Breaking the cherry...

Viv, Darko and I were witness to W's first professional dealing gig at the Virginia room tonight. While she was definitely green behind the gills, she showed pretty good promise if she can just remember to concentrate and not comment on player's hands, before, during or after the hand. She caught herself making a few mistakes but she performed admirably overall and we're all very proud of her. A few helpful tips, though, if she's reading this:
1. Be deliberate in your movements. Better to be slow and accurate than fast and error-prone. Remember when you mucked the board and there was still action to be had? 'Nuff said.
2. Refrain from talking to players unless it is absolutely necessary.
3. Learn how to take the rake without thinking about it. This one is just practice. The Virginia Room has a 5% rake. Just keep a running tally of the pot in your head, then, when action is completed for that round, get 10% of that in your head by chopping off the last digit. Ignore the remainder. For example, if UTG raises to 10 and gets 3 callers, then the pot is $30. When you chop off the last digit for 10% (the zero in this case), you get $3. Now, halve that to get 5%. That's $1.50. You should round down for the rake, so that's $1. Now, you've taken the rake for that round, you don't have to recount the whole pot, just what's bet on that street. Sounds complicated but is easy once you practice it.

Ok, enough of that. So what happened at the cash game? We all bought in for $200. Darko and Viv ended up losing most or all of their buyins but I was able to hang tough even though I got creamed in the first hour. 3 times I had big cards that hit top pair. All 3 times I bet out to take the pot down and got re-raised huge. Once by Viv and twice by other players. All 3 times I folded correctly to bigger hands. Viv had AK to my AJ when a naked Ace flopped. I folded KQ on a KJ8 board. Viv had AA and re-raised me and the guy to my left re-raised on top of that with a set of Jacks. I wisely laid down. Only once did I try to push, when Darko, with AQ, flopped Queen high and me, with my Asian Jew and no pair, didn't believe him. I paid him off to the tune of $50 on that hand. But, I did manage to double up my meager $35 stack when my Ad5d flopped a flush draw and I pushed all in, getting one caller and hitting on the turn. Later, I took down a $50 pot with my KK when three undercards came and it checked to me on the button. I stabbed about $35 and everyone folded. My very last hand of the night, I straddle for $4 and get AA. Instead of anyone raising (dammit), I get 4 callers. When it gets to my option, I raise $20 on top and everyone folds (double dammit). I can't complain though. That was the right move.

I finished the night basically break even (down $30) for 3 hours of play.