Maudie at PokerWorks

Wow. This last week just flew by. Two Mondays in one week isn’t the way I like to roll. The only upside was having two Fridays.

I trekked to the casino Tuesday night to play some cards. So did a lot of other people as well. The surge of people plus the Tuesday shootout left the room shy of personnel. The wife of one of the players at my table ended up being the table’s personal brush and ran for chips when needed.

I fell right into my usual swimming up stream, breaking even pattern. Good hands got cracked, other hands fell flat. My toughest competition was the man in the nine seat. I watched him slowly and steadily build his stack to over five hundred dollars only to see him walk away with nothing. He had played so well up until that point. He read people very well and had good card sense. I felt bad for him when he lost an all-in hand. He took his beat and calmly walked away.

I left my first Friday night up a hundred dollars. Then on my second Friday night, left a buy-in and a half spread amongst the other stacks at the table.

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I’ve been reading Linda’s posts regarding dealer tokes. I remember my first visit to a live casino. It was in New Mexico just outside of Santa Fe. I wasn’t sure of the procedure for toking - after every hand? When the dealer left? How much? I watched the other players to get my cue. After the hand and a dollar chip seemed the way to go.

However, when I won my first pot, I forgot to toke the dealer. I was reminded when I noticed the dealer pitch my cards farther and farther away from me each hand thereafter. I made sure I tipped double on the next pot I won. Sure enough, the cards started landing neatly in front of me.

It pissed me off, though, that the dealer obviously felt the toke was an entitlement rather than a reward for doing a good job. Now that I’m a “seasoned” brick and mortar player, I use my tokes to reward a well run down.

Ninety-eight percent of the time, dealers will get a toke from me. The two percent of the time they don’t is either due to a miniscule pot or the dealer is:

1. More interested in talking about the bad beat at the table he just left.
2. Having too great a time goofing it up with the table and not paying attention to her job.
3. Is downright surly.
4. Is slooooooooow.

And on and on. The best dealers, like Linda, are friendly, efficient and are there to provide a service. When the service is excellent, it warrants a tip.

I’ve worked waiting tables and always hated the fact that I had to depend on my tips to make my wage. I’ve always contended that those in the service industries should get paid a fare wage and that a tip is just that. A tip. An incentive to go beyond doing a good job and excelling.

Meh. That’s my two cents worth.

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I’ve been eating up all the WSOP reports flying out of the Rio in Vegas. The Pokernews crew and our own Pokerworks gang are doing a fabulous job. Otis is working on a poker Pulitzer over at the Poker Stars Blog. I also live for Pauly’s Bouncin’ Around the Room blurbs each day. The main event is underway and I’ll be looking forward to seeing who’s going to be seated at the final table. I just wish I could’ve made it out there this summer.

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Well, that’s my weekend mish mash. I’ve been busy putting shelves together and getting the house ready for visitors in a couple of weeks. I may be returning to on-line cash games for a bit over at Full Tilt. I think I may need a break from the casino for a while. And, now that I’m back to an eight hour day from a ten to fourteen hour day, I ought to get to more of the weekly tourneys.

See you at the tables!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.