Poor Table Tango, so neglected and empty. It should be filled with poker tales. Instead, it’s filled with ire and frustration over a little chunk of cyber space. Good News! It’s already being transported to a new home. The DNS servers will soon begin routing to the new address and peace will settle, Table Tango will blossom again. Yippee!

*****

Be my Valentine, today’s the day. Romance and Cupids floating through the air…remember those wonderful little cards that we couldn’t wait to buy and fill out and pass around in class? No? Oh…all you remember is poker hands…ok, let’s move on.

*****

$20-$40 Omaha 8 or Better with a Kill. Lisa was in the 1s and raised pre-flop. Lot’s of action, five players to the River. The River put three Spades and a pair on the board, with no low.

Lisa checked, the Button bet, another player called, Lisa said, “I’m out,” as she looked at her cards one more time. She realized she had an Ace high Flush and stammered through something like, “Oh wait!” and reached for chips.

I told her I’d have to call for a decision. I stated the House Rule, ‘verbal is binding when it’s your turn to act’ and left it at that while we waited for Boba. Everyone at the table had something to say about it. Some conjectured that no one had acted behind her so her hand was still live.

Boba arrived, I told him what happened. He was really hesitant to make a commitment on the issue although he did agree with what I had stated, he just wouldn’t tell her the hand was dead. And she wasn’t about to give it up unless there was no other choice…hell the pot was huge, it was $30-$60 limit because of the Kill.

Suzie was called. Suzie stood over my shoulder while I explained what happened. Everyone seemed to be in limbo for a few moments, Lisa kept trying to explain that she hadn’t thrown her hand away. Suzie made the decision that the hand was dead. The Button, Mark, won the pot with a lower Flush.

It’s tough when this happens to anyone. Lisa took it damn well, no card throwing, swearing, or insults. She’s a class act every time she plays.

******

Randall was in and introduced himself to me, true to his word, he brought me a bottle of wine. I haven’t tapped into it yet…sometime soon. Thanks, Randall, how gracious and wonderful to think of me…I wish your game had been in my line-up.

I’m not having any fun right now. The migration of my website to it’s new server space is MAKING ME CRAZY! I’ve been on the phone with tech support every morning since last week. I wish I was drinking, I’d either be taking it all very well because I was numb, or I’d be a screaming, crying maniac. Nothing has worked the way it used to and each phone call brings that wonderful little, repetitive recording, “We are working very hard to meet your needs, when we return, please tell us what you think….”

Do you think I should? Server change – table 12! Damn…do I have a choice? I believe I do and that would be to start shopping for a new place to host my little slice of cyber space.

Before I stomp off to Sandman Land and try to sleep, a little tale from the green felt that really is humorous. Recently I dealt an $80-$160 game and Pat was in the 1s. Two players were walking.

Pat raised pre-flop and got called by Q-6 suited. The Q-6 claimed the pot by making a straight with the 6. Pat had Q-Q, although he never showed his hand, he exclaimed, “Unbelievable!”

He repeated the word a few more times and I said, “Isn’t it funny that people never say unbelievable when they win a pot.”

He semi chuckled and said he used to say it quite a lot when he won. It opened the door and he said it over and over as a joke.

The 9s, UTG, raised, and Pat raised. Everyone folded except the 9s who called. The Flop was Q-J-Little. The 9s bet, Pat raised, the 9s called.

The Turn was a Queen, the 9s checked, Pat bet, the 9s called.

The River came a Jack, the 9s fired, Pat thought for a moment and called and the 9s turned over J-5 Suited.

Pat threw his hand away. I pushed the pot to the 9s, and as I shuffled the deck, I looked at Pat and quietly said, “That really was unbelievable!”

Pat cracked up. Thank God, he still has a sense of humor.

I’ve spent the last 30 hours messing around with getting kinks worked out of my server/password/user name for this site. Yesterday morning, when I arrived home from work and would have liked to post, my site was down. I sent out an emergency email “HELP” to tech support. I received notice later in the day that it was up and running.

I then tried to log on via FTP and FrontPage, no access, user denied, blah-blah-blah. I called tech support. I got a clown that must have been thinking I was laughing all the way through his act. He told me that he would reset my password and user name and then transferred me to customer service without even waiting to see if I could access.

At customer service I got the catch all recording, “You’re very important to us, we are too damn busy to take your call right now, leave a message and we’ll get back to you.”
I tried logging in and couldn’t access anything again. I called tech support right back and got a guy that stated they had upgraded to new servers and moved the old accounts to the new servers, mine being one of them. They had changed my user name and password. (Thanks guys, for keeping me informed.)

He gave me the new one, I logged on through FrontPage and logged out, thanked him, and got ready for my night as a poker dealer.

BTW, when they moved my site, something happened somewhere with the blogging software and archives. Nothing works there…just like starting from square one.
When I arrived home from work this a.m., once again, I couldn’t log on. I called tech support again, got a guy that was going to check it out for me and spent 20 minutes on hold, with a stupid recording playing over and over, just to find out that he couldn’t access it either and he would have to have a senior tech take a look at it.
Umhhh! Sweet, huh? Welcome to the world of bad beats! It’s universal, doesn’t just happen in poker games.

When I got up today, I could access my site but something has blown apart with the blogging software and I’m sick of it. I’m checking out something else but in the mean time, back to the old format…I know this one works.

Later…I’m off to the zoo and the kind of bad beats I can deal with (pardon the pun).

A round of applause…please…

All the players that have been watching the WPT – please take a bow! More applause…hooting, cheering, whistling, foot stomping…extreme appreciation.

I love these people! They are so much fun and they bring new meaning to the words “Chip Wars”.

The $4-$8 Holdem games have taken over all the low limit tables. We used to have three or four $1-$5 7 Card Stud games and $4-$8 Stud games…now we have ten players crammed around a 7 Card Stud table that was built for eight people. Most of them never say a word about being crammed, they just keep jamming. A player told me last night that he’s been playing at the Mirage because there’s too much action in our games. God! The whole world should have such problems.

Poker is on the upswing. It’s anybody’s game. And the best part of it is that you don’t have to go to college or have a degree to play it. You don’t have to invest your life savings or have a big bankroll to step out and take a walk through Poker Land. The only problem you may encounter is yourself. Sorry, no poker lesson on that one today, you have to be smart enough to figure it out.

******

On the ram and jam note, I dealt a $30-$60 Holdem with a player, in the 9s, that could barely focus, he was d-r-u-n-k! I hate it! He was finally on water from the cocktail waitress but if they served him to that point, what were they thinking? It is possible that he came in drunk or that he went out to the bar and got his own, but this guy could have been declared comatose by a medic. He was all the action.

He left the table for a moment and, Donna in the 2s, told me that he was lucky to have any chips in front of him. Apparently he’d been playing like that for quite some time.

He played every hand during my down, having around $2,000 in chips when I sat down, he lost them all. He straddled and won a big pot by drawing runner, runner, against Aces. Then he raised and reraised four pots in a row with hands like Q-5 Off, 9-4 Off, without a pair or a draw, just turning over Q high at the end of the hand.

He went broke and said he would get more money. He returned at the same time the 10s returned to the game, (the 10s was gone during my down). The 9s threw out two $100 bills. I gently said, “Honey, that’s a short buy-in for this game, and you have to have at least $250.”

The 10s jumped right on me, “He’s been playing…”

I replied, “I know…and I’ve been dealing.”

I went back to the 9s and told him he could have one short buy-in but it had to be at least $250. I really was hoping that he didn’t have any more money on him because he was in no shape to sit at a card table and make any kind of play that would require reason or judgment. I’ve never been an advocate of tying out a lamb to attract a lion.

He dug around in his wallet and managed to come up with three $20 bills. He was back in the game, lost almost all of it in that hand, with the same kind of play.

I got pushed and quietly told the incoming dealer that the 9s was on water from the cocktail waitress and that he had already had a short buy-in.

It never bothers me to see people jamming and ramming at the table, even if they play like it was their last day on Earth, win or lose. It does bother me to see a player in the shape the 9s was in. He went to war without a helmet and shield and ran out of ammo…

I met Jason and Gavin. Jason would make a great member of any team that requires enthusiasm and support. Gavin wasn’t quite as excited…well he doesn’t read Table Tango. Maybe that would be the reason.

We spent a few minutes of my break visiting about poker in general, the pros, the limits, the games, dealing, and I was even asked for my autograph. Fun! Jason had a deck of cards and picked out the Queen of Hearts for my signature. (That’s what I am in Fortune Telling Tools, the Queen of Hearts…interesting that he picked it too.) I signed the Queen of Diamonds for his friend, Mark.

Gavin complimented me on my attitude and people skills…I had dealt to him the last few nights and he noted that a lot of the dealers were jaded and unhappy. God! Is he right on the mark or what?

They talked about their game at home and how difficult it is to deal it since they don’t know a lot of the rules. They were giving dealers a pat on the back for their skills and knowledge. Nice to hear, usually we hear the opposite.

Jason gave me a monetary tip…for all the great reading he’s having from my site…I took it. Hey, that’s the nature of the biz.

Did he bust out of the Friday’s at Five while I was dealing? OUCH!

The insanity of poker – a diseased and irrational mind is one that believes they can throw cards at the dealer and the dealer is supposed to accept it. One of my games was $30-$60 Holdem and there were three card zinging lunatics in the game. It started out like this: Continue reading Tuesday, January 27, 2004 →

The WSOP news can be found here: ISA-CASINOS.DE – Europas größtes Casino-Informationsportal im Internet

I’m currently shopping for ‘blogging’ software – I found some. Only problem is that I have to upgrade my server account to handle the software. More money to host this site. Tears! Big sobs! I know it would be so much easier for all of my loyal readers to see if I’ve posted, if I do the upgrade…but it’s a downgrade for my wallet and another learning curve. So little time…not enough cash…I’m still checking. If anyone comes up with any other solution, please let me know. Continue reading Friday, January 23, 2004 →

The latest report I’ve seen on the WSOP can be found here – good news…I think! Continue reading Thursday, January 22, 2004 →