Right now, they are low. Just flat out near the bottom of the bucket as to how low.
Last night, attended what amounted to a championship tournament in free poker for the previous 12 weeks of the 'league' that had formed. This is a Tuesday night game and usually in the bar so it's only adults over the age of 20.
When I went there, had the intention of dealing until the blinds were really high. Was even willing to deal after I was put out of the tourney. A barmaid there that was recently married announces she's expecting. Yes, expecting a child.... not tips.... er, not just tips.
That's pretty big. Like huge. So it's understandable that people aren't going to be focused on poker initially. So the first few minutes, watch all the women give her hugs and pecks on the cheeks, congrats all around, etc. The game starts. The rounds for each level of blinds are 15 minutes. They go 10/20, 20/40, 50/100 and then colour the 10 and 20 chips to black during break.
When you deal, you don't have time to drink a Pepsi or eat, you don't have a lot of time to stack your own chips when you win a hand nor do you have a lot of time to socialize (joke, small-talk, what not). Don't have a problem with other people really doing that... unless of course they are still 'in the hand'. That probably needs defining, so here goes. Everyone is dealt two cards. Until they fold them, they are 'in the hand'. Now if they are away from the table, they are mucked and not really in that hand.
Well, people get extra chips for tipping or for ordering food & drinks. SO if someone is getting a little low on their chip stack, they can add a few to it by making the hosting restaurant owner a little more profitable. Fine... when the waitress gets there, can expect they are going to put in their order before she runs off somewheres else. Yet when the start talking about some unrelated subject, eating their meal and not even looking at the table... all while they are big blind... and you say out loud "Option"... they ignore you. And so it got me to steaming. Someone else asked at the table after about half a minute... "What are we waiting on?". I level my arm her way and she's still not 'aware' it's her turn. Now I'm just about broiling.
When she does turn around, she says "I'm sorry, didn't know it was my turn." I'm pretty sure she even said "Why didn't someone tell me?". So steaming went to fuming to boiling over. Mentioned that I said that allowed... and then spoke up... "This is irritating enough I'm about to walk". Things improved at our table and I was even glad to see she was the first one out from there.
I'm sorry... championship tourney. Not everyone doubled or tripled their stack with their purchases/gratuities. So playing the low-end blinds are pretty important. And you have 6-7 other people sitting there doing nothing while 1 person is acting as if the world exists for their pleasure. Yeah, I should not have gotten that nasty about it and threatened to leave. Should have been thick skinned and ignored it all, focusing on dealing and playing my hands. Whether or not you are in the hand you are dealing, you can't progress through it because someone isn't paying attention.
If this were a regular ol' game where people didn't pay good money to participate in the league and have to wait 3 months to play this game, I'd be able to blow it off much easier. And to make matters worse, some guy tosses his cards into the middle of the table and then drags them back and says "Wait a minute"... while I push the chips to the only person left in the hand. Then they get pissed off saying they didn't fold and that their cards didn't touch any chips/cards/people's hands, etc.
I didn't get to overly worked up over that... and I'm sure I pissed that guy off when I told him that was considered a fold. Told him the owner that hosted this thing was right across from me if he wanted adjudication. The restaurant owner told me/him that it is the dealer's call.
Honestly, would much rather that I didn't deal so I can focus on the game much better.. and have time to try to read players and consider actions up to that point. When you are dealing and keeping the pot's chip count accurate, you don't have that benefit... so you sacrifice something to deal for other players... because if I don't deal, you'd be surprised how hard it seems for them to find anyone else to do so.
Yeah, the tolerance levels are really low right now. These are adults and I was trying to get away from the games where kids play on Wed/Fri/Sat nights. Honestly, maybe should play more with the kids... at least they respect me.. and you more than half-way expect them to not be paying attention or socializing or whatever. The owner's son (maybe his step-son) likes to talk on the cellular telephone while he plays. The kid is good, by the way. Even when he's got it glued to his ear. And if you get irritated at him spending all that time during the game on it... wait until he is off. He is like a non-stop talking machine. So then you realize how you should have been glad he was talking on it in the first place.
There are some really good people up there, a lot of really bad beats and a heckuva lot of reasons why people don't take it serious... one being that it's free poker... meaning you play for points/prestige/winning instead of money. But at some point, they should probably realize other people *do* take it seriously and that some tournaments *are* bigger than others.
Okay, maybe my attitude will improve now that it's all been aired out. And everyone can feel free to post their thoughts... not responding to them though since I'm trying to shut this one out of my mind :)
