|
Ben has gone
from good dealer, to better dealer, to a dealer that has the
respect of his peers and most players
(there are
always some players that will blame a dealer for a losing hand
or session. They won’t accept the fact that they just played bad
or were unlucky!)
Ben still
puts in a full shift (sometimes longer) running a smooth game at
a pace that he controls, while protecting the players and the
house (Just what a dealer is suppose to do).
Fiore came to
Vegas as a tourist in the late 60’s and early 70’s, like what he
saw and after having a pizzeria and working construction in New
York state his wife one day said “Let’s move to Vegas”, so Ben
got the VA to put him through 21 and Craps dealing school, but
the school did not guarantee him a job, so he drove cab for six
months, until one day in 1973 he walked into the Dunes where
Johnny Moss was auditioning dealers for the room he leased (yes
in those days some poker rooms were leased). Ben recalls “I was
so nervous the first hand I dealt, I dealt myself in”. (Must
have been a good game!) Ben impressed Johnny, and he
had him come in on “grave” that night.
Ben has been
“burning & turning” ever since, including a session that he and
this reporter dealt together at the Silverbird for Doyle Brunson & Eric
Drache. Ben also worked at the (new) MGM for nine or ten years,
opening and closing the room. (Coincidence?)
When asked
what is the biggest change in poker from the 70s to today Ben
stated, “All those kids coming here from California that won a
tournament there, and brought their inflated egos to Vegas, and
in most cases had their heads handed to them”.
Ben is
currently counting the days before he takes some time off to
bask on the beaches of Hawaii, then it’s back to the poker tables
to put in more years babysitting the second most popular indoor
sport in the world.
Finally, when
asked, “If you were stuck in one game, the whole shift every day
for a month, what ten players (of all time) would you like to
see in your game? Ben replied:
|
Treetop
Strauss |
| Bill Baxter |
| Scotty
Nguyen |
| Phil
Hellmuth |
| Phil Ivey |
| Cyndy
Violette |
| Jim Chagra
|
| Johnny Moss |
| Telly
Savalas |
| Eric Drache |
|
