All in a day's work
I've been dealing to Jack for as long as I have been dealing. To say that he is "slick" would be an understatement. I don't necessarily mean "slick" in a bad way or that he is a bad person. I think it is just a little game he plays. Back in the beginning, he was a regular in the Hoggy (7 stud/hi/lo/double qualifier) game. I had yet to get my feet planted firmly under me and I had my hands full just running the game, let alone trying to grow eyes in the sides and back of my head. On several occasions, he would so something "wrong" and then quiz me as to what he had done. I appreciated it and it made me realize that really had to heighten my senses when in the box. It is not really possible to watch every player every second......but we do try.
Jack disappeared for several months, but returned to us about 2 weeks ago. During a hand yesterday, Jack was the BB ($5-10 blind NL). There are other examples, but this is the most recent and easily recalled. It was raised and called in a few places. When the action came around to Jack, he mucked his cards and gathered his two reds and placed them back in his stack. I quietly told Jack to put the $10 back on the table. He did. As the hand finished and I was gathering cards/dropping rake etc I looked him in the eye and asked if other dealers allowed him to take his BB back when he folded. I said it with just a touch of sarcasm. He just grinned.
As I was getting pushed, he slid three blue chips my way. I thanked him and started to get up. He pushed three more blue chips toward me. I said you already gave me three, Jack. He said he knew, so I thanked him again and dropped them in my toke box.
Have I passed some sort of test? I would like to think that he threw me $6 as a way of thanking me for really trying to pay attention to what goes on at a card table. Who knows.
*****
A few days ago I was dealing a $4-8 limitH game when I noticed the guy in the 4 seat. More specifically, I noticed his T-shirt. The shirt said something like "5th Annual Elf Tossing Contest". As the wearer of the shirt was smaller in stature and, in my opinion, could be described as elfish, I started to chuckle to myself. A few hands later it was aparent that the mood at the table was light/jovial. I asked "tossing T-shirt" how his sense of humor was. He said it pretty good, so I asked him how far they threw him. Everyone laughed, but he roared. He said that people always asked him how far he threw the elf and that I was the only one who had put him in the tossee category.
If only every table was as fun as that one.......
Other recent T-shirts I've seen at the poker table:
- I'm not a gynecologist, but I'll take a look (worn by two different guys)
- Yes they are real........(and in tiny print) REAL EXPENSIVE (On a gorgeous blond with "enhanced" anatomy)
- Thank your girlfriend for me
- Awesome lover (or something like that)
- Tengo un coche grande (Since I don't speak Spanish, I incorrectly assumed that this shirt was describing the, uh, size of the wearers penis. I asked him if his shirt meant what I thought it meant.........He said that it meant he had a big CAR)
Sometimes unhappiness is a state of being. It's too hot, it's too cold, the lighting is too dim at this table, the lights are too bright at this table (same table, two different players), I can't get a drink, you give me the same two cards every hand, change the deck, don't change the deck, scramble them. It's a constant barrage that would drive you insane if you allowed it to. Two days ago a regular in the 10s of a $4-8 game (Who was winning) was repeating over and over and over that he had had 14 straight losing sessions at the Palms. If I lose today, I'm never coming back. I don't know why I even play in the effing place. I can't win here. Loop these statements together and listen to them for 30 straight minutes and you'll come to understand the negativity coming from this player....day in and day out. Keep in mind that he was WINNING. No matter, he can't get past his negativity even for an hour or two to enjoy the fact that he was, at least for the time being, beating the game. He did cash out while still ahead. Yesterday he was back at it...starting another losing streak.................
{I can't help but think that if this guy was having relations with Miss December he would be complaining that she wasn't Miss November. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.}
Yesterday a lady, I'll call her Shirl, was bemoaning the fact that I never deal her a winner. Same cards over and over. etc etc. I just nodded my head up and down at her. She snapped "Don't shake your head at me" I said Shirl, I'm nodding my head up and down. That means that I agree with you. Jeeze, woman, take YES for an answer. If she had accused me of rolling my eyes up into the top of my head I would have had to plead guilty be reason of insanity.
posted by Wayne Murphy at 9:38 AM
1 Comments:
Brett,
First of all, dealers hear this so often that I doubt any of them equate the question with you being, or not being an asshole. Was the dealer shuffling, or just cutting the cards. Would it really make a difference if he/she DIDN'T shuffle, but just scrambled and cut? In our house, 9 out of 10 tables have shuffle masters. There are those people who swear that the shuffle masters don't shuffle well. I have, on several occasions, taken a brand new set up and dropped it into the shuffle master. In my opinion, it does a great job of shuffling the cards.
Even with shuffle masters, there are times when a hand shuffle will be required. Whether the cards are actually shuffled by the dealer or by the shuffle master, how many times have you watched as a player left the game, a new player sat down, a player decided to take a missed blind button etc. etc. If the dealer was capable of manipulating the cards, it would be impossible to know if he was actually going to deal 10 hands, or 9 hands or 8 hands when he completed his shuffle. Ditto goes for the shuffle master. It doesn't have a clue if the game is two handed or ten handed. This would be vital information if the dealer or the shuffle master was trying to deal you the same two cards repeatedly. Even if the shuffle master indeed had this information and was programmed to deliver the same two cards to you, it would have no idea where the dealer would cut the cards.
In short, you can't look at the short term. Over the course of several lifetimes, randomness will prevail.
Last Thursday night I watched a roulette wheel at the Bellagio for over 30 minutes before sitting down to play. The number 19 did not hit during those 30 minutes of watching and it did not hit during the hour or so that I played. Does that fact cause me to think that the wheel was somehow biased against the number 19? Does the fact that the number 2 hit back to back cause me to draw the same conclusion? Nope.
If you really get the same two cards in the same suits several times within a short period I would think it to be vaguely interesting, but I wouldn't conclude that the apocalypse was upon us.
Did I even come close to answering your question? If not, tell me again what the question was.....
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