I completed my dealing paperwork today at the Rio, so I'm all set up! There isn't much else to report; I played a $30 20-player tournament at Bill's Gambling Hall and finished 9th (paid 3 spots). So far in casinos I've been intimidated by some dealers (they are damn good) and relieved to watch others (some of them are pretty awful). One lady at the Orleans had me feeling pretty confidant last night; she was lost half of the time. At least I shouldn't be that bad!
I'm hoping to get some more sleep tonight and play the $45 HORSE at Green Valley Ranch tomorrow evening at 7PM.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Arrived in Vegas and 1st Tournament
I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday! I got up at 4:30AM, left at 6:00AM, and arrived here around 3:30PM. I decided to just jump right in and play the $75 Orleans Hold 'em tournament at 7PM last night.
The tournament starts with stacks of 7,500 and blinds at 50/100. Blinds go up every 20 minutes for the first hour and every 30 minutes thereafter. I got off to a slow start, playing some small pots early and losing most of them. The players at the Orleans are locals that play very well on average, so it was a tough tournament!
I had J♠ J♥ in the small blind at the 50/100 level when an early position player min-raised to 200. Three players called, leaving me in a tough spot. Do I re-raise with my excellent but vulnerable starting hand? I decided to only call for several reasons. First, the stacks were very large on average for the size of the blinds, so I stand to win a large pot for a small investment if I flop a set. I also don't want to build a large pot preflop with such a vulnerable hand out of position. The flop came K♣ T♣ 4♠ and I had an easy check-fold.
At the 100/200 blind level my stack had been whittled down to 5,800 or so. I raised to 600 from the cutoff with 4♠ 4♦ and the big blind called. The flop came 8♣ 5♥ 4♣. He checked. I didn't think he caught any of the board and I was willing to gamble to give him a free card to let him catch up a bit, so I checked. The turn was the K♥ and he checked again. I decided to bet 1,000 b/c I needed to start building a pot. He called. The river was the K♣ and he checked a third time. I bet 2,000, hoping he had a king or a flush and would pay me off. He did call and then mucked when he saw my full house.
A while later the blinds were 150/300 with a 25 ante and I looked down at 6♣ 6♦ in the small blind. Four players limped, so did I and the BB checked. The flop came 4♥ 4♠ 3♦. I decided to put out a feeler bet of 1200. Only the button called. The turn was the 10♣ and I checked. He checked behind and the river was the 3♥. We both checked and he showed 7-5 for a missed straight draw that I wished he'd hit b/c it would have given me a full house! Regardless, I dragged a nice little pot.
At the 200/400/50 level, I saw a free hand from the BB with 6♠ 5♥ after only the button called. The flop came 6♥ 4♥ 3♥ to give me an open ended straight flush draw. I bet 1200 and the button called. The turn was an offsuit Q, I bet 1500 and he called again. The river was an offsuit 3 to miss my draws. We both checked and he showed 8-6 for a split pot (We both had two pair sixes and threes w/ a queen kicker).
After those hands the table got off of my back and stopped playing back at me as much as they were earlier. Either that or the blinds were getting high enough that people decided to stop playing as many speculative hands. But I just sat back stealing the occasional pot and mostly folding. I raised a limper w/ A-Q and caught a Q-4-3 flop to win a small pot. I folded 10-10 when a player moved all-in for a little over half of my stack. He had been pretty tight and I felt like I was either flipping a coin or I was crushed. He told me later that he had A-K.
Before long, we were down to two tables from the starting field of 57. With blinds of 600/1200/200, I limped A♦ 5♦ from the SB after four limpers and the flop came A♠ 7♥ 2♦. I checked and the first limper bet 4000. I had only 12,000 left in my stack and I didn't want to fold. Calling seemed too weak out of position, so if I wanted to raise, all-in was the only move. He thought for a minute and folded A-3 faceup! A few hands later, I was in the BB and the button raised to 3600. Exactly 3X the BB. He had one hand on his cards until it folded to him and it looked to me like he changed his mind about something when it folded to him. So I decided to reshove on him before I even looked at my hand. The K♥ Q♦ that I saw made my decision much, much easier. He thought for a long time (which was a show I think) before folding and I dragged another nice pot.
The blinds went up to 800/1600/300 a few hands later and the tight player in the cutoff raised to 4000. I looked down at A♣ K♥ on the button and reshoved all-in for about 28K. The SB, with 15K in his stack, snap called w/ J-J and the cutoff folded. The board came Q-J-8-Q-9 and I dropped to around 13K.
Right before break I went through the blinds, the other table lost a player to combine us to the final table of 10, and I drew the BB seat. I was pretty pissed off at having to go through the blinds twice in a row, but it happens I guess.
Upon returning from the break, the blinds were 1000/2000 with a 500 ante. I had K♣ 10♣ in the BB and would happily have gotten my paltry 12K in the middle, but we had two limpers and a big raise in front of me, and in live tourneys that raise means a big hand. So I folded. Looking back, I think I should have gambled. The next hand it folded to my SB and I shoved 10♥ 9♦. The BB was priced in w/ 6-2 since the pot was 17K and it cost him only 8K to call. Unfortunately, he flopped a 2 and knocked me out of the tournament in 10th place. The tournament only paid 5, but overall I feel good about my showing.
I need to go to HR in the Rio today to get my paperwork squared away. I'll blog again tonight or tomorrow morning (I hope).
The tournament starts with stacks of 7,500 and blinds at 50/100. Blinds go up every 20 minutes for the first hour and every 30 minutes thereafter. I got off to a slow start, playing some small pots early and losing most of them. The players at the Orleans are locals that play very well on average, so it was a tough tournament!
I had J♠ J♥ in the small blind at the 50/100 level when an early position player min-raised to 200. Three players called, leaving me in a tough spot. Do I re-raise with my excellent but vulnerable starting hand? I decided to only call for several reasons. First, the stacks were very large on average for the size of the blinds, so I stand to win a large pot for a small investment if I flop a set. I also don't want to build a large pot preflop with such a vulnerable hand out of position. The flop came K♣ T♣ 4♠ and I had an easy check-fold.
At the 100/200 blind level my stack had been whittled down to 5,800 or so. I raised to 600 from the cutoff with 4♠ 4♦ and the big blind called. The flop came 8♣ 5♥ 4♣. He checked. I didn't think he caught any of the board and I was willing to gamble to give him a free card to let him catch up a bit, so I checked. The turn was the K♥ and he checked again. I decided to bet 1,000 b/c I needed to start building a pot. He called. The river was the K♣ and he checked a third time. I bet 2,000, hoping he had a king or a flush and would pay me off. He did call and then mucked when he saw my full house.
A while later the blinds were 150/300 with a 25 ante and I looked down at 6♣ 6♦ in the small blind. Four players limped, so did I and the BB checked. The flop came 4♥ 4♠ 3♦. I decided to put out a feeler bet of 1200. Only the button called. The turn was the 10♣ and I checked. He checked behind and the river was the 3♥. We both checked and he showed 7-5 for a missed straight draw that I wished he'd hit b/c it would have given me a full house! Regardless, I dragged a nice little pot.
At the 200/400/50 level, I saw a free hand from the BB with 6♠ 5♥ after only the button called. The flop came 6♥ 4♥ 3♥ to give me an open ended straight flush draw. I bet 1200 and the button called. The turn was an offsuit Q, I bet 1500 and he called again. The river was an offsuit 3 to miss my draws. We both checked and he showed 8-6 for a split pot (We both had two pair sixes and threes w/ a queen kicker).
After those hands the table got off of my back and stopped playing back at me as much as they were earlier. Either that or the blinds were getting high enough that people decided to stop playing as many speculative hands. But I just sat back stealing the occasional pot and mostly folding. I raised a limper w/ A-Q and caught a Q-4-3 flop to win a small pot. I folded 10-10 when a player moved all-in for a little over half of my stack. He had been pretty tight and I felt like I was either flipping a coin or I was crushed. He told me later that he had A-K.
Before long, we were down to two tables from the starting field of 57. With blinds of 600/1200/200, I limped A♦ 5♦ from the SB after four limpers and the flop came A♠ 7♥ 2♦. I checked and the first limper bet 4000. I had only 12,000 left in my stack and I didn't want to fold. Calling seemed too weak out of position, so if I wanted to raise, all-in was the only move. He thought for a minute and folded A-3 faceup! A few hands later, I was in the BB and the button raised to 3600. Exactly 3X the BB. He had one hand on his cards until it folded to him and it looked to me like he changed his mind about something when it folded to him. So I decided to reshove on him before I even looked at my hand. The K♥ Q♦ that I saw made my decision much, much easier. He thought for a long time (which was a show I think) before folding and I dragged another nice pot.
The blinds went up to 800/1600/300 a few hands later and the tight player in the cutoff raised to 4000. I looked down at A♣ K♥ on the button and reshoved all-in for about 28K. The SB, with 15K in his stack, snap called w/ J-J and the cutoff folded. The board came Q-J-8-Q-9 and I dropped to around 13K.
Right before break I went through the blinds, the other table lost a player to combine us to the final table of 10, and I drew the BB seat. I was pretty pissed off at having to go through the blinds twice in a row, but it happens I guess.
Upon returning from the break, the blinds were 1000/2000 with a 500 ante. I had K♣ 10♣ in the BB and would happily have gotten my paltry 12K in the middle, but we had two limpers and a big raise in front of me, and in live tourneys that raise means a big hand. So I folded. Looking back, I think I should have gambled. The next hand it folded to my SB and I shoved 10♥ 9♦. The BB was priced in w/ 6-2 since the pot was 17K and it cost him only 8K to call. Unfortunately, he flopped a 2 and knocked me out of the tournament in 10th place. The tournament only paid 5, but overall I feel good about my showing.
I need to go to HR in the Rio today to get my paperwork squared away. I'll blog again tonight or tomorrow morning (I hope).
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
4 days
Less than one week remains until I leave for Las Vegas! Four days to be precise. I am about halfway packed, but I am so busy over the next few days that it's going to be hard to get everything done. Tomorrow after work I'm meeting some friends to deal all the variations of poker to them so that I stay sharp before the series starts. Friday is the party for Bamboo's and Polly's first birthday. I know it's weird to hold doggy b-day parties, but we're celebrating anyway. Saturday morning is our last dealing class at the Casino College. Then Jessica and I are driving to Brentwood to my nephew Jimmy's b-day party. After that, we're driving back to Sacramento to Jess' mom's place to celebrate her youngest brother's b-day. Saturday is going to be busy! Then Sunday I'm finally picking up the grill my parents gave me and we're having a BBQ. All in all, a ton of stuff going on, and I still need to do laundry and pack! I probably won't post again until Monday night or Tuesday when I'm actually in Vegas and the journal officially begins!
Monday, May 9, 2011
T-14 days...and counting
I leave for the WSOP in two weeks! It seems really close and yet still so far away...if that makes any sense. Once I'm in Vegas the WSOP won't start for another week, and I'm not sure whether the week will go in a blur or take forever. I'm guessing it will be a long week, but since I'm planning to play some poker, it might go faster. Who knows?
There are a few tournaments and one cash game that I can't wait to try out. The first tournament is the $80 Hold 'em tournament at the Orleans. The players start w/ 7500 chips and the blinds go up every 20 minutes for the first hour and every 30 minutes thereafter. My kind of tournament! Bummer that the blinds start at 50/100, but the structure is great afterwards.
Another Orleans tournament that I want to try out is the $80 HORSE, which is offered at noon on Fridays and 7:00PM on Sundays. The blinds / limits go up every 20 minutes of this tournament, which also starts with 7500 chips. Another deep stack with a nice slow structure!
Binion's has a $60 daily tournament at 10:00AM and PM with 5000 chips and a pretty good structure, though the blinds are only 15 minutes. I have to play here at least once; it's Binion's! Bill's Gamblin' Hall has a $30 tournament that runs four times a day (five on weekends). The structure is not nearly as good, but the price actually makes sense for my bankroll.
The cash game that I'm excited about is at the Imperial Palace. The IP has a $3/$6 Mixed game on Sunday nights at 7:00PM. The game contains Omaha-8, Razz, Stud-8, Badugi, 2-7 Triple Draw, Baduci (Badugi and 2-7 combined, each winning half the pot), 4 card Ocean Crazy Pineapple (Players muck one card after the flop and turn, and a sixth board card, called the Ocean, is dealt), and 3-2-1 Omaha (three flops, two turns, and one river). I've never played Baduci, Ocean Pineapple, or 3-2-1 Omaha, but the game sounds fun.
There are a few tournaments and one cash game that I can't wait to try out. The first tournament is the $80 Hold 'em tournament at the Orleans. The players start w/ 7500 chips and the blinds go up every 20 minutes for the first hour and every 30 minutes thereafter. My kind of tournament! Bummer that the blinds start at 50/100, but the structure is great afterwards.
Another Orleans tournament that I want to try out is the $80 HORSE, which is offered at noon on Fridays and 7:00PM on Sundays. The blinds / limits go up every 20 minutes of this tournament, which also starts with 7500 chips. Another deep stack with a nice slow structure!
Binion's has a $60 daily tournament at 10:00AM and PM with 5000 chips and a pretty good structure, though the blinds are only 15 minutes. I have to play here at least once; it's Binion's! Bill's Gamblin' Hall has a $30 tournament that runs four times a day (five on weekends). The structure is not nearly as good, but the price actually makes sense for my bankroll.
The cash game that I'm excited about is at the Imperial Palace. The IP has a $3/$6 Mixed game on Sunday nights at 7:00PM. The game contains Omaha-8, Razz, Stud-8, Badugi, 2-7 Triple Draw, Baduci (Badugi and 2-7 combined, each winning half the pot), 4 card Ocean Crazy Pineapple (Players muck one card after the flop and turn, and a sixth board card, called the Ocean, is dealt), and 3-2-1 Omaha (three flops, two turns, and one river). I've never played Baduci, Ocean Pineapple, or 3-2-1 Omaha, but the game sounds fun.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
I'm an Idiot
Jessica and I drove to Vegas a couple of weekends ago to turn in my paperwork for dealing at the WSOP. We spent Saturday in San Francisco before dropping the dog off at my parents' in Lincoln that night. Then we drove to Vegas on Sunday and back on Monday. That's a LOT of driving! So I was pretty exhausted all last week.
Anyway, we arrived in Vegas at the Luxor hotel around 4:00 on Sunday afternoon. I really liked the hotel, except that we were on the 21st floor and I'm scared of heights! The side of the hallway facing the center of the hotel is open with only a mid-torso high railing to keep you from falling to oblivion. Not so good with the vertigo! Needless to say, I hugged the opposite wall as we walked to our room. We decided to walk the strip afterwards and just check out all the hotels and casinos.
Though we had fun looking at everything, nothing really stood out to me as awesome. Except dinner. Dinner was awesome! We went to Ocean One in Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile Shops. We had the fried calamari appetizer and I got the cioppino, both of which were outstanding. Afterwards, we walked all the way down to Treasure Island before walking back to the Luxor. It was a ton of walking and we were both exhausted when we got back to our room.
The next day, we went to the HR department at the Rio only to discover that I had forgotten to bring my social security card! Without that, they wouldn't let me do any of the necessary paperwork. So that sucked!
After returning home on Monday, I tore the house apart looking for my social security card, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I was freaking out, thinking that I had screwed up my chance to deal at the WSOP! However, I applied for a replacement card, which fortunately has already arrived! So since the WSOP has delayed the last day of registration to May 24th (a Tuesday), I will be driving out to Vegas on Monday the 23rd for the WSOP and taking care of my paperwork on the 24th. Whew!
Anyway, we arrived in Vegas at the Luxor hotel around 4:00 on Sunday afternoon. I really liked the hotel, except that we were on the 21st floor and I'm scared of heights! The side of the hallway facing the center of the hotel is open with only a mid-torso high railing to keep you from falling to oblivion. Not so good with the vertigo! Needless to say, I hugged the opposite wall as we walked to our room. We decided to walk the strip afterwards and just check out all the hotels and casinos.
Though we had fun looking at everything, nothing really stood out to me as awesome. Except dinner. Dinner was awesome! We went to Ocean One in Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile Shops. We had the fried calamari appetizer and I got the cioppino, both of which were outstanding. Afterwards, we walked all the way down to Treasure Island before walking back to the Luxor. It was a ton of walking and we were both exhausted when we got back to our room.
The next day, we went to the HR department at the Rio only to discover that I had forgotten to bring my social security card! Without that, they wouldn't let me do any of the necessary paperwork. So that sucked!
After returning home on Monday, I tore the house apart looking for my social security card, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I was freaking out, thinking that I had screwed up my chance to deal at the WSOP! However, I applied for a replacement card, which fortunately has already arrived! So since the WSOP has delayed the last day of registration to May 24th (a Tuesday), I will be driving out to Vegas on Monday the 23rd for the WSOP and taking care of my paperwork on the 24th. Whew!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Hired to deal at WSOP!!
I've been officially hired to deal at the WSOP!! And....the new CEO of our company is a poker fan and is letting me take 8 weeks off to deal the series even though I only have 2 weeks of vacation on the books! It doesn't quite seem real to me yet, and it probably won't seem real until I'm getting berated by a player for the first time (about 5 minutes into my first shift, haha). I need to buy a few white dress shirts, a couple pairs of black pants, and a fanny pack. Yep, a fanny pack. Apparently we need it to put our tips into a fanny pack after leaving one table, before sitting down at another.
All new dealers also have to show up at the Rio HR dept before May 20th to fill out paperwork, get fingerprinted, pass a drug test, etc. Unfortunately, the HR dept is closed Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so Jess and I are going to drive to Vegas on the 24th of April, stay overnight, and then take care of everything on Monday the 25th. Then I will have a month until I need to be back in Vegas for dealer orientation on the 27th of May. After that, the WSOP starts on May 30th! I will find out what shift I'm working at the orientation. Hopefully, I'm not working the graveyard shift! I'm hoping to get anywhere from the 11am-7pm slot to the 6pm-2am slot.
So for the next few months this blog is going to center around dealing poker, rather than playing it. I'm planning to record my entire WSOP dealing experience! I'm thinking of it more as a poker fantasy camp rather than a job. Should be a blast!
As an aside, I dealt an event aboard the Delta King last Saturday and I dealt out some crazy hands! One hand saw a player get all-in holding Q-10 on a board of K-9-2-9-J. His straight was beaten by a J-9 for a full house. Two players got all-in w/ A-K and 9-9 on a board of 2-7-Q-A only for me to roll a 9 off on the river. And the best one was a board of J-10-2-2-Q with 4 spades. One guy had J-J for the full house, but a lady had 9-8 of spades. Yep, a straight flush!
I'll make sure to blog about Jess and my trip to Vegas in a couple of weeks. Bye for now.
All new dealers also have to show up at the Rio HR dept before May 20th to fill out paperwork, get fingerprinted, pass a drug test, etc. Unfortunately, the HR dept is closed Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so Jess and I are going to drive to Vegas on the 24th of April, stay overnight, and then take care of everything on Monday the 25th. Then I will have a month until I need to be back in Vegas for dealer orientation on the 27th of May. After that, the WSOP starts on May 30th! I will find out what shift I'm working at the orientation. Hopefully, I'm not working the graveyard shift! I'm hoping to get anywhere from the 11am-7pm slot to the 6pm-2am slot.
So for the next few months this blog is going to center around dealing poker, rather than playing it. I'm planning to record my entire WSOP dealing experience! I'm thinking of it more as a poker fantasy camp rather than a job. Should be a blast!
As an aside, I dealt an event aboard the Delta King last Saturday and I dealt out some crazy hands! One hand saw a player get all-in holding Q-10 on a board of K-9-2-9-J. His straight was beaten by a J-9 for a full house. Two players got all-in w/ A-K and 9-9 on a board of 2-7-Q-A only for me to roll a 9 off on the river. And the best one was a board of J-10-2-2-Q with 4 spades. One guy had J-J for the full house, but a lady had 9-8 of spades. Yep, a straight flush!
I'll make sure to blog about Jess and my trip to Vegas in a couple of weeks. Bye for now.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Hopefully dealing at WSOP!
OK, I have been neglecting my blog for far too long. I have been riding a pretty massive cold streak at the poker tables lately. Whether I've been playing poorly or just run into some bad luck is difficult to say, but I have been shoving big pairs, A-K, and A-Q into A-A a LOT, so I haven't exactly been running hot. On the bright side, I've made a few very deep runs as well, so when I have cashed, I've generally made good money at least.
On a brighter note, Jessica and I went out for some Mongolian BBQ in early January and found a place called the Casino College. I'd been looking into poker dealing jobs with no success so I went online and checked it out. Turns out the Casino College is exactly what I was looking for! They teach you how to deal poker professionally and give you a certification upon passing their audition. Casinos and card rooms come to them when they are looking to hire dealers! I have been going to the college for about six weeks now and I'm ready to pass my audition already. Trouble is, with a full time job, it's hard to make time to go during the week.
Also, on weekends I'm taking a WSOP dealing class! The class started in early February and runs up until the WSOP starts at the end of May. Anyone passing the class just needs to pass a phone audition with the dealer coordinator at the Rio to be given a job dealing at the WSOP! Dealing at the WSOP would be incredible; hopefully nothing comes up that would keep me from doing it. We did Pot-Limit Omaha High/Low 8-or better this last weekend and my brain is still recovering! Keeping track of the pot and keeping track of the bet size if any player wants to raise the pot is exhausting. Not to mention reading the Omaha hands, which is mostly routine by now (but not completely!). We have also covered Hold 'em (Limit and No-Limit), Stud, Stud-8, Razz, 2-7 and A-5 Draw Lowball (NL Single Draw and Limit Triple Draw), and Badugi. All in all, fun stuff!
I'll try to blog weekly from here on out. Thanks for reading!
On a brighter note, Jessica and I went out for some Mongolian BBQ in early January and found a place called the Casino College. I'd been looking into poker dealing jobs with no success so I went online and checked it out. Turns out the Casino College is exactly what I was looking for! They teach you how to deal poker professionally and give you a certification upon passing their audition. Casinos and card rooms come to them when they are looking to hire dealers! I have been going to the college for about six weeks now and I'm ready to pass my audition already. Trouble is, with a full time job, it's hard to make time to go during the week.
Also, on weekends I'm taking a WSOP dealing class! The class started in early February and runs up until the WSOP starts at the end of May. Anyone passing the class just needs to pass a phone audition with the dealer coordinator at the Rio to be given a job dealing at the WSOP! Dealing at the WSOP would be incredible; hopefully nothing comes up that would keep me from doing it. We did Pot-Limit Omaha High/Low 8-or better this last weekend and my brain is still recovering! Keeping track of the pot and keeping track of the bet size if any player wants to raise the pot is exhausting. Not to mention reading the Omaha hands, which is mostly routine by now (but not completely!). We have also covered Hold 'em (Limit and No-Limit), Stud, Stud-8, Razz, 2-7 and A-5 Draw Lowball (NL Single Draw and Limit Triple Draw), and Badugi. All in all, fun stuff!
I'll try to blog weekly from here on out. Thanks for reading!
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