I have noticed a significant difference between the atmosphere at the cash tables and that of the tournaments. They are both very intense and while the small stakes Limit games are more "low stress fun" games than any of the No Limit games, there is a noticible difference between the atmosphere of the cash games and that of the tournaments. While the intensity is high for both varieties, it is a different kind of intensity. Cash games are louder and more raw. At the middle limits where pots are often several thousand dollars each you can feel the friction between players when one gets deep into another's pocket. On the other hand, in the tournaments, the intensity is more masked. The emotions are being held in check but they are there, under the surface. Sometimes it seems they are tightly bottled up, ready to explode.
Last night I was scheduled for the Nightly No Limit Tournament, but due to the fact that they began the tournament with twenty-four dealers but only fourteen tables, my services were not immediately required. After sitting in the Dealer Break Room for a few hours I finally received an alternate assignment in the $2000 No Limit Hold'em event #7.
The event had started at noon with over 1500 players and I was pushing into a table at 9:00 PM. After nine hours of play almost 90% of the field had gone bust. The plan was to play down to the money bubble. 152 players will get paid for their play in this event. While first place is worth over half a million, a player finishing 152nd will just about double his $2000 entry fee. Finishing 153rd gets a player nothing. Nada. Goose egg. Nobody wants to go out on the bubble. Play usually tightens up considerably at this point in a poker tournament. Table #27 was no exception. It was quiet and intense.
A typical player would sit, one hand near the chip stack, one on the cards in front. Perfectly still staring intently at the center of the table or looking sidelong at other players, considering the action. Sliding cards (another fold) into the middle of the table with the flick of a single finger.
The action last night, although there were 9 or ten players at each table, was usually heads-up i.e. a direct confrontation between two players while all other folded their hands. An oft repeated scene was a single, silently confident player raising by moving a small stack of yellow thousand dollar chips toward the center of the table and being eyeballed by the player in the Big Blind who had the most to lose to this raiser. Then after deciding that the raiser actually had a winning hand the Big picks up his cards, looks at them, shakes his head and with one last sigh tosses them forward, folding his hand, admitting defeat. Hand after hand I pushed the blinds and antes to the player bold enough risk chips in that first round of betting before the flop. They call it "Stealing the Blinds" and it plays out like that more and more often as players get even more conservative approaching the money bubble.
Around midnight there were 153 players remaining at 17 tables. 152 were going to win money. The next player eliminated would get nothing. Play was "Hand for Hand". All seventeen tables would play one hand and not begin another until each table had completed that hand. Eventually, a player got broke. A big cheer went up when this was announced because all remaing players had made the money. Play was halted for the night. Players received plastic bags to store their chips in along with their official recorded chip count receipts.
Even though many other events were still going on and the cash games play 24 hours a day, my day was done. Time to punch out.
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