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!
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