Sunday, March 11, 2012

A tale of two Tables

Went out for a bit-o-poker tonight and ended up at O'shaes because I saw a 1-2 NL game going on as I passed. It had a couple of open seats and I sat down next to the dealer like I always try to do.
The seat to my right was open and the seat after that had chips but the player was missing.  However, when she came back I realized that I had chosen the wrong seat.
It was the wrong seat in more than one way though as I ended up playing poker for about 1 hour and 20 minutes total.  During that Time I got re-raised pre-flop 4 times and I know for a fact that 3 of those times were with Pocket Aces.  The other time I strongly suspect it.
The last time it was folded to the button - the lady two to my right, who limped.  I looked down and saw AQs and raised it up to ten and then she immediately made it $22 total.  I didn't like it but with basically a min-raise I called to see the flop.  Flop comes out 10 high and she makes a big bet so I fold and she shows me her rockets and their red glare.  Ugh.
My last hand consisted of me flopping middle pair and straight draw, turning a flush draw and hitting 2 pair on the river.  However, the river also gave someone else the nut flush (this ended up being a 3-way all in pot) and the rest of my chips were pushed asunder.

Not wanting to go home I was going to play craps but the only $5 table was packed and rocking and nobody was giving up their spot anytime soon and thus I took the short walk to the Imperial Palace.
As I entered I was greeted by AVP's Poker Muffin (I sure do think that's why she goes by there - I know she went by it on VPN.  And by know I mean I strongly suspect).  Funny thing is she greeted me with "Hey grrouchie" and when she went to put me on the list she admitted that she remembers grrouchie but never remembers my actual name.  Score one for the good guys.
After waiting longer than my patience would allow I went for a walk to observe the craps tables.  Now that i'm trying to become a dealer I really love to watch the live games and see how complicated a real game gets.
After watching for a few minutes and seeing that my name still wasn't up I played a while.  Went down to $27 which I was going to walk away with no matter what and then hit a roll to get me back to dead even.  So I walked back to the poker area.

Once again, still 1st on the list but too much of a weight.  No one was busting except the guys who kept calling for a rebuy and I didn't want to sit in the 2/4 game nor did I want to sit in the Mix Game because even though it might be fun I didn't want to burn through my money in games I don't know well.
Also, another deciding factor is that Poker Grump was at a table and there were no open seats there - if I were going to play I'd rather it be with a fellow blogger so that I could read about the "fish" who kept asking for the rules.

Craps tables call my name.  Gently at first but sometimes it gets louder.  I walked over to another one, a different one and after observing for a few I step up to it with my chips.
Some guy gets in an argument with a dealer, says the dealer is being rude and isn't answering his questions etc. Dealer does not handle the situation well and pisses the guy off more so that he starts swearing and ends up calling the floor over to vent his frustrations.  Guy is explaining his stance and the dealer says to the floor "The guy is lying, he's in a bad mood and lying probably because he's losing too much money."

To me this is unacceptable, the dealer should have been taken off the table and either sent home or given time to cool down.  No matter how he felt about the situation he should not have interjected a comment like that to the floor while the floor was talking to a pissed off customer - but that's just my opinion.
Also my opinion that the dealer was probably having a bad night.

Either way, angry guy swears more, takes his bets down and storms off so I move beside the dealer. Partially to watch every move he makes and partially to lighten the mood of the table back up with some conversation.  I roll next.

My point is 8, I place the 6 and 9 and I probably roll 30 times.
Problem is my 1st ten or so rolls are all 4, 5 and Ten with the occasional 3 in there.
I kept rolling but I kept missing all my bets.  Finally around roll 20 I had hit the 6 once and then hit my point.
Rolled another point and then finally hit a place bet or two before the dreaded seven.

During my roll a Bronco fan joins the table to my right and we're chatting it up.
When the dice pass I put a dollar on the fire and put $5 on the pass line.  Bronc asks me if the table is good and I tell him I really haven't been her long enough to judge.  Just figure'd that I did well enough and hope that it turns the table on.
Next guy rolls for a good while.  he hit 6 points - but the problem was 3 were 5 and 2 were 9 with another one being the Ten.
When he seven'd out he was on the 4 would would have been nice because that's the first payout for the Fire-Bet.
Even though he missed that his roll was good and I collected a lot on place bets and points to make my poker losses up and add an additional $40 to my roll.
Also, when he was rolling I put the dealers on the line with odds and ended up tipping somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 during that guys roll.

After his roll I decided to leave the table because they jumped the table min to $10 and I don't roll like that yo.

One final thought - during the last two rolls that I was at the table for (mine and the one after) the table was rocking with lots of numbers being rolled and two people shooting a good amount of times each.  However, even during a hot roll and a half I kept observing every single bet that was being made by everyone on my side of the table and even though there were a full 8 of us there were less bets and less variety than in a typical 20 minute period of my craps class.
Oh yeah - she's preparing me to be able to handle any situation at the table and most of the time it's going to be boring with a whole lot less action.

29 comments:

  1. Nice Craps write up!

    I've heard of a "fire" bet but I have no idea what it is?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fire bet - you can bet $1 - $5 and you are betting on how many different points a shooter can make.
      Once the 4th different point is made you win $25-1
      5th point is 250-1 and 6th is 1000-1.
      So, in order to collect the big payout a shooter has to set the point and hit each of the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10.

      It's a rarity, but I'm willing to throw $1 down per shooter when I'm playing. When it hit's I'll be balla!

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    2. Ok, but when does he have to do it by? Say his point is 6, he throws a 8, then a 6. Is that the end of the bet, or since he didn't 7 out, if he comes out with a 4, is that 3 points for the fire bet or is it already over unless he puts down more on it?

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    3. o wow so u just bet $5 on fire? or u gotta guess how many times he will e.g. - I bet $5 on fire6 @1000-1?

      oorrrrr u bet $5 on fire and the guy rolls like god hits 4, 5, 6, 8, T ---> i win $1250? n i didnt have to guess he would hit 5?

      need to remember this for when crunk coz i go on insane heaters when crunk as fuck! if i ever start a blog will upload some pix of my in the Redrock rollin like a luckbox with some dirty skank i met in cherry - FML i miss cherry

      Fboy

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  2. dealer says to the floor "The guy is lying, he's in a bad mood and lying probably because he's losing too much money."

    That's unbelievable. I'm like you -- unacceptable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obv doesn't know how to handle a bad situation and his actions and attitude made things worse.

      I just don't get some people.

      When I started talking to him he said he had been doing it now for 4 years and said it was a fun easy job until you have to deal with "assholes like that."

      And I will never play at a table he is working again.

      Delete
  3. So .. if you end up dealing craps and I am playing there, I will have to tip you, huh? Of course, I could always start to argue and make things fun for the table. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Much like poker, Tipping is appreciated but not required. I'll be getting paid my $8.25 per hour with 6 kids at home that I need to feed and a bitchy girlfriend (her six kids, not mine).

      Did I mention my dad just went into the hospital and I'm footing the bill because he has no insurance?

      :)

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    2. Why are you talking about me?

      Delete
  4. grouchi two questions:

    muffin worx at bills?
    whats teh fire bet? i usually stick to 6/8 and passlines with sometimes lols bets on hard 8/6/4 and for giggles YOOOOOOOOLEEEVVVIN

    also, i want to throw up when i see the limp/mini raise with AA, literally makes my stomach turn =(

    Fboyyyyyyy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Number 26,

      I have never played at Bills and thus I don't know.
      However, IP and Bills have been known to dealer swap now and then so it's entirely possible.
      Last night she was working floor instead of dealing and she was one of the people I used to play at TI with a lot back in the day.

      The Fire bet is explained above in a reply to Rob - I'm too lazy to double type or even cut and paste for that matter.

      I usually bet the same way that you do. Pass line and 6/8 - And a lot of the time I just ignore the pass line and only play the 6/8 if the table is incompetent and not hitting points.

      Yes - not only the limp mini raise but the mini re-raise....
      The 1st time I was re-raised yesterday I made it $7 and two people later made it $12..... Really? I was surprised to see AA that had with how badly he played pretty much every street and he had fancy dancy Beats headphones


      grrrbbooyyyyy

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  5. LOL....coming to your site, the big ad on the right says "Is gambling taking over?" Like they assume anyone coming to your blog has a gambling problem!

    Well, since I DO have a gambling problem, I click on the ad, of course, and it takes me to the CALIFORNIA Dept. of Alcohol & Drugs.

    Interesting. So, not only are the ads chosen based on subject matter, but they also check to see where the visitors comes from? I mean I'm in CA right now, is that why the ad was for the CA dept of Alcohol & Drugs? Wow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For me, currently - it's advertising home exercise equipment...
      Thus I've got a gambling problem and I'm fat.

      Also, that is pretty cool that the ads are kind of related to the viewer - I wonder how extensive that is.

      Delete
    2. Holy Shit...it's pretty extensive. When I came back just now the ad says, "If you're obsessed with bosoms, we have a cure."

      Amazing.

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    3. Lol -
      Though I'd need a screen shot to prove it sir :)

      Also, what red-blooded american male is NOT obsessed with bosoms?

      Delete
    4. I can't make this up, my ad is Sugardaddy.com
      "Where beautiful girls meet successful men"

      Delete
    5. @Rob - Dick Simmons is, but only mainly hairy bosoms!


      @Carmel - that's awesome. I hope you clicked on it so that I could ear my 25 cents :)

      Delete
  6. I would seriously think that a dealer who made a comment like that in front of a customer would be at legitimate risk of being insta-fired.

    Maybe he needs a lesson in not tapping the glass (since, let's face it, in the pits everyone is a fish).

    So, now that you're going to be all sharp with how the game works, are you going to be the man to go to for craps tips?

    Yeah, I can tell it's been a couple of years since I've stopped at a craps table, I'm getting the itch again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You have been talking about Craps a good amount there my friend Flops.

      And, I don't know about "tips" per se, but I will be the guy who can tell you the payouts and hopefully give generally good advice haha.

      Advice like tip your grrouchie dealer - ignore the spazoid angry man.

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    2. I'll take all the good advice I can get. But do we have to ignore spazoid angry people? That requires passing on good blogging material.

      Delete
    3. I now see the error of my ways - my mind was not correctly thinking.
      Twenty lashes with a wet noodle

      Delete
  7. I suppose I should confess...I have no clue how to play craps, nor do I know what the latter half of this post actually says. Hmmmm I may need some lessons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I feel this way when looking at MoJo's Bridge posts.
      I see the words and I'm sure that they have some sort of unified meaning, but it escapes me.

      Delete
  8. Craps is one fun game, fish are fed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hells yeah - and you can make the game as simple or as complicated as you want.

      The social aspect is unmatched for "table" games.
      Those Baccarat people don't' know what their missing with their straight faces and no conversation and no high fiving.

      Delete
  9. Craps is fun...especially when the beautiful ladies are chucking the dice! YARRRR!

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    Replies
    1. Beautiful lady at the craps table is 100% reason enough to play.
      Beautiful lady at the craps table with dice in her hand is a no brainer.

      Damned superstitions.

      Delete
    2. Beautiful Lady at the craps table is nice.
      Beautiful Lady in low cut dress at craps table is awesome. As a stickman, make sure you learn the art of leaving the dice just out of the reach of the lady in the low cut top, so she has to really bend over to reach the dice. I've seen many a stickman master this art, and by the time you start dealing, I expect you to be an expert at it.

      And remember, when said lady is about to throw dem bones, at the top of your lungs, shout, "They're coming out!"

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