deardealer

Today is the ladies event at the WSOP.   Barbara Enright (pictured here) is the only female & my personal favorite, to make to the last table at the main event. The funny story behind that is that she won it in a satellite and tried to sell the entry but couldn’t.  so it was late and she just played her best.  A friend of mine was watching the event at the time and told me that A K was a discarded hand for her. In the biggest game of the year you have to really pick the spots that you play your hand, Position becomes more important in a gmae like this then at any other time.  Of course it is always important but in the big one it is crucial.  You are sitting at a table with the best players in the entire world. I have dealt to Doyle Brunson and many of the old time greats and he may have named the  10 -2  hand after him but I gaurentee you that this is not his average hand.  I have seen him games where he didn’t really play a hand for hours. The no limit games were big back in the day but very dry until a tourist hit the game with more money than brains. Of course he would leave the table talking about what a nice bunch of good old boys he just played with.  The only nasty high roller at the table would be Puggy.  This guy would say the most crude things to dealers while they were just doing their jobs. Unbelievable things would come out o his mouth like “Hey kid are you married”? If the reply was yes, then he would continue with, “I hope your wife and children all get cancer and die a slow death.” After he got a reaction from you he would blow cigar smoke in your face.  Only the dealers would really know these kinds of things about people like him who are revered in some circles. Some of these so called legends are really low lifes in high rollers clothing.  In those days, back in the 70’s, there really were no great women players. They might have been hiding out somewhere but they were not in the Las Vegas poker rooms.  Of course women played but just not in the high stakes games.  Women were scarce in the poker room, I know because I became the first woman poker dealer in Las Vegas.  Johhny Moss was the first to hire women in his card room at The Alladin Hotel & Casino.  People say alot of harsh things about Johnny but I just didn’t see him that way.  He could be gruff and grouchy but he was an old man who stayed up sometimes for days playing poker.  I had seen many times where some of the dealers with families had a hard time making money that night and Johhny would just hand him $100 or more and say “Take care of your family”. He would sometimes stake the dealers when they weren’t dealing and tell them I am not going to give you my money to play with if you’re not going to gamble. I think he was having the time of his life then. He was my hero and had a kindness that he didn’t show because gamblers cannot show weakness.  Some people hated him, I loved him and he will always have a great place in poker history. I am proud to have known him. I could tell you some old stories but this site is called today.com so I will sneak them in a  little at a time. 

   Getting back to today, I would like to wish my friend Rachel Tuttle,  great luck at the WSOP today.  She is a member of our womens poker league and we are all rooting for her. Rachel you are a very good player, may the force be with you!!

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