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!