The $25,000 Toke, No Joke!
In this industry of ours, you get to hear plenty of great stories. The other day I was having lunch with some friends of mine and they told me this one.
A dealer was dealing the Big Game here in Las Vegas. For those of you who aren’t aware of the Big Game, allow me to extrapolate a little. The Big Game is the biggest regular poker game in the world. With blinds of $4,000/$8,000, most players don’t sit down with anything less than $100,000. Players such as Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, and Sammy Farha are regulars.
However, during this particular session, there was another player at the table who no one knew. Rumor has it that the dealer hit this guy with the deck something shocking. During the 30 minute down, the unknown player simply ran over the game. This guy was winning so many pots that he couldn’t even stack the chips anymore.
Just before the dealer was about to leave the table, he pushed a monster pot of about $300,000 to the new guy. The player then grabbed three random chips from his pile and handed them to the dealer.
Here is where the story gets interesting. According to the rumor, the dealer was given two $5,000 chips and one $25,000 chip.
Now, if I were this dealer, I would already be packing my bags for Costa Rica. But what did this guy do? Incredibly, he walked back to the table, approached the player and asked, “I’m sorry to interrupt, sir, but are you sure that you wanted to give these to me?”
The player then almost fell out of his chair. He said, “Well, of course not. Thank you,” as he took back the three chips from the dealer and replaced them with one $100 chip. Nice one, dealer. Way to go. You could have taken 1,000 years worth of tips from that table in one fell swoop; but no, honesty got the better of you. I commend you for your integrity, but the way you handled it is not commendable. For me, there is no way in hell I would approach that player without the backing of the poker room manager.
Another funny story involving a $25,000 chip comes from the 2004 WSOP. The event was still at the Horseshoe back then, and I was one of the many dealers working day shift. As I came to work that day, I remember heading down to the cash game pit to check in. When I got downstairs, I saw Sammy Farha on the tail end of an all night heads-up session. Apparently Sammy had lost a substantial amount of money to a player who had just decided he’d had enough for the night. Well, also sitting at the table was the dealer, who had not only busted Sammy, but also busted the game. As the other player was leaving, he thanked Sammy and then the dealer, throwing a $25 chip in his direction. The dealer said, “Thank you, sir” and placed the chip in his pocket. Sammy found this rather entertaining, so he decided he would tip the dealer as well.
Sammy threw a $25,000 chip towards the dealer and mockingly said, “Thank you, dealer.” Well, against his better judgment and for reasons that, to this day, I cannot explain, the dealer put the chip in his pocket. You should have seen Sammy’s face. It was priceless. The dealer placed the lid on his rack and got out of his chair. Sammy then asked the dealer, “Do you think that you deserve that?”
Now, I can’t say that I know what was going through this particular dealer’s mind, but some karate lessons and a big gun should have been on the top of the agenda if he was intending to keep that tip.
The dealer did eventually give back the $25,000 to Sammy, however, and I suspect that this is the only reason he is still dealing and breathing today.
I hope you have enjoyed these two tales of the incredible $25,000 chip. They’ve certainly been inserted into the dealer hall of fame as the biggest tokes that never got cashed. May the flop be with you . . . Always!THE HUX
