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Observations of a poker manager
A stroll down poker's memory
lane Sitting in the Poker Room the other morning, waiting for a game to start, some of the players started discussing funny things they had observed at and around the poker tables. Being that my poker room is in a rural-type setting, they wanted to hear stories about Las Vegas and the crazy things I had seen there. While I have a lot of great memories about Vegas, I can assure you that anywhere people gather around the green felt to play poker things can get quite interesting, and occasionally downright hysterical. Here’s a few that I remembered the other day while chatting with the players: Working in downtown Las Vegas as a shift manager I had a really interesting cast of characters as regular players, not to mention that my staff could have easily stepped right out of a Damon Runyon novel. First, we had the players: Itchy Scratchy Al, “D” the Greek, Poker Pete, Cowboy, Larry and Tony (the juice men), Tonya the Troll, etc. Then we had the dealers; Little Nicky, Eddie B, Bobby Baby, Ding, Mike from Biloxi, and poor Sandy who was a young gal that had to break in with all these guys. Then of course, we had the prop players; Fat Freddie G, Bad Beat Billy, the Judge, Rocco, and Ernie. One of the first stories that comes to mind is when Ernie, the prop, gets up from the table to head to the restroom one night. Now you have to understand, Ernie was around 90 years old at the time and didn’t move around real well (he was actually in the U.S. Army Cavalry when they were still on horseback). Apparently, the Omaha 8 game wasn’t offering enough action that particular night. As soon as Ernie and another older gentleman with a walker hit the rail of the Poker Room and headed towards the restroom at the same time, all that could be heard was a very loud, “And they’re off ….” Bad Beat Billy proceeded to announce the race to the men’s room as well as any race announcer I’ve ever heard at the track. Four tables along the rail all stopped and immediately began betting on the race and cheering for their favorite, you would have thought they were wagering on the Triple Crown! Unfortunately, Ernie lost as the gentleman with the walker edged him out (some say intentionally boxed him in) as they were rounding the Big Bertha slot machine. As fast as the room had become a frenzy of activity accented by the staccato calling of the race by Billy, when the bets were settled it immediately went back to just the sounds of cards being shuffled and chips being rattled as if nothing had ever happened. Then of course there was the time Bad Beat Billy made a 6-high straight flush in five while playing Seven Card Stud. He manages to get all-in on sixth street and on the river the only player left in the hand, a young guy in from L.A. just in to enjoy some Vegas action, points to the 75 cents sitting in front of Billy and asks, “Can I raise him that last 75 cents?” Before the dealer could answer (odd change did not play), Billy responds with, “By all means, partner” and throws in the quarters. Of course the kid turns over a 7-high straight flush, looks at Billy and says, “I caught the 6 on the last card!” To which Billy responded in his smooth southern drawl, “Naturally.” The next day when we came into work, we looked up at the promotional board and the poker room manager had started a bad beat jackpot that morning and seeded it with $5,000. Are you starting to see why he was called “Bad Beat” Billy? These types of things seemed to always happen to him. One night in the wee hours of the morning, I’ve got Mike from Biloxi sitting a dead spread on a Stud table trying to get a game started. I walk in the back for a few minutes to do paperwork and when I come out I see Mike dealing to three live players and both of my props are sitting at another table just watching. I start giving the props grief about not sitting in and helping the game get on its feet and they both looked at me and said, “If you make us play that game, we quit.” So I walk over to the table to see what the deal is with this game and there was Mike … dealing Three-Card Monte to these three tourists! I stop the game and made him return their money and explain to everyone that the game is illegal and if they want to play poker we would accommodate that. When Mike comes off the table, I take him aside and ask him what he was thinking. His response, “Hell Boss, I was just trying to cover the payroll.” Another time, I’ve got a guy who walks up wanting to play 7-Card Stud at 4:00 a.m. and we are dead. He keeps insisting that I get a game going, so I make a deal with my props. I offer to go partners with them (match their stake) to cover their low cards and such just so we can make this guy happy. I then stake one of my dealers and one of the railbirds that’s busted out to play with the guy. After about a half an hour, the railbird gets felted and I put him back in action. Then one of the props gets felted, so I go again with him. A little while (and a couple of hundred dollars) later, my mentor in the poker business, Larry, stops by. He can see the sick look on my face while I’m staring in disbelief at this game. “What’s up, kid?” He asks. I told him I staked the railbird and the dealer and they were stuck over a hundred apiece. Plus, I have half of each of the props and they’re both getting killed as well. I’ve got a little over $400 in this $1/3 Stud game, I’ve got an interest in four out of the five players at the table and all my horses are losing! The live one is running over the table. Larry just laughs and asks me if I want to put him in there to try to win some of it back. I swear, if I didn’t love that man I woulda knocked him out right there for even suggesting it. Pretty soon players start coming in and the game filled up. I took my staff aside as well as the railbird and before they could offer anymore explanations about how lucky the guy was, etc. I just asked them, “Please, please tell me that y’all know this guy and you are all in on cheating me out of the money.” All of them adamantly defended their honor telling me how they would never do that to me. I had to stop them. “You don’t understand; I can live with being cheated. I just can’t live with the thought that I am this damn unlucky!” When I headed out to Mississippi I thought that those interesting downtown Vegas characters and fun late night poker room antics had come to an end. I could never have been more wrong! Next time I’ll have to tell you some of their stories, like the $20k foot race, the $12k wrestling match, etc…. If you would like to learn more about how to make your poker playing more profitable, please visit www.winecountrypoker.com to get information about the upcoming poker seminar featuring poker legends Linda Johnson, Mike Sexton and Jan Fisher in Santa Rosa. Following the seminar, transportation will be provided to all participants that wish to take part in a tournament hosted by the River Rock Casino. Daniel Higginbotham is the Poker Room Manager at the River Rock Casino in Geyserville, Calif. and can be contacted at daniel.higginbotham@riverrockcasino.com. |