Another late night at the casino. The clubs were starting to let out. Players were looking at the time and realizing that they still needed to wake up in a few hours. Games were starting to fall apart all around me in the poker room. Soon the table that I played at fell victim to the inevitable. One of the players looked like they realized what was happening and decided to rack up and leave. There were only four of us left at the table and I was perfectly fine with playing four handed. It didn’t last very long at all. After a couple of hands one of the players spoke up and asked if we could be moved to another game.

I drew the highest card and was able to select between one of two games that were left. I went over to look and see what the tables were like. The first table looked a little slow. The second table had a few big stacks and appeared to have more chips being tossed around. I noticed that the splashy player from my broken table had decided to take a seat at this table. He talked a lot, but he was loose.

A few hands go by, fold, fold, fold. Each time I see that the big stack across from me is in the hand. He wins one, loses another, but each time money is going in the middle. He is careless and doesn’t seem to respect general strategy. He just tries to bully the table. Another hand is dealt, the big stack again makes a raise and again I fold. This time the player from my previous table makes the call from the big blind.

The preflop action is straight forward. There is a raise, a bunch of folds, and a call from the big blind. The flop is King high, rainbow with no straight draws or natural two pairs. The big blind checks and then the bully just jams. The big blind takes a moment to think about what just happened and says, “I guess you got me.” As he says this, he slides one hand forward leaving a small stack of chips out on the felt and then tables his hand so that you can see that he has K8 off suit to give him top pair with a medium kicker.

The dealer begins to gather the flop cards and starts to push the pot towards the bully. The big blind immediately questions the dealer while pointing at the chips that he left on the felt in front of him. Now the bully begins to protest saying that the big blind had folded his hand, but he still has his cards. As they begin to go back and forth about what really happened, the dealer calls for the floor and quickly reconstructs the pot and the flop.

The big blind pounds his fist on the table and yells, “We can go outside to settle this!”

The bully tells the big blind to relax and tries to tell him that it isn’t personal. To which the big blind shouts, “It is personal! You are trying to take my money. It’s very personal!”

At this point everything is getting a bit chaotic. The bully is trying to get someone at the table to agree with him, asking each player at the table if we saw the big blind fold. No one speaks up. The big blind continues to make his case that he called. The floor arrives and asks the dealer what happened, both players interrupt multiple times making their case for who is in the right.

As all of this is happening the security team arrives to change the rake boxes. The floor doesn’t make a ruling and runs off to do something else that needs his attention. The player’s argument is only getting louder. They are shouting at each other. Cursing at each other. Name calling. Suddenly, the challenge to go outside to settle it becomes a looming threat. The dealer shouts for help. It really feels like one of the players is on the verge of punching the other player. Security doesn’t seem to care or do anything to deescalate the situation. The dealer asks one of the security team directly to do something and he tells the dealer that help is on the way.

The floor man returns to decide what to do. The ruling is that it is a call, and the dealer needs to run out the rest of the board. As the turn and the river are dealt out by the dealer, the big blind makes another threat to fight the bully. The floor guy tells him that he is done for the night. The bully looks down at the board, at his cards, looks over at the big blind’s cards, and then finally back at his own cards. He mucks his cards. The dealer asks him to pay the big blind the money that he owes him. As all of this happens, the floor asks the big blind to go to front podium to cash out. At this point the bully realizes that the big blind is leaving and refuses to pay.

“No!” he shouts. “I am not going to pay him if he is leaving. It doesn’t work that way.”

The dealer explains to him that he is obligated to pay the bet. He still refuses to pay, explaining that he will only pay him if the big blind stays to play. The floor returns to rack up the big blind’s chips and learns that the bully is refusing to pay the bet. The floor informs the bully that if he does not pay the bet he will have to leave. The bully continues to protest, unfortunately the floor tells him he is done and has him rack up his chips.

Just like that we went from two games down to one.

Bizzy’s 2024 Gains: -$120.85