Mr. Loud Mouth

I was playing in a 3/6 no limit poker game at a strip casino. (3/6 means the table had a $3 small blind and a $6 big blind.) I don't play a lot of poker, I find it too slow for my tastes and it takes more skill and patience than I have to be successful. On that particular game I was on a winning streak and ran my stack up over $1,300.  After winning another pot from this one specific player, he jumped up and pulled a book out of a white paper bag.  Pointing the book at me he said very loudly, "There's a whole chapter written in here about you. You're a textbook player".   I said nothing, not knowing what a textbook player was. Was it a good thing, was it a bad thing, I didn't know. By the way, I've never read a book on poker. The player to my right was knowledgeable; he was a poker dealer at another casino.  I whispered to him, "I'm not sure if I like being called a textbook player." "Just take solace in that pile of chips in front of you," the poker dealer told me.  I played a couple more hands before I decided to leave.  As soon as I got up and started heading for the door, Mr. Loud Mouth ran over and took my seat.

~Stoney

Always Play The Bonus

I've been dealing for some time and have managed to learn many table games. My absolute favorite game to deal was Pai-gow.  The biggest hand I have ever dealt on a Pai-gow table was a 7 card straight flush which pays 1,000 to 1. The winner had a $5 bonus bet so he took $5,000 on the bonus plus there was an envy bet. That means that any person playing $5 or more on the bonus gets paid an envy bonus. At that time the table was completely full and everyone was playing $5 on the bonus. It was great; I was able to pay $500 to every player at the table for this one guy’s hand.

~Heather 2007

I've Got To Do This Blind Thing More Often!

I was dealing 3 Card Poker to a table full of people. Everyone there was playing the minimum $5 bet except the guy on 3rd base. He was playing $100 per space, per hand (which is $300 per hand). They had been playing together for a while when one person decided to play blind. He ended up winning with a straight. Two more players decided to play blind; one of them won with a flush and the other one won with a pair. The player that first went in blind now thinks that going in blind is good luck so we must make the whole table go in blind. All of the $5 players agree, thinking it’s a good idea but the man playing $300 per hand didn’t want to do it. “Do you see how much I’m playing? I’m not going to play blind.” The table argued with him and finally convinced him to try one hand. So they all go in blind and I flip over my hand and I have a Queen, 10 and a 2. This is a wonderful hand for the dealer because I qualify but I qualify with a low hand. I start to flip over everyone’s cards and only one person lost. Then I get to the man playing $300. I flip over the first card and it is an Ace, the second is an Ace so now he has a pair, and the third was also an Ace. He got a 3 of a kind! He won $4,000 and he was so happy he said, “This is great! I’ve got to do this blind thing more often!”

~Heather 2006

Always Play The Max

I work as a floorman at a strip casino on graveyard. It is usually incredibly boring on the graveyard shift because everyone goes to sleep around 5 A.M. and doesn't wake up until the afternoon which spans the graveyard hours. I was watching an elderly man and wife playing the Megabucks slot machine for a while one night. After some time the man stands up, talks to his wife and then walks to the bathroom. The wife sits in his chair and starts playing the Megabucks. After a couple minutes I see the husband walk out of the bathroom and towards the machine. While he is walking back I hear a scream. I look over and the wife is screaming because she'd hit the Megabucks. The jackpot was at $11,000,000.  The husband runs over to her and stares at the machine, she had only been playing $1 not the $3 needed to take home the 11 million. This 90 year old man turned around and tried to beat his wife with his fists but he was so old and frail he wasn’t doing any damage and not for lack of trying. I had to call security to break up the fight. The security guard that rushed in to break the couple up later said that the wife "didn't want to waste money, so she only played a dollar per spin."  They ended up winning $1,000 and nobody was seriously hurt.

~John 1994

Crap @ The Craps Table

I was still working as a boxman on the craps tables. We had this high roller who was a small 60 year old Asian man that was dressed in a nice pair of slacks and a polo shirt. He was considered a high roller because he played $5,000 per roll of the dice. He had been at the table for a couple hours and was winning a good deal of money (he had $250,000 in front of him) when, out of the blue, he stopped playing and walked over to the nearest slot machine. He stood there for a minute, then shook his leg a bit and came back. When he came back he brought this really putrid smell with him. I didn’t want to embarrass the high roller so I called over a hostess and she pulled the high roller aside, they talked quietly to each other and then the two of them left. About 20 minutes later the high roller came back wearing a brand new jumpsuit; he didn’t say anything, he just went back to playing. The hostess told me later that the high roller was winning so much money that he didn’t want to take the time to walk to the bathroom. Instead he took a crap in his pants and shook the piece of shit out of his pant leg and right next to the slot machines. The casino wanted him to stay so badly that instead of kicking him out they comped him a free jogging suit and let him finish playing. What they say is true; if you’re a high roller the casino will let you do almost anything.

~John 2003

Make A Decision & Stick To It

I was dealing roulette and I had a really nice drunk guy and his girlfriend at my table. They had been playing for about 2 hours and it was just the guy playing while she watched. He would bet $5 on one spin and then sit out the next 5 spins, he played very sporadically. He had been losing and was down to 23 chips ($23) when he took his entire stack and put it straight up on 11. So I spun the ball and waited… and waited… and then I waved off the table saying, “No more bets”. Right when I did that he freaked out and yelled, “Wait! Stop! I changed my mind!” and he started to grab his chips. The chips he didn’t manage to grab were knocked off the table. “No, you can’t do that! The ball has already dropped.” I yelled. He dropped the chips that were in his hand and they splashed in front of him. He started to panic and said frantically, “You didn’t wave it off; I can still change my bet. You didn’t wave it off.” I looked over and saw that the ball had hit 11. He had won the bet, so I turned to him and told him that he won and his expression changed from that of anxiety to disbelief. “You waved it off! You waved it off!” he screamed with his eyes open wide. I called over the floorman, Jeff and told him what happened and he ran to the phone and called the eye-in-the-sky. We waited 5 minutes while they reviewed the tapes and then Jeff came back and without a word straightened up the chips. The chips the man took off were not counted and the chips that were still on number 11 were counted. He ended up getting paid for 16 chips straight up which is $560. If he had left up his original bet he would have made $805. This guy was so happy that we paid him that afterwards he tipped me $50.  He immediately left with the money and a huge grin on his face.

~Heather 2008

It's All About Timing

I was dealing double deck blackjack on a $25 minimum table and I had this woman who had been playing there for most of the night. She finally lost $300 and left; 30 minutes later she walked back to the table and started to dig through her purse, “I’m supposed to meet my friend at the bar but she called and said she was going to be late. I think I might have an extra chip or two in here,” She found only one $25 chip and started playing. This time the cards were nothing like they were before. Before she would win 1 out of every 10 hands but this time she was winning almost every hand. It was such a radical turn around. When her friend finally showed up 45 minutes later this woman had made $2,000. It was a good thing her friend was late.

~Heather 2007

Maybe I Shouldn't Be So Sour About This

I was dealing Let It Ride to a full table and I had a Chinese husband and wife sitting right in front of me. The wife was dressed up in a nice dinner dress and she was very pretty, probably in her late 30’s. The husband was dressed in slacks and a nice collared shirt, he had a mustache that was neatly trimmed and you could tell they weren’t from America but their English was very good. I gave him his hand and he stayed right away so I proceeded to deal the game. I flipped over my first card and it was a Jack of spades, he stayed again so I flipped over my second card and it was an Ace of spades. There was silence for a minute before the wife started jumping up and down in high heel shoes screaming and grabbing her husband. The husband looked stunned. I flipped over his cards and he had a royal flush.

The floorman came over, checked the cards and then called the cameras. The hand checked out, it was a legit win. All of the bosses had to be called and it took 45 minutes before anything was done. The floorman had to put the cards back in order to make sure they were all there and then I had to spread the cards for the cameras to show that they weren’t marked. The payout was 1000 to 1, it was a $10 minimum bet and he had all 3 of his bets out there so 30 x $1,000 is $30,000. Plus he had his $1 bonus which has a payout of $20,000 for a grand total of $50,000! He tried to tip me $40 which was the rest of his money but I said, “Oh, its ok… Wait until you get paid then you can tip me.” He got paid in $1,000 chips; they took out $12,000 for taxes and gave him $38,000. He gave me a $200 tip and then he gave every player at the table $100. My tip was 0.40% of his winnings. I was really hoping for 5% which would have been $2,500. Because the dealers have to split their tips with everyone that meant my share of the $200 was $0.66.

~Heather 2009

Lucky Ladies

The general consensus on all table side bets is that they are sucker bets.  I really like the blackjack side bet called Lucky Ladies.  It's played on a double deck or 6 deck shoes.  You win anytime you have a natural 20.  The payoff increases exponentially with suited 20's, matching suited 20's etc. all the way up to having a pair of queen of hearts, (Lucky Ladies), which pays 200:1 odds (not all Lucky Ladies have this payoff, but the ones I search out do).  If the dealer has a blackjack and you have the Lucky Ladies it pays 1,000:1.

The wife and I were playing together at a casino that had the max payout for Lucky Ladies.  We were playing $5 on the side bet and my wife gets the Lucky Ladies.  She's literally bouncing up and down like a jack-in-the-box, uttering animal like sounds.  The dealer, a kindly elderly gentleman, had a sly smile and twinkle in his eye as he takes his finger and points to the Ace for his up card.  "Insurance", he asks.  My wife had not grasped that if the dealer had a natural blackjack she would win $5,000.  Dealer turns over his hole card and shows a nine.  She was still elated at winning a $1,000 and tipped the dealer handsomely.

~Stoney

If It Worked Before, It Should Work Again

I was dealing single deck blackjack when a woman sat down and changed $100. After playing for 5 minutes it was obvious to me that she was new to blackjack and had no idea what she was doing. I tried to be nice and tell her how to play but she insisted on playing her way, which was fine with me. My gambling motto has always been “It’s your money; you earned it, so you can spend it however you please.” The woman at the table told me, “I started playing yesterday morning; before that I had never played blackjack before. My husband received a blackjack tournament invitation and he didn’t want to play so he gave his ticket to me. I played my way yesterday in the tournament and won 1^st place, so I want to keep playing my way. It worked in the tournament so it will work here.” I didn’t argue with that and she left an hour later with $125.

~Heather 2006