It’s that time of year when all my free time is spent playing poker. There are tournaments everywhere in Las Vegas—at all limits, on the Strip and Downtown featuring all games at all hours of the day and night. Factor into that the huge number of players filling hundreds of tables and you have side action to die for. When so many people from so many cultures fill a poker room for hours on end, there are bound to be some interesting, amazing, and funny things happening. I’ve been privy to some of the weirdest stuff these past few weeks, so please allow me to share some of them with you.
 
A huge ruckus occurred at a table a few aisles away from me, and the screaming and hollering seemed to go on forever. The floorman was there, trying to quiet the unruly player, but the shouting continued. After what took much longer than I thought necessary, the floor supervisor finally gave the guy—sorry, I can’t use the word gentleman here—a penalty. The guy’s response? “What did I do?”
 
He was serious ... he didn’t even know how out of line he was. Later that same day, I was playing in a live game, since again I’d failed to make the money in my event. The gloves were off and tempers were flaring. The players in the two and seven seats were screaming at each other and pointing fingers. I’m not even sure what the argument was about but it actually was pretty funny. There was no floorperson in sight and no one was making an effort to quiet things down. Finally, after much x-rated language was  exchanged by both players, the two seat said to the seven seat “You’d better watch your f’ing language, you piece of #@*&” (I trust you can fill in the blanks to hear what the observers heard). I totally lost it and started laughing out loud, repeating to myself what had been said and the absurdity of it all. I couldn’t let go of that one for a while; it ranks among the funniest things I’ve ever heard at the table.
 
Another rather amusing thing happened and the guy who said it had no clue how his comment came out. I went to sign up for a Saturday tournament on a Thursday night. Most of the players in line were signing up for Friday’s event, which was the senior’s tournament. I waited in line (having just busted deep out of yet another big tourney) and finally got called to the vacant window. I gave the clerk my rewards card and said I’d like to enter an event. He looked at me and asked “seniors?” Hmm ... I know I am old enough, but that sounded a little cavalier to me.
 
Being in a bit of a sour mood due to my recent ejection from the days event, I said to him “No, I’m not old enough” to which he replied “Oh, really?” OK, so that just made me giggle. And lastly, I played poker last night with a gentleman who was wearing a T-shirt with a poker-like logo and the initials IPT on it. Upon further viewing, it read “Idiot Poker Tour.” I think that says it all!
 
It’s been a lot of poker and there’s more to come. Next up for me? A week in Mesquite, NV, at the Eureka Casino for the Eureka Mesquite Open. Small buy-ins and guaranteed no name calling. Come on up and join me. Moving along...
 
Jan Fisher has 30 years experience as a poker player, tournament director, strategist/columnist, co-founder of the Tournament Directors Association, Partner in Card Player Cruises, WPT Boot Camp instructor and statistician, and live studio announcer for the Professional Poker Tour. E-mail Jan at Jan@cardplayercruises.com.