Vegas - The Sham Effect

Las Vegas Boulevard, early in the morning. Sham and I stayed up all night to fight toasters at Bally's. 5/11/07

LAS VEGAS -- It's no secret that anywhere Sham plays, there is always some kind of controversy at the table.

A few years ago, while holding his own at a $4/8 limit table at the Bellagio, two players to either side of him started hurling racial epithets at each other and nearly got into a fight.

Early this morning, we were both parked at a $1/2NL table at Bally's. This dealer snaps at the drunk guy to his right that he can't talk to other players when the hand is multi-way. The drunk guy keeps asking the dealer why and when everyone else folds, this unassuming older Asian guy mischieviously grabs the drunk guy's muck cards and peeks at them before showing the rest of the table.

That sets the drunk guy off, telling the dealer and later the floor supervisor that that isn't right. The drunk guy later gets ejected because he keeps insisting that he is former special operations and wants to fight the dealer.

It was a nice table though. As soon as I sat down, this Japanese kid to my left basically thinks that no-limit hold'em is a combination of blackjack and bluff fest. It's not too long before he commits all his chips to a gutshot that loses to TPTK.

I bust an old guy who four-bets me with QQ. Only thing is I have KK and that's that. A Swedish guy also helps me by calling near-pot bets to the river with T5s. No good.

I'm glad I'm back -- the middle reliever California T-shirt did very well in its role and I'm looking to a whole weekend of starters.

But first a nap. I've only had two hours of sleep...