Day 8 - May 30th, the first day of the WSOP

I was pretty nervous when I went in to start my first shift.  There weren't many games going though, and the Dealer Coordinator told us that today would probably be a lot of sitting around and waiting.  However, right after our meeting ended, Amy (the day shift supervisor) came in and asked for nine volunteers.  I wanted to get a day of work under my belt before the series began (tournaments start the 31st), so I jumped forward to volunteer.  As it turned out, we were sent to deal heads-up matches in a satellite tournament for Event #2, the $25,000 buy-in Heads-up tournament.

I was sitting, waiting for players, and Joseph Cheong sat down at my table!  If you forgot or didn't know who he is, he finished in 3rd in the Main Event last year.  He was a slight chipleader and 5 or 6 bet all-in preflop w/ A-7 against Jonathan Duhamel when Duhamel had Q-Q, called, and propelled himself to the title.  Unfortuately, the tournament had a problem with the draw and all the players left their seats for a redraw.  I ended up dealing to Alex Kim and a young Russian player who both seemed to play really well.  They should play well if they're entering a $1500 satellite tournament!  Kim won the pivotal hand when he moved all-in and the Russian called on a board of Q♦ 2♠ 4♦ 9♥ K♦.  The Russian had J♣ 10♠ for a straight, but Kim had 10♦ 5♦ for a winning flush.

After dealing that match I was moved to the cash game tables.  I was pretty overwhelmed for a bit, especially when my second table was a $5/$10 Pot Limit Big-O H/L 8-or better Split game.  Big-O is just like Omaha except the players receive five downcards instead of four.  To make matters worse, I tapped the outgoing dealer just as he was finishing a hand, so I had no time to count the table bank.  Each table has $500 in $5, $2, and $1 chips.  The incoming dealer has to verify that it is $500 at the beginning of their down (a down is a 30 minute shift dealing at a table).  Rather than do what I should do and count the bank before dealing a hand, I tried to count it as the hand played out.  Big mistake, especially in pot limit, where I have to keep track of the pot at all times.  So my first hand was a bit of a fiasco.  After that, I got better, but I never did end up counting the bank.  As it turned out, the bank was $5 short, and I had to make it up out of my tips.  Lesson learned I guess.

Counting the bank turned out to be the most difficult problem I had all night.  I struggled on every table to get the bank counted, but I think I ended up with the rest all being right.  Hope so anyway.  On the bright side, I was all over the rake.  I don't think I missed a single one!

Pros that I saw today included Sam Grizzle (from Day 2 of the 2003 WSOP and Phil Hellmuth's big rival), Joseph Cheong, Vanessa Rousso, Jeff Lisandro, Scott Clements, and Humberto Brenes.  Scott Clements is smaller than he looks on TV, which surprised me.  So is Lisandro.  Grizzle was just hanging out talking to people, I walked past Brenes in the walkway, and the other four were playing the heads-up satellite.

I'm working tomorrow at 4PM again.  Then I have Wednesday and Thursday off, and maybe Friday and Saturday off too.  We'll see.  Hopefully I'm dealing the $25K Heads-up tournament tomorrow.  If not, then hopefully I'm dealing single table satellites.  Cash games are rough!