I love to play poker. I hate it that I can't. There is not a B&M poker room within 3 hours of me and now I can't play because Big Brother has decided to be my moral compass.
Rosie accused the Donald of that and I like the phrase, it fits.
Internet poker took a lot of getting used to for me. I really had to adjust my game after years of playing with mostly players I knew well. One look and I knew if I had the best or they did. A faceless name on the computer screen is a whole different game. But I did adjust and learned to take notes even before the poker sites offered that feature. Well I thought poker on the net was the greatest thing since chocolate. I didn't even have to get dressed! I could do it all if I chose to, smoke (yes I am one of those outcasts) drink and not have to drive (yes I do like to drink and play) call the donkeys names (and no one heard but the dog). It was Nirvana. Even with the horrendous beats I have rarely seen in live play, I loved it all. Ah the good old days.
The last time I played was New years Eve.
We couldn't go anywhere New years because we had a wedding to attend in January in Virgina City/Reno and I couldn't afford to go New Years then back again 2 weeks later. So I decided to take $100 and scope out a new room since my place of choice Pacific Poker no longer took US customers. I settled on Absolute because they had the best deposit bonus. I drank, played and had a great time and went bust. No surprise there as I wasn't playing my best, just playing what I wanted when I wanted and having fun. Hell I couldn't even go to dinner and out drinking for $100 so I knew I got my monies worth. The big disappointment for me was I didn't play long enough to earn the bonus. I hate how sites "dole out" bonuses anyway. I think if you go broke they should give it to you then not allow you to cash it out until you have reached whatever point/play level.
Well now with Netteller's problems I have no way to deposit. Well there are a few other services out there but I no longer feel comfortable putting money in any of them. Someday maybe it will all change and we can be our own Moral Compass, until then I play on Pogo for free with 100% donkeys. It is nothing like real poker, but it is entertaining and I don't have to drive 300 miles to do it!
I miss the old days on Pacific and Stars. I had a friend who blew thousands on there and it was fun following him around (as he didn't know it was me) and I had great wins on those nights!
Too bad the real fish think collusion is the norm and they are being cheated. They can't admit they play like idiots which is why they lose the farm.
On another note: Why is it some people hate to play with their friends? I know someone like that, he hates to play with me (the friend mentioned above). My thought is if I am going to lose, why not lose it to a friend rather than someone I don't like? He did tell me once he hated to play with me because I always beat him. Well, sorry guy but so does everyone else (beat you)!
So until Big Brother decides just maybe us adults are smart enough to play poker on the net and not rob banks to do it, and we are not hurting anyone...well look for me on pogo or in Reno...
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Players-The Early Years
Most of my memories from the early days of dealing are not of games or hands but of people.
As in any small poker room in the country, we had our regulars. Over the years I have come to realize that the same player "types" can be found in almost all clubs, large or small. The faces and names change but the behavior & traits stay the same.
My days of being a rookie were made easier by the relative kindness and understanding of the old guard. The old guard at our club were: Jackson, "Lady"(name withheld at her request), Charlie, Mel, Big Bob, John C. and Vince.
You could set the clock by what time they all walked in the door. They were the starters. The other regulars were: Debbie, Mexican Danny, Gail, Woody, Chuck, Terry C. and John R. and Roger. Then semi regulars, ones who played once a week, once a month or when their wives were on vacation.
We were open 6pm-2 am M-F and 2pm-2am on Sat. & Sun. The 2am closing was due to the City ordinance, the opening time was because of the owner, Kenny's regular job schedule. He was smart in that respect I thought, he had a real income besides the poker room. We also had Don who was Kenny's right hand man, he ran chips, got coffee, cleaned up and occasionally played. Don had played for years but now got his kicks staking a select few in games, later I would become his #2 favorite horse, after Jody.
It wasn't long, maybe 8 months before I became the main dealer at the Round Up. I worked 6 days a week and made $7 an hr plus tips which were VERY good. The club was closed Monday's but Terry C. had a sign shop with a poker table and had games Monday nights, soon I was working for him on my days off. My life was dealing poker.
Then came the "after hours games". The city ordinance governing the hours of the poker room only pertained to the city limits. The boundary was a few blocks east of main street where the Round Up was. Not only was the Round Up the only game in town it had a dynamite location right on the corner and behind a popular bar which gave us access to serve beer & wine.
The only game in town until the Petticoat Junction made a poker room in back of there place on HWY 99E that is. Of course I worked there but that is for another post.
Back to the players. I had my favorites of course and not because they were good tippers either. As a matter of fact my 2 favorites were not great tippers and of they were "stuck" they may not tip at all. Liking a player has never hinged on how they tip for me, it is how they conduct themselves.
I have to list "lady" as number 1. We have remained best friends to this day, so how could I put her anywhere else but right up front? She was kind, understanding, sympathetic and helpful to a new dealer. It wasn't long before we were going to breakfast after closing almost every night if there wasn't an after hours game. She was a joy in a game, she never got mad, never threw her cards, never drank and was a class act all the way. If we had a new player in the game she was nice and so helpful trying to make them feel welcome and at ease. No other player (not counting myself) was ever so encouraging to new players as "lady" was. "Lady" understood the importance of introducing new players to poker. As I learned from Kenny, where will poker rooms be in 20 years without new young blood? Dead as most of our 60 something players would be is where.
Plus who wants to beat your head against the wall with the same players day after day? Back then there was no TV coverage, poker was a back room game and you didn't want most people you knew to even suspect this is how you spent your evenings!
My other favorite was Jackson. We of course called him Action Jackson (because he was anything but action) or Jackson wheel because if he was putting action in the hand that is what he was going to show you. Jackson was a heavy drinker and chain smoker. If he drank beer he was fine, if he got on the Brandy, watch out. He could be a cranky cuss on the Brandy. We had our bad days, but he was one of my dear friends and was usually at breakfast with me & Jody.
To his credit no matter how drunk he was he never blamed the dealer (me), just the cards or his bad luck. Once he said "you don't deal worth a shit" I replied "you mean I deal like you play"? He about fell off his chair laughing and never again made a comment about my dealing except in jest.
He played in every place I dealt in the 80's and too many times to count I was his driver and when I wasn't, "lady" was. He even dated my Mom for awhile, he was like a member of my family. We went out drinking and went to other clubs to play on the rare occasion's I had time off work. He was always there, hardly a day went by I didn't see him either across the green felt or somewhere else.
Jackson was probably "Lady's" best friend in the world. She has great stories, like the 2 of them going off to Reno and getting stuck in a snowstorm, running off the road and getting a dive motel room for the night until they could get the car towed out of a snowbank. As she says: "We each had our own rooms in that motel in Westwood when we fell off the mountain. I spend a good deal of the time under the bathroom sink because it was hunting season, not that I knew that, and my room had an about 10 foot sliding glass door right by my bed and as soon as I heard that first rifle shot in the night I hit the deck, crawled to the bathroom and hid in there for a long, long time! I was scared."
When he died in 89' "Lady" and I were the only 2 players at his funeral. The man had played, made friends and bought drinks in every club around for many years, yet no one felt any need to pay their respects but us. For me, I had to fly up from L.A. for his funeral, for his other "poker friends" they couldn't drive 5 minutes to say goodbye. Lady and I have talked a lot about this, we realized then that these people you play with day in & day out for years are not friends. They are poker acquaintances, nothing more. We know if it had been us who died, Jackson would have been there he was a friend in every sense of the word.
My favorite memory of Jackson: He was deaf in one ear, so he misunderstood things because he didn't hear what was said. One night the action was on him and I said "Go ahead Jackson". He looked up from his hand and very seriously said " Why you calling me a Goat Head"??
Everyone was laughing so damn hard no one could play for a good 2 minutes. When someone told him what I really said he roared, laughing at himself harder than we were laughing at him.
As for Lady and myself, we will always miss Robert Jackson. He was one hell of a guy and we consider ourselves lucky to have known him.
As in any small poker room in the country, we had our regulars. Over the years I have come to realize that the same player "types" can be found in almost all clubs, large or small. The faces and names change but the behavior & traits stay the same.
My days of being a rookie were made easier by the relative kindness and understanding of the old guard. The old guard at our club were: Jackson, "Lady"(name withheld at her request), Charlie, Mel, Big Bob, John C. and Vince.
You could set the clock by what time they all walked in the door. They were the starters. The other regulars were: Debbie, Mexican Danny, Gail, Woody, Chuck, Terry C. and John R. and Roger. Then semi regulars, ones who played once a week, once a month or when their wives were on vacation.
We were open 6pm-2 am M-F and 2pm-2am on Sat. & Sun. The 2am closing was due to the City ordinance, the opening time was because of the owner, Kenny's regular job schedule. He was smart in that respect I thought, he had a real income besides the poker room. We also had Don who was Kenny's right hand man, he ran chips, got coffee, cleaned up and occasionally played. Don had played for years but now got his kicks staking a select few in games, later I would become his #2 favorite horse, after Jody.
It wasn't long, maybe 8 months before I became the main dealer at the Round Up. I worked 6 days a week and made $7 an hr plus tips which were VERY good. The club was closed Monday's but Terry C. had a sign shop with a poker table and had games Monday nights, soon I was working for him on my days off. My life was dealing poker.
Then came the "after hours games". The city ordinance governing the hours of the poker room only pertained to the city limits. The boundary was a few blocks east of main street where the Round Up was. Not only was the Round Up the only game in town it had a dynamite location right on the corner and behind a popular bar which gave us access to serve beer & wine.
The only game in town until the Petticoat Junction made a poker room in back of there place on HWY 99E that is. Of course I worked there but that is for another post.
Back to the players. I had my favorites of course and not because they were good tippers either. As a matter of fact my 2 favorites were not great tippers and of they were "stuck" they may not tip at all. Liking a player has never hinged on how they tip for me, it is how they conduct themselves.
I have to list "lady" as number 1. We have remained best friends to this day, so how could I put her anywhere else but right up front? She was kind, understanding, sympathetic and helpful to a new dealer. It wasn't long before we were going to breakfast after closing almost every night if there wasn't an after hours game. She was a joy in a game, she never got mad, never threw her cards, never drank and was a class act all the way. If we had a new player in the game she was nice and so helpful trying to make them feel welcome and at ease. No other player (not counting myself) was ever so encouraging to new players as "lady" was. "Lady" understood the importance of introducing new players to poker. As I learned from Kenny, where will poker rooms be in 20 years without new young blood? Dead as most of our 60 something players would be is where.
Plus who wants to beat your head against the wall with the same players day after day? Back then there was no TV coverage, poker was a back room game and you didn't want most people you knew to even suspect this is how you spent your evenings!
My other favorite was Jackson. We of course called him Action Jackson (because he was anything but action) or Jackson wheel because if he was putting action in the hand that is what he was going to show you. Jackson was a heavy drinker and chain smoker. If he drank beer he was fine, if he got on the Brandy, watch out. He could be a cranky cuss on the Brandy. We had our bad days, but he was one of my dear friends and was usually at breakfast with me & Jody.
To his credit no matter how drunk he was he never blamed the dealer (me), just the cards or his bad luck. Once he said "you don't deal worth a shit" I replied "you mean I deal like you play"? He about fell off his chair laughing and never again made a comment about my dealing except in jest.
He played in every place I dealt in the 80's and too many times to count I was his driver and when I wasn't, "lady" was. He even dated my Mom for awhile, he was like a member of my family. We went out drinking and went to other clubs to play on the rare occasion's I had time off work. He was always there, hardly a day went by I didn't see him either across the green felt or somewhere else.
Jackson was probably "Lady's" best friend in the world. She has great stories, like the 2 of them going off to Reno and getting stuck in a snowstorm, running off the road and getting a dive motel room for the night until they could get the car towed out of a snowbank. As she says: "We each had our own rooms in that motel in Westwood when we fell off the mountain. I spend a good deal of the time under the bathroom sink because it was hunting season, not that I knew that, and my room had an about 10 foot sliding glass door right by my bed and as soon as I heard that first rifle shot in the night I hit the deck, crawled to the bathroom and hid in there for a long, long time! I was scared."
When he died in 89' "Lady" and I were the only 2 players at his funeral. The man had played, made friends and bought drinks in every club around for many years, yet no one felt any need to pay their respects but us. For me, I had to fly up from L.A. for his funeral, for his other "poker friends" they couldn't drive 5 minutes to say goodbye. Lady and I have talked a lot about this, we realized then that these people you play with day in & day out for years are not friends. They are poker acquaintances, nothing more. We know if it had been us who died, Jackson would have been there he was a friend in every sense of the word.
My favorite memory of Jackson: He was deaf in one ear, so he misunderstood things because he didn't hear what was said. One night the action was on him and I said "Go ahead Jackson". He looked up from his hand and very seriously said " Why you calling me a Goat Head"??
Everyone was laughing so damn hard no one could play for a good 2 minutes. When someone told him what I really said he roared, laughing at himself harder than we were laughing at him.
As for Lady and myself, we will always miss Robert Jackson. He was one hell of a guy and we consider ourselves lucky to have known him.
Dealing, The early days
There are of course many parts to my life, many chapters. One long chapter is about being a poker dealer. A job I always had a love/hate relationship with. From reading blogs of other dealers, I assume it is pretty much the same with all dealers. Some days you love the job, other days you wonder what the hell you did to deserve this hell on earth. When the hell on earth days out numbered the good days...it was time to bail and find a different road to travel.
In 1980 I was fresh off the divorce train and back home in N. CA looking to start life over at 27. I was in a menial dead end job when a friend suggested I apply for a job at the local Card Room. It wasn't a casino, poker club or any fancy name, just the Round-Up Card room.
Being young and cute but terribly shy, I waited until an evening I had a little "liquid courage" in my system and went to the Card Room. Outside I met with the owner and his friend/fellow card player Terry C. who were on the sidewalk talking. I was hired after telling the owner, sure I had no experience, but I was no dummy and could learn, so try me for 30 days and if it doesn't work out, no hard feelings, I will quit. That night led to the next 18 years of dealing off & on at different places. Guess I worked out after all.
The first thing the owner, Kenny, told me was "don't watch my dealer, he doesn't do anything right". Great!! So who the hell was I going to learn from? Kenny was no dealer, and as much as I wanted to deal like he wanted me too, I knew I needed to learn the right way, not the "Kenny way" because some day I may need to work somewhere else at a real club. So after a week of shuffling, stacking chips and pitching to chairs at an empty table, I was thrown in the box to deal for 10 minutes every hour while Mike, the dealer, was on break. The game? Great for a rookie...No Limit Low Ball.
When I say no Limit, take it literally. There were very few hands that someone wasn't going all-in. If I said I was paraplegic while in the box, it wouldn't come close to describing it. Especially if "Sandi" was in the game. She was the previous owner and a hell cat when she was drinking, and she never played unless she drank. No one on earth ever did anything as good as "Sandi" did and she was never wrong. Her favorite saying was "I may not always be right but I am never wrong" and that was her to a T. Any dealers out there gets the gist of what I went through I am sure. She intimidated me, terrorized me and made my life hell while I was in the box. I could sail through a 15 minute down after a week fairly well IF Sandi wasn't in the game, then I made up for all those good downs with mistake after mistake. When you deal an action no limit game, any mistake can be huge. The one blunder I remember was of course with Sandi in the game. NL Low Ball, The pot was straddled, $100 to go, Big Bob was UTG and went all-in, 3 players called with Sandi of course being one of them, she was on the button. There were 2 side pots. Big Bob rapped pat, next was Gail who took 1, Woody the straddler took 2 and Sandi discarded 1. As I pitched Sandi's card it flipped up, an 8. I sat frozen, knowing I was really in for it. The owner came over and told me what to do, and give her another card. Believe it or not this was a 1st for me, exposing a draw card. To my total shock Sandi never said a word. The pot is about $1200 and she is silent as a mouse. Since everyone was all-in except Big Bob, he shows down a 8-6 and the other 3 fold. I apologized profusely to Sandi and all she said was "it's ok, you gave me an 8 right back, I drew to a 7".
Now many years later after watching Sandi play for years, I would bet my house that she was drawing to way worse than a 7. Maybe a 9-7, IF that good. So what I was sure was going to be the worst tongue lashing from a player ever, turned out to be nothing and I was safe. I remember it now because I was so damn scared of what I was sure was going to happen but didn't. Maybe that motto is "don't worry about shit till you step in it"!
On my days off I spent the next few months visiting poker rooms in CA and casinos in Reno watching dealers. The problem with the Reno dealers is they were dealing Stud and something called Hold-em and in CA we could only play 5 card draw games like Low Ball, Hi-Low split and Draw.
It wasn't long before we started hearing the rumors about the clubs in Gardena in Southern CA and how they were shut down for playing Hold-em. Then the story about the clubs putting a restraining order on the police until the courts decided the case. This I found facinating, could they do that? A restraining order on police? Wow, what a concept! The judges allowed Hold-em eventually because the old 1800's law that made "Stud horse poker" illegal was so ambigious they couldn't figure out exactly what "Stud Horse poker" was. This is the story we got anyway. We had no Poker News, Poker Player magazine, etc. in those days, stories were word of mouth.
Legal or not, I never dealt Hold-em until 1990 when I went to the Casino Club in Redding. While at the 2 table joints I dealt at during the 80's it was all draw and 99% of it was NL Low Ball.
Considering the average age of our regulars was 60+ the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" comes to mind. These players knew the draw games (and stud which we couldn't play yet)and no way were they going to try anything new.
Years later, I dealt to some of them in Redding and they lost their shirts, they never could grasp the concepts of Hold-em. Sad. I hope I never get to old to be afraid to try new things. The world changes daily, we have to change with it or be left behind.
In 1980 I was fresh off the divorce train and back home in N. CA looking to start life over at 27. I was in a menial dead end job when a friend suggested I apply for a job at the local Card Room. It wasn't a casino, poker club or any fancy name, just the Round-Up Card room.
Being young and cute but terribly shy, I waited until an evening I had a little "liquid courage" in my system and went to the Card Room. Outside I met with the owner and his friend/fellow card player Terry C. who were on the sidewalk talking. I was hired after telling the owner, sure I had no experience, but I was no dummy and could learn, so try me for 30 days and if it doesn't work out, no hard feelings, I will quit. That night led to the next 18 years of dealing off & on at different places. Guess I worked out after all.
The first thing the owner, Kenny, told me was "don't watch my dealer, he doesn't do anything right". Great!! So who the hell was I going to learn from? Kenny was no dealer, and as much as I wanted to deal like he wanted me too, I knew I needed to learn the right way, not the "Kenny way" because some day I may need to work somewhere else at a real club. So after a week of shuffling, stacking chips and pitching to chairs at an empty table, I was thrown in the box to deal for 10 minutes every hour while Mike, the dealer, was on break. The game? Great for a rookie...No Limit Low Ball.
When I say no Limit, take it literally. There were very few hands that someone wasn't going all-in. If I said I was paraplegic while in the box, it wouldn't come close to describing it. Especially if "Sandi" was in the game. She was the previous owner and a hell cat when she was drinking, and she never played unless she drank. No one on earth ever did anything as good as "Sandi" did and she was never wrong. Her favorite saying was "I may not always be right but I am never wrong" and that was her to a T. Any dealers out there gets the gist of what I went through I am sure. She intimidated me, terrorized me and made my life hell while I was in the box. I could sail through a 15 minute down after a week fairly well IF Sandi wasn't in the game, then I made up for all those good downs with mistake after mistake. When you deal an action no limit game, any mistake can be huge. The one blunder I remember was of course with Sandi in the game. NL Low Ball, The pot was straddled, $100 to go, Big Bob was UTG and went all-in, 3 players called with Sandi of course being one of them, she was on the button. There were 2 side pots. Big Bob rapped pat, next was Gail who took 1, Woody the straddler took 2 and Sandi discarded 1. As I pitched Sandi's card it flipped up, an 8. I sat frozen, knowing I was really in for it. The owner came over and told me what to do, and give her another card. Believe it or not this was a 1st for me, exposing a draw card. To my total shock Sandi never said a word. The pot is about $1200 and she is silent as a mouse. Since everyone was all-in except Big Bob, he shows down a 8-6 and the other 3 fold. I apologized profusely to Sandi and all she said was "it's ok, you gave me an 8 right back, I drew to a 7".
Now many years later after watching Sandi play for years, I would bet my house that she was drawing to way worse than a 7. Maybe a 9-7, IF that good. So what I was sure was going to be the worst tongue lashing from a player ever, turned out to be nothing and I was safe. I remember it now because I was so damn scared of what I was sure was going to happen but didn't. Maybe that motto is "don't worry about shit till you step in it"!
On my days off I spent the next few months visiting poker rooms in CA and casinos in Reno watching dealers. The problem with the Reno dealers is they were dealing Stud and something called Hold-em and in CA we could only play 5 card draw games like Low Ball, Hi-Low split and Draw.
It wasn't long before we started hearing the rumors about the clubs in Gardena in Southern CA and how they were shut down for playing Hold-em. Then the story about the clubs putting a restraining order on the police until the courts decided the case. This I found facinating, could they do that? A restraining order on police? Wow, what a concept! The judges allowed Hold-em eventually because the old 1800's law that made "Stud horse poker" illegal was so ambigious they couldn't figure out exactly what "Stud Horse poker" was. This is the story we got anyway. We had no Poker News, Poker Player magazine, etc. in those days, stories were word of mouth.
Legal or not, I never dealt Hold-em until 1990 when I went to the Casino Club in Redding. While at the 2 table joints I dealt at during the 80's it was all draw and 99% of it was NL Low Ball.
Considering the average age of our regulars was 60+ the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" comes to mind. These players knew the draw games (and stud which we couldn't play yet)and no way were they going to try anything new.
Years later, I dealt to some of them in Redding and they lost their shirts, they never could grasp the concepts of Hold-em. Sad. I hope I never get to old to be afraid to try new things. The world changes daily, we have to change with it or be left behind.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Why Blog?
OK why a blog? Why do people blog? For each blogger it is different.
For me it is a life journal, an outlet for a frustrated writer. Frustrated because I can't seem to hold on to an idea long enough to make it a novel.
I am also a loner. Good thing, since my nearest neighbor is 2 miles away and I live on top of a mountain. So here I can put thoughts to words, words to virtual paper.
I can now explore who I am and why I am. Life experiences make us who and what we are. I have been told many times I have not had a normal life, to that I ask...what IS normal? I have been told again, many times, I should write a book. Well, just because "every life has a story" doesn't mean anyone would want to read mine! So I will do this for me, no one else. If anyone comes along for the ride, fine. If no one does that is fine too, I will be here and that is who I am doing it for anyway!
For me it is a life journal, an outlet for a frustrated writer. Frustrated because I can't seem to hold on to an idea long enough to make it a novel.
I am also a loner. Good thing, since my nearest neighbor is 2 miles away and I live on top of a mountain. So here I can put thoughts to words, words to virtual paper.
I can now explore who I am and why I am. Life experiences make us who and what we are. I have been told many times I have not had a normal life, to that I ask...what IS normal? I have been told again, many times, I should write a book. Well, just because "every life has a story" doesn't mean anyone would want to read mine! So I will do this for me, no one else. If anyone comes along for the ride, fine. If no one does that is fine too, I will be here and that is who I am doing it for anyway!
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