Karma's a Bitch

As those of you who follow me on Twitter (or follow my Facebook page) know, I’m currently in Vegas.  I arrived here last Thursday and will be staying through the weekend, returning Monday, right before the election.  Now, I’m not one of those people who says, “Please vote,’ or ‘Everyone should vote.”  To be perfectly honest, if you aren’t going to vote the right way, I don’t want you to vote.  Why should I want people who are wrong voting and canceling out my vote?  However, in keeping with my policy of keeping politics off this blog, I won’t reveal what I believe know the right way to vote is, so, the point really is….you won’t get any pressure to vote from me.

I have gathered much new blogging material here in Vegas thus far; I just need time to write the posts, which will mostly have to wait until I get back home.  But for now…..

I was playing at MGM this past Monday night when a new player took the open seat at my table.  I’d never seen him before, but I did a double-take.  This guy looked remarkably like Pete Peters.  I mean, he really, really looked like him.  He was wearing a baseball cap (the right way) and I can easily imagine PPP wearing a baseball cap, being the huge baseball fan that he is.  He did have a goatee, however, unlike Pete.  Other than that, he could have been Pete Peters.

Except that, unlike PPP, he was an asshole.  That became evident immediately.  He took the position two to the left of the big blind.  The dealer dealt him a card,, and then another card, and when another player raised, he told the dealer, “I said I wanted to come in behind the button.”

Now, at almost any poker room in Vegas (the Bellagio is the only exception I know of), you don’t have to post the blind when you first come to the table. You are allowed to wait for the button to pass and come in for ‘free” behind the button (in the cut-off seat).  Some people do this all the time, others do it depending on how close they are to the button.  But a lot of people take the big blind right away even though they are allowed to take almost an entire orbit for free instead of posting.  It’s all up to the player.

The dealer said he didn’t hear him say that.  No one else had either.  The PPP-look alike insisted he had said it.  The issue was that, since he was dealt a hand, he would have to post the big blind and then the small hand after one more hand had been dealt.

The dealer was a daytime dealer who was working overtime and perhaps extra tired.  Still, I sure didn’t hear the guy say he wanted to come in behind the button (although I was far away and may have missed it).  However, the dealer very politely pointed out that he had accepted the first card.  He could have told the dealer instantly when he got the first card he wanted to come in behind and the dealer would have slid the card over to the next player. The player said nothing until the hand was completely dealt.

Now, despite the fact that player had ample opportunity to correct the dealer’s “mistake,” the dealer, a good guy to be sure, said to the player, “No problem, sir, I’m sorry, and I’ll post the blind for you.”  After one more hand, when it was new player’s turn to be the big blind, the dealer took two $1 chips out of his shirt pocket and placed them in front of the player to pay his blind.

The player refused to let the dealer post the big blind for him, saying it was no big deal and that he’d pay his own blind. And so he put his own chips there.  At first the dealer insisted, pushed the player’s own chips back to him and said he would feel better if he paid the blind.  But the dealer said no, he wouldn’t feel right if the dealer had to post the blind for him, so finally, the dealer took back his two dollar chips and dealt the hand.

That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t.  Again someone raised and the player in question folded.  And then he proceeded to bitch about the blind again.  He said to the dealer, “You should have asked me if I wanted to be dealt in.”

The dealer apologized again, but reminded him again that he accepted the first card (both cards, really).  And the player muttered some more under his breath and seemed quite pissed.

Well, some dealers always ask the player and some don’t.  And it depends on where the button is.  If the player would be under the gun, they’ll usually ask.  And if a player says he wants to wait (without being asked), all the dealers will tell the player they don’t have to post to come in, and then usually they do take a hand (I guess a lot of rooms outside of Vegas make you post).

Actually, the dealer had good reason to assume the player would want to be dealt in right away.  This took place during the middle of the Monday Night Football game, when the room runs its NFL promo.  I’ve written about this promo before. During the Monday night game (also now Thursday night and a game Sunday afternoon), every time a team scores, a random seat is selected and that player gets to pick a prize of between $100 and $500.

In order to be eligible to be selected, you have to be active in the game and not in “lobby status.”  The dealer is supposed to put a player in lobby status as soon as they are not dealt a hand.  If a player gets up from the table and misses a hand, they will be in lobby status and not eligible for the drawing.  This means you have to time your bathroom breaks carefully.  You don’t want to be in the restroom when a team scores.  And of course, a player is in lobby status when they first come to the table until they are dealt their very first hand.  So if you playing in the room during the football promo, it’s really dumb to try to save a few dollars on the blinds and risk being ineligible for the drawing that could be worth as much as $500.

Well that didn’t come into play while the player was bitching about not being allowed to come in behind the button.  This was a pathetically low-scoring game (Washington-Dallas) and no one scored during this time.

The player stayed there for awhile, and eventually there was actually some scoring.  Note: to save you suspense, at no time was your humble blogger ever selected for a prize on this nite.

But while the same dealer was still at our table, the PPP-look alike had the misfortunate of losing an “all-in”.  He got up from the table without saying a word.  But in the football game, someone had just scored.  The shift manager made the announcement that he always makes, which is to remind the dealers to make sure they have put players who have missed a hand into lobby status, so that the Bravo random seat selector program won’t select a seat that is empty or in lobby status and thus ineligible for the prize.

The trouble was, the dealer was in the process of dealing a new hand.  And as he was dealing he noticed that the PPP-look alike was missing.  He didn’t stop dealing to put the guy in lobby status; he of course waited until he dealt all the cards to push the button to take the player out of the game.

And in that few seconds of delay, guess what table/seat was picked by the random seat selector?

Yes, you guessed it.  It was the PPP-look alike, the guy who had given this very same dealer such a hard time about dealing him too early.  Suddenly, the jerk who had left returned to the table, saying he just left to get more chips, and that he won the prize.  Nope, the dealer said sorry, no dice.  The player said he was dealt in that hand, but of course he wasn’t….he had no chips (or a seat).  The player whined and pissed and moaned, but took off.

The dealer actually got in a bit of trouble for not removing the player from the game fast enough so that the program didn’t select him—that’s not supposed to happen.  But the dealer explained that the player left just too fast and just exactly as the manager was pushing the button to start the seat selector program.

And then we all had a good laugh at the jerk’s expense.  We all agreed it was cosmic justice for the rude way the player treated the dealer of his mistake which wasn’t really a mistake (and, as I pointed out, could have been corrected instantly).  It was especially satisfying to the dealer, who reminded us that the player had gone on and on about it even after the dealer had tried to play the guy’s lousy two dollar blind himself.

Karma, as they say, is a bitch.  And the jerk got what he deserved.  Every once in awhile, there is justice in this world.