In an effort to broaden the appeal of Poker to the gentler gender the World Series of Poker holds a Ladies only tournament every year. Word on the street is that the Amazon Room smells so much better during the ladies' event.
The event lasted three days. Day three is the final table of nine players.
I started work at 1:00, the ladies' final table was scheduled for 2:00. Along with some twenty other dealers I didn't catch a table assignment immediately and had to sit and see what opened up. Half an hour later our Dealer Coordinator was heading toward the Dealer Break room and spotted my friend Barry and I. When she mentioned the ladies' final table Barry jumped right on it, "Let me and Buz do it!" The DC needed one more volunteer and Rusty put his hand up.
Final tables for the larger events are played out either on the ESPN Stage or the Featured Table Stage. This one was on the Featured Table Stage. No ESPN tournament coverage and the players were not set up with microphones but there were a lot of cameras and the hand held ESPN camera did shoot some background footage. Also, a video shot looking down at the table shows the crowd the board, the chips and the dealer's hands on four big screen monitors above. Was I nervous when I got in the box with cheering crowds in the bleachers all around me and every move of my hands displayed on the big screens? You betcha!
Stressful? Yes. Nerve wracking? Yes, but pretty cool have been in the middle of it all as a dealer at the 2009 Ladies' No Limit Hold'em World Championship!
Some final tables last well into the night. This one was exceptional for its brevity. The hands that were dealt out were just amazing. Kim Rios looked like she was going to run over the table when Barry dealt her pocket Aces on the last hand of his down. I replaced him and dealt her pocket Aces on the very next hand! After that, with Lisa Parsons all in, she caught the case nine on the last card to make a larger Full House and eliminate Lisa. It seemed that every few hands not only were the players all in but the hands were huge. Sets of Kings, Full Houses, Nut Flushes. Hand after hand huge pots and huge stacks of chips moving from one player to another.
When it got down to heads up Lisa Hamilton and Lori Bender were playing for the bracelet and the $75,000 difference between first and second place money. It lasted exactly two hands when Lori Bender's pair of eights with a nine was outkicked by Lisa Hamilton's eights with a queen kicker. The heads up session was so quick that it played out while I was escorting Mari Lou Morelli, the third place finisher, to the payout clerk. By the time I returned, just a few minutes later, all the chips were in the middle and the last card was being dealt. Less than three and a half hours and it was all over. My first final table.
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