handed and I just chimed in, “It’s all that clean living.”

Hamid looked startled, looked at me, and then agreed, “It is that clean living.”

When I got pushed, I stopped behind him and gave him a 15 second shoulder rub. He barked, “When are you going to deal me a winner?”

I laughed. “I have, you just never remember those times.”

“You always deal me off.”

I quipped, “I’ve dealt you lots of winners. You have to stop thinking like a player.”

He laughed then and I escaped to the next game.

*****

$10-$20 Blind, NLH. At the end of my down, huge pot, the 3s flopped top pair, 10’s and bet $100, got called by the 9s that had a Flush draw, and the 10s that had an open ended Straight draw. A Jack popped off on the Turn, giving the 10s the Nut Straight, the 3s two pair, and the 9s still had a Flush draw.

During this hand, the conversation between the 5s and 10s had been about being taped on a poker show which will be aired on television and the 10s appeared to be spaced out on the show…this statement being given by the 5s. The 10s explained that he had a ‘stem’ in his eye. His eye was all scratched and irritated, etc.

The 10s bet around $2,500 all-in. The 3s barely thought about it, and called approximately $1,200 all-in. The 9s, thought, counted out her chips, recounted, thought, and finally did a ‘what the hell’ kind of thing and went all-in also with a little over $700.

The Straight held up and won the pot. I pushed all the chips to the 10s and while I was pulling the deck together, I asked, “Stem? What is that?” OK…I’m a dummy…I thought it was a medical condition.

He explained that he’d been blowing a pipe to clear it out and a stem had blown into his eye. I did a, “No way!” kind of thing, shuffled and dealt the next hand. The 3s and the 9s had already pulled out money and they were dealt in.

The 3s now accused me of cheating in a subtle, slimy way. “I wonder if you exposed a card?”

I went totally blank at his statement. “What?”

He was looking at my left hand, holding the deck level to the table, and repeated, “I wonder if you exposed a card?”

I said, “No. I don’t expose cards.”

His response? “Only the experienced dealers do it. The new dealers never do.”

The 9s chime in, agreeing with him, and repeating what he said.

I was enraged that he would think I was cheating. I jumped, “No! I never expose a card and I don’t want to be accused of it.”

I got pushed after that hand. First of all, I got stiffed by the guy that won the pot. Second, how could I expose a card in a manner that the 10s could see it and no one else could without rolling my hand completely over? If anyone could see an exposed card, it would be the 3s. If he’d won the pot, he would never have any such idiotic thoughts…typical! He plays so damned good that he has to be cheated to lose!

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

The chips were disbursed in the 7 Card Stud Satellite when I tapped the dealer out…I would be dealing the first hand.

Right after Sam G., in the 2s, raised the opener, got called and ended up being the caller on the Sixth Street and the River, and was shown 5’s full of 7’s by his opponent, I got slammed into the middle of the Dialogue Dance Floor. Sam G. was my opponent…ahhh…errrr…dance partner.

He was grim and unforgiving as he tried to stomp my toes on every spin and turn. “Just what I wanted, a 40’s hippy for a dealer.”

I spun and stepped away, dealt the next hand, and he started again, “A 40’s hippy for a dealer…”

“I don’t talk about you when you play, Sam. Why are you talking about me?”

“Who said I was talking about you?”

I laughed.

“Why are you laughing?”

I replied, “I think you’re funny. The whole world thinks you’re funny.”

I slipped away, out of reach as I dealt the next hand. Sam lost the first two hands and then got low carded for the next three or four.

He picked the players to dance with and left me alone for a few minutes, “You just can’t out play these idiots…you have to be lucky.”

Within a few hands, he was back, “Ok, Jane Fonda!”

I busted out laughing. What the hell else can you do here? The 1s and the 3s were laughing their asses off too. The 3s kept watching me to see if I was taking offense at any of this.

He grumble, mumbled me for a few minutes, some of it was so low I couldn’t hear it and I really didn’t want to hear it. He told me he wished I’d end up on the street. I laughed even harder and managed to step on his toe, “Why would I end up on the street? I have a job.”

He grumbled that I should be on the street.

I replied, “You could always get a job if you wanted one.”

Several players agreed that Sam should get a job as Sam danced with all of us now, telling us that he played too good to get a job. It was damn hard to keep a straight face in this game. I found myself laughing all the way through it.

A sweater walked up to talk to the 1s and uttered some ‘Potty Mouth’ kind of words. Sam danced with him too, “Watch your language, there’s a lady dealing this game.”

In the midst of my spitting laughter, the sweater humbly apologized and Sam looked defiantly at me and pounced…trying to step on my toes again…”You liked that one, didn’t you?”

I demurely replied, “Yes. Thank you, Sam.”

A minute later, Sam was swearing. Then he did something like this, “An acid dropping, Woodstock Hippy in the box…” and went into some song.

I countered with, “I was never a hippy, nor did I do any drugs. While the rest of the world was doing them, I was burying a husband and trying to figure out how I was going to raise kids by myself.”

The 1s said, “This conversation has gotten a lot deeper than it should…”

I danced around him, “If you’re going to open a can of worms, be ready for what’s inside.”

The 3s said, “She’s right, she didn’t start it.”

Sam stated he didn’t have a worm, he had a one eyed snake…the boys roared over that one.

The whole game was moving briskly along all the time the ‘dance’ was in progress. I got to set out of the dance for a brief moment when we lost the 4s…he did some strange betting on nothing and, after he left the table, the conversation went to where he was and what he was thinking kind of thing.

Sam slammed me right back onto the dance floor with another statement about acid dropping, Woodstock hippies.

I still couldn’t stop laughing. I asked, “Would you just shut up?”

He asked me why and I said I couldn’t deal with all the noise going on. He asked me why I didn’t retire and get out of there. I told him I didn’t play as good as he did and had to work for a living.

He tried to stomp on my toes again…telling me I looked like his grandma.

I replied that he wished his grandma looked as good as I did. The boys roared over that one. Sam told me he wished I was talking to his grandma…I’m assuming she’s passed on and he wishes I was dead.

I said, “I like you. You just don’t like me because I deal poker.”

He said, “You never deal me a hand. You always break me.”

The dance was almost over…just a few more hands…Sam won them both!

As the next dealer tapped me out, Sam was crying, “Don’t leave, baby! Come on, honey, stay here!”

I gracefully left the dance floor and laughed my ass off all the way to the next game.

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

Friday night at the zoo!

Ahhh…an expression that might not please corporate management but it seems to be the bottom line. The question would be who are the caged and who are the free? We are all trapped. No matter how we try to explain it or ignore it, we all have our chains. Our bondage manifests itself in different vices and traps designed by self!

The zoo? It’s home: a place I visit; people I interact with that add ‘a pinch of this and a dab of that’ to my over view of life. D-A-M-N! And I make a living at it.

The room was a screamer. It seemed the whole world wanted to play poker at Bellagio and they were there, waiting for seats, lists a mile and a half long, people milling in and out, satellites and live games running on the tables in the pit, noise and confusion…and hot. Nope, I wasn’t having hot flashes. It was just damn hot, everywhere in the room.

I started in the pit, dealt a few games of the $2-$4 Blind WPT NLH…they were gambling…and then two Super Satellite games. After a break, I was on my way to Table 1. Sheesh! Is this going to be a habit or what?

Table 1 was a 10 handed, $100-$200 Blind, Pot Limit Omaha game. George P. was in the 5s this time. He won several pots, in the neighborhood of $5,000 or more, and was pretty calm.

The game was smooth, I happened to be right on when asked the size of the pot, how much the raise could be, etc. Happiness and a pat on the back from me…it’s not always been that way. Dealing pot limit isn’t really difficult, it just takes time to adjust to it and I’m much better at it now than I was a year ago. When it’s an occasional game, it’s tough to get into the mathematics…now that we are dealing it on a steady basis, it’s much easier. I’m sure I have a lot more mistakes in me though, so don’t hold your breath.

One hand went heads-up with Ralph P. and George, a lot action with George checking and calling Ralph on every street, except the River…George bet, Ralph called.

George won the pot by catching a Q on the River to match his pocket Queens, giving him Queens Full. Ralph was in the 10s and pitched a Queen – sailing it right in front of my face into the area of the 2s.

Sam F. came up, said hello to everyone, including me, and chuckled over the game, the players, and the action…he was here to play. Before I left for the night, he was in the game jamming.

The last hand I dealt, the pot was around $20,000. Jason went all-in pre-flop and George and the 4s semi went to war on the Flop, building a $5,000 side pot, and checked the Turn and River. George won the pot with a pocket pair of 10’s.

He was one bundle of happiness when I left the game. About three hours later, when I hit Table 7, right by Table 1, the whole situation had reversed.

I was dealing $80-$160 Must Move Holdem. Perry was dealing Table 1. About half way through my down, a whole helluva lot of chips went into the pot on Table 1.

Sure…how do I know this? My game was four handed and there was nothing between the two games to obstruct the view. Several of my players kept jumping up to check out the action on Table 1 and coming back with a report.

George, the 10s, and Jason went to war. Just from the look of the chips in front of the players, I’d guess the pot was around $60,000. Jason won the pot but it took almost six minutes before the dealer could push it to him. George had to talk about the death of his hand and then bury it, two cards at a time.

I watched the flush spread on Perry’s face as George went into the usual burial routine. From all of my experiences with George, it probably went something like this: “What did I have? (pause) What could I have made? (spread the cards on the table) Do you see what I started with? (look pointedly at the dealer) What does he have? (stare at the dealer) What did I make? (fold two cards in half and throw them in but hold onto the other two for another two minutes while asking the same questions)…repeat…repeat…repeat.

Terry was playing in my game. She kept bouncing and down, looking at Table 1, returning to look at her hand, and exclaimed that she didn’t know much about Omaha but she couldn’t believe that guy took five minutes to turn in his hand and get the show on the road. I agreed.

My players either cashed out or moved to the Main game. I ended up with a semi bust out, hit the time clock and headed for fresh air and two days off. Sweet!

Those two days are almost over, back to the zoo soon. Wait a minute! Am I caged or free?

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

No limit satellites were running in the ‘pit’ area and that’s where I started my night. It was havoc and ruin on the pocketbook…mine that is. There were so many breaks in the line-up in that section, I dealt/sat five satellites in five hours. The upside is that I got to visit with a few people I really enoy and normally never have time to kick back and just ‘talk’ with.

One of my satellite deadspreads found me with Mark, a long time player from the Mirage days and frequent visitor to Bellagio. He spent some time talking about the early Atlantic City Poker Days and Foxwoods when it opened. I’ve never been there but have heard about it from other people’s POV and it’s interesting to say the least. To play poker under those circumstances, you have to have the heart of a lion and patience of God. Anyone of you that played there in those days would know what I mean.

Another satellite deadspread found me with Ed, mentioned in other posts, from Seattle…now a Vegasite. Ed’s a lot of fun to visit with, sparky, young, energetic, and almost naively quizzical in his approach to life. He hasn’t played much in the last six months because he’s working on a book. Of course it’s about poker.

*****

One of the satellites I dealt was heads-up when I sat down. Mike and Justin. Justin is the original “Mr. Boooo-waaaa-haaaa-haaa” that used to laugh so loud in the $80-$160 games that the whole room could hear him…he’s in past Tango posts.

They were working on a deal when I tapped Nita out and the clock was stopped for that purpose. Justin was asking for a large amount of cash even though he had about one eighth of the chips that Mike had. Mike offered him $400…the buy-in to the satellite was $285. Justin was outraged over the amount feeling he should get a lot more.

Justin did a, “Fuck! Let’s just play,” when Mike wouldn’t budge. “I don’t need your fucking $400.”

A small crowd had gathered and David, (a young, noisy player over the last year), had been coaching Mike on the amount he should be willing to give Justin.

Justin, drinking a beer, wild eyed, and irritated, was the show. Justin looked around the crowd and exclaimed, “If I lose this, I’ll go kill myself!”

Mike was funny. He countered with something like this, “I’m Budda so I can’t play anymore. I can’t be responsible for your death.”

Everyone laughed…except Justin.

They played five or six hands and Justin went all-in and lost. After he stomped off, David and Mike were talking and laughing about the offer and why Mike should not have given Justin anymore than that amount.

An appropriate silence came in their laughter and I exclaimed, “Stop laughing. There’s a man on his way to commit suicide right now.”

The whole thing was pretty funny.

*****

I hit Table 1 along about midnight. It was half Pot Limit Omaha and half Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better, $100-$200 Blind. George P. (the Greek) was in the 9s and the way he was announcing things to Nita (the dealer I was pushing), I could tell he wasn’t happy with her as a dealer or he’d been losing.

He was snapping orders at her to be sure and tell me what game I would dealing and how much the Time collection was…like it’s not on the Game Plaque and I can’t read. It didn’t have anything to do with me, it’s just his way of being rude and overbearing.

I managed to get through this without any bruises or scratches. There were several large pots and George won one of them, Chau won the other.

Chau is pretty funny at times and he’s always good to me…not necessarily in the tipping sense but in his behavior with me at the table. He had the table and me laughing…except for O’Neil…in one hand that he was heads-up with O’Neil. Chau was in the 1s, O’Neil in the 4s.

The game was Omaha 8 or Better and it was raised preflop to $800 by O’Neil. Chau called. I left the $800 in front of each player and put up the Flop. O’Neil checked, so did Chau.

The Turn came, O’Neil checked, so did Chau. O’Neil bet $1,500 on the River, Chau thought for a few seconds and called. O’Neil is a little hard of hearing but at times it’s overly exaggerated. O’Neil looked at me and asked, “What’d he do?”

I said, “Call.”

O’Neil repeated the query, even though he could see the chips in front Chau and knew Chau called the bet.

I said, “He called,” a lot louder this time.

Chau exclaimed, “I called!”

O’Neil asked again.

Chau stood up, leaned over the table with his hands cupped around his mouth like a microphone and yelled, “I called!”

O’Neil threw his hand away and I pushed the pot to Chau while everyone cracked up.

*****

I dealt one more game and escaped early to hit a ‘mandatory’ party at Tommy Rockers. Suzie…our group leader and instigator of the party, was a ‘no call, no show.’

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

Long time no write! I had five days off, jam packed with action, stress, dismay, fun, strange sleep patterns, too much food, shop here and there and everywhere, and my beautiful granddaughter, Jasmine. She left early Wednesday. I tried to revert back to my normal sleep patterns and awoke to hit the Dentist’s office at 3:30 and then home to shower and get ready for work.

*****

There are 25 tables in the pit combined with the 30 in the room, we now have 55 tables to man. Doesn’t sound like much, right? I’m wondering how many new dealers there are to take up the overflow and how they will handle the games and players.

In general conversation, with a few of our regular dealers, I heard that the new dealers were being routed around the high limit and the regular dealers would be expected to deal the high limit. Umhhh! So they get the gravy and the easy games and we get the gristle and the stress? Sounds pretty damn unfair to me. It may or may not be true. Time will tell.

Satellites begin today for the Five Star World Poker Classic and there are over 125 entries for the $25,000 buy-in WPT Championship. Huge!

*****

I taped the WPT Aruba event last night on the Travel Channel because I was sure I’d be dealing it. Wrong! They showed the first season event. Disappointment.

*****

George the Greek is back in our room. If any of you watched the Aviation Club De France WPT, you saw George…pounding the table, yelling, “Crete forever!” and a few other things. I’ve dealt to him many times over the years and the experiences are joy filled, wonderful adventures…NOT. They are just the opposite. There are a lot of posts about George in the old pages that will eventually be moved to this ‘blog’ as time permits.

One thing that left me chuckling…Vince Van Patten misinterpretated a statement made by George. When Eric faced off with George, George waited forever to act on his hand. Eric said something like, “I’m falling asleep, George.”

George pounced on him with a, “You are too young to sleep, sleep when you are dead,” type of thing.

Vince jumped on that and interpreted it to mean that George told Eric to, “…sleep with the fishes.”

Funny…that’s how rumors get started.

*****

Five days off and I had to be retrained. I made a mistake in the 2nd game I dealt. It was $80-$160 half 7 Card Stud 8 or Better and half Omaha 8 or Better. Two players on the Turn and River and I completely misread the hands. Missed the high on one hand and thought they had the same low so I quickly chopped the chips in front of one player and slid them over to the player I thought had 3/4’s of the pot. Ugh!!! They didn’t chop off my hands or even yell at me but it took a few minutes to get it straightened out.

Then I made another one in the 4th game I dealt. Four way action to the flop, the 5s bet, everyone threw their hand away or so I thought. I dropped the deck like a hot rock and slid the pot to the 5s, just as the 9s called the bet. Silent Primal Scream here!

The Flop was gone, so was the 5s’s hand…so was my sanity. I called for a decision. Boba asked the players if they would split the pot, they agreed. Thank you, God, and the players too. He sternly told me to see him in the office later. He didn’t mean it but I know I don’t want to make mistakes and now I was ultra leery of every move I made. I was on edge through the rest of my night. Thankfully I kicked the cobwebs out of my head and got in to the focus mode.

*****

Late in the night I dealt a $20-$40 7 Card Stud game. The 4s claimed to be Phil Ivey’s brother…after being asked his name by Pete, another player. The 4s pulled out a Bicycle V.I.P. ID that apparently read Vince Ivey…that’s what I gathered from the conversation.

Pete told Vince that he really didn’t look like he could be related to Phil. Vince did a double talking, gear shifting, dialogue tango while prodding Pete about “Why not?”

Vince never stopped talking, he talked to anyone and everyone, even when they tried to totally ignore him. He went into a rant about how he played poker with his brother and his brother showed him no mercy and beat him to death in the game. He rambled about everyone’s play and his own cards and what he was doing there and how he was the fish.

I finally said, “Wow! You sure talk a lot more than Phil does.”

He stated there would be no more tips for the dealers and then asked, “Phil who?”

Finally he racked up and got ready to leave. He asked if I would miss him. I replied, “Sure.”

He called me a liar and told me he would have tipped me except he knew I was lying and the only people that would miss him were the players. He asked for change for a $5 chip and I gave him $1 chips. He tossed $1 to each of the players that were present and threw one to me.

I asked him if his dad had been in town a little over a month ago. He said, “No. My brother was here three days ago.”

I continued, “Your dad wasn’t here for a birthday celebration?”

He said, “No.”

He stood up, picked up his chips and leaned over to the 2s…Dimitri was sitting behind his friend while the friend played Dimitri’s chips. He demanded, “Only English next time…you get it?”

They ignored him. He tried again. The friend asked, “Are you OK?”

Vince finally left.

I had to chuckle. I dealt to Phil Ivey’s dad, maybe two months ago, when he was in town for a birthday celebration. I also saw Phil’s dad sitting behind him the night before.

Rave on Vince!!!!! If you’re really Phil’s brother…what happened?

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

Ha! I do believe in magic and I’m enjoying every second of it. I have five days off and happen to be sharing them with my oldest granddaughter, Jasmine. She’s here on Spring Break. A beauty queen that soon will be 17 years young. If you visit this page, you will see her graduating from Poker 101…where the hell did the years go?

*****

Before I escaped the Poker Room on an E/O, several points of interest. I found them to be interesting anyway. I dealt a lively $30-$60 Holdem game. Three of the gents in the game spoke the same language (yes…along with English). What this language was, I still have no idea. I’m horrible on nationalities and languages…I just assume that everyone is just like me so I never differentiate or look beyond my realm of “People”. People? Me, you, us, we…that should say it all.

The three guys were in the 3s, the 5s, and the 7s. The 7s was a hot headed, gambling, ready to explode kind of guy. The 3s was calm and chuckling over most of the show. The 5s really liked to gamble but he drifted in and out of pots without behaving as if he was going to have to go “Postal” when he lost a hand.

Karina J. was in the 6s. I have a lot of history with her. She’s been around since the early Mirage Days…even before she was old enough to be in the poker room, she was in there jamming. Her mom and dad both played a lot in those days.

Kenny was in the 3s. He was instigating action when I sat down. The previous pot was huge. He was trying to get everyone to agree to all go to “cap” before the Flop. That way they would win a pot that was well over $3,000 each hand (that was according to him).

Some of the players were up for it and some weren’t. Kenny prompted those that weren’t to get on the transfer list because there were players that wanted to play that way and would transfer into this game.

Remarkably, the 7s told Kenny that he wasn’t transferring and he didn’t want to play that way so they weren’t going to “play” Kenny’s game.

Long and short of it, the verbal arguments and coaxings went on. So did the gambling. Finally, right at the end of my down, the 5s, Karina, and the 7s went to war.

The pot was huge. The 7s Flopped Aces and Queens, the Turn brought Karina and the 5s a split pot with an Ace High Straight. All the bets and raises went in on the Turn and River.

By this time, the 5s had picked up three sweaters, they were standing behind him, watching and exclaiming…same foreign language.

When the smoke cleared and hands were shown, the 7s stood up, swearing like a lunatic logger from the North Pole, breathing fire and spewing out flaming explitives, he launched his cards at me. One hit me in the shoulder and the other hit the floor.

He never apologized or even acted like he gave a damn if one of them took my head off…he continued swearing and looking around as if he’d had a dagger shoved into his heart by the woman he’d sold his firstborn for.

I sternly exclaimed, “That’s enough! Just set your cards down,” and gave him a mini “look”. Then it was time to stack chips and stack I did…there were a lot of them.

Karina jumped on the opportunity, explaining that she was tired of the foreign language and it had been going on every since she sat down.

I used the opportunity, of splitting the pot and stacking chips, to call Kamell, the Swing Shift Superviser.

The 7s was still standing and spewing when Kamell arrived. I explained what had happened and Kamell told the 7s that he was sitting out for the next 30 minutes and told the rest of them to speak only English.

I got pushed into a $15-$30 Holdem game where sanity was lingering…ready to take over the ‘gamble, gamble, gamble’ mode. But before I left, I had to explain to the incoming dealer that the 7s was on ‘sit-out’ and could not be dealt in during her down.

It was in the next game that I met John S., a reader here. He was funny and we exchanged a few words about teenagers (his daughters) and coming to Vegas for the first time…also the awe/horror of your own teenager driving a car (his). He was light hearted and a lot of fun.

Kenny, from the previous game, managed to stick his nose into the action here and tell me that they were waiting for me to come back to their game…as in the guys that spoke the foreign language.

Sitting next to him was a gent named Garry. Garry picked right up on the fact that I had a website and wanted to know the address. Garry’s a writer also and we visited for a moment after I got pushed.

Ain’t poker incredible? You meet people that you would never meet in any other platform…and the best of it is that you stay in touch and always cross paths again.

Mark the fact that the path you’ve crossed should be filled with happiness and wonder at being alive…else you’ve trapped yourself and bluff won’t carry you over it.

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

Last night was the first night of the Friday’s at Five, $540 buy-in Tournament’s debut into the Wednesday time slot. The Wednesday Tournament begins at 1:00 p.m. with Satellites running on Tuesday and starting at 8 a.m. on Wednesdays.

Friday’s at Five has been restructured to a $1060 buy-in. Satellites run through the day. The Satellite buy-in fee is $240 and will pay two places into the tournament. If I missed something, that update will follow.

*****
Ramsey and Justin are still in the room. Mentioned before in posts of old, they are young, energetic, and great for our room. They played the $200 buy-in NLH game exclusively at first…now they’ve reached the conclusion that they are in Vegas, they want to drink and have fun while they play…so off to $4-$8 Holdem where the consequences of playing a bad hand or making a bad call aren’t as severe. I love their insight and their candor about poker and where they are with life.

*****

I managed to get the ideal line-up for the night…NOT! I ended up on Table 1, it was heads up with O’Neil and Huck S., playing Deuce to 7 single draw, $100 ante, $200-$400 Blind, NL. Bob S. had chips on the table but he was walking. Lee S. was sweating Huck.

This game was pretty much shuffle your brains out, deal, start over…thankfully the Shuffle Master was there to take up some of the slack of shuffling but when a hand didn’t go past the blinds, I shuffled the next hand because the machine is too slow. From a dealer point of view, it was a drag, and my pocket was dry.

My next game was $1,000-$2,000 Mixed. Dave G. – 1S, Jennifer H. – 4s, Jason L. – 7s, and Hamid D. – 8s.

Hamid had apparently just lost a hand because he was standing up spewing curses. It’s not funny but in a bizarre sort of way, it’s hysterical. He barely stopped to suck air in between the ‘mother fuckers, fucking idiots, what the fuck’, type of thing.

He sat down when I did and continued to swear. I said, “That’s enough. Take a deep breath…”

Believe it or not, in a civil tone, he replied, “I can’t!” and went back to his own personal torment as he continued to curse. He pitched his hand and stood back up, moved around, sat back down for the next hand…a few dozen times…still swearing. I wonder how a person with his temperament can survive in the poker arena without having a massive stress attack or heart attack.

Jennifer had me laughing. Hamid pitched one of his cards over to the rail by her. She was trying to be helpful and snipped it in but it caught air and hit me in the arm.

I started laughing as she apologized. David made a comment about her throwing the card and I laughed and said, “Yeah, it wasn’t even her card.”

I misdealt once. The game was Holdem and I dealt Omaha. I apologized, shuffled and dealt. Jennifer said she thought that if a dealer dealt the wrong game, the players should just play it for that hand.

David did something like, “If your friend gives you a wink, you just keep on dealing?”

He was implying that Jennifer would give me the wink and I would misdeal to whatever she wanted. We both laughed over that one as she explained that she didn’t mean it like that.

This game was at least a little spicy…not like the one on Table 1.

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

In the real world:

1) One of my Granddaughters is coming from Montana for Spring Break, this weekend, and will spend five days with me. We’re going to Mystere at Treasure Island for entertainment, Prime – Bellagio’s ultimate Steak house for food, and then on the ordinary scale…hiking, shopping, and all around girl kind of things in the works.

2) A Search Engine Parasite, Shop Nav, has devoured my little search assitant and I’ve spent hours scouring the net trying to figure out how to blast Shop Nav into smithereens and return my little buddy.

3) There’s yard work and house maintenance needing to be done and I’m looking for the magic genie in the bottle to fix everything with a blink. Damn it! Where is that bottle?

4) Any of you that are just ‘killing time’, please don’t. Bottle it and save it for me. I promise to use it wisely and only use it when needed in a kind and conscientious manner.

*****

On the poker side of life: I’ve barely played online this last month, let alone at a B & M Table. Not sure how I would even handle playing live right now. I’ve played live five times in the last year. It took me a lot of years to discover that I could easily deal 40 hours a week, or possibly play 20 to 30 hours a week, but I couldn’t do both.

Dealing and listening to someone whine, day after day, about their beats and my lousy dealing, when I haven’t won a pot in three weeks and have played as good as God’s right hand Angel could play, leaves me wanting to jump up on the table and kick the whiner right in the throat. Multiply that feeling to Nth when I’m playing in a game, watching a dealer make every mistake in the book, and then act pained if they didn’t receive a tip when they pushed a pot.

I enjoy people and dealing when I’m not playing. I enjoy people and playing when I’m not dealing. I can’t have both since I have to work for a living and am a sure favorite NOT to win a lottery because I never buy a ticket. So I choose to deal.

I’m sticking to online play right now because it’s so easy for me to access with the limited time I have, and I can ‘multi-task’…do other things while I’m playing. This is not a push for online play, just my opinion.

I have to laugh at all the people that think they are being cheated online…by the poker site. It stands to reason there is always cheating going on in the World but it’s funny to me that anyone would think the site is cheating them. My reply to that line of reasoning? “If the site is cheating, I hope they continue because I’m winning.”

*****

Our Five Star World Poker Classic begins soon. It’s going to be huge. I’ve heard anywhere from 20 to 25 tables in the pit in addition to our room of 30 tables. I expect it to be noisy, hot, exhausting, and wall to wall players.

See you there!

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

The room never slowed down. Picture a flood…bodies…surging into the room, hour after hour, slamming into the Front Podium and rolling on past it, threatening to take everything in it’s path and crush it into the walls and page/cashier area of the room.

When I hit Table 28, $4-$8 Holdem, a sudden blast of the Human Tide Pool stood up and surrounded the empty space (empty?) in front of the Middle Podium, between Tables 19, 24, and 25. Security had entered the room and there was some kind of ruckus taking place. The crowd got bigger. No one left my game to go check it out. A few minutes passed and we could see a fairly husky, middle-aged looking guy, with hands cuffed behind his back, being dragged/led out of the room by a lot of Security Guards. I found out later that some of them were Metro.

Ramsey happened to be walking by my game and gave me his usual cheery smile. I asked, “What just happened with that guy.”

Try not to fall out of your chair and die laughing with this one.

Ramsey gave us this version. The guy was standing, eating peanuts, and throwing his shells on the floor. He was told he would have to take his garbage with him and that throwing his shells on the floor wouldn’t be allowed.

He flatly stated that he would eat the peanuts and throw his shells on the floor until he got a seat in a game. Well, hell! The lists were 300 people long. Guess he figured that he could do whatever he wanted while he was in Vegas and the rest of the world could just piss off. Maybe he thought that was a giant threat…a peanut shell scare…and he would be given immediate seating…go figure.

The Shift Supervisor asked him to leave. He wouldn’t comply so Security was called, hence Metro, hence the handcuffs, and hello to Las Vegas’s most accommodating, no reservation required, crowbar hotel. That’s an easy way to find a place to sleep when there are no rooms available…yeah, right! But do they play poker in jail?

****

On the Friday’s at Five Tournament side of life, Ben Affleck, Annie Duke, Paul Phillips, and Eric Seidel, were in it. Were you? There were 137 contestants, total prize money $66,445.

Changes coming. The Friday’s $540 buy-in is moving to Wednesday and the Friday Tournament will be a bigger buy-in. News on that coming. During the April Tournament, the Friday’s at Five will be cancelled.

*****
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’

The power of the written word…once it is written, it is focused in the mind of the reader…and the writer. Good thing that a lot of people playing poker haven’t learned this ancient technique…but they have watched the WPT. Don’t think it’s only low limit games…it’s happening everywhere in the room.

A prime example would be a $30-$60 Holdem game I dealt tonight. If the 9 and 10s had ever played poker in a casino, I’d like to know which one. They both ended up going bust about 10 minutes apart and left the game. Too bad because they were young and eager to play. I can’t help but wonder why they would pick a $30-$60 limit over a $4-$8 Limit. Of course if they went on a rush, what a story to tell the guys back home.

In this same game, a new player (not new to poker but new to me) lectured me. Hard to believe ain’t it? A hand came down to three way action and the 9s being first to act, just folded. I told him it was a courtesy to check. The new player went into a little fit. He told me that I couldn’t tell the players how to play, etc. I said I wasn’t.

Several other players jumped in and explained to the 9s that he should check because it gives up another player’s protection. The new player kept ranting. He told me it wasn’t my job to say anything. I disagreed with him. My experience with people like this is that they run their own games at home and really can’t manage being in a card room with rules.

Yes…kids, you can fold when it’s your turn to act…but you are not only running a major tell on yourself, you are giving up protection for another player and someday you may be the one that is stuck looking at a bet because another ‘idjit’ folded instead of checking.

*****

I dealt the $1,000-$2,000 Mixed game on Table 1. Not really the usual crew.

Phil I. had been playing there earlier in the night. He left the game when I was on Table 30, the Bellagio WPT $2-$4 Blind NLH game. One of the players commented, “There goes Phil I.”

Yeah, right! Best to leave some comments alone. Another little goofy thing…in a game earlier…someone mentioned that we ran a game ‘upstairs’. Meaning that we dealt a game in another room, away from the poker room. NOT!

Nothing strange or crazy happened on Table 1…Thank you, God!

There are a lot of nightmare stories lately…not mine but things I’ve heard circulating around the room. They aren’t always a player incident, some of them are dealer error and other problems. Hope I can swerve around all that and stay under the radar.

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