my first-ever call for the floor

[lossage]

Recently, I sat down at the $5/$10 limit Hold'em game at Resorts East Chicago. The guy immediately to my left reeks of (bad) beer and is visibly wobbly. It's 7:30 p.m. or so, and it looks like this guy's been sucking down Miller Lites as quickly as possible since he got off work at the construction site at about 1400 hours.

We play a couple of hands without incident, but then he launches into a slurred but passionate tirade aimed at another player, ''Why are you tipping that [bad word] dealer, you dumb [bad word]? The dealers [very bad word] suck here.''

All the players ignore him. The dealer quietly says, ''Sir, I've warned you about your language before.''

Over the next half-hour, he donks off most of his remaining stack and drinks another two Miller Lites. Then, he wins a small pot, after which he blatantly ratholes about $20 or $30 in his shirt pocket. He moves his hand really slowly when he's doing it, like I'm a tyrannosaurus and can't see him if he's still. (Obviously, I am not a tyrannosaurus; I would have promptly eaten this asshat if I were.) Then, he slides a white chip toward the dealer and mumbles, ''That's for the other dealers. This [bad word] dealer [bad word] sucks [bad word] [bad word].''

''Floor, please,'' I say to the dealer. I tell the supervisor that the guy to my left has been behaving abusively toward the dealer and other players. The supervisor gives him a warning.

The very next hand, I put a delicious AQ vs. KK bad beat on him to bust him, and he left the table. On his way out of the poker room, he drops a Shock And Awe style barrage of F-bombs that earn him a 48-hour vacation from the casino and a personal escort from a big, dark-skinned hunk.

This is the only time I've ever called the floor in four years of playing B&M, and I'm curious what you old hats prefer to do about abusive players.