My new surroundings........

The old Buick LeSabre logged it's 100,000th mile this morning. It has been a great vehicle and I certainly hope that it has another 20-30,000 miles left in her. I have not had a car payment for about 2 years and I hate the thought of having them again.

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My new place is satisfactory in every way and each day it become a little more like home. No not the home of my youth, but my current home. No place will ever be like HOME, but until I someday return to the "homeplace" I think that this place will do just fine. I can't believe how much stuff I have accumulated in a year and a half. My goal is to go though everything and weed out the non-essentials, but I know in my heart that everything that I have packed away was saved for a reason, as trivial as that reason may be. At least I have a ton of closet space in the new place.

Last Saturday found me scoping out the furniture at Sticks & Stuff in Henderson. I found a dinette set that I wanted and told the salesman that I would return as soon as I could round up a truck. Linda to the rescue. Although she was "time stresses" she dropped what she was doing and transported the furniture for me. I have been juggling the move with work all week and was not able to unbox/assemble anything until Monday night. Guess what? They gave me the wrong chairs. I still have not made it back out there to make the exchange but I did call them and told them of the error of their ways..........
Tuesday morning found me strapping my mattress and box springs to the top of the buick with bungy cords for the 12 mile trek across town. I had my doubts that I had it attached securely enough, but the bed and I both made the trip in one piece, never exceeding 30 mph.
All that remains to be moved is the desk and all of it's contents. Target date Saturday. I would also like to buy and transport a sofa on that day and call the major components of this move complete.

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Things at work have been S-L-O-W. I am not sure if the opening of the MGM room this week has had a major impact or if much of it could be contributed to the fact that it is the end of the month. A large portion of our day-time players are locals who, how shall I put this..... let's just say that they receive a senior discount and get a monthy allowance from Uncle Sam.
Things have been so good and balls-to-the-wall for so long that this anomaly on the radar screen has dealers at our place a little cranky. Your spot in the line-up becomes that much more important and EOs that used to be a welcomed respite now seem to be looked upon as some sort of sadistic punishment. We all know that come WSOP time that we will have all that we can handle, but most of us are just looking at the short term situation.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of dealing to Joy who is a poker dealer at the Mirage. I had never dealt to her before and she had only dealt to me once, althought she did not remember it. She was playing at the Palms with her grandson who was celebrating his 21st birthday. The reason that I vividly remembered her was that I was impressed with her when she dealt to me. The day that I played at the Mirage, not many dealers struck me that way, so yesterday I complimented her. She seemed to truly appreciate the kudos.
On Tueday night there was one particular player who was especially UGLY to deal to. The buzz in the poker break room was that he was indeed a poker dealer across the street. Unbelievable that a fellow dealer could be that disruptive, unpleasant and, to put it bluntly, frugal. We were all conspiring to get together and go play in one of HIS games.......devious, but it just ain't gonna happen.

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I'm off to Albertson's to start laying in provisions.

If murder was legal..........

Tuesday night as I was standing behind table 1 waiting to push, I watched the dealer put an Ace high rainbow straight on the board. The proverbial nuts were on the board. It was down to three handed. The first player bet out and immediately the player in the 7s started scolding him for betting and announced that the board was unbeatable, that it was a split pot. The dealer remained silent. The second player raised. The 7s continued her rant. The delaer remained silent. Not able to remain silent, I got the attention of the 7s and informed her that she should NOT be discussing the possibilities (as seemingly obvious as they were). The third player hesitated and I really thought that he was going to muck his hand. The light finally went on and he called as did the player who originally bet out. The silent dealer chopped the pot three was and moved on to the next game. As I was settling in, I informed the table that discussion of the hand should not happen and I told them that they would probably be shocked to know how often players tossed a winning hand into the muck. Maybe they were drawing to a straight and missed the fact that they made a flush etc etc. Don't remind them what to look for. I must have been talking to the hands, because the ears weren't listening. During most of my down I continued to ask the players not to discuss the possible hands. The young man in the 2s was the biggest offender. After asking him three times to cease and desist, he asked me if it was a hard and fast rule. I simply told him that poker etiquette would suggest that he should not do it. A few hands later the shift supervisor was walking by my table and I casually asked him to weigh in on the subject. He stated that it was proper etiquette not to do it. Things settled down a little and my down was coming to an end. During my last hand I flopped a pair of 6s and put a 6 on the river. Sure enough, the dealer who was waiting to push me chimed in with a "Look at that! Three 6s. I wanted to jump up and choke the living shit out of her! lol Oh well, I moved on to the next game shaking my head....................

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Wednesday afternoon, as soon as I stepped foot into the poker room, the shift manager/schedule maker asked me if I wanted to pick up an extra shift and come to work on Thursday night...... Under normal circumstances, I turn down these offers. These not being normal circumstances, I accepted his offer. I am in the process of moving and will need to buy some furniture. Most of the time, for me at least, it is not all about the money. This time it was. As usual, I lived to regret it.
I was dealing a $2-5 blind NLH game. One player bet, another went all in for $5 LESS than the full raise, the next player called and the player who originally bet then went all in. I must have been brain dead. I announced the second all-in and the caller stuck in the middle folded. No one said a word. Once I had finished my down, a player who was not involved in the hand (I'll call him Bill) came up to me, put his arm around my shoulder and told me the error of my ways. As soon as he started to tell me what my error was, I instantly knew what I had allowed to happen. I can never figure out whether Bill thinks I am the King of the Morons or the son that he never had. In this case, I believe that he was trying to be helpful and I was closer to the son than the moron.........BUT, why wait until my down was over? When I screw up, I want to know about it right then and there. Had he immediately said something, maybe I could have stopped the caught-in-the-middle player from mucking his hand. Water under the bridge. My bad.

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I spent today moving a bunch of "little" stuff and thinking about how nice it will be to finally have my own place. Since I moved to LV about 18 months ago I have been renting a room in a large 5 BR 4 Bath, very nice house. The only problem is that I had lived alone for 16 years and had become accustomed to the solitude. For the past year and a half I have shared a home with 4 other adults, two dogs, two cats and an aquarium full of fish. This arrangement has served it's purpose, but it is time for me to once again go it alone. I hope to never again live with cats! I'm just not a cat person I suppose.

Time to catch some ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Still lots of stuff left to move tomorrow.......and some furniture shopping to be done.

Things that make me want to PUKE

Today, as I was standing behind the dealer waiting to push into a $2-5 blind NLH game I witnessed the 2s accidentally drop a $1 chip into his rocks glass full of some type of liquor. I have seen chips end up in drinks before, but I have NEVER seen anyone fish the chip out, pop it into his mouth and suck it dry. I almost gagged. Of course, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I asked the kid WHY? Didn't he know that a fair number of poker players (and the population in general) don't wash their hands after visiting the water closet? Chips are filthy!!
I wonder how long it takes alcohol to kill all of those germs.

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I wandered into work 30 minutes early today. As it turns out, the room was busier than normal at that time of the day and I was asked it I was ready to go to work. Of course I was. It was my Friday and the earlier I started the sooner I got out. I entered the line-up in the best of all spots, sailed through 6 hours of uneventful poker and headed out into the Nevada evening looking forward to three days off.

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And from a Dean Koontz novel, this quote.

Every palace and every work of art is only dust as yet unrealized, and time is the patient wind that will wither it away.

This quote reminds me of hiking in the desert. I've started using it as my signature on my emails.

Things that make me squirm.......

Tonight I pushed into a $4-8 LHE game. Nearly all of the players were regulars and well known to me. The two ladies in seats 1 & 2 were loudly discussing the toking practices of the player in the 8 seat. It seems that a previous dealer had pushed 8 a large pot and 8 gave that dealer 50 cents. These ladies were not in approval of that! A few hands later, I push 8 a decent pot. 1 & 2 pipe up and tell me to expect the ol' 50 center. Well nuts! I got $1! I casually mention, quietly, that I don't get too excited about a 50 cent tip, no tip at all, or a much more generous tip.It all averages out at the end of the night. 1 & 2 continue their chatter. A few hands later I deal 8 a high hand jackpot. 1 & 2 go into a tizzy and tell me that I might get a whole $2 this time. Well nuts! 8 gave me $10! $10 for dealing ONE hand of cards. That makes up for quite a few airballs/50 centers.
It is always nice to have a tip shill in your game, a shill who works in subtle ways. Given the choice between overt needling and no comment at all, I'll take the no comment at all approach.

Long time, no post!

As I suspected, I have not been diligent in posting. So much has happened in the last few weeks.
Work today was less than ideal. When I got to work there were 4 games and 9 dealers. For some reason known only to the aliens at area 51, the shift manager did not want to allow any of the dealers to go home. Similarly, he did not want any of us to actually play until there was a need for us to deal. Up and down, up and down. For those who don't know what that means, it means that we dealt for 30 minutes and took a 30 minute break, lather..rinse..repeat. Basically, it sucks and it makes it nearly impossible to make decent money.
At some point early in my shift I was dealing a $2-4 LHE game. Two players called the $2 BB, the SB folded and the BB checked. The flop came TT7. BB checks, player two bets out while BEGGING for a call. "PLEASE call me" he repeats several times. Late position folds, BB folds and the guy turns over pocket tens. He flopped quads and won a $7 pot. Had he gotten one of the folders to call he would have won $133 for the high hand jackpot. Our high hand jackpots require that both hole cards play and that there is $10 worth of called bets. Discussion of the hand or the possibility of there being a high hand (quads or straight flush) could disqualify the jackpot, so many locals have adopted the code words "how much is in the pot" as a clue that someone should call them. I guess none of the players knew this in advance, so for the want of a $2 call, no JP.
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About a week and a half ago I had three friends come into town. A day later, Will, the brother that I never had, arrived. The next day, a mutual friend of Will and I stopped in town for a night. You guessed it. Tour-guide-city. By last Monday, everyone had gone back to where they came from and I was left feeling slightly guilty that I had not spent enough time with any of them. There are only so many hours in the day.
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Tonight at work I heard that due to the tournament at the Rio there were no live games being spread there. They don't have enough room! As I understand it, once the tourney tables start breaking, they start spreading sats for the next day's events. It should be REALLY interesting to see how they handle the WSOP when that time rolls around. I think that the numbers being thrown around suggest that there may be 5,000 players in the main NL event.
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Also at work today, a player who had just won a pot asked me if he had given me anything. This is not an uncommon question. I always answer truthfully. I said no, sir, you did not. End of story. Even after asking and being answered in the negative, he still didn't give me anything. Go figure! lol
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