Working - Pitchin' Cards and Pushin' Pots

Yes, I am working.  No I am not simply spending all of my time playing Poker and writing up the results.

Saturday I dealt Day 1a of the $1000 Buy-in No Limit Tournament.  Turnout was lower than projected and Sunday I spent my entire day in the live cash games.  Monday I dealt the $1500 buy-in Day 1 start.

Lots of Hold'em.

Already I am a little bored dealing No Limit Hold'em to tournament players.  The cash games are a little more interesting.  In tournaments, there will be hand after hand after hand of fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, raise, fold fold. Push. Shuffle. Deal. Fold, fold, fold...etc.

People play a lot looser in cash games.  They figure they can try to get in cheap, get lucky and if they miss, lose a small pot or reload and try again.  Due to the fact that people usually play cash games with very deep stacks of chips relative to the opening bets, there is more "play."  By that I mean there are more hands where there is a decision on every street.  Every turn of a card changes the situation, changes the odds of winning, changes the information a player makes decisions with.

Also, in cash games, a.k.a. "Live" or "Live Action" games as a dealer you have to keep track of the pot.  In smaller games you need to count the pot and take the 10% rake (up to $5). In the popular Pot Limit games, you need to always know how much is in the pot to verify that a player is making a legal bet.  In Pot Limit it is typical for a player to ask the dealer how much is in the Pot or, "How much can I Pot it for?"  This also gets tricky when there has been one or more bets and a player says, "How much if I raise Pot?"  You feel like a mathlete after a few Pot Limit tables.  But it also makes dealing more interesting and challenging.

One disappointment in working day shift is that the majority of the noon events are straight No Limit Hold'em and most of the Stud, Lowball and Pot Limit events are scheduled for a 5 o'clock start.  Hmmm.

Maybe next year I will request to be on the 4 PM shift.  That way I will catch all of the mixed game events.  Both eight game mixed events and all three H.O.R.S.E. events on the 2010 schedule have a 5 o'clock start.  BTW:  H.O.R.S.E. is Hold'em / Omaha-8 / Razz (Lowball 7 Card Stud)/ 7 Card Stud / 7 Card Stud High-Low 8 or better. They switch games every hour.

On Sunday I dealt a cash game I had never seen spread before: 5 Card Pot Limit Omaha-8 Hi/Lo.  Omaha is usually played with 4 cards.  The Hi/Lo version is usually a limit rather thana Pot Limit game.  Dealing 5 cards limits the table to 8 players.  They also played it with small blind $5, Big Blind $10 and a $20 optional straddle (These are all bets made before cards are dealt).  The table had a maniac in seat one, immediately to the left of the dealer.  He wasn't a maniac in how he made his bets, just a maniac in the sense that he was hopped up on something.  He couldn't stay in his chair.  He was jumping around and he never stopped talking or yelling for the entire half hour I dealt.  He had two arguements with another player that I needed to call a supervisor to settle - and it was the exact same arguement both times and with the same player!  Then a new dealer came to the table and pushed me from the wrong side.  The toke box where the tips are collected is on the left, so if a dealer approaches from the right, the exiting dealer stands up right in front of the box and can retrieve the tips from the box.  By pushing in from the left, I exited to the right and walked away leaving my tips in the toke box.  It only took me a minute to figure out that something was missing and I went back to collect my tips.

The maniac said to me, "Hey Buz.  Thanks for putting up with all of my shit, you did a great job.  I never got a chance to tip you because I NEVER WON A DAMN POT! So here." And he tossed a five dollar tip into my toke box.