Poker Pressure

I don't think there is a way to quite duplicate the nervousness and pressure I felt the first day of the tournament. As a woman, sitting down to deal cards to a table of ten men, all of whom know poker better than I do and have played for years, can be quite intimidating. I made it through without having a stroke though. Of course, I made mistakes. What new poker dealer doesn't? The table (players) helped me out with a few instances on occasion. There was the time I was so nervous I couldn't count chips down for a payout. It wound up being about 394,000 in chips. There was another time I got confused with a side pot. There's one thing about it, poker players know how much in chips they're playing with and where it's supposed to go. Oh, and one time I was supposed to shout out "Seat open, table two." Instead, I shouted, "Table open, seat two." That got a laugh from everyone. On the last day, I mucked one of seat one's cards by mistake when everyone at his end of the table folded except for him. He was in for 3,000 in chips. I had to call the floor person over. The player played the hand with one card and lost. I felt terrible, but I guess that's one of the reasons why the casino announces over the loud speaker to protect your hands if you are in the one or ten seat. The WPT (World Poker Tournament) at the Borgata is continuing through the 18th. The 16th was my last day. Don and I were only temps. Hopefully, we can work at their next tournament too.

Cheryl