YTF - dealing mixed games is definitely more fatiguing. My new room not only has mixed games and lots of Big O tables, but tournament tables are thrown in the mix daily along with the odd 13 card Chinese poker.

I find mixing in the tourneys with the cash games the most challenging. Severely different set of parameters and rules.

In fairness, the tournament players are pretty chill about the way my hand keeps darting towards the pot after I deal the flop.

(of course I always clear my hands afterwards)

We almost never get mixed games .... except during WSOP time but this summer I haven't seen many mixed games (I seem to remember them being everyday occurrences during the WSOP time a few years ago) . But we are still seeing PLO and Big O games. Outside of tournaments I can't recall the last time I dealt a stud hand.

Just read another thread about a ruling caused by a player acting without knowing there had been a raise.

I just cannot understand how this happens.

I play a lot of games. Pool. Chess. Backgammon. Gin Rummy. Go Fish, whatever! In every one of those games, I watch the game when my opponent is taking his turn. I cannot imagine doing it any other way. And I don't even play those other games for money! I'm just playing for fun, and I find it elementary to watch my opponent take his turn.

Can anyone name any other game where this isn't important, let alone essential?

any other 10-handed game?

My house on a busy day we could see

7 PLO games
2-3 HS mixed games, at least 1 of which has draw games
1-2 small OE games
Plus the gamut of NL/LHE games that you would expect.

And when you catch a handful of PLO games together, it's an incredibly grueling string. After a couple tables of that, even I'm in zombie mode (which almost never happens).

Our $40/80 mix game was far more ram-jam than usual last night. When the push arrived, I warned the dealer who was pushing me, "I just dealt four hands of hold'em, seven hands of Big O, and I'm exhausted!"

The players were shocked to hear that they only saw 11 hands that half-hour, because there were certainly no lulls in the action.

But that wasn't nearly as exhausting as the next hour, trying to keep low-limit games moving while all eyes were on the WSOP final table on tv. I usually get annoyed listening to these idiots talk like they know more about football than the players and coaches on tv, but this was 1000x worse.

Oh, speaking of the WSOP:

Several times I had to bite my tongue when the players criticized a play they saw on TV. It's amazing how a guy in our $300 buying tournament a better poker player than everyone at the Final Table.

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LL game. Two players go to the river, straight on the board, chop it up.

One of the winners (whom I later learned only comes out to play a few times a year) found this remarkable, and remarked, "Wow, you don't see *that* every day!"

"Yes. Yes, I *do* see that every day."

Three hands later, we saw it again.

The worst of the WSOP armchair QBs, imo, are the nits who think every chip leader should win every tournament (just like they think every premium pre-flop hand should win every pot). And God forbid the chip leader doesn't make the final table, because that's a fate that can only happen to "an idiot".

All this thinking inevitably leads up to someone pronouncing with certainty that, "He should just fold every hand, and move up a few spots!" Because moving up a few spots is far, far, FAR more preferable than going down in history as a World Champion at the game you love.

Those funky chairs actually kind of suck, they don't go high enough and the arms get in the way. The run of the mill Gary Platt chairs used everywhere else at the series are wonderful.

I found myself armchair QBing the final table yesterday wondering why they're all playing so tight then I remembered I don't even play tournaments and have no idea what I'm talking about.

You do not want to use that chair pictured for dealing. It's there for marketing purposes.

We got some new Gary Platt's this year and they're very very good. We needed them desperately for years.

Here's a little trick I just discovered, which you might want to try if you're like me and have horrible posture:

Next time you're dealing, and your neck and shoulders are feeling terribly stiff and tight, and you want to stretch while in the box...think of this guy:



Remember, in the movie, the horse takes a few steps, and this guy stretches his neck straight up? Put yourself in his shoes. Push down with your hips, straighten your spine, pull your shoulders down and back, lift your neck.

It feels amazing.

This guy? Mel Gibson?

Fixed your post.

I could have included that exposition, but I was confident that everyone here saw the movie.

In other news, I actually told a table tonight to "Put down your phones and ante!"

They were nonplussed.

After several years or so of reading this thread and a couple others I have decided to join you guys in the breakroom.

Quick background, I have worked as a trained monkey for a little over three years now in a fairly small 11 table room. I think I remember reading up on this thread when I first got in and most of you guys' stories prepared me for what to expect from our side of the table. Most of our players are regulars as with any card room. Most of what our room spreads is 4-8 LHE everyday, 4-8 LO/8 five times a week (most of my stories will probably come from the Omaha table) 6-12 LHE on weekends with daily tourneys (sunglasses and hoodies included) I hope to include stories from the box from our small little room that I am sure many of you guys have been through in the past.

First story is from this past weekend and of course the coverage of the final table of the main event. Unlike the last few years where I believe the coverage was on Monday-Tuesday where we only had a couple games going we had a packed house of armchair poker players on Friday and Saturday night.

Saturday night is our weekly $100 tourney where we draw a decent field and of course a good majority of these players think they are gods gift to poker and the amount of absurd strategy being talked was ramped up as the final three got under way.

We heard gems like "why would he raise with 8-9s heads up (from one of our players who at some point in the night will have 2bbs in front of him) A shocked room when both had Ax on a ace high board and neither went all in, two players discussing a players next move when both misread the graphic on what cards both players thus naturally discussing scenarios that were not even possible.

I think the highlight was when the three way all in happened I am pretty sure every dealer in building was saying "ten one time" just so it would be over and we could all get back to our own tourney that was going on. It was also funny when Blumstein spiked the duece on the river all the cheering that happened was from all of our dealers. I have not felt the dealers were that united on an issue since they were thinking about implementing a tip pool in our room last year.

One last story before I go sleep off the five beers I had after work. I remember a post on here awhile back about the biggest temper tantrum you have seen over the least amount of money I remember this one from early this year.

Our state had increased minimum wage on Jan 1st so naturally food prices went up around .15-.25 on most entrees. Well I was dealing our 4/8 omaha game on new years when one of our well known crotchety omaha players ( I know standard player in any 4/8 omaha game) ordered his typical cheeseburger and fries meal. And of course when he got his bill and saw the .25 increase he threw a monster temper tantrum for a good hour. In between bites of food he complained about how prices should never go up and he has been coming for 15 years and the prices are too high and with the rake we take food should never increase in price etc. While crying about his quarter increase on food he went on super monkey tilt losing about $100 over the course of my down. After an hour or so of his whining I mentioned to him while he complained about .25 he managed to dump $100 on the game he was playing and that got the whole table break out in laughter. Naturally at this point after he busted yet again he got up a complained some more how he was never coming back and it was ridiculous to over charge on food and muttered out the door. The next day I walk in to start my shift and see him with his burger and fries still muttering about the quarter increase....

It reminds me of some advice I was given by a veteran dealer when I first started and that was to keep sane while dealing you will have to learn to take any anger towards you or anyone else at your table and needle them and slyly make fun of said person just to keep your sanity, best advice I ever got.

Great stuff, Gil! Thanks for sharing.

Welcome aboard, pal. You'll fit in just fine around here.

<----- (raises hand)

That night was brutal, trying to keep the game moving, AND listening to dopes who think they're experts. It was 10x worse than any football game (and listening to dopes who think they're experts at *that* is one of the banes of my existence).

I'll never forget playing in Vegas one night, mid-90's, when the WSOP final table came on tv. Bear in mind, back then, nobody played NLHE, even the daily donkfests were LHE.

"He went all-in with A8? I won't even *limp* with that garbage!"

Yeah, lady, you're a much better player than that guy vying for the world championship....

(fortunately, no hole-card-cam back then, so we only saw hole cards at showdown. That cut down on a lot of the criticism...and completely eliminated the dopes who were certain of the right play because they can see the opponent's cards!)

Thanks for sharing Gil. Welcome to the jungle.

Blinds are $1 and $3. Action limps around to SB, an experienced player and nice guy who has two chips and a $100 bill in his stack (the chip runner has long since been summoned). He's got both hands on his cards, making it difficult to see his stack, but I got lucky and entered this discussion fore-armed with that knowledge:

SB: (raps table)

YTF: You don't get to check.

SB: (raps table again)

YTF: You're the SB. You don't get to check.

SB: (getting annoyed) This isn't my first time playing! (moves hands to reveal $100 bill)

YTF: You saving those two chips for something?

SB: (instantly mortified, he clearly forgot he still had two chips. Sheepishly calls)

YTF: (pulling in the bets) This isn't my first time dealing.

Mixed games are catching on, especially among the O/8 players. We had one O/8 game going yesterday, when the floor came over to ask three of the players who were on the mixed game list if they were still interested in starting the game. They all were. The floor then announced to the rest of the table, "If we start the other game, I have enough players on the list to fill all the seats at this table, except one. Would that lead to any of you quitting this game?" Clearly, the floor is really, really striving to avoid the bitter result of breaking one game to start another.

All the players were fine with this, except one. Let's call this guy, The Biggest Jerk In The Room, a title he earned long before this day. He is furious that they "would break this game" to start another.

The floor replied that they just signed up *another* player to the list for this game, and would be instantly full. TBJITR would have none of it. "But they won't *stay*! They're going to sit down, see what a piece of **** you've turned this game into, and they'll leave!"

At this point the floor folded his hand, seeing that even keeping every seat full wasn't good enough for this guy. The floor left to go start the other game.

A reg who on the list for this table heard the commotion, and came over to ask TBJITR what was going on. TBJITR railed for five minutes about how "they're gonna break this game to start another one!"

They call the new list. Three of my players rack up and leave us 6-handed (our cash games seat nine). Of course, it takes a few minutes for these guys to rack up, and they're sitting out with Missed Blinds while they rack. TBJITR wants me to deal him out, too. I'm pleased (and surprised!) to report that the other players kept the game going during this time, without a word of complaint.

After a few minutes, the departing players are gone, the replacements have arrived as promised. BB gets back to TBJITR, and he asks again to be dealt out. He is just going to sit there, with his arms folded and scowling, until this game breaks, just like he said it would...and he certainly isn't going to do something helpful like pay his blinds and take a hand, because he'd rather be right than play poker.

(the game never broke, never even got short-handed)

Did he ever come back into the game?