New Year's Eve, 2016
Part 2
This is the second of three
parts. Part 1 is here. I’ll post part 3 Tuesday evening. We continue right where we left off. Ginger, Faith and Jennifer had been away from
the table for over an hour to have dinner.
The ladies did return within the allowed
time and they were in very good moods.
But then something happened that soured Faith’s disposition. She and Jennifer were in a hand, as was a
third player. I believe it was on the
flop and Jennifer went all-in. Her bet
was a bit less than $100, let’s say it was $75. Faith was next to act. She had Jennifer covered and she had her
chips stacked very high. She put one of
stacks out in front of her. She didn’t say what she intended and she hadn’t
counted the stack, but it was clearly more than Jennifer’s bet—quite a bit
more. It looked like it could have been
double Jennifer’s bet; if not, it was close to that.
Faith apparently didn’t realize that
there was another player in the hand, she must have thought she was heads up
with Jennifer. But before the dealer
could ask her to clarify her action, the third player, who had Faith covered,
announced “all-in.” This took Faith by
surprise, and then she started taking chips off the stack she had put out in
response to Jennifer’s shove. The dealer
said she couldn’t do that. He was about to
count her stack, insisting her bet was a raise.
Maybe only a min-raise, but definitely a raise. She said, “No, this was just a call, I’m
taking back the chips that are more than Jennifer’s bet.” The dealer stopped her from pulling the chips
back and immediately called the floor.
The problem was that since Faith never
said “call,” the chips speak for themselves.
Her play would have been fine if it was just heads up but her action was
unclear since there was another player to act and that player announced all-in
so fast the dealer didn’t have a chance to clarify her bet. I believe what should have happened was that
the dealer should have counted out the chips she had pushed forward and if the
extra chips in excess of Jennifer’s bet were more than half of Jennifer’s bet,
it would be considered a min-raise (to $150).
If they were less than half, it would just be a call. So, if it was $120 total, it would be
considered a raise to $150, and if it was $100 total, it would be considered a
call of the $75 and she could take the extra chips back.
At least, as I understand the rule,
that’s the case. Anyone think differently?
Well, you didn’t really need to count
because it was obvious that Faith’s stack was very close to being double
Jennifer’s bet, you could just eyeball it and determine that. Anyway, the shift boss did the count and it
turned out she was only $15 short of making a legitimate min-raise, even though
she insisted she was only calling. Faith
put up quite the argument, insisting that it was only a call and she was only
responsible for the $75. The shift boss
refused to change his ruling, and didn’t care one bit that Faith was a
long-time regular in the room (nor should he have).
Here’s where it got a bit dicey for
me. I think he not only should have
insisted that all the chips Faith put out remain in the pot, but he should have
made her put an additional $15 in there since she, by rule, made the
min-raise. I am not 100% certain of
this, but I don’t believe he did that. I think she was just on the hook for
what she put out initially and not the extra $15.
But maybe, if I’m correct, it’s
ok. I think I’ve seen situations where
players put out excess chips that indicate a raise (or a call of a raise they
weren’t aware of) and were allowed to just leave the chips out with completing
the bet. And it was only $15.
Anyway, Faith folded and the guy who
shoved won the pot
But Faith was really pissed. And she
took it out on Jennifer, for some reason.
She immediately asked for a table change to get away from Jennifer! Although the ruling was right, I could
understand her being pissed at the shift boss.
That might have encouraged her to change poker rooms—but as I’ve already
explained, that would have been difficult on this night.
I couldn’t figure out why she was so
pissed at Jennifer that she wanted to get away from her, but she clearly
was. She somehow blamed Jennifer for the
whole problem, when all Jennifer had done was go all-in, a perfectly acceptable
poker move. Well, the three ladies were
bantering and sorta playing at each other all night. Perhaps she thought Jennifer was just making
a bluff there and because she was so sure she (Faith) had caught her, she
forgot about the other player and that the whole problem was somehow Jennifer’s
fault. I didn’t see the hands there, perhaps
she got pissed if she found out Jennifer was shoving with air. But why would Jennifer do that unless she too
forgot about the third player in the hand, and I find that unlikely.
So Faith moved to another table,
leaving her good friend Ginger behind. I don’t think Faith was mad at Ginger
too but then, I really don’t understand women, so who knows?
I’m happy to report that before the
evening was over, Faith returned to the table in her original seat, and seemed
to have forgiven Jennifer for whatever crime she had committed.
Now, before the three of them had gone
to dinner, another person I recognized showed up at the table. It was Rick, a reg in the room. Rick almost always plays 2/5 when it’s
running, so I hadn’t had much experience playing with him. Maybe once or twice over the years he was at
the 1/2 table with me. And I’m pretty
sure he was the guy who busted me the last time I played in the MGM Invitation
(freeroll). But I knew by reputation he
was a really tough player.
Oh, there’s one other thing I should
tell you about Rick. And I tell you this
only because it’s relevant to the story.
Rick is a “little person.”
So when Rick came to our table,
Jennifer was almost ecstatic to greet him, it had been a long time since she’d
seen him. Rick initially was sitting in
the seat to my immediate left. Not too long after Faith left the table, the guy
who won that pot left the game. Rick
moved over to take his seat, which was right next to Jennifer.
But before Rick moved, the salaciousness
began. At one point, Rick and Jennifer
were in a hand together. I’m sure
Jennifer has real respect for Rick’s game.
Rick, who was sitting across the table from the ladies at the time, had
made a big bet and Jennifer went into the tank.
Then she spoke to Rick from across the table, “If I fold, are you gonna
show me your nuts?” I cracked up but
Rick didn’t hear what she said and asked her to repeat it. I tried to repeat it for him, but at the same
time, Ginger also respnded but with a slight variation. She shouted, “She said, ‘How big are your
nuts?’” Rick was unfazed, and he kind of
balled up his fingers and his thumb to approximate the size. “And that’s only one,” he emphasized. Remember, Rick is a “little person.”
And there was a question about the
size of a related part of his anatomy. I
didn’t catch the context, but Jennifer said something about “six inches.” “That’s six inches,” or something. Rick
responded, “I don’t know if it’s six inches.
I know when I walk, I get carpet burn.
Is that six inches? Or is that
eight inches?”
During this back-and-forth, Jennifer
said something which Rick took as a slight on his ability to, um, get a
woman. I didn’t hear the set up, but I
heard Rick say, “What? You think I can’t get laid? I’ll have you know I’m getting laid tonight!”
Now to explain this next part, I have
to discuss something I don’t like talking about—cleavage. OK, that was silly—no one would believe
that. Well, in the entire history of
cleavage, there was never more of it to talk about than this night. Even better, there was never more to see than
on this night.
Seriously, the eye candy was
noticeable at 4PM when I got there, and even early in the evening, long before
the club goers usually show up, they were out in force. From the time I got the preferred viewing
seat right after dinner, there was almost a non-stop stream of girls, dressed
to the nines (or perhaps more aptly, barely dressed to the nines),
walking by.
As I’ve explained before, there are
three elements to a Slut Parade dress, which is pretty amazing, because there’s
barely enough material in those dresses for one element. The dresses are
generally very short, very tight, and very low-cut. Most dresses emphasize two
of those three elements. Often, the
girls wearing tight, short dresses aren’t showing much (if anything) on
top—except perhaps due to the tightness of the dress. So, some nights, there isn’t that much
cleavage to admire, and also, on some nights, the ladies that show up are not
as great looking as on other nights.
This night was something else. It seemed like virtually every woman who
walked by had picked an outfit out that really showed off her boobs. There was cleavage, there was side-boob,
there was under-boob. There was just a
lot of boobs. And a ridiculously high percentage of the ladies were smoking
hot. Sizzling, in fact. The average wait time to see at least two
really gorgeous women walk by was 1.7 seconds.
Ok, I might be exaggerating a bit.
But not by much. I’ve heard that
there are men with an above average interest in women’s breasts (not that I
know anybody like that). This was in
incredible night for any such man.
Honestly, since I’ve observing the
Slut Parade, this was without question the most girls I’d ever seen. And the highest percentage of really hot
girls. And the highest percentage of
really revealing, really low-cut dresses.
What was there not to like?
It would have been a great night to
have hidden about a dozen (or maybe 100) video cameras at various locations in
the casino to record the lovely young ladies there to celebrate the new
year. Unfortunately, doing so would be
extremely illegal.
At one point during the evening, I
tweeted out the following: “The cleavage
on display tonight is unreal. Of course, I mean that in both senses of the
word.”
I don’t want to imply that on this
night there only eye-candy for the tit-men.
Not at all. Leg-men and ass-men
were also extremely well served. As were
fans of virtually all body-types. There was
something for everyone—and a whole lot of it.
The one problem with the view from the
poker room was that, at various times during the evening, passersby would
decide to stop at the rail of the poker room, right in front of our table, and
just park themselves there, watching us play.
I doubt most of these folks were poker players and I have no idea what
they found so fascinating about watching us.
But they did. And thus, they were
partially or mostly blocking my view of the foot traffic. Often, there would be only a small window to
peak thru to enjoy the ladies as they passed by. It was frustrating. Frequently I didn’t get a chance to admire
the short dress, or the tight dress. I so
wanted to shout at those looky loos, “Get the f*** out of the way, you’re
blocking the view!” But I managed to avoid
doing that.
So, it was in that context that
Jennifer started complaining about the traffic.
It wasn’t that she objected to the girls in their revealing
outfits. It was that it was just unfair. She couldn’t help but notice how distracted
all the guys at the table were by ladies.
So she said, “There’s nothing for us to look at. Look at the guys, there’s no guys worth
looking at. It’s only the girls. Only
the girls are worth looking at.”
“And they’re all fake.”
Ginger disputed that there was nothing
for them to look at. “I like looking at
good-looking people of either sex.”
Then Jennifer, noticing all the
boobage on display, stated flatly, “Anything more than a mouthful is a waste.”
The dealer at the time, a male and a
long time co-worker of both Jennifer and Ginger responded, “Is that true for
men, too?”
Jennifer replied, “No, your equipment
has multiple functions. Breasts are just
for two things—babies use them, and for sex play….What else are they for? Milk and sex play. That’s it.”
I dunno…..I think they’re also nice to
look at. When properly displayed, they
tend to turn men into blithering idiots.
When properly displayed at a poker table, they can distract male poker
players from playing well. This is known
(by readers of this blog, anyway), as the Jennifer Tilly Effect.
But that was all Jennifer had to say
about breasts and their usefulness, and we moved onto other topics.
And thus ends part 2. The final chapter will see two dealers having quite the argument, and a “delayed” celebrity sighting. See here.
And thus ends part 2. The final chapter will see two dealers having quite the argument, and a “delayed” celebrity sighting. See here.
I know you are a big fan of MGM but that sounds like (most likely) an unfair ruling in favor of a regular --- I've heard too many of those stories for me to play there.
ReplyDeleteWhat? That she didn't have to put the $15 in? Well, as I said, I'm not 100% she didn't (there were many distractions!) but I don't think it's a big deal for the $15. Maybe I'm rationalizing. At least she had to leave everything she put out in the pot.
DeleteAnd as I said, I recall situations where player put chips out that they were allowed to take back if unaware of action. For example, a player raises and the next person isn't aware of it. So next person puts out the big blind. Can they take that back when told there's a raise? Most times they are allowed to, but technically (and I've seen it called) they are not responsible for the raise but cannot take back the bb.
But I do understand there might be a problem if it happened the way I think it did.
I should ask around to see if others agree.
Rob, 3 things.
DeleteFirst, zourah is 100% wrong. If you do not say anything, the actions of your chips speak. And if your action is 50% or more of the bet amount (and is not a single chip), it is considered a raise. Which means that she should have been required to put in the amount to make a legal raise.
Second, her reaction is typical of Republicans: Blame someone else for the consequences of your behavior.
Third, more than a mouthful is most certainly not a waste. That's what your throat is for. (Yeah, I understand you probably don't have personal experience in this like I do. Just trust me on this one.)
Chuck
Thanks, Chuck.
Delete1. I think you misinterpreted Zourah's comment, and I believe he agrees with what you said and was trying to say the same thing.
2.I keep politics off this blog as you know, but I was just speculating that she was blaming Jennifer for her inattentiveness.
3. Definitely not touching that one.
I agree with Chuck and Zourah2, Faith should have made to put the $15 in.
DeleteAs for the situation where a player put in chips for a call unaware of a raise in front of them, some rooms allow for player to change their action if there is a change in front of them. If the room rule is for any the call (chips) to stay like what I think you implied for MGM, then it comes down to more of a table situation. What I mean is since this is a fairly common mistake, if the table atmosphere is friendly and the players don't mind the call being taken back, then the dealer would just let it slide. However, if there is any contention, and whenever the floor is called for a ruling, then the room rule should prevail.
I think most rooms, MGM included, would allow the person to take back his blind bet if there was a raise he didn't see.
DeleteThe most common way this arises is if there's a straddle and the player doesn't realize it. When the player sees the $5 chip (if that's what it is) in front of the UTG player, he assumes it's just a BB call. The dealer either didn't call out the straddle loudly enough, or the player wasn't paying attention.
You're right that is a house rule. There are some places where they would be responsible for the amount of the blind but not be committed to calling the raise, and the blind becomes dead money.
I've even dealers say, "Well this time, you can take it back, but next time you have to leave it in the pot." I think this might be the dealer's own rule!
Extracting three more redbirds is pretty much a rubbing of salt in the wound. This all boils down to both sloppy and lazy play. Get a count, cut some chips, *call* an all-in. I don't recall if all three of these chicks are dealers or not but if this issue fell in the lap of an off-duty dealer then good for her getting bent over. On duty the dealer chick would have been doing the exact thing to a player that got done to her at MGM.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lester.
DeleteRegarding your first comment, of rubbing salt into the wound, I think perhaps, if I'm right about her not having to come up with the extra $15, that may have been what the shift boss was thinking.
But NO, the person who screwed herself over is the one person of the trio of ladies who is NOT a dealer. She's just a rec player, who is very good friends with Ginger, who is a dealer in the room. All three of them were just having a good time, paying more attention to their banter than the game.
"stated flatly"
ReplyDeleteI see what you did there.
Heh heh. Yeah, Grump, you caught me!
Delete