The following comes from one of my first ever posts on Chicago Poker Club, on August 17, 2005. Hopefully my writing has improved a great deal in that time - I'm confident my understanding of the game has.
The following took place one afternoon in the Caesar's Atlantic City poker room:
Hilarity
I arrived at the room around noon, and they were just bringing a bunch of dealers. Presumably their shift started at noon. After putting in my name, I waited for about 15 minutes for the list to fill to 10, and a new table to open with a recently arrived dealer. I was standing next to a woman who looked to be in her early 70s. We got to talking, and she informed me that she came to AC on a bus from her home, about 45 minutes away, elsewhere in NJ. She had never played in a B&M. "I usually play blackjack", she confessed. But, she admitted to playing poker online regularly. It was humorous to me that she was to be the oldest player at our table by at least 20 years, and she was an experienced Internet poker player.
I soon learned that "experienced" was probably not the right word. After about 45 minutes of play, this woman was sitting in middle position. The blinds were $1/$2. The second seat after the BB raised to $10. I folded, the player to my left folded, and the woman said "make it $15". The dealer promptly informed here that her bet was illegal. "It needs to be at least $20, ma'am. You need 5 more dollars". (Technically this was incorrect. The previous raise was $8 - from $2 to $10 - so her raise need to be to at least $18, not $20. This is a common error, it seems.) She seemed a bit confused, and looked at the dealer. The dealer repeated herself, and the woman agreed to toss in another $5. She then remarked, "that's not how we do it on the internet!". I assured myself that she was incorrect about that too, and managed a grin.
Thirty minutes later, a middle position player raised pre-flop and got one caller. The flop came down 4, 5, 6, all clubs. The pre-flop raiser bet out on the flop and turn, and was called. The river went check-check, and the caller showed down a straight. The pre-flop raiser stated, "I was on the bluff. I had pocket aces." The woman of the hour, was two seats and a dealer removed from the comment of the "bluffer". She mis-heard him, and asked "you can't bluff in Vegas?!" The player across from her tried to help, "he said, 'I was bluffing, I had aces.'" She repeated her earlier confused remark. The helper laughed and quipped, "forget it!" She stated, "I'm going to Las Veas next week for a tournament, and I just want to make sure you can bluff". Oh man... I'm gonna find that tournament.
The last event that made me chuckle resulted from a dealer error (one of many). the dealer burned a card, then dealt the three flop cards face down on top of the burn, and spread all four. She had flopped four cards. The players in the hand were furious. Three argued about which card should be burned, the first or last. One player said the whole hand should be re-dealt, which makes no sense. Everyone was angry - everyone, except our friend the old lady. Her suggestion as to what to do with the four cards - "I like them. You can leave them." I thought one of the other players was going to come over the table at her! Eventually the floor came over and indicated that the dealer should reshuffle the four exposed cards into the deck and re-flop.
I won just under a hundred bucks for the session, and then headed to the airport.