On Tuesday, I dealt another $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament. I dealt to Joe Sebok, but nobody else that I recognized. After a while, Jimmy came by and removed the break sticker from the table I was dealing at, meaning that there is no longer a break for the dealer after getting pushed from that table; the dealer just pushes into the next table in line. He told me not to push and to go see Amy when I got pushed. I thought for a minute that I was in trouble for something and then I heard him tell the dealer behind me the same thing. Then I realized that it was around 3:15, and that the Deepstack was probably delayed until 4PM and that I was probably going to be dealing it.
My suspicions were confirmed and I was sent to deal the Deepstack. The end result was that I dealt eight straight downs without a break. It was exhausting, but I did get a lot of downs in, so I'll be happy come payday.
On Wednesday my shift started at 1PM and I was right at the bottom of the alphabet. I got the option of being a payout runner for the $1,500 tournament, which was in day two and about to burst the money bubble. I was worried that if I turned it down I might get sent to cash so I took it. It was a very easy job. All I had to do was get players that had just busted, and escort them to the payout station which was twenty feet away. The down side was that I had nothing to do until 3:30 and I only worked for an hour, getting only two downs. When I went to Amy to get a new assignment, she was letting people leave for the day. My parents had just driven into town an hour before, so I decided to leave.
I met my parents at the Venetian and we walked around for a bit before going to dinner at Canaletto. Dinner was great and my Dad and I decided to go to the Rio and check out some tournaments afterwards. We watched the final eight players of the $10,000 Six-handed event for a bit, but then the $2,500 Mixed Stud/Omaha High/Low tournament went to the final table. We got a seat overlooking the table, which included Michael Mizrachi and Scotty Nguyen. We were pretty tired, so we left when there were still seven players remaining.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Day 31-36: Jessica's visit
On Wednesday I dealt another $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament. I dealt to Dennis Phillips, Adam Levy, and Rene Angelil, who is Celine Dion's husband and manager. I somehow scraped twelve downs out of the day, despite only getting three at a time between breaks. It looked for a while like I was going to be stuck in the box throughout the players' dinner break, but they sent a relief for me a little after 7:00.
Wednesday night I picked Jessica up from the airport. On Thursday it was 108 degrees and we went to the Hoover Dam. The full fledged tour wasn't for another couple of hours, so we did the power plant tour which starts every fifteen minutes instead. The video they showed us was incredibly corny, but the dam tour was fascinating! After leaving the dam, we went to the Rio for their seafood buffet which was really good, but expensive. Gotta love the employee discount!
On Friday, I worked the 1PM to 9PM shift for the first time. I was right at the top of the alphabet and had my choice between dealing day three of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em, day three of the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold 'em / Omaha mix, day two of the $5,000 Six-handed No-Limit Hold 'em, or the 2:00PM daily Deepstack tournament. In hopes of an easy day I chose the Deepstack. It also was the only tournament where I would start getting downs at 1:30; the others were either 2:30 or 3:00 restarts. I started on table 264 in the tan section of the Amazon Room, which was the first table in a set of six straight with no breaks. Fortunately, I didn't need to use the bathroom or anything! I dealt seven straight downs, getting stuck once when no push came, and then they broke my table. I was worried that they would send me to cash, but then I realized that my break would be over at 5:30, just in time for the 6:00PM Deepstack! Sure enough, I was sent to start the Deepstack and ended up back in the tan section again. Jamie, who runs the evening Deepstack, told us to pick a table so I went back to 264 again to maximize my downs. I got six more in before getting relieved, to bring my daily total to thirteen downs. Good day!
Saturday held yet another $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'em, and I was assigned a table in the prime real estate black section. My day was mostly uneventful, except for one table where I had my first major screw-up of the WSOP. One player moved all-in for 1,625 chips and another tossed in a blue 500 chip, a green 25 chip, and a handful of black 100 chips. My first mistake was not verifying the amount exactly, because this player had given me problems at the table already. He threw chips into the pot in phases, and I had already forced him to only call when he wanted to raise earlier. The all-in player showed 6♥ 6♣ and the caller showed A♥ 6♦. Another player said aloud that he folded A-5, so only two aces were left in the deck to eliminate the all-in player. I dragged the bets into the pot, burned a card, and started to put out a flop when another player stopped me and asked me to verify the call. The caller was actually 200 chips short, and after getting the chips from him I continued to put out a flop. One problem. I thought that I had put one flop card down already, when I had actually put two. So I rolled out a four card flop of A♠ 3♠ 3♥ 3♣. The worst part was that I knew immediately what had happened and that the ace was supposed to be the burn card for the turn. We called the floor, who instructed me to mix the cards together face down while he turned his back. I misunderstood him and mixed the flop cards with the entire deck stub to turn this into a full fledged fiasco! We had to call a tournament supervisor to the table and everything. I was supposed to only mix the flop cards together and the floor would randomly select the three to be the flop and the fourth would be the burn card for the turn. Now I had to continue mixing and put out a whole new board. I managed to flop the A♠ again to eliminate the all-in player from the tournament. I felt awful about him getting eliminated because of my mistake. Fortunately I was moving to the next table immediately afterwards so I was able to get composed again fairly quickly.
On Saturday night Jessica and I went to Japonais, which is an excellent restaurant inside the Mirage. We had a spicy octopus roll and sweet and sour calamari in a wasabi vinaigrette, which were both to die for! Jess ordered nori encrusted salmon and I ordered a pork loin with clams for our entrees which were both good, but not as good as the appetizers. It was a great meal overall though!
Sunday was yet another $1,000 No-Limit Hold 'em. I was near the bottom of the alphabet and started in the blue section of the Amazon Room. I didn't even know the Amazon had a blue section! My table broke after only a half hour of dealing and I had to go get a new assignment from Amy. Lucky for me, I pushed into the black section in the Pavilion again! The biggest name pro that I dealt to was Alex Jacob who won the US Poker Championship in 2006. Two interesting hands came up in the tournament, one because it was hilarious and one because it illustrates a subtle poker concept that apparently not all WSOP players understand.
The first hand occurred when a player made a bet with a board that read 10♥ 6♣ 10♠ Q♦ 6♥. The other player in the hand thought for a while and finally called. The first player instantly threw his cards face down across the table. Some players do this when they get caught bluffing, and it annoys some players to no end because they paid money to see the other player's hand. I properly mucked his cards and then the caller showed 5♦ 4♥. His cards didn't even play (he played the board, two pair with a queen kicker), but he won the entire pot because the bluffer mucked his hand!
The second hand is a subtle concept that all good players apply, and is one of the major leaks in the game of mediocre players. Four players saw a flop of A♥ 7♠ 4♦, and the player who had raised preflop bet. One player called. The turn was the 2♠ and the bettor bet again. The caller called again. The river was the J♦ and the bettor now checked. The caller now made a bet of around 400 into a pot of around 1,000. The other player called and showed A♠ 9♠ after the river bettor had shown A♣ 8♦. The river bettor made a large mistake in betting the river in my opinion. It is referred to as a reverse freeroll; it is a bet that can only lose money. The reason for this is that his opponent is almost never folding a better hand than his pair of aces, so the bet has no value as a bluff. Additionally, his opponent is almost never calling with a hand that he can beat, so the bet cannot be for value. So he can't win any more money with a bet, but he can lose more. His pair of aces has showdown value; checking behind the first player is the optimal play here. True, this level of thinking is a little advanced, but I would expect most WSOP players to be thinking on this level, or even above it.
Caesars' properties combine to offer a buffet deal where you can eat at any of the buffets as many times as you like within 24 hours for only $45! Sunday night Jessica and I went to the Paris Casino for our first buffet. The prime rib was awesome, and the rest of the buffet was pretty good. We went to Caesars Palace for breakfast on Monday, which wasn't all that good. We then hit the Rio buffet for lunch. While we were there I made Jessica put up with me giving her a tour of the WSOP. That evening we hit Planet Hollywood for dinner, which was the best of all the buffets. They had a Middle Eastern section, which no other buffets had, and their kabobs were excellent. Also their crab legs were even better than the seafood buffet at the Rio!
On Tuesday morning I had to take Jessica to the airport, which sucked. At least she was able to spend five days with me, two of which I had off. It worked out really well, and we had a great time!
Wednesday night I picked Jessica up from the airport. On Thursday it was 108 degrees and we went to the Hoover Dam. The full fledged tour wasn't for another couple of hours, so we did the power plant tour which starts every fifteen minutes instead. The video they showed us was incredibly corny, but the dam tour was fascinating! After leaving the dam, we went to the Rio for their seafood buffet which was really good, but expensive. Gotta love the employee discount!
On Friday, I worked the 1PM to 9PM shift for the first time. I was right at the top of the alphabet and had my choice between dealing day three of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em, day three of the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold 'em / Omaha mix, day two of the $5,000 Six-handed No-Limit Hold 'em, or the 2:00PM daily Deepstack tournament. In hopes of an easy day I chose the Deepstack. It also was the only tournament where I would start getting downs at 1:30; the others were either 2:30 or 3:00 restarts. I started on table 264 in the tan section of the Amazon Room, which was the first table in a set of six straight with no breaks. Fortunately, I didn't need to use the bathroom or anything! I dealt seven straight downs, getting stuck once when no push came, and then they broke my table. I was worried that they would send me to cash, but then I realized that my break would be over at 5:30, just in time for the 6:00PM Deepstack! Sure enough, I was sent to start the Deepstack and ended up back in the tan section again. Jamie, who runs the evening Deepstack, told us to pick a table so I went back to 264 again to maximize my downs. I got six more in before getting relieved, to bring my daily total to thirteen downs. Good day!
Saturday held yet another $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'em, and I was assigned a table in the prime real estate black section. My day was mostly uneventful, except for one table where I had my first major screw-up of the WSOP. One player moved all-in for 1,625 chips and another tossed in a blue 500 chip, a green 25 chip, and a handful of black 100 chips. My first mistake was not verifying the amount exactly, because this player had given me problems at the table already. He threw chips into the pot in phases, and I had already forced him to only call when he wanted to raise earlier. The all-in player showed 6♥ 6♣ and the caller showed A♥ 6♦. Another player said aloud that he folded A-5, so only two aces were left in the deck to eliminate the all-in player. I dragged the bets into the pot, burned a card, and started to put out a flop when another player stopped me and asked me to verify the call. The caller was actually 200 chips short, and after getting the chips from him I continued to put out a flop. One problem. I thought that I had put one flop card down already, when I had actually put two. So I rolled out a four card flop of A♠ 3♠ 3♥ 3♣. The worst part was that I knew immediately what had happened and that the ace was supposed to be the burn card for the turn. We called the floor, who instructed me to mix the cards together face down while he turned his back. I misunderstood him and mixed the flop cards with the entire deck stub to turn this into a full fledged fiasco! We had to call a tournament supervisor to the table and everything. I was supposed to only mix the flop cards together and the floor would randomly select the three to be the flop and the fourth would be the burn card for the turn. Now I had to continue mixing and put out a whole new board. I managed to flop the A♠ again to eliminate the all-in player from the tournament. I felt awful about him getting eliminated because of my mistake. Fortunately I was moving to the next table immediately afterwards so I was able to get composed again fairly quickly.
On Saturday night Jessica and I went to Japonais, which is an excellent restaurant inside the Mirage. We had a spicy octopus roll and sweet and sour calamari in a wasabi vinaigrette, which were both to die for! Jess ordered nori encrusted salmon and I ordered a pork loin with clams for our entrees which were both good, but not as good as the appetizers. It was a great meal overall though!
Sunday was yet another $1,000 No-Limit Hold 'em. I was near the bottom of the alphabet and started in the blue section of the Amazon Room. I didn't even know the Amazon had a blue section! My table broke after only a half hour of dealing and I had to go get a new assignment from Amy. Lucky for me, I pushed into the black section in the Pavilion again! The biggest name pro that I dealt to was Alex Jacob who won the US Poker Championship in 2006. Two interesting hands came up in the tournament, one because it was hilarious and one because it illustrates a subtle poker concept that apparently not all WSOP players understand.
The first hand occurred when a player made a bet with a board that read 10♥ 6♣ 10♠ Q♦ 6♥. The other player in the hand thought for a while and finally called. The first player instantly threw his cards face down across the table. Some players do this when they get caught bluffing, and it annoys some players to no end because they paid money to see the other player's hand. I properly mucked his cards and then the caller showed 5♦ 4♥. His cards didn't even play (he played the board, two pair with a queen kicker), but he won the entire pot because the bluffer mucked his hand!
The second hand is a subtle concept that all good players apply, and is one of the major leaks in the game of mediocre players. Four players saw a flop of A♥ 7♠ 4♦, and the player who had raised preflop bet. One player called. The turn was the 2♠ and the bettor bet again. The caller called again. The river was the J♦ and the bettor now checked. The caller now made a bet of around 400 into a pot of around 1,000. The other player called and showed A♠ 9♠ after the river bettor had shown A♣ 8♦. The river bettor made a large mistake in betting the river in my opinion. It is referred to as a reverse freeroll; it is a bet that can only lose money. The reason for this is that his opponent is almost never folding a better hand than his pair of aces, so the bet has no value as a bluff. Additionally, his opponent is almost never calling with a hand that he can beat, so the bet cannot be for value. So he can't win any more money with a bet, but he can lose more. His pair of aces has showdown value; checking behind the first player is the optimal play here. True, this level of thinking is a little advanced, but I would expect most WSOP players to be thinking on this level, or even above it.
Caesars' properties combine to offer a buffet deal where you can eat at any of the buffets as many times as you like within 24 hours for only $45! Sunday night Jessica and I went to the Paris Casino for our first buffet. The prime rib was awesome, and the rest of the buffet was pretty good. We went to Caesars Palace for breakfast on Monday, which wasn't all that good. We then hit the Rio buffet for lunch. While we were there I made Jessica put up with me giving her a tour of the WSOP. That evening we hit Planet Hollywood for dinner, which was the best of all the buffets. They had a Middle Eastern section, which no other buffets had, and their kabobs were excellent. Also their crab legs were even better than the seafood buffet at the Rio!
On Tuesday morning I had to take Jessica to the airport, which sucked. At least she was able to spend five days with me, two of which I had off. It worked out really well, and we had a great time!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Day 30: Satellite action
On Tuesday I was near the bottom of the list and I was homeless for the first hour. Amy met a group of us behind the Pavilion doors to give out assignments and said she had a couple of satellite spots available. A guy next to me and I both said "Sats" and put up our hands at the exact same time. Amy laughed and sent us both to the satellite section.
My first satellite was a $275 buy-in which sucks because the players get 1,500 starting chips instead of 1,000 and the blinds go up every 20 minutes instead of 15. Normally, the winner gets five $500 tournament chips and $120 in cash, though players work out deals once they are heads-up a lot of the time. When the satellite got three handed, they decided to play it out and give first place three chips, second place two chips, and third got the cash. Then they played the tightest poker imaginable, trying to not finish third. The satellite, which should take two hours or below, took over three hours. They were all such tightwads that I was thrilled when first and second both handed me $20 after the satellite was over. I was expecting to get stiffed.
I didn't get another satellite until 5:00 because there were too many dealers in the section and not enough tables available. Usually dealers can get four satellites in a day, but I was looking at two. Fortunately, my second satellite was a $1,050 buy-in, which awards 20 $500 chips and $120 cash, and I get paid $25 instead of the normal $15 for dealing it! A bunch of internet kids, an older foreign sounding guy, and Dan Heimiller sat down to play. I was a bad beat dealer at this table as I beat Q-Q with K-7 (two kings hit the board), A-A with 2-2 (deuce on the turn), A-K with K-Q (straight after ace flopped), A-7 with 7-5 (an ace in the window and two fives hit the board), and Q-Q with Q-9s (flush on turn). The two players remaining decided to chop it and gave me $105, so I went away happy even though the satellite finished at 8:30.
Jessica has been visiting me for five days, during which I have neglected to blog. I will blog more tonight and try to catch up a bit.
My first satellite was a $275 buy-in which sucks because the players get 1,500 starting chips instead of 1,000 and the blinds go up every 20 minutes instead of 15. Normally, the winner gets five $500 tournament chips and $120 in cash, though players work out deals once they are heads-up a lot of the time. When the satellite got three handed, they decided to play it out and give first place three chips, second place two chips, and third got the cash. Then they played the tightest poker imaginable, trying to not finish third. The satellite, which should take two hours or below, took over three hours. They were all such tightwads that I was thrilled when first and second both handed me $20 after the satellite was over. I was expecting to get stiffed.
I didn't get another satellite until 5:00 because there were too many dealers in the section and not enough tables available. Usually dealers can get four satellites in a day, but I was looking at two. Fortunately, my second satellite was a $1,050 buy-in, which awards 20 $500 chips and $120 cash, and I get paid $25 instead of the normal $15 for dealing it! A bunch of internet kids, an older foreign sounding guy, and Dan Heimiller sat down to play. I was a bad beat dealer at this table as I beat Q-Q with K-7 (two kings hit the board), A-A with 2-2 (deuce on the turn), A-K with K-Q (straight after ace flopped), A-7 with 7-5 (an ace in the window and two fives hit the board), and Q-Q with Q-9s (flush on turn). The two players remaining decided to chop it and gave me $105, so I went away happy even though the satellite finished at 8:30.
Jessica has been visiting me for five days, during which I have neglected to blog. I will blog more tonight and try to catch up a bit.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Day 27-29: Fun Weekend and Good Monday
On Saturday, I dealt another $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em. Matt Stout showed up ten minutes late at my first table and immediately wanted to speak to the floorman. Since he was one of the later signups for the event, he drew seat 8, which is left vacant at every table and seat 8's chips are not blinded off to allow late registrants to play with a full stack. The only penalty (if you can call it that) is that they have to wait until their big blind to be dealt in for the first time. He argued that he had bought his seat the night before and that he shouldn't have to wait to be dealt in. He threw a small fit about it and the floorman came over and told me to deal him in. So I dealt him in on the first hand he was at the table, which was one hand before he would be the big blind anyway. Really, dude?
My first break coincided with the players' first break which always sucks because there is no easier money than getting credit for a down spent babysitting chips. Strange as it is, I dealt to my cousin, Michael Kinney, on my second table after the break. He told me that my uncle Mick made it late into day one of the senior's event, but busted right before the day ended. Michael was pretty card dead; he only played a couple of pots while I dealt and won none of them.
On my very next table, I looked to my right and saw my roommate Marc seated next to me in seat ten. After dealing at the table for about ten minutes, a wild sequence of hands ensued. First, an early position short stacked player raised and a late position player raised all-in. Marc looked at his cards, thought for a few seconds, and said "I'm all-in". The first player called and flipped over A♣ K♣, the second showed 6♥ 6♦, and Marc showed his A♠ A♥. I put out a board of Q♠ 10♠ 4♣ 8♥ 4♦ and Marc knocked two players out of the tournament! Less than an orbit later, another early position player raised and was called. Marc re-raised and showed A-A again after both opponents folded. A couple of hands later, Marc won again and showed K-K. I was sure happy we hadn't told anyone we were staying in the same place. Marc actually made it to day two and cashed in the tournament! He made $3,000 for finishing 220th out of 2800ish players.
Sunday morning was another $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'em tournament. Adam "Roothlus" Levy and Hoyt Corkins were at my first table. Faraz Jaka was at my second table and Bruce Buffer was at my third. Bruce's brother Michael Buffer is the "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" guy that introduces every major boxing match, it seems. Later in the day, I dealt to Tom Schneider, the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year. I asked him if it's surreal to see his face blown up on one of the banners outside the poker room. He laughed and said that he doesn't really think about it anymore. He said that he was really lucky that year. I talked to him quite a bit and actually talked to him a little more after my shift. He is a really nice guy.
Monday was the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha six-handed event. Yikes! PLO is always difficult to deal anyway, and when you add in the pressure of many recognizable pros at the tables, it gets pretty rough. Barry Greenstein was at my first table and he was running those guys over. He check-raised almost every dangerous looking flop and his opponents almost always folded. I also dealt to Lex Veldhuis before I had the privilege of dealing to one of the many tables of death. This six-handed table contained Brandon Adams, Amnon Filippi, Layne Flack, JC Tran, Brian Hastings, and Ryan Dodge. Fortunately for those guys, the table broke after a half hour.
Since my table broke, I had to go and get a new assignment from Jimmy. Lots of people were getting sent back into the tournament, but he asked the woman in front of me if she wanted live (cash) or satellites. She replied that she didn't like either, and before Jimmy could respond I popped over her shoulder and said "I like satellites!" Jimmy said ok and sent me to satellites. Besides my six tournament downs, I worked two single table satellites ($15 each) and made $70 in tips. A good day overall!
My first break coincided with the players' first break which always sucks because there is no easier money than getting credit for a down spent babysitting chips. Strange as it is, I dealt to my cousin, Michael Kinney, on my second table after the break. He told me that my uncle Mick made it late into day one of the senior's event, but busted right before the day ended. Michael was pretty card dead; he only played a couple of pots while I dealt and won none of them.
On my very next table, I looked to my right and saw my roommate Marc seated next to me in seat ten. After dealing at the table for about ten minutes, a wild sequence of hands ensued. First, an early position short stacked player raised and a late position player raised all-in. Marc looked at his cards, thought for a few seconds, and said "I'm all-in". The first player called and flipped over A♣ K♣, the second showed 6♥ 6♦, and Marc showed his A♠ A♥. I put out a board of Q♠ 10♠ 4♣ 8♥ 4♦ and Marc knocked two players out of the tournament! Less than an orbit later, another early position player raised and was called. Marc re-raised and showed A-A again after both opponents folded. A couple of hands later, Marc won again and showed K-K. I was sure happy we hadn't told anyone we were staying in the same place. Marc actually made it to day two and cashed in the tournament! He made $3,000 for finishing 220th out of 2800ish players.
Sunday morning was another $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'em tournament. Adam "Roothlus" Levy and Hoyt Corkins were at my first table. Faraz Jaka was at my second table and Bruce Buffer was at my third. Bruce's brother Michael Buffer is the "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" guy that introduces every major boxing match, it seems. Later in the day, I dealt to Tom Schneider, the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year. I asked him if it's surreal to see his face blown up on one of the banners outside the poker room. He laughed and said that he doesn't really think about it anymore. He said that he was really lucky that year. I talked to him quite a bit and actually talked to him a little more after my shift. He is a really nice guy.
Monday was the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha six-handed event. Yikes! PLO is always difficult to deal anyway, and when you add in the pressure of many recognizable pros at the tables, it gets pretty rough. Barry Greenstein was at my first table and he was running those guys over. He check-raised almost every dangerous looking flop and his opponents almost always folded. I also dealt to Lex Veldhuis before I had the privilege of dealing to one of the many tables of death. This six-handed table contained Brandon Adams, Amnon Filippi, Layne Flack, JC Tran, Brian Hastings, and Ryan Dodge. Fortunately for those guys, the table broke after a half hour.
Since my table broke, I had to go and get a new assignment from Jimmy. Lots of people were getting sent back into the tournament, but he asked the woman in front of me if she wanted live (cash) or satellites. She replied that she didn't like either, and before Jimmy could respond I popped over her shoulder and said "I like satellites!" Jimmy said ok and sent me to satellites. Besides my six tournament downs, I worked two single table satellites ($15 each) and made $70 in tips. A good day overall!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Day 24-26: A lot of dealing
Wednesday was the start of eight straight working days for me. It was the $2,500 6-handed No Limit Hold 'em tournament. Amy started with dealers whose last names start with D, so I was right near the bottom of the list and I did not get an assignment to start the tournament. However, I did get to push into the Black section, which meant that I would be dealing the tourney all day. The only interesting thing that happened all day was that I had a pot where a woman moved all-in with A♥ A♦ and was called by a guy with Q♠ Q♣. The flop came K♦ Q♦ 4♦ giving the queens a set, but giving the aces a flush draw. The turn and river were the 10♦ and 5♦, doubling the aces with a flush.
On Wednesday morning my Uncle Mick from Alaska called me up and told me that he was staying at the Rio for the Seniors event and asked if I wanted to meet for breakfast Thursday morning. So I met up with him, his son Michael, and their friend at the Sao Paolo Cafe and had my favorite breakfast dish, Eggs Benedict. It was great to see him again and to finally meet Michael, who has won a $10K buy-in televised WPT event in Reno. They told me a few poker war stories and I told them a few of mine too. We had a lot of fun.
Thursday's tournament was $1,500 No Limit Hold 'em and Amy started with the letter B, giving me a prime location where I was assured of dealing the tournament all day! I dealt to Liv Boeree, but she was short stacked and not in a chatty mood. The most interesting thing that happened all day was getting a player all-in w/ K-K against A-A and flopping a king to double him up.
Friday was the $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold 'em. The tournament was pretty fun to deal as most of the players were friendly and talkative. My first table featured the defending champion of the event, Harold Angle. They tried to do the pledge of allegiance before the event started, but first "Oklahoma" Johnny Hale, then his daughter screwed it up. It was lame and hilarious at the same time. The event was the largest live single day starting event in history, with 3,752 entrants! Every table in the Rio was used for the tournament and one thing about the seniors, they are conservative. Nobody was in a hurry to bust out and consequently, the 2PM Deepstack tourney and both day twos of tourneys from the day before were delayed until 4PM. I dealt my first straight flush of the tournament when a player tabled 5♠ 2♠ to perfectly match my board of A♥ J♠ 4♠ 3♠ A♠! I dealt ten downs of the seniors tournament and then I was assigned to start the 6PM Deepstack tournament. I needed to drop Matt off at the airport at 7, but nobody came to push me off of my table. Good thing Cheng, who roomed with Matt last year, was staying at our place and carpooling with us. He borrowed my keys and took Matt to the airport while I dealt for two hours before my relief came. I was pretty happy with fourteen downs.
This weekend is another $1,500 and $1,000 Hold 'em. Should be extremely busy. Hopefully I get a lot more tournament downs in!
On Wednesday morning my Uncle Mick from Alaska called me up and told me that he was staying at the Rio for the Seniors event and asked if I wanted to meet for breakfast Thursday morning. So I met up with him, his son Michael, and their friend at the Sao Paolo Cafe and had my favorite breakfast dish, Eggs Benedict. It was great to see him again and to finally meet Michael, who has won a $10K buy-in televised WPT event in Reno. They told me a few poker war stories and I told them a few of mine too. We had a lot of fun.
Thursday's tournament was $1,500 No Limit Hold 'em and Amy started with the letter B, giving me a prime location where I was assured of dealing the tournament all day! I dealt to Liv Boeree, but she was short stacked and not in a chatty mood. The most interesting thing that happened all day was getting a player all-in w/ K-K against A-A and flopping a king to double him up.
Friday was the $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold 'em. The tournament was pretty fun to deal as most of the players were friendly and talkative. My first table featured the defending champion of the event, Harold Angle. They tried to do the pledge of allegiance before the event started, but first "Oklahoma" Johnny Hale, then his daughter screwed it up. It was lame and hilarious at the same time. The event was the largest live single day starting event in history, with 3,752 entrants! Every table in the Rio was used for the tournament and one thing about the seniors, they are conservative. Nobody was in a hurry to bust out and consequently, the 2PM Deepstack tourney and both day twos of tourneys from the day before were delayed until 4PM. I dealt my first straight flush of the tournament when a player tabled 5♠ 2♠ to perfectly match my board of A♥ J♠ 4♠ 3♠ A♠! I dealt ten downs of the seniors tournament and then I was assigned to start the 6PM Deepstack tournament. I needed to drop Matt off at the airport at 7, but nobody came to push me off of my table. Good thing Cheng, who roomed with Matt last year, was staying at our place and carpooling with us. He borrowed my keys and took Matt to the airport while I dealt for two hours before my relief came. I was pretty happy with fourteen downs.
This weekend is another $1,500 and $1,000 Hold 'em. Should be extremely busy. Hopefully I get a lot more tournament downs in!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Day 23: Finally a breakthrough!
On Monday night I got a facebook message from one of my old E-Division buddies, Art Hinahon, from the submarine. He and his family had just checked into the Rio! We decided to meet up for coffee on Tuesday morning at 9:30. It was great to see him again and we had a good time hanging out and I showed him the Pavilion, the Amazon Room, and the WSOP store also. I ended up buying myself a sweatshirt that has ear buds on the ties and an I-Pod connection in the pocket. It's pretty sweet!
After hanging out with Art for a bit, I drove to the Orleans to meet up with Paul and Amy. Amy went to the spa while Paul and I played the $75 Hold 'em tournament at noon. The tournament drew 48 players and five would make the money. The Orleans allows re-entries for the first two levels and one guy at my table re-entered after the first hand. Seeing as everyone starts with 7,500 chips, I don't know how anyone goes bust on the first hand, but this guy got all his chips in on the river with 7♦ 5♦ against A♦ 9♦ on a K♣ 10♦ 8♠ 3♦ 2♦ board.
My tournament started well. At the 50/100 level I had A♥ 10♠ in the SB and it folded to me. I raised to 250 and the BB called. The flop came Q♠ 4♥ 2♣; I bet 300 and the BB folded. The next revolution, I had A♦ 5♣ on the button and raised to 250 again. The SB called and we saw a flop of 4♣ 4♦ 2♥. He checked and I checked behind. He checked again when the 9♠ hit the turn, I bet 350, and he folded.
On the last hand of the 50/100 level I had K♥ K♣ UTG+1 and the UTG player raised to 350. I raised to 1,200 and only the UTG player called. The flop came 10♠ 8♦ 4♣, and my opponent checked. I bet 2,100 and he folded. I showed him the kings and he told me he had folded A-K.
With the blinds at 75/150 later I had 3♠ 3♣ in middle position facing a raise to 350. I called to try to flop a set and two more players called as well. The flop came Q♥ 7♥ 4♦ and two players went to war over the pot. They had A-Q and K-Q which eliminated the second player. This was the only hand that I played for quite a while.
Late in the 100/200 blind level I was dealt A♥ A♣ UTG. I raised to 600 and was called by an older man in the cutoff seat. The flop came 10♦ 7♣ 7♦ and I bet 1,100. I was willing to go broke with my hand I think, but my opponent folded. This brought my chip stack to 9,125 at the first break. Paul was down a bit at the break, at 5,500 or so, but he felt good about the way he was playing, so we were both pretty upbeat.
Soon after the break I was dealt A♠ K♦ in middle position. The blinds were 150/300 with a 25 ante and an early position player raised to 800. I decided to 3-bet to 2,200. He seemed close to folding, but ended up calling my raise. The flop came 9♥ 5♥ 4♣ and he checked. It scared the hell out of me, but I decided to bet 3,000. Not betting here is like waving a white flag, letting my opponent take the pot away from me. I was worried that he had a small to medium pocket pair and would move all-in, hoping that I have A-K or a similar hand. Much to my relief, my opponent folded. I was moved to another table right afterwards and I didn't see Paul or his chips at his table when I got up. Turns out he got in a battle of the blinds with the maniac from the first hand that re-entered the tournament and was now at Paul's table. Paul had A-J on a flop of J-8-x and the maniac raised him all-in. Paul thought he was on a draw and called. He was right; the maniac flipped over 10-9, meaning that Paul was around 67% to win and double-up. Unfortunately, a 7 hit the turn and Paul lost to the maniac's straight and was eliminated.
I was extremely card dead at my new table. I did raise UTG holding 6♥ 6♣ to steal the blinds, but I did nothing but fold other than that for over an hour. There was a middle aged man at the table that did not like seeing flops and just pushed all-in any time that he liked his hand (or thought he found a good spot). I will push all-in liberally when I get short stacked, but this guy was shoving 7,000 chips into the pot when the BB was only 300 chips!
At the 200/400/50 level I had 9♥ 9♦, and the bozo shoved all-in for 8,500 chips. I had about 10,000 and I thought about it for quite a while. The thought occurred to me that if I called and lost I could hang out with Paul and Amy, but then I thought "Screw that! This is a poker decision and I shouldn't let any outside parameters influence my decision." I finally decided that I was in a decent position in the tournament and that I did not need to gamble in this spot, so I grudgingly folded.
At the 300/600/75 level I was dealt 10♦ 9♥ in the BB. A player limped from early position and the SB completed. I happily checked to see a free flop with my dangerous hand. The flop came A♠ J♣ 9♠ and we all checked. The turn was the 7♣ and the SB checked again. I thought there was a very good chance that I was best, so I bet 1,100. The limper folded, but to my surprise the SB called. The river was the K♠ and the SB checked again. Betting would be pretty pointless since I'm not making a better hand fold and a worse hand would almost never call, so I checked as well. The SB showed A♣ 8♦ to win the pot.
A few hands later I had J♠ J♦ in middle position and an early position player moved all-in for 4,900. With roughly 7,500 chips, my decision was easy. I raised all-in. Nobody called and the all-in player showed K♣ 10♥. The board came A♥ 9♠ 4♣ 6♣ Q♥ and I knocked a player out of the tournament and raised my stack to 13,200 at the break in the process!
At the 400/800/100 level I had 5♦ 5♣ in the SB. The player UTG min-raised to 1,600 and UTG+1 called. I decided to call, hoping to flop a 5 and win a big pot. The flop came Q♣ 4♣ 2♦ and I checked. UTG bet 2,100, UTG+1 raised all-in and UTG folded. A few hands later I was dealt K♥ Q♠ on the button and the UTG player raised to 2,500. I seriously considered raising all-in, but I decided to fold and he showed the table A♠ K♦. Glad I folded!
Finally our table broke as the tournament moved to the final two tables. I stole the blinds w/ Q-9 once and shoved my remaining 8,500 with 8-8 after a player limped in to steal his limp. After the blinds went up to 600/1200/200 I looked down at Q♥ Q♦ UTG and I raised to 2,500. The player to my left, who was on my first table as well, 3-bet to 6,000. I moved all-in for 10,800 total and he called with A♣ J♠. The board came 6♥ 5♥ 4♠ 2♥ 7♥ and I more than doubled my stack to 24,600! My opponent was left with only about 4,000 and went out on the next hand.
A few hands after that I had 7♦ 6♦ in middle position and decided to try and steal the blinds. I raised to 3,000, but the SB moved all-in for 9,200 total. There was 12,000 in the pot and I had to call 6,200 which is pretty close to 2-to-1 pot odds. I only need to win 33% of the time to make calling correct so I called, hoping he would show A-K or 4-4, both of which I would be only a slight underdog against. He actually had 8♥ 8♦ which had me in big trouble. But the dealer rolled out Q♣ 5♥ 4♣ 3♠ A♣ and I sucked out with a straight to knock him out of the tournament and increase my stack to 38,000! There were a couple of guys shaking their heads so when I stole the blinds a few hands later I showed my A♥ Q♣ and said, "Figured I'd show you guys a legitimate hand this time." We got a decent laugh out of it.
I picked up J♥ 10♥ on the button a couple revolutions later and raised to 3,000. The BB called and pushed all-in on a flop of A♠ J♠ 2♦ for 5,200 more. We had played together for quite a while and he was even tighter than me. He had to have an ace. I folded my middle pair and he showed the ace. I told him that I'd folded a jack, which I'm sure surprised everyone that saw my call with 7-6 earlier.
At the 800/1600/300 level I picked up K♦ 10♥ UTG and raised to 4,000. The table was six handed so my raise wasn't too loose. The BB called and shoved all-in on a flop of A♥ Q♠ Q♣, which was a pretty easy fold for me. I limped two hands later with 6♣ 5♣ from the SB after a late position player had already limped. The flop came J♦ 8♥ 3♥, which gave me an easy check-fold. The next hand I raised K♠ J♣ from the button and the blinds folded. After we played one more hand 11th place was eliminated and we combined the ten remaining players onto the final table.
On the final table, the maniac from Paul's table earlier was the overwhelming chip leader while I was in about sixth chip position. I had to fold 6♣ 6♦ to an early position 9,000 chip all-in because calling and losing would be much more detrimental than calling and winning would be beneficial. Later I was on the button, holding J♥ J♦. I had to raise the chip leader's big blind and I would have moved in for my tournament life, but it was pretty scary. He folded and we went to break with nine players remaining. I had 36,500 chips, still good for around sixth place.
Upon returning from break the blinds were 1000/2000/500. The table was playing squeaky tight because nobody wanted to miss the money. We were discussing possible deals, but the chip leader wanted to eliminate a few more people first. Ninth place went out when he ran A-K into A-A. Unfortunately the winner was the other short stack, which left no painfully short stacks left. Lucky for me, I was walked on both of my big blinds so my stack wasn't dropping as I folded. The other shortish stacks were dropping and finally another one bit the dust to leave us with seven. I asked the chip leader if he would consider a deal now and he said that he was down for his trip and needed $700 to break even. I asked if he would chop if we got him $700 and he said sure. I asked the tournament director to run the numbers and he said that if one player got $700 and the other six split, we would each get $405. Everyone was quick to agree and we had a deal! Finally a meaningful cash on this trip!
Looking back on it, I can't believe the chip leader chopped. Second place would have paid $780 and first $1,220. I think I would have asked for at least $800, if not $900. I think we wore him down. It was an easy decision for me since I was still in sixth chip position and only five players were slated to get paid. $405 was pretty close to third place money so everyone left happy. Not to mention playing for six hours with nothing to show for it would have sucked.
Afterwards I left with Paul and Amy and we went to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's in Crystals, next to the Aria Casino. The food was excellent, the company was better, and overall we had an awesome time. Later Paul and I dropped Amy off at their hotel and we went to Bill's Gamblin' Hall to play in the $0.50/$1 cash game. Yeah, we're high rollers. We played until around midnight and called it a night.
Speaking of calling it a night, I think I will do the same. I will try to catch up tomorrow on my last couple of days dealing tournaments. If you actually made it this far, thanks for reading!
After hanging out with Art for a bit, I drove to the Orleans to meet up with Paul and Amy. Amy went to the spa while Paul and I played the $75 Hold 'em tournament at noon. The tournament drew 48 players and five would make the money. The Orleans allows re-entries for the first two levels and one guy at my table re-entered after the first hand. Seeing as everyone starts with 7,500 chips, I don't know how anyone goes bust on the first hand, but this guy got all his chips in on the river with 7♦ 5♦ against A♦ 9♦ on a K♣ 10♦ 8♠ 3♦ 2♦ board.
My tournament started well. At the 50/100 level I had A♥ 10♠ in the SB and it folded to me. I raised to 250 and the BB called. The flop came Q♠ 4♥ 2♣; I bet 300 and the BB folded. The next revolution, I had A♦ 5♣ on the button and raised to 250 again. The SB called and we saw a flop of 4♣ 4♦ 2♥. He checked and I checked behind. He checked again when the 9♠ hit the turn, I bet 350, and he folded.
On the last hand of the 50/100 level I had K♥ K♣ UTG+1 and the UTG player raised to 350. I raised to 1,200 and only the UTG player called. The flop came 10♠ 8♦ 4♣, and my opponent checked. I bet 2,100 and he folded. I showed him the kings and he told me he had folded A-K.
With the blinds at 75/150 later I had 3♠ 3♣ in middle position facing a raise to 350. I called to try to flop a set and two more players called as well. The flop came Q♥ 7♥ 4♦ and two players went to war over the pot. They had A-Q and K-Q which eliminated the second player. This was the only hand that I played for quite a while.
Late in the 100/200 blind level I was dealt A♥ A♣ UTG. I raised to 600 and was called by an older man in the cutoff seat. The flop came 10♦ 7♣ 7♦ and I bet 1,100. I was willing to go broke with my hand I think, but my opponent folded. This brought my chip stack to 9,125 at the first break. Paul was down a bit at the break, at 5,500 or so, but he felt good about the way he was playing, so we were both pretty upbeat.
Soon after the break I was dealt A♠ K♦ in middle position. The blinds were 150/300 with a 25 ante and an early position player raised to 800. I decided to 3-bet to 2,200. He seemed close to folding, but ended up calling my raise. The flop came 9♥ 5♥ 4♣ and he checked. It scared the hell out of me, but I decided to bet 3,000. Not betting here is like waving a white flag, letting my opponent take the pot away from me. I was worried that he had a small to medium pocket pair and would move all-in, hoping that I have A-K or a similar hand. Much to my relief, my opponent folded. I was moved to another table right afterwards and I didn't see Paul or his chips at his table when I got up. Turns out he got in a battle of the blinds with the maniac from the first hand that re-entered the tournament and was now at Paul's table. Paul had A-J on a flop of J-8-x and the maniac raised him all-in. Paul thought he was on a draw and called. He was right; the maniac flipped over 10-9, meaning that Paul was around 67% to win and double-up. Unfortunately, a 7 hit the turn and Paul lost to the maniac's straight and was eliminated.
I was extremely card dead at my new table. I did raise UTG holding 6♥ 6♣ to steal the blinds, but I did nothing but fold other than that for over an hour. There was a middle aged man at the table that did not like seeing flops and just pushed all-in any time that he liked his hand (or thought he found a good spot). I will push all-in liberally when I get short stacked, but this guy was shoving 7,000 chips into the pot when the BB was only 300 chips!
At the 200/400/50 level I had 9♥ 9♦, and the bozo shoved all-in for 8,500 chips. I had about 10,000 and I thought about it for quite a while. The thought occurred to me that if I called and lost I could hang out with Paul and Amy, but then I thought "Screw that! This is a poker decision and I shouldn't let any outside parameters influence my decision." I finally decided that I was in a decent position in the tournament and that I did not need to gamble in this spot, so I grudgingly folded.
At the 300/600/75 level I was dealt 10♦ 9♥ in the BB. A player limped from early position and the SB completed. I happily checked to see a free flop with my dangerous hand. The flop came A♠ J♣ 9♠ and we all checked. The turn was the 7♣ and the SB checked again. I thought there was a very good chance that I was best, so I bet 1,100. The limper folded, but to my surprise the SB called. The river was the K♠ and the SB checked again. Betting would be pretty pointless since I'm not making a better hand fold and a worse hand would almost never call, so I checked as well. The SB showed A♣ 8♦ to win the pot.
A few hands later I had J♠ J♦ in middle position and an early position player moved all-in for 4,900. With roughly 7,500 chips, my decision was easy. I raised all-in. Nobody called and the all-in player showed K♣ 10♥. The board came A♥ 9♠ 4♣ 6♣ Q♥ and I knocked a player out of the tournament and raised my stack to 13,200 at the break in the process!
At the 400/800/100 level I had 5♦ 5♣ in the SB. The player UTG min-raised to 1,600 and UTG+1 called. I decided to call, hoping to flop a 5 and win a big pot. The flop came Q♣ 4♣ 2♦ and I checked. UTG bet 2,100, UTG+1 raised all-in and UTG folded. A few hands later I was dealt K♥ Q♠ on the button and the UTG player raised to 2,500. I seriously considered raising all-in, but I decided to fold and he showed the table A♠ K♦. Glad I folded!
Finally our table broke as the tournament moved to the final two tables. I stole the blinds w/ Q-9 once and shoved my remaining 8,500 with 8-8 after a player limped in to steal his limp. After the blinds went up to 600/1200/200 I looked down at Q♥ Q♦ UTG and I raised to 2,500. The player to my left, who was on my first table as well, 3-bet to 6,000. I moved all-in for 10,800 total and he called with A♣ J♠. The board came 6♥ 5♥ 4♠ 2♥ 7♥ and I more than doubled my stack to 24,600! My opponent was left with only about 4,000 and went out on the next hand.
A few hands after that I had 7♦ 6♦ in middle position and decided to try and steal the blinds. I raised to 3,000, but the SB moved all-in for 9,200 total. There was 12,000 in the pot and I had to call 6,200 which is pretty close to 2-to-1 pot odds. I only need to win 33% of the time to make calling correct so I called, hoping he would show A-K or 4-4, both of which I would be only a slight underdog against. He actually had 8♥ 8♦ which had me in big trouble. But the dealer rolled out Q♣ 5♥ 4♣ 3♠ A♣ and I sucked out with a straight to knock him out of the tournament and increase my stack to 38,000! There were a couple of guys shaking their heads so when I stole the blinds a few hands later I showed my A♥ Q♣ and said, "Figured I'd show you guys a legitimate hand this time." We got a decent laugh out of it.
I picked up J♥ 10♥ on the button a couple revolutions later and raised to 3,000. The BB called and pushed all-in on a flop of A♠ J♠ 2♦ for 5,200 more. We had played together for quite a while and he was even tighter than me. He had to have an ace. I folded my middle pair and he showed the ace. I told him that I'd folded a jack, which I'm sure surprised everyone that saw my call with 7-6 earlier.
At the 800/1600/300 level I picked up K♦ 10♥ UTG and raised to 4,000. The table was six handed so my raise wasn't too loose. The BB called and shoved all-in on a flop of A♥ Q♠ Q♣, which was a pretty easy fold for me. I limped two hands later with 6♣ 5♣ from the SB after a late position player had already limped. The flop came J♦ 8♥ 3♥, which gave me an easy check-fold. The next hand I raised K♠ J♣ from the button and the blinds folded. After we played one more hand 11th place was eliminated and we combined the ten remaining players onto the final table.
On the final table, the maniac from Paul's table earlier was the overwhelming chip leader while I was in about sixth chip position. I had to fold 6♣ 6♦ to an early position 9,000 chip all-in because calling and losing would be much more detrimental than calling and winning would be beneficial. Later I was on the button, holding J♥ J♦. I had to raise the chip leader's big blind and I would have moved in for my tournament life, but it was pretty scary. He folded and we went to break with nine players remaining. I had 36,500 chips, still good for around sixth place.
Upon returning from break the blinds were 1000/2000/500. The table was playing squeaky tight because nobody wanted to miss the money. We were discussing possible deals, but the chip leader wanted to eliminate a few more people first. Ninth place went out when he ran A-K into A-A. Unfortunately the winner was the other short stack, which left no painfully short stacks left. Lucky for me, I was walked on both of my big blinds so my stack wasn't dropping as I folded. The other shortish stacks were dropping and finally another one bit the dust to leave us with seven. I asked the chip leader if he would consider a deal now and he said that he was down for his trip and needed $700 to break even. I asked if he would chop if we got him $700 and he said sure. I asked the tournament director to run the numbers and he said that if one player got $700 and the other six split, we would each get $405. Everyone was quick to agree and we had a deal! Finally a meaningful cash on this trip!
Looking back on it, I can't believe the chip leader chopped. Second place would have paid $780 and first $1,220. I think I would have asked for at least $800, if not $900. I think we wore him down. It was an easy decision for me since I was still in sixth chip position and only five players were slated to get paid. $405 was pretty close to third place money so everyone left happy. Not to mention playing for six hours with nothing to show for it would have sucked.
Afterwards I left with Paul and Amy and we went to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's in Crystals, next to the Aria Casino. The food was excellent, the company was better, and overall we had an awesome time. Later Paul and I dropped Amy off at their hotel and we went to Bill's Gamblin' Hall to play in the $0.50/$1 cash game. Yeah, we're high rollers. We played until around midnight and called it a night.
Speaking of calling it a night, I think I will do the same. I will try to catch up tomorrow on my last couple of days dealing tournaments. If you actually made it this far, thanks for reading!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Day 22: Pot-Limit Omaha
On Monday, I dealt the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha triple chance tournament. Another tourney with lammers. I actually had a difficult decision between working the tournament or single table satellites. I ended up choosing the tournament because it's more guaranteed money. I would need some nice tips after the satellites to get the kind of money that I get from 10-12 tournament downs.
On the first day of the WSOP Matt showed me a dealer dealing satellites named Carl. Carl is a really nice older man, but he is a painfully slow and imprecise dealer and it's his third year at the series! He made me feel a lot better about myself. Carl was the next dealer after me, and pushing me all day. The tournament got a little screwed up because people were getting eliminated quickly and a lot of tables were breaking. Consequently, a new player at my table tried to cash in one of his lammers and I didn't have chips to give him. I told the table that his lammer was in play for 1,500 chips and one other player's lammer was not. I passed that news on to Carl and went on break. Matt and I were cracking up, imagining Carl screwing it all up. Fortunately they found Carl some chips pretty quickly, so he didn't have to deal with the problem long.
Eric Mizrachi was the biggest name that I dealt to all day. I did a good job keeping track of the pot, but it sure gets exhausting. On my last down of the day, one player made one of the weirdest plays I have ever seen. Both players involved had a ton of chips in front of them when the hand began. The blinds were 150/300 and the first player, a young kid, raised to 900. He got called by the button before a middle aged man who lives in New York, but is from Israel, potted it from the big blind to 3,750 and the young guy called. The flop was Q♥ 4♠ 2♠ and the Israeli guy moved all-in for 8,200. I was trying to figure out if the bet was legal; I was pretty sure that it was bigger than the pot, but I was tired and nobody objected, so I let it go. The young kid said that he definitely had the worst hand, but that he thought he would win. He called and flipped over 7♦ 6♣ 3♥ 2♣ for bottom pair. What a ridiculously bad hand for him to call off most of his chips! The Israeli guy had a big hand and big draw with A♠ A♣ Q♠ 3♦. The turn was the 5♠ to make a flush for the Israeli and end it right there. He took most of the young guy's chips.
I'm a couple days behind on updates, but I need to get to bed. I'm meeting my uncle Mick for breakfast at the Rio tomorrow morning before my shift, so I need to get up early. I'll try to post tomorrow night about hanging with Paul and Amy Tuesday and the poker we played, and about my $2,500 6-handed tournament on Wednesday.
On the first day of the WSOP Matt showed me a dealer dealing satellites named Carl. Carl is a really nice older man, but he is a painfully slow and imprecise dealer and it's his third year at the series! He made me feel a lot better about myself. Carl was the next dealer after me, and pushing me all day. The tournament got a little screwed up because people were getting eliminated quickly and a lot of tables were breaking. Consequently, a new player at my table tried to cash in one of his lammers and I didn't have chips to give him. I told the table that his lammer was in play for 1,500 chips and one other player's lammer was not. I passed that news on to Carl and went on break. Matt and I were cracking up, imagining Carl screwing it all up. Fortunately they found Carl some chips pretty quickly, so he didn't have to deal with the problem long.
Eric Mizrachi was the biggest name that I dealt to all day. I did a good job keeping track of the pot, but it sure gets exhausting. On my last down of the day, one player made one of the weirdest plays I have ever seen. Both players involved had a ton of chips in front of them when the hand began. The blinds were 150/300 and the first player, a young kid, raised to 900. He got called by the button before a middle aged man who lives in New York, but is from Israel, potted it from the big blind to 3,750 and the young guy called. The flop was Q♥ 4♠ 2♠ and the Israeli guy moved all-in for 8,200. I was trying to figure out if the bet was legal; I was pretty sure that it was bigger than the pot, but I was tired and nobody objected, so I let it go. The young kid said that he definitely had the worst hand, but that he thought he would win. He called and flipped over 7♦ 6♣ 3♥ 2♣ for bottom pair. What a ridiculously bad hand for him to call off most of his chips! The Israeli guy had a big hand and big draw with A♠ A♣ Q♠ 3♦. The turn was the 5♠ to make a flush for the Israeli and end it right there. He took most of the young guy's chips.
I'm a couple days behind on updates, but I need to get to bed. I'm meeting my uncle Mick for breakfast at the Rio tomorrow morning before my shift, so I need to get up early. I'll try to post tomorrow night about hanging with Paul and Amy Tuesday and the poker we played, and about my $2,500 6-handed tournament on Wednesday.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Day 20-21: Weekend Warrior
On most weekends, the WSOP is having one $1,500 and one $1,000 buy-in tournament. They call it their "Weekend Warrior" schedule, and they put these tournaments on weekends because they are the most popular with the masses.
On Saturday, I dealt the $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament. They didn't have enough dealers for pushing early on so I dealt at my first table for the first 90 minutes of the tournament until the 1PM shift had started. Neil Channing was at my first table. I had heard his name and knew he was British, but I had no idea what he looked like, and I only knew it was him from his ID and tournament ticket. Anyway, the guy was hilarious. He had the whole table cracking up the whole time I was dealing there.
I actually didn't get a break until 3:30, which was fine with me since the game is so easy to deal. At about 4:45 Jimmy, who is one of the dealer coordinators, started asking everyone if they wanted to stay or leave. The place was absolutely packed; they had been moving other tournaments around and delaying the starts, so I naturally thought he was asking if I wanted to stay late. I would have, but I drove Matt to work and he can't drive manual. So I figured that I couldn't stay late and told Jimmy that I'd leave. Apparently, they had so many dealers working Saturday that some of them needed work, so Jimmy was asking who wanted to leave early. So that sucked. Instead of thirteen downs I had to settle for ten. It ended up being okay. I was so tired I went to bed at 9:00 and slept for eleven hours!
Sunday was the $1,000 No-Limit Hold 'em and I got to work hoping for another 10-13 down shift. Unfortunately, Amy started giving out assignments with dealers whose last names start with C, so I was right at the bottom of the list. I didn't get a starting table, and had to wait around until the first push at 12:30. To make matters worse, Amy sent me to a table in the cash section. I dealt the tournament for a whole ten minutes before they broke my table, and told me to stay there because they were starting a cash game at my table. So I spent the day dealing $1/$3 and $2/$5 No-Limit Hold 'em cash, which is better than the pit, but sucks a lot more than dealing tournaments. There is a lot more tension and pressure in cash, and a lot more to keep track of. I ended by dealing $20/$40 Limit Omaha High/Low, $5/$10 Pot-Limit Omaha with a mandatory $25 button straddle, and $5/$5 Pot-Limit Omaha. Lousy way to close the day, but I can honestly say that I am much more comfortable dealing cash than I was at the start of the series!
Tomorrow's tournament is a Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. I haven't made up my mind yet whether I want to do the tournament or try to deal satellites. I'm near the top of tomorrow's alphabet, so I might actually have a choice.
On Saturday, I dealt the $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament. They didn't have enough dealers for pushing early on so I dealt at my first table for the first 90 minutes of the tournament until the 1PM shift had started. Neil Channing was at my first table. I had heard his name and knew he was British, but I had no idea what he looked like, and I only knew it was him from his ID and tournament ticket. Anyway, the guy was hilarious. He had the whole table cracking up the whole time I was dealing there.
I actually didn't get a break until 3:30, which was fine with me since the game is so easy to deal. At about 4:45 Jimmy, who is one of the dealer coordinators, started asking everyone if they wanted to stay or leave. The place was absolutely packed; they had been moving other tournaments around and delaying the starts, so I naturally thought he was asking if I wanted to stay late. I would have, but I drove Matt to work and he can't drive manual. So I figured that I couldn't stay late and told Jimmy that I'd leave. Apparently, they had so many dealers working Saturday that some of them needed work, so Jimmy was asking who wanted to leave early. So that sucked. Instead of thirteen downs I had to settle for ten. It ended up being okay. I was so tired I went to bed at 9:00 and slept for eleven hours!
Sunday was the $1,000 No-Limit Hold 'em and I got to work hoping for another 10-13 down shift. Unfortunately, Amy started giving out assignments with dealers whose last names start with C, so I was right at the bottom of the list. I didn't get a starting table, and had to wait around until the first push at 12:30. To make matters worse, Amy sent me to a table in the cash section. I dealt the tournament for a whole ten minutes before they broke my table, and told me to stay there because they were starting a cash game at my table. So I spent the day dealing $1/$3 and $2/$5 No-Limit Hold 'em cash, which is better than the pit, but sucks a lot more than dealing tournaments. There is a lot more tension and pressure in cash, and a lot more to keep track of. I ended by dealing $20/$40 Limit Omaha High/Low, $5/$10 Pot-Limit Omaha with a mandatory $25 button straddle, and $5/$5 Pot-Limit Omaha. Lousy way to close the day, but I can honestly say that I am much more comfortable dealing cash than I was at the start of the series!
Tomorrow's tournament is a Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. I haven't made up my mind yet whether I want to do the tournament or try to deal satellites. I'm near the top of tomorrow's alphabet, so I might actually have a choice.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Day 17-19: EO and Pot-Limit Hold 'em
On Wednesday, I showed up to work at 9:30AM, but Amanda, the dealer coordinator, hadn't received my shift change form, so she had no idea that I was coming. She sent the other six dealers on the shift to work single table satellites, which was the assignment that I was hoping for. She didn't have any more satellite spots available, so she tried to get me onto the mega satellite that had started earlier. But they broke the table as I was going to push in, so I was sent to cash again. When I found out that I was going to cash I put my name on the EO (Early Off) list. I had a deadspread first (no players to deal to) and then moved to $5/$10 Big-O High/Low again. I actually did okay there, but I was still happy to get my EO after leaving the table.
I went home and watched "The Fighter" with my roommates Matt and Marc. Good movie. Then Marc and I went to Green Valley Ranch to play in the HORSE tournament. There were 29 players and it paid five. I bubbled in 6th, but Marc took it down! I was doing great, but on the final table I couldn't catch a break. I called a raise in Stud Hi/Low with Q♣ [6♣ 5♣] and caught the 4♥ and 2♥ to have a beautiful low draw and dangerous high draw with two cards to come. The low draw was especially nice because nobody had more than one card under my six on their board, and I hadn't seen any threes yet at all. Sixth and seventh streets came 10♦ and 9♣ to totally bust my hand, and cost me most of my stack.
Later, I had A♠ 2♥ 4♠ K♦ in Omaha High/Low and I raised. The board came 8♠ 5♦ 4♥ 2♣ on the turn, counterfeiting my great low draw, so I folded to the substantial action. The 3♦ hit the river, which would have made me the nut low, and nobody had an ace which would have quartered me. I was pissed even though I had made the right play. Someone else had 7-6 for a higher straight so I hadn't thrown away the whole pot at least. Marc busted me out on the next hand when I raised for the rest of my chips on his big blind with A♦ 4♥ 6♥ K♦, but the board came high and gave Marc a full house. He felt pretty bad about it, but I told him not to sweat it.
On Thursday, I dealt the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold 'em event. I got a great draw, Table 7, which guaranteed that I would deal the tournament all day! Of course it happened in a Pot-Limit event, which is exhausting to deal, but I was happy anyway because I would always rather deal tournaments than cash. My first table had Antonio Esfandiari on it and he seemed like a really nice guy. A couple players at the table asked for his autograph and he granted both of their requests enthusiastically. Dean Hamrick and Steve Gee, bracelet winner at the 2010 WSOP, and the pro who came to our dealer fundraiser tournament in Sacramento, were at the table as well. Rough draw for the other six guys!
Later I dealt to Bradley Craig, who in 2009 was down to 400 chips on day one of the Main Event and came back to finish in 50th place. I also bad beat Nicolay Evdakov out of the tournament. He had Q-Q against A-9 and I put out a board of A-9-4-A-J. I also dealt to James Carroll and Alessio Isaia. I only knew Isaia because I saw his picture after getting home later, but he had a mountain of chips.
One funny thing happened early in the tournament. The blinds were 25/50 and three players limped in. Another player then raised to 225. Then a younger guy slid his entire stack of 4,500 chips forward, attempting to move all-in. I announced the amount of the bet as 900; remember this is Pot-Limit! The first raiser laughed and said to him, "You signed up for the wrong tournament, dude!" The table got a good laugh out of it and the young guy laughed too and said "I forgot we were playing Pot-Limit." I ended up dealing 13 downs, which was three more than my previous high! I was pretty stoked because we earn $15-$20 a down on top of our normal hourly rate. Pretty sweet day.
I'm off today, so Matt and I went to the breakfast buffet at South Point, and then to Spinnetis, which is a gaming supply store. They have tons of cards, chips, tables, and other things for pretty cheap. I'm probably just going to relax the rest of the day. It sounds like a nice change. The weekend will be busy at work. Saturday is another $1,500 No-Limit and Sunday is another $1,000 No-Limit. We should see a couple of giant fields again. Monday is $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, which will be exhausting no doubt. I'm off Tuesday, when Paul and Amy will be out here. Paul and I are planning to crush the $75 Orleans tournament!
I went home and watched "The Fighter" with my roommates Matt and Marc. Good movie. Then Marc and I went to Green Valley Ranch to play in the HORSE tournament. There were 29 players and it paid five. I bubbled in 6th, but Marc took it down! I was doing great, but on the final table I couldn't catch a break. I called a raise in Stud Hi/Low with Q♣ [6♣ 5♣] and caught the 4♥ and 2♥ to have a beautiful low draw and dangerous high draw with two cards to come. The low draw was especially nice because nobody had more than one card under my six on their board, and I hadn't seen any threes yet at all. Sixth and seventh streets came 10♦ and 9♣ to totally bust my hand, and cost me most of my stack.
Later, I had A♠ 2♥ 4♠ K♦ in Omaha High/Low and I raised. The board came 8♠ 5♦ 4♥ 2♣ on the turn, counterfeiting my great low draw, so I folded to the substantial action. The 3♦ hit the river, which would have made me the nut low, and nobody had an ace which would have quartered me. I was pissed even though I had made the right play. Someone else had 7-6 for a higher straight so I hadn't thrown away the whole pot at least. Marc busted me out on the next hand when I raised for the rest of my chips on his big blind with A♦ 4♥ 6♥ K♦, but the board came high and gave Marc a full house. He felt pretty bad about it, but I told him not to sweat it.
On Thursday, I dealt the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold 'em event. I got a great draw, Table 7, which guaranteed that I would deal the tournament all day! Of course it happened in a Pot-Limit event, which is exhausting to deal, but I was happy anyway because I would always rather deal tournaments than cash. My first table had Antonio Esfandiari on it and he seemed like a really nice guy. A couple players at the table asked for his autograph and he granted both of their requests enthusiastically. Dean Hamrick and Steve Gee, bracelet winner at the 2010 WSOP, and the pro who came to our dealer fundraiser tournament in Sacramento, were at the table as well. Rough draw for the other six guys!
Later I dealt to Bradley Craig, who in 2009 was down to 400 chips on day one of the Main Event and came back to finish in 50th place. I also bad beat Nicolay Evdakov out of the tournament. He had Q-Q against A-9 and I put out a board of A-9-4-A-J. I also dealt to James Carroll and Alessio Isaia. I only knew Isaia because I saw his picture after getting home later, but he had a mountain of chips.
One funny thing happened early in the tournament. The blinds were 25/50 and three players limped in. Another player then raised to 225. Then a younger guy slid his entire stack of 4,500 chips forward, attempting to move all-in. I announced the amount of the bet as 900; remember this is Pot-Limit! The first raiser laughed and said to him, "You signed up for the wrong tournament, dude!" The table got a good laugh out of it and the young guy laughed too and said "I forgot we were playing Pot-Limit." I ended up dealing 13 downs, which was three more than my previous high! I was pretty stoked because we earn $15-$20 a down on top of our normal hourly rate. Pretty sweet day.
I'm off today, so Matt and I went to the breakfast buffet at South Point, and then to Spinnetis, which is a gaming supply store. They have tons of cards, chips, tables, and other things for pretty cheap. I'm probably just going to relax the rest of the day. It sounds like a nice change. The weekend will be busy at work. Saturday is another $1,500 No-Limit and Sunday is another $1,000 No-Limit. We should see a couple of giant fields again. Monday is $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, which will be exhausting no doubt. I'm off Tuesday, when Paul and Amy will be out here. Paul and I are planning to crush the $75 Orleans tournament!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Day 16: Back in the Pit
Tuesday was the $1,500 buy-in Triple Chance No Limit Hold 'em tournament. Players get 1,500 chips and two lammers worth 1,500 chips each. Most players just cash the lammers in right away to start w/ 4,500 chips, but some players kept the lammers, started w/ 1,500 chips, and used the lammers after busting out.
My first table had Faraz Jaka, who was the WPT player of the year in 2010. Andrew Black was also at that table and he is a funny guy. I also dealt to James Mackey in the tournament and he looks really young. While I was on break, they broke my row of tables, so I was sent to cash again. Boooo.
Much to my chagrin, I was sent to the high limit pit again. I dealt $75/$150 Stud-8 and got stiffed again. I also dealt $25/$50 PLO w/ a $100 button straddle and $75/$150 Omaha-8 again. I also dealt $10/$25 No Limit Hold 'em. Jamie Gold and Andrew Robl were at the Hold 'em table and Gold gave me my biggest tip of the day, $5 for a fairly small pot. Needless to say, I was rooting for him to win more pots, but he only won the one pot while I was dealing. One player at the table lost all of the approximately $30,000 in front of him on a board of Q-6-4-2-7. He had 2-2 for trips, but his opponent had 5-3 offsuit for a straight.
I work at 9:30AM tomorrow instead of 11AM, because Wednesday is the day that I swapped for to get out of working last Saturday. I'll probably get stuck in cash again, but hopefully I'll be working satellites or something else instead.
My first table had Faraz Jaka, who was the WPT player of the year in 2010. Andrew Black was also at that table and he is a funny guy. I also dealt to James Mackey in the tournament and he looks really young. While I was on break, they broke my row of tables, so I was sent to cash again. Boooo.
Much to my chagrin, I was sent to the high limit pit again. I dealt $75/$150 Stud-8 and got stiffed again. I also dealt $25/$50 PLO w/ a $100 button straddle and $75/$150 Omaha-8 again. I also dealt $10/$25 No Limit Hold 'em. Jamie Gold and Andrew Robl were at the Hold 'em table and Gold gave me my biggest tip of the day, $5 for a fairly small pot. Needless to say, I was rooting for him to win more pots, but he only won the one pot while I was dealing. One player at the table lost all of the approximately $30,000 in front of him on a board of Q-6-4-2-7. He had 2-2 for trips, but his opponent had 5-3 offsuit for a straight.
I work at 9:30AM tomorrow instead of 11AM, because Wednesday is the day that I swapped for to get out of working last Saturday. I'll probably get stuck in cash again, but hopefully I'll be working satellites or something else instead.
Day 13-15: Wedding and Lots More Poker
On Saturday morning I got up at 5:00 to fly back to Sacramento for Sean and Natalie's wedding. Jessica picked me up at the airport and we drove up to Lake Tahoe. The wedding was at 3:00PM, the buffet was at 5:00, and the reception was at 7:00. We had a lot of fun, but we had to leave the reception early to drive back to Sacramento. A few hours of sleep later, I was boarding another plane to fly back to Vegas.
Matt and I had both volunteered to work Sunday, so I had just enough time to shower and eat breakfast before heading to the Rio. Sunday was Day 1B of the $1,000 No Limit Hold 'em event and the Rio was jammed with players. There were an insane number of dealers at the morning meeting, and Amy used almost everybody to open up the tournament which started at 12:00PM. Somehow my name hadn't made it onto her list (Matt's did and we were right next to each other on the sign up sheet), so I had to wait until 12:30 to push onto my first table. Amy tried to hook me up by getting me to push into an area where the tables wouldn't break for a long time. Breaking a table means the tournament coordinator shuts down the table and all the players get new seat assignments to replace eliminated players. This shrinks the number of tables in play, while keeping the tables in play as full as possible. Unfortunately, they decided to break tables in my area anyway. I had dealt six straight tables (three hours straight in the box) and was about to finally go on my break when they broke my table. So I went to Amy to get a new assignment and hopefully a break first, but she needed three dealers to go to cash immediately and sent me over to Armani, the cash game dealer coordinator.
Armani needed me to step in immediately, and to make matters worse, I was sent to the high limit area. The dealers all call this area the pit, and the players in high limit are notoriously awful tippers. They also have a reputation for being rude and impatient with dealers. Great! They were starting a new game, so at least the $500 till was easy to count! The floor man unlocked the till and walked away. I had no idea what to do! The players were still getting chips and figuring out who was higher on the list for the game, but some looked at me impatiently and told me to get the game started. I didn't even know what game to deal! One of the players told me that it was $75/$150 Limit Omaha High/Low Split and I started dealing.
Having never dealt a high limit game, I was a little lost for a bit. New players were joining the game, and others were leaving almost every hand. Players were tabling their hands after the river and calling for the pot, or half of it, before I could even read their hand. It probably didn't help that I was pretty exhausted from not having a break in over three hours and also being short on sleep over the last couple of days. When I was finally pushed, I sat down into another table of the same game. I was getting the hang of it, so that down wasn't as bad as the last one, but I was sure happy to get my break after getting pushed again!
I dealt a $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha with a mandatory $100 button straddle after my break. A button straddle is a blind raise by the player on the button. Action starts with the SB (small blind) instead of the player under the gun. J.C. Tran was in the game and won quite a few of the pots. One player lost his whole stack of around $4,000 in my first hand at the table. Yikes!
I moved after that to a table where the dealer was just sitting with the deck spread in front of him. There were a few people there, but they were just talking. Turns out, one player was playing heads-up with a guy who was out smoking. I was happy that he came back though because they had missed their rake. Players in the high limit games pay somewhere between $7 and $9 every half hour for their seat. When the guy came back, his opponent slid a stack of about ten red chips worth $5 each, and told me to take $18 for the rake and keep the rest. And since the time rake was due again before my down was over, the smoker passed me another stack of reds right before my down ended and asked me to repeat the procedure. I must have made $65 on that table in tips!
From there I went to a $75/$150 Seven Card Stud Hi/Low Split table where I dealt to Karina Jett. I only got $4 on that down, which is pretty awful. Apparently, the Stud players are the worst tippers of them all. But I was still pretty happy about the previous table, so it didn't bother me much. After another Limit Omaha Hi/Low table I finally got to go home for the day.
Monday was the $1,500 6-handed No Limit Hold 'em tournament at 12:00 which had 1,920 entrants. With only six players per table, that was a lot of tables in play. The cash and satellite tables were non-existent; they needed every table in the house for the tournament! They even compacted tables after players were eliminated and started late registering players at 2:00 on the vacated tables. I was sent to the satellite section to deal, meaning that if my table were to break I would stay and deal satellites. Much better than dealing cash any day! I ended up dealing to John Duthie, Nenad Medic, Mark Seif, Tex Barch, and Scott Seiver. I gave Seiver a brutal bad beat around 4:00 to knock him out of the tournament, and the hand was actually written up on PokerNews.com. Seiver was all-in w/ A-Q and called by A-3. I ran out a board of K-5-2-Q-4 to give his opponent a straight on the river. It was pretty ugly.
A while later, my table finally broke and I got to deal my first single table satellite. I dealt out quite a few bad beats, but nothing overly ridiculous. There was a young kid playing and I knew I didn't want him to win because the internet players tip abysmally. He ended up chopping it with a lady. She threw me $20, he threw me $5. Big surprise. Oh well, at least I didn't get stiffed, which I've heard happens sometimes.
Time to hit the sack; I'm working again tomorrow. The $1,500 Triple Chance No Limit Hold 'em is tomorrow. Hopefully I get to deal it all day!
Matt and I had both volunteered to work Sunday, so I had just enough time to shower and eat breakfast before heading to the Rio. Sunday was Day 1B of the $1,000 No Limit Hold 'em event and the Rio was jammed with players. There were an insane number of dealers at the morning meeting, and Amy used almost everybody to open up the tournament which started at 12:00PM. Somehow my name hadn't made it onto her list (Matt's did and we were right next to each other on the sign up sheet), so I had to wait until 12:30 to push onto my first table. Amy tried to hook me up by getting me to push into an area where the tables wouldn't break for a long time. Breaking a table means the tournament coordinator shuts down the table and all the players get new seat assignments to replace eliminated players. This shrinks the number of tables in play, while keeping the tables in play as full as possible. Unfortunately, they decided to break tables in my area anyway. I had dealt six straight tables (three hours straight in the box) and was about to finally go on my break when they broke my table. So I went to Amy to get a new assignment and hopefully a break first, but she needed three dealers to go to cash immediately and sent me over to Armani, the cash game dealer coordinator.
Armani needed me to step in immediately, and to make matters worse, I was sent to the high limit area. The dealers all call this area the pit, and the players in high limit are notoriously awful tippers. They also have a reputation for being rude and impatient with dealers. Great! They were starting a new game, so at least the $500 till was easy to count! The floor man unlocked the till and walked away. I had no idea what to do! The players were still getting chips and figuring out who was higher on the list for the game, but some looked at me impatiently and told me to get the game started. I didn't even know what game to deal! One of the players told me that it was $75/$150 Limit Omaha High/Low Split and I started dealing.
Having never dealt a high limit game, I was a little lost for a bit. New players were joining the game, and others were leaving almost every hand. Players were tabling their hands after the river and calling for the pot, or half of it, before I could even read their hand. It probably didn't help that I was pretty exhausted from not having a break in over three hours and also being short on sleep over the last couple of days. When I was finally pushed, I sat down into another table of the same game. I was getting the hang of it, so that down wasn't as bad as the last one, but I was sure happy to get my break after getting pushed again!
I dealt a $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha with a mandatory $100 button straddle after my break. A button straddle is a blind raise by the player on the button. Action starts with the SB (small blind) instead of the player under the gun. J.C. Tran was in the game and won quite a few of the pots. One player lost his whole stack of around $4,000 in my first hand at the table. Yikes!
I moved after that to a table where the dealer was just sitting with the deck spread in front of him. There were a few people there, but they were just talking. Turns out, one player was playing heads-up with a guy who was out smoking. I was happy that he came back though because they had missed their rake. Players in the high limit games pay somewhere between $7 and $9 every half hour for their seat. When the guy came back, his opponent slid a stack of about ten red chips worth $5 each, and told me to take $18 for the rake and keep the rest. And since the time rake was due again before my down was over, the smoker passed me another stack of reds right before my down ended and asked me to repeat the procedure. I must have made $65 on that table in tips!
From there I went to a $75/$150 Seven Card Stud Hi/Low Split table where I dealt to Karina Jett. I only got $4 on that down, which is pretty awful. Apparently, the Stud players are the worst tippers of them all. But I was still pretty happy about the previous table, so it didn't bother me much. After another Limit Omaha Hi/Low table I finally got to go home for the day.
Monday was the $1,500 6-handed No Limit Hold 'em tournament at 12:00 which had 1,920 entrants. With only six players per table, that was a lot of tables in play. The cash and satellite tables were non-existent; they needed every table in the house for the tournament! They even compacted tables after players were eliminated and started late registering players at 2:00 on the vacated tables. I was sent to the satellite section to deal, meaning that if my table were to break I would stay and deal satellites. Much better than dealing cash any day! I ended up dealing to John Duthie, Nenad Medic, Mark Seif, Tex Barch, and Scott Seiver. I gave Seiver a brutal bad beat around 4:00 to knock him out of the tournament, and the hand was actually written up on PokerNews.com. Seiver was all-in w/ A-Q and called by A-3. I ran out a board of K-5-2-Q-4 to give his opponent a straight on the river. It was pretty ugly.
A while later, my table finally broke and I got to deal my first single table satellite. I dealt out quite a few bad beats, but nothing overly ridiculous. There was a young kid playing and I knew I didn't want him to win because the internet players tip abysmally. He ended up chopping it with a lady. She threw me $20, he threw me $5. Big surprise. Oh well, at least I didn't get stiffed, which I've heard happens sometimes.
Time to hit the sack; I'm working again tomorrow. The $1,500 Triple Chance No Limit Hold 'em is tomorrow. Hopefully I get to deal it all day!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Day 11 and 12 - A couple of crazy days
Today I found out that I've been switched to the day shift, so my shifts are now 11AM-7PM, which is awesome! My off days were Sunday and Wednesday, but I needed Saturday off to go to Sean's wedding. I can't miss it; I'm the best man! Almost everybody is working Saturday, so finding somebody off was going to be a job in itself. The good news is that I eventually found a guy who wanted to work Saturday and needs Wednesday off, so that works perfectly. The only difference is that I work at 9:30AM on Wednesday instead of 11.
Getting that squared away took a long time and I thought I had missed the Moneymaker v. Farha matchup of the WSOP grudge matches. But when I walked up to the huge stage in the Amazon Room, which looks like a UFO by the way, it was empty. I walked outside and was walking behind a guy and his wife toward the bathroom. He turned to go into the bathroom and I saw that it was Chris Moneymaker! He was still in the bathroom when I came out so I asked his wife if Chris was playing Sammy in the UFO. She looked pretty confused for a minute, but she realized what I meant and said yes, so I went back to the UFO to wait.
I sat down behind Patrik Antonius and asked him who had won the earlier match between Chan and Hellmuth. He said that he didn't know and took a phone call right after answering me. I wonder if he was actually talking to anybody or just wanted me not to bother him.
Anyway, he left soon afterwards to stand with Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan, and Bobby Baldwin as they announced that the 2012 WSOP will contain a $1,000,000 buy-in event that they are planning to play in. Apparently Tony G, Daniel Negreanu, and Andy Beal are all playing in it as well. Crazy that anybody can risk that much money playing in a poker tournament!
A few minutes later, after I had moved into the front row, a middle aged man sat down on my left. Turns out, he is a longtime buddy of Sam Farha. We struck up a conversation about Farha. His buddy said that Sammy had a complete disregard for money, which makes sense at the stakes he plays. Sammy has been a multi-millionaire, broke, and back up again at least twenty times. Also, I knew that Chris Moneymaker had offered to split the money before their heads-up match commenced in 2003 and that Sammy turned it down. His buddy told me that Sammy turned it down partly because he was $1.2M down at blackjack and he wanted a larger profit.
I was fairly indifferent to who won the first match of the 2-out-of-3, but I was pulling a bit for Moneymaker since he started with the chip lead. I thought that if Sammy won the first match, it might be a landslide. Sammy got all-in in the first match with A-10 against Chris' A-8, but Chris hit an 8 on the turn to win it. I walked out to go to the bathroom and ended up walking with Farha. He seemed pretty put out (obviously). I told him that he played it perfectly, Chris got lucky, and since he had the chiplead for Round 2, this round was his. Sammy replied that he was happy with his play so far, then turned to me with a smile and said thanks.
Sammy outplayed Chris badly in Round 2, but lost the chiplead when Chris called his all-in w/ A-J on a K-6-6 flop. Sammy had 9-4 for a bare flush draw and missed, but the call was pretty bad. Sammy came over and told his buddy, "Eight years later and he still plays bad! He's so smart, he says he put me on a flush draw. If I have two live cards and a flush draw, I'm a favorite." He was pretty irritated and his buddy and I told him to keep outplaying Chris and the cards will turn around. Sammy took the chiplead back and ended up shoving A-7 on a 7-6-6 flop against Chris' 8-8. He hit an A on the river to win round two and finally get lucky against Chris.
In round three they started with equal stacks and Sammy took a significant chiplead again. He simply was winning the big pots and losing the more frequent, but much smaller pots. Then they got all-in on a flop of J-10-2. Sammy had J-10 and Chris had J-2 for an inferior two pair. Unbelievably, a 2 hit the river to double Chris into a large chiplead. Chris took it down a while later and Sammy came over again and said that he was happy because he'd played well. So that whole experience was pretty surreal.
Today I dealt the $1,500 Limit Hold 'em tournament and I dealt to Daniel Negreanu, Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harman, 'Minneapolis' Jim Meehan, and a couple of other players that I've seen before, but couldn't name. I was feeling a lot more confident and only made a couple of small, inconsequential mistakes all day. At Daniel's table, he was talking to Jim Meehan about golf courses in the area and Meehan told him about a course that he likes. Daniel replied that it was too windy. Jim said that he liked that because it was usually about ten degrees cooler there. Daniel said that he doesn't like the cold. I couldn't resist it and said, "I thought you were from Canada." Daniel looked up at me and said, "That's why I left!" It was pretty funny.
I'm flying home in a few hours to go to my buddy Sean's wedding with Jess so I better get some sleep.
Getting that squared away took a long time and I thought I had missed the Moneymaker v. Farha matchup of the WSOP grudge matches. But when I walked up to the huge stage in the Amazon Room, which looks like a UFO by the way, it was empty. I walked outside and was walking behind a guy and his wife toward the bathroom. He turned to go into the bathroom and I saw that it was Chris Moneymaker! He was still in the bathroom when I came out so I asked his wife if Chris was playing Sammy in the UFO. She looked pretty confused for a minute, but she realized what I meant and said yes, so I went back to the UFO to wait.
I sat down behind Patrik Antonius and asked him who had won the earlier match between Chan and Hellmuth. He said that he didn't know and took a phone call right after answering me. I wonder if he was actually talking to anybody or just wanted me not to bother him.
Anyway, he left soon afterwards to stand with Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan, and Bobby Baldwin as they announced that the 2012 WSOP will contain a $1,000,000 buy-in event that they are planning to play in. Apparently Tony G, Daniel Negreanu, and Andy Beal are all playing in it as well. Crazy that anybody can risk that much money playing in a poker tournament!
A few minutes later, after I had moved into the front row, a middle aged man sat down on my left. Turns out, he is a longtime buddy of Sam Farha. We struck up a conversation about Farha. His buddy said that Sammy had a complete disregard for money, which makes sense at the stakes he plays. Sammy has been a multi-millionaire, broke, and back up again at least twenty times. Also, I knew that Chris Moneymaker had offered to split the money before their heads-up match commenced in 2003 and that Sammy turned it down. His buddy told me that Sammy turned it down partly because he was $1.2M down at blackjack and he wanted a larger profit.
I was fairly indifferent to who won the first match of the 2-out-of-3, but I was pulling a bit for Moneymaker since he started with the chip lead. I thought that if Sammy won the first match, it might be a landslide. Sammy got all-in in the first match with A-10 against Chris' A-8, but Chris hit an 8 on the turn to win it. I walked out to go to the bathroom and ended up walking with Farha. He seemed pretty put out (obviously). I told him that he played it perfectly, Chris got lucky, and since he had the chiplead for Round 2, this round was his. Sammy replied that he was happy with his play so far, then turned to me with a smile and said thanks.
Sammy outplayed Chris badly in Round 2, but lost the chiplead when Chris called his all-in w/ A-J on a K-6-6 flop. Sammy had 9-4 for a bare flush draw and missed, but the call was pretty bad. Sammy came over and told his buddy, "Eight years later and he still plays bad! He's so smart, he says he put me on a flush draw. If I have two live cards and a flush draw, I'm a favorite." He was pretty irritated and his buddy and I told him to keep outplaying Chris and the cards will turn around. Sammy took the chiplead back and ended up shoving A-7 on a 7-6-6 flop against Chris' 8-8. He hit an A on the river to win round two and finally get lucky against Chris.
In round three they started with equal stacks and Sammy took a significant chiplead again. He simply was winning the big pots and losing the more frequent, but much smaller pots. Then they got all-in on a flop of J-10-2. Sammy had J-10 and Chris had J-2 for an inferior two pair. Unbelievably, a 2 hit the river to double Chris into a large chiplead. Chris took it down a while later and Sammy came over again and said that he was happy because he'd played well. So that whole experience was pretty surreal.
Today I dealt the $1,500 Limit Hold 'em tournament and I dealt to Daniel Negreanu, Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harman, 'Minneapolis' Jim Meehan, and a couple of other players that I've seen before, but couldn't name. I was feeling a lot more confident and only made a couple of small, inconsequential mistakes all day. At Daniel's table, he was talking to Jim Meehan about golf courses in the area and Meehan told him about a course that he likes. Daniel replied that it was too windy. Jim said that he liked that because it was usually about ten degrees cooler there. Daniel said that he doesn't like the cold. I couldn't resist it and said, "I thought you were from Canada." Daniel looked up at me and said, "That's why I left!" It was pretty funny.
I'm flying home in a few hours to go to my buddy Sean's wedding with Jess so I better get some sleep.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Day 9 &10
I was really exhausted Tuesday morning and I slept until almost 2PM! I went into work again at 4 and there were a TON of dealers starting at 4! Monica read off 64 handpicked dealers to deal the $25K Heads-up tournament, so I didn't get to deal that. She also filled up all the available single table satellite and live action (cash game) spots, and we had 60-70 dealers still left over! I went down to HR and managed to get an ID badge and nametag while I waited, so I can finally prove that I'm an employee.
When I walked back into the break room, Monica was already calling out names and giving out more assignments. I was sent to deal in Event #1 of the WSOP, the $500 entry Casino Employee No Limit Hold 'em Event. I had no idea what the blinds were when I sat down at 6:00 to deal, but a quick look around the table told me that the blinds were already 150/300 with a 25 ante. My first down (downs are 30 minute dealing shifts) was pretty uneventful. Dealers are told to count the stub (the stub is the cards left over after dealing the river card and tells the dealer if there are any cards missing) at least once per down, and when I counted it, the players remarked that I was the first dealer to count it all day. That's pretty bad, considering that the tournament had been running for six hours already!
Overall I was in the box (the box is the term for the dealer's seat at the table) for five downs, but I only dealt for two and a half of those downs. The players were on dinner break for the other two and a half, but I still get paid for these babysitting downs, so that was pretty sweet. I was sent home at 9:00 because they needed to get the 6:00 and 8:00 dealers some downs as well, so I went to rail for my roommate Matt, who was playing in the event.
The event started with 850 players and was down to 120 or so players left when I started watching. Matt had an average 18K stack and was pretty much staying out of the way of the action. Seeing as the tournament paid only 81 players, it's tough to argue with his strategy. When they were down to 100 or so, an older gentleman raised to 3,200 at the 500/1000/100 level. Matt quickly moved all-in. He had been acting methodically all day, and I took this quick action to mean that he was excited about his hand. His opponent called with a shorter stack and Matt showed K-K, which was was ahead of his opponent's 10-10. Unfortunately, there was a 10 on the flop and another 10 on the turn to give the older man four of a kind. To pour a little salt in the wound, a K hit the river. With 92 players left, Matt was in the BB, against the SB and button. The flop came 10-6-3 and the SB bet. Matt shoved his 9K w/ 10-2 and the SB called with Q-10. The turn and river were blanks and Matt was eliminated. Nice run, but a bummer to miss the money for sure.
I also spent some time watching the $25K Heads-up. I watched Gus Hansen, David Benyamine, Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari, Jonathan Duhamel, Justin Bonomo, John Juanda, and Daniel Alaei. I saw Alaei bust Bonomo extremely quickly. I have no idea how the betting went down, but Alaei had K-Q on a board of J-9-3-2-10 to beat Bonomo's 2-2. I also saw Matt Affleck walking around. I'd like to see him have a good series; he received a brutal beat in last year's Main Event when he got all-in on the turn w/ A-A on a board of 10-9-7-Q. Duhamel called for most of his chips w/ J-J and hit an 8 on the river for a straight to knock Affleck out in 15th place.
Not much really happened on Wednesday. Matt and I ran a couple of errands and I played in the $45 HORSE at Green Valley Ranch again. The force was with me not, as I couldn't make a hand to save my life and busted in a little over an hour. Oh well, I was due for a lousy tournament.
Matt and I are both off tomorrow as well, so we're going to watch the WSOP grudge matches in person. Moneymaker vs. Farha should be pretty awesome! We're also hoping to rail the Hellmuth vs. Chan match and cheer obnoxiously for Hellmuth. Maybe we'll get some TV time out of it, since it's being filmed for ESPN!
When I walked back into the break room, Monica was already calling out names and giving out more assignments. I was sent to deal in Event #1 of the WSOP, the $500 entry Casino Employee No Limit Hold 'em Event. I had no idea what the blinds were when I sat down at 6:00 to deal, but a quick look around the table told me that the blinds were already 150/300 with a 25 ante. My first down (downs are 30 minute dealing shifts) was pretty uneventful. Dealers are told to count the stub (the stub is the cards left over after dealing the river card and tells the dealer if there are any cards missing) at least once per down, and when I counted it, the players remarked that I was the first dealer to count it all day. That's pretty bad, considering that the tournament had been running for six hours already!
Overall I was in the box (the box is the term for the dealer's seat at the table) for five downs, but I only dealt for two and a half of those downs. The players were on dinner break for the other two and a half, but I still get paid for these babysitting downs, so that was pretty sweet. I was sent home at 9:00 because they needed to get the 6:00 and 8:00 dealers some downs as well, so I went to rail for my roommate Matt, who was playing in the event.
The event started with 850 players and was down to 120 or so players left when I started watching. Matt had an average 18K stack and was pretty much staying out of the way of the action. Seeing as the tournament paid only 81 players, it's tough to argue with his strategy. When they were down to 100 or so, an older gentleman raised to 3,200 at the 500/1000/100 level. Matt quickly moved all-in. He had been acting methodically all day, and I took this quick action to mean that he was excited about his hand. His opponent called with a shorter stack and Matt showed K-K, which was was ahead of his opponent's 10-10. Unfortunately, there was a 10 on the flop and another 10 on the turn to give the older man four of a kind. To pour a little salt in the wound, a K hit the river. With 92 players left, Matt was in the BB, against the SB and button. The flop came 10-6-3 and the SB bet. Matt shoved his 9K w/ 10-2 and the SB called with Q-10. The turn and river were blanks and Matt was eliminated. Nice run, but a bummer to miss the money for sure.
I also spent some time watching the $25K Heads-up. I watched Gus Hansen, David Benyamine, Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari, Jonathan Duhamel, Justin Bonomo, John Juanda, and Daniel Alaei. I saw Alaei bust Bonomo extremely quickly. I have no idea how the betting went down, but Alaei had K-Q on a board of J-9-3-2-10 to beat Bonomo's 2-2. I also saw Matt Affleck walking around. I'd like to see him have a good series; he received a brutal beat in last year's Main Event when he got all-in on the turn w/ A-A on a board of 10-9-7-Q. Duhamel called for most of his chips w/ J-J and hit an 8 on the river for a straight to knock Affleck out in 15th place.
Not much really happened on Wednesday. Matt and I ran a couple of errands and I played in the $45 HORSE at Green Valley Ranch again. The force was with me not, as I couldn't make a hand to save my life and busted in a little over an hour. Oh well, I was due for a lousy tournament.
Matt and I are both off tomorrow as well, so we're going to watch the WSOP grudge matches in person. Moneymaker vs. Farha should be pretty awesome! We're also hoping to rail the Hellmuth vs. Chan match and cheer obnoxiously for Hellmuth. Maybe we'll get some TV time out of it, since it's being filmed for ESPN!
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