When will they learn?

I was not dealing, thank goodness........
No limit. Seat 2 takes the protective chip off of his cards and leans back in his chair. The dealer mucks the cards. Fairly large pot......the player who "unprotected" his cards had a 7 high straight flush which, in our room, is worth a bonus payout of $599. As you would imagine, all hell broke loose. After reviewing the security tapes, 2s was awarded the pot and the bonus. IMO he was VERY lucky. In most of these cases, the ruling is that the player, ultimately, must protect their own hand. Don't ask me why, in some cases, an exception to this this rule is made.
I see it every day and I do get tired of reminding players to protect their hand. What are they thinking? On a related note, at the showdown, why do players just throw their hands, face up, in the middle of the table. When I am playing, I'll turn my cards face up, but I keep my hand on them until a better hand is viewed or the pot has been pushed to me. Sometimes the dealer will ask for the cards before the pot is pushed. I'll simply tell them to push the pot and then I will release my hand. I can only guess that the dealers who want it another way are NOT players.
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This time I AM dealing. Table 4, $2-4 limit HE. Seat 7 is a poker dealer in a house on the Strip. The first pot that I push her, I get air. The second pot I push her (which was a split pot) she throws me $.25. Don't mistake that figure for $25. She gave me 25 CENTS. The third pot I push her I again get the 25 CENTS. Don't get me wrong. Those 50 cents will not change my lifestyle at all. I am not usually vindictive, but this time I did take it personally. I promise that I will play in her house, I will play in her game and I will have a roll of pennies handy of which she will get half. I may even give her half a roll of pennies when she pushes me my first pot. Why wait until the second one. What the hell is this woman thinking? If we dealers don't take care of each other, who will take care of us?***
***Most dealers are overly generous to a fault. Reciprosity makes it fun. Even though the dealer has NO bearing on the outcome of a hand, it doesn't hurt to have someone mentally pulling for you...........

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Three more sleeps.......
That is how the sands through an hourglass are explained to a 3.5 year old. On Wednesday morning I will be picking up some people at the airport. Mom, dad, my sister and my 3.5 year old nephew are coming for a visit. Neither my sister nor my nephew have been to LV. It should be great fun. David is my sister's only child and to put it mildly, is the apple of my eye. I get to play Unctle Wayne (David's pronounciation) and do my best to spoil the shit out of him for a few days.
He has recently watched some war movie where a dam was blown up. He wants to see Hoover Dam " before they blow a hole in it". Wow, I hope that he is not prophetic--although I can't even imagine the amount of explosives it would take to even make a dent in that colossal mass of reinforced concrete.

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25 days and counting..........
I am still on the No Slot Machine Wagon. Yesterday did find me venturing into the Pit at the Flamingo. Let it Ride-Lost. Pai Gow-Lost. Made my way into the poker area to, you guessed it, lose there too, although my poker loss was only $42.

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Last night found me once again performing the Saturday night ritual. Food, drink, friends and cards at Linda's house. What used to be a night of Pan with the occasional game of poker mixed in has, for the last two weeks, become Big Deuce night. I've fallen in love with this frustrating (aren't they all?) game. Last night I was, figuratively, run over by the deck. Paradise found, right? Once I was even hit in the chest, literally, with chips. You see, Linda has this habit of throwing the deck/chips when she can't get a hand. Usually she just tosses the deck harmlessly over her shoulder. I figure I'll get her into anger management classes about the same time she gets me to submit to laser treatments to stop smoking. (Linda, I hope you are laughing as you read this because you know that I am just joshing with you!)

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When I lived in the Bible Belt I learned a saying. "Clean like the preacher is coming for dinner". That is what I need to do. Knowing me, I'll be doing this Tuesday night/Wednesday morning in preparation for the Family Vacation.