Had a small part of my east coast ire poke through my laid back west coast veneer during a poker game last night… I don’t think it was my fault – in fact, I think it was warranted – but it caused a little lull in the friendly banter at the table. If it’s any consolation, I feel sorta bad about that aspect of it, considering that it’s supposed to be a friendly game, but still…

Yeah, I think it was justified.

I’ve been playing in these social games for over 18 months now and it’s been a lot of fun. From March 05 to March 06 I lost a total of $33. How is that fun? I play at least once every week. So out of say 48 weeks (I know I missed at least a couple) I nearly broke even. Not too shabby in my book. After all, I don’t do that for a living. Good thing too… I play poker like I play chess: mostly all gut and feeling and without much foresight. It makes me a horrific chess player but in poker it makes me very unpredictable. Sometimes luck saves me from my stupidity and rewards a bad move – other times it shits on my rare, smart and practical game play and punishes me for thinking about thinks like odds and “doing the right thing”. That’s poker and for me, it’s fun.

Mostly.

During that 18 month run, I’ve been a “regular” dealer for nearly the entire time. Always Table 1 and always with the tourney director on a corner seat. I like to deal. I’d like to think I don’t suck at it, in spite of really screwing up a memorable hand or three throughout the year. In most cases it keeps my mind occupied and focused. I have to pay attention to the table and the chips, so it keeps me aware of the game, but because I have to tend to the table and the chips, I don’t have a chance to over-think my hands either. Give me enough time and I could convince myself that calling a sizable bet with a suited 8-2 will be a good idea. An impossible hand? No. Improbable? Hells yeah. An enormous long shot, especially pre-Flop. Did I win a hand with it the other night? Yep, but it was a total gut move. I got lucky in hitting a flush to over power another player’s set. A classic case of luck pulling my ass out of trouble and a gut reaction to a bet that handsomely paid off.

The point is that I like dealing. Most people don’t, especially while they’re playing… it takes their attention from the game and I find that most poker players don’t like to multi-task when sitting at a tournament table. I don’t mind it. Hell, I like it. I like to keep a table light and fun: a $30 tournament is not the place to make a killing. Indeed, I originally started going to get used to Hold’em and to be social with other people at work.

During my second month of dealing, I hit a minor snag. In Texas Hold’em, there is the notion of “rabbit holing” for a Flop, Turn, and/or River after the hand is over. Say I dealt the hole cards. Everyone but two people fold – now there’s only two people active in the hand. I deal the Flop. One player pushes all in, the other player folds. At this point, no one has to show their cards. Occasionally, a player has a hard time folding their hand: quite likely it’s a good hand but they’ll fold because they think their opponent has a better hand. They ask me to rabbit hole the remaining cards. This means I would continue to deal out the face up cards, even though the hand is decided.

The snag? There was one night when there was a lot of random and scary Flops being shown, so there was a few requests for rabbit holing. I obliged. At one point a player said, “OK, stop with that, already, huh?” I let it slide. When someone else asked for it, and I complied again, the guy made another comment. My response? ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll take that up the next class I have at dealer school” with just the proper amount of sarcasm that you can expect from me on a good day. WHOO! Fireworks. Pissed him off something awful and he just sat there and seethed for a while. During the next break he took me aside and explained why he was pissed: a player might be bluffing and if all of the cards he’s projecting that he has show up… well, you just blew his credibility and table image for no reason at all! Remember, it isn’t video poker – it’s not how good your hand is; it’s how much better your hand is compared to everyone else’s, or in this case, how much better you make them think it is.

I was chagrined. Never occurred to me that there was a rational to his objection: I thought he was just being a punk or was pissy that I was “wasting” 7 seconds in the round. And lets face it, the majority of the people don’t want to deal and I willing do it every tournament for as long as I have chips. This can be for over 4 hours some nights… it hurts your back after a short while. You don’t get to pee until there’s a break. You don’t even have a chance to drink because we don’t keep sodas on our table coverings: after two hours of it, I get a little punchy. After four hours, I’m down right cranky and willing to sacrifice my chip stack just to end the tournament.

Ever since then, I almost never rabbit hole. Only if the hand is decided and both players showed their cards, even if they’ve folded. I’m very, very conscious of it and I try to respect the players. After all, from my point of view, this is on the job training for when I retire from the technology field. *g*

Tonight, however, I had a mini-Episode over this very issue. The tourney started at 6:30. I went out in 9th place (with no cash) at 9:35. We had one 4 minute break during that session, so I had been dealing for just under three hours. And I got out of work late, so I didn’t have time to pick up dinner. Oh yeah. Punchy. In fact, you might say I was downright pissy, bitchy or cranky. Or all three!

A player I hadn’t seen before started at my table, then left, and later returned back at the final table. We had three alternates when we started: we fill up at 33 people and after that we let people in for the first two rounds, as other people get knocked out. All said, we ended up getting three of them in, so a total of 36 people were involved. When we have alternates waiting, I deal as fast as I can: the faster I deal, the more hands are played, the more often people will get knocked out, the more seats that can free up. I’m all business during those rounds: boom boom boom.

Tonight, during the first hour, I got a request to rabbit hole the River. So I did. New guy says “aw come’on – don’t do that.” I said nothing. During the three hour stretch, we had some long pauses in the game play. The new guy caused some of these, as he contemplated his cards, asked for counts (when they weren’t needed) and had some side conversations with other players. That’s all well and good – no gripe from me because that’s how he plays. One of our regular players does nothing but joke with other people, announce his hands, and generally looks carefree even though he’s calculating everything – all styles are welcome, in my opinion. Some of the thought-sessions from tonight’s game went on for over a minute at a time, but I think of it as part of the game. Eventually, another request for a rabbit hole comes up; again I comply because everyone had flipped up cards and it wasn’t telling anyone’s secrets. Again, I got another complaining comment.

I had a decent run of cards, so I hung around for a while – by the final table, I’m tired. I’m somewhere in the middle of chip stack size. A hand comes up where I have a K, so I limp in. Next guy to bet raises to 5x the big blind. Guy on my right was under the gun and had limped in as well; he looks at me and says “I’m going to fold.” I say, “Yeah, me too”. He flips over a K. I laugh and flip over mine. The guy that raised – and the only other guy in the hand – flips over a K as well. We all laugh and the winner starts to take the chips from the pot. While he does that, I flip over the would-be Flop, Turn, and River.

The new guy says, “Aw, can we stop doing that while we’re on the clock?” with an edge to his voice.

Un. Ack. Ceptable.

‘Whoa, whoa, what?’ I ask.

“We’ve got short blind rounds now!” he replies.

‘Yeah? So, I’ll ask to have the clock stopped, if this was going to be a problem.’

“Yeah, I guess, but you shouldn’t bother with that. It wastes time!”

‘Ya know what? Indulge me. I’ve been dealing for hours now. I’ve worked hard to keep the game moving. I get as many hands into a round as I humanly can.’

“Oh, uh what I mean is-”

‘Besides, I take almost no time when betting when I’m in a hand and this took like three seconds. I don’t see how it’s a problem.’

[silence and expected since the guy complaining has wasted a lot of time with theatrics while betting throughout the night]

“Well, you can take more time when you bet… you should!”

Someone else says, “yeah, we’d never say anything if people took longer to bet!”

‘Why would I? I can’t study people as they bet – I’m watching the table. I don’t see their expressions. I don’t have a problem with that, but there’s no reason to take longer. I know what cards I have, I know what’s on the table, I can take a guess at what someone else has, and I bet. I’m too busy during the hand to take more time to decide on whether or not it’s a value bet to call, just for one hand.’

[more silence]

And I went back to dealing, purposely passing some chatter around the table… one Flop later and things were back to normal.

All of that leads to some friendly poker etiquette when playing in friendly home games… the best advice I can offer? Relax!

Take it easy. If you want professional dealers and professional tables, go to a casino and pay a rake like a pro would! Try to remember how you feel when you’re betting: you feel you can do whatever you want, as your right as a better. And that’s fine! You should take as long as you need to, to determine your bet. Talk, pause, stare down the other players – have a ball. But when it’s not your action, and someone else is betting, guess what? They’ll feel the same way you did! If you want time to stand still for you, try to extend that same courtesy to other players. Ya gotta figure that their chips are as important to them and yours are to you – try to have some empathy for other players before you complain about something that you may not agree with.

I’ll get off the soapbox now – karma already caught up with me, seeing as I fell out of the tournament about 4 minutes after this Episode happened – and in one of the last three positions that didn’t get paid.

Overall, though, I think it was karma well spent.