Long Day

Today was the WSOP $3000 "Triple Chance" Tournament.  This is a twist on the concept of a "Re-buy" tournament where for a period you can bust out and re-buy a new starting stack of chips.  The "Triple Chance" gives each player a starting stack of 3000 chips plus two "Re-buy" chips which can be cashed anytime during the first four hours of play for an additional 3000 chips each  At the end of the fourth level, all unused "Re-buy" chips are cashed in as an add-on to the player's stack.

One of my tables had both Phil Ivey and Chris Moneymaker.  Chris had some really bad luck.  First he made a set of Queens and got all in against a short stack with a Flush draw.  The Flush got there and Chris took a hit.  Two hands later he made a set of Fours but got beat by a set of Tens.  Chris still had a few chips left when I pushed out of the table.  Checking results later I saw that Chris overcame his misfortune to just make the money and bust out 86th - good for $5,992.

About 950 players began the tournament.  Due to the shortage of dealers and the fact that players can survive a little longer in "Triple Chance" I started my day at 11:30 and didn't leave the tournament floor (exept once for five minutes to pee) until 6:30.

I'm tired.  That is a lot of shuffling and pitching.  I'm going to put my feet up, drink a beer and probably fall asleep in front of the TV.  :-)

Dealer Economics

The first week or so the basic challenge was to work more than half a day while collecting the $7.55 an hour for the other half. This was because there were so many dealers relative to the available work. It was not uncommon to deal two tables (half hour each) then break for half an hour, two or three more, then break and return from break to discover that the tables in your row had been broken and players scattered to fill open seats at the remaining tournament tables. The situation has changed. Finding tables to deal is no longer a problem. Some days we have even dealt five hours straight before getting a twenty minute break.


We started the World Series of Poker with around 1100 dealers. Halfway through the tournament schedule, there remain 725 dealers on the roster covering all shifts. Some left or were let go because they simply did not have the skills to do the job. Others were trying to combine the WSOP job with another regular job. Two jobs is a lot of work and my understanding is that dealing at WSOP is much more work than the typical Las Vegas Poker dealer casino job. Also, the “down value” is lower this year than last. Each half hour a dealer spends at a table is called a “down”. The value of a down is derived from the amount of entry fees collected and the total number of downs dealt. They are averaged for each week.

This year the downs are about 10% less than last year. This is because we have more tournaments with smaller entry fees than last year. Last year there was only one “Stimulus Special” $1000 buy-in tournament, this year every weekend has a $1000 tournament with a two day Saturday – Sunday start and runs through four or five days if needed. Harrah’s management also decided that the WSOP needed more reasons for players to stay rather than go play other less expensive tournament s around town so they added a daily $200 Deep Stack tournament. The Deep Stack has been drawing anywhere from 350 to 700 players every day. This obviously waters down the value of the downs when combined with the regular WSOP events with entry fees of $5000 or $10,000.

Simple economics dictates that a lower wage will attract fewer workers. Fewer dealers means more time spent dealing and less time sitting in the Dealer Break Room reading a magazine, waiting for a chance to push into a table. For me, this is a good thing. Despite the fact that the downs are worth 10% less, I will be able to work 20% more downs per day and make more money each day I work. Additionally, because our dealer numbers are so far down, we now are scheduled to work six days a week, another twenty percent increase in downs per week. So if this week last year I dealt 50 downs, I should be able to deal 72 downs this year. If I made $1000 this week last year, I should make $1296 this year. It is a 44% increase in work and a 29.6% increase in money.

For me, this is a good thing. Working six days a week helps me to overcome my lodging and transportation expenses. I don’t really need two days off every week because this is just a temporary job for me. I would rather work. In a few weeks I will have the rest of the year off and, as long as I have to put in seven or eight hours a day, I would like as many of those hours to be at the $39 hourly rate rather than the $7.55.

$200 coin flip - not quite

At Flamingo for another try at winning a few chips.  As typical, I was able to stay about even for a few hours either by flopping the best hand or stealing a pot here and there with a well timed bluff to offset those times my opponents actually had a hand.

I tried raising to $7 in position with a 5-6 of diamonds knowing I would be called but thinking I might get lucky.  Yes, the flop had a 5 and also two diamonds so with a little luck I might be able to make a winner with a flush, two pair or trips if I spiked a third 5.

There was a $25 bet followed by a $25 call.  Emboldened by my success with the big draw the other day I raised it to $75.  The first bettor folded but the caller then re-raised all in and had me covered.  My quick calculations were:  9 diamonds to make me a winning flush and possibly 5 other cards (fives or sixes) to make trips or two pair that would be good enough to beat pocket Aces or Kings.  The pot now had $28 from preflop betting, $25 dead money from the folder, my $75 and the raiser's $192 for a total of $320 offered for my $118 call.  This was a fair price seeing that I had all those good draws and folding just meant I lose the $75 I already put in there.

I called.  The raiser had a set of eights and I only had the 9 outs to the flush.

I missed.

Busted.  Down $200 and done for the night.

An Interesting and Profitable Hand

I spent most of my day off doing laundry after sleeping in.  I feel the need to iron my six permanent press shirts in order to be presentable for work.  A healthy dinner was an order of lettuce wraps and the Won Ton soup at P. F. Chang's where after dinner I discovered that I had forgotten to replace the gas cap when I filled up.  Oops.  Off to Wal Mart to buy a replacement.

Seeing that the top was down and my tank was full I took a little drive over to the Eastside Cannery on Boulder Highway.  The sun was just beginning to set.  The air was warm and although the windows on the old Miata won't go down all the way, the drive out Tropicana Boulevard was pleasant.  Upon arriving I was lucky enough to get a great, close in parking space but inside the only Poker was a small tournament already in progress.  No cash game tables were running.  At least I didn't have far to walk to get back to the car.

My next choice was to head back to the Flamingo where I had memories of earlier success.  After a few hours of playing solid A-B-C Poker my $200 stack was down to about $175.  I found myself "on the button" (last to act) holding the seven and five of hearts.  A player limped, calling the $2 big blind followed by a player raising to $12.  A player new to the table on my right called the $12 and I thought, "Gee, if things work out right, I could win a big pot!"  The limper also called and we saw a flop with some $50 in the pot.

The flop came out Ah-6h-8d giving me a draw to a straight plus a draw to a flush.  I'm not going anywhere.  The original raiser put out a continuation bet of $45 and without much thought the player to my immediate right called.  My first inclination was to call and see if I could catch one of the 15 cards I needed to make a hand that could beat a pair of aces.  Then I had another idea.  There was already well over $100 in the pot.  I could bluff at it and if they all folded it would be worthwhile.  If someone called with a pair of aces, even though I was behind I was actually the favorite with two cards to come.

How can I be favored even if I am behind? Look at it like this:

If I assume a caller to my bluff has an ace and a king making him "Top Pair, Top Kicker" then I know seven of the 52 cards in the deck - my five and seven of hearts, his ace and king and the three cards on the board.  Of the 45 unknown cards 15 of them make me a winning hand: 9 hearts to make a flush and 3 nines or 3 fours to make a straight. The probability of making the winning hand on the next card is 33% (15 out of 45).  Of the remaining 66% when I do not win on the turn card, I can win on the river 34% of the time (15 out of 44).  34% of 66% is about 22%.

 33% of the time I win on the turn and 22% of the time I miss on the turn but win on the river making it 55% of the time I win.  That makes me the favorite against a hand like "Top Pair, Top Kicker".

I can improve my chances even more by bluffing because if I bluff and just 20% of the time everyone folds to me, then I am a winner some 64% of the time i.e. 20% when they fold and 55% of the remaining 80% that someone calls.  I like my chances.

I piled my chips into two neat towers and pushed them forward, "All in!"

Two opponents quickly folded and the player to my right went into the tank.  Thinking hard, he turned and stared at me.  I preferred that he fold.  I couldn't get unlucky if he folded.  I would win his $45 call, the original $45 bet plus the $50 in the pot if he folded and I would be happy with that.  I didn't really mind if he called because I would be a 55 to 45 favorite and could win the additional $75 call he would need to put up.  My raise had made it $163 "to go".  I don't like the stare down so I decided to do something.  I reached out and separated the $45 from my chips that represented the "call" portion of my bet.  The dealer saw what I was doing and then dragged the three stacks of $45 into the pot.  This left only the amount needed to call in front of me.  I then looked on the table in front of him where my opponent had made three piles of five red chips.  $75 was what he had left.  I then took the excess off of my stack so that only the $75 remained - the exact amount required by him to make the call that represented all of his money.  The lady player a few seats to my left inappropriately commented, "It looks a lot less intimidating that way." 

I nodded in agreement and turned to my opponent, "I'll show if you fold." I shrugged my shoulders.

My opponent then turned one of his cards, the ace of diamonds, face up and tossed them both to the dealer.  I turned over my two cards and said, "I was the favorite.  Fifteen outs, twice."

The dealer pushed me the pot.

Half Way to the Main Event

Yes, we are past the halfway point to getting to the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

This year there has been an increase in participation at events, however, the total prize money is down.  The impact of this on the dealers is that we are dealing more "Downs" for less money per down.  A down is what we call each 30 minute increment that a dealer sits down at a table and deals.  Payroll uses the down count to determine how much we get paid.  For example:  If the entry fee is $1500 and 2% goes for the dealers and there are 800 players, then $24,000 is available to distribute to the dealers.  For this type of tournament, it may take three days and 1600 dealer downs to get to a winner making each down pay $15.  Obviously, the larger the entry and the smaller the field, the more value there is to the downs.

This year, in an effort to keep players from leaving to play in other tournaments at other casinos, the staff created a new series of "Deep Stack" tournaments with a small entry fee of only $200.  This is a wonderful series of tournaments for the players as it represents a great value as well as a great opportunity for players to gain live tournament experience in a deep stack tournament environment.  For dealers it provides work.  Every day now we have an additional 40 to 80 tournament tables which require a dealer at every one plus 10% to 20% additional to provide breaks every few hours. The downside is that when you combine a low entry fee with the deep stacks you get a great value for players but a low down value for the dealers.  For many dealers, working more hours for less money per hour is a problem.  Five years ago dealers could make around $15,000 for working the series.  Now, with larger fields, more tournaments and lower entry fees, a dealer can't expect to make much more than half of that.

Currently, the level of compensation is enough to pay for travel, lodging and local transportation but if the trend continues, the out-of-towners will have a difficult time justifying the expense of coming to Vegas to do the WSOP.

Hopefully, WSOP management will be able to find ways to compensate dealers enough to keep quality dealers coming in from all over the USA to work the series in future years.  It is one of the world's great sporting events and it is an incredible experience to be in the center of the action for it.

Happy Father's Day!

That's me and my baby girl, Mary Elizabeth.  She gave me a call this morning to wish me a happy Father's Day.  Made my day, for sure.  Even though she's growing up, last week she said goodbye to being a teenager, she will always be my baby girl.

I love you Mary!

Jesus Spews Chips

A seat came open at a table I was dealing in a $1000 buy-in tournament.  The player that came to fill it was Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.  His nickname comes from his obvious resemblance, when not wearing his cowboy hat, to traditional Jesus portraits.  He is also one of the best Poker players in the world having won the WSOP Main Event plus four other bracelets and also the National Heads Up Poker Championship.  As he sat down he mentioned that this was going to be quick because he needed to get back to the Omaha tournament.

The Omaha High-Low Split tournament had started the day before and Chris had done well making it to Day 2.  Making it to Day 2 of yesterday's $10,000 tournament I couldn't really understand why he would play in today's $1000 tournament.  From his demeanor and actions I think he had the same question.  At one point he actually said, "This will be a good way to collect fans.  I'm just going to be giving away chips."

He played a few small pots with people and simply called any bets or raises and then showed down a losing hand.  Under the gun, he just called the big blind.  The players at the table all reacted and stared at him with questioning expressions.  Apparently the players at the table were all well aware of Chris' reputation for following the "Raise or Fold" philosophy for playing this game.  Chris had written about it in several publications and here he was obviously not following it.  A player at the other end of the table raised and when it got back to Ferguson he said, "That's what I'm looking for." And then pushed all of his modest size stack forward, all in.

The raiser called.  Chris had a very weak hand and when the board ran out he lost and was eliminated.  He wished everyone the best of luck and was off to see if he could make the money in the Omaha game.

This was such an odd scene.  Chris Ferguson is typically studious, deliberate, quiet and at times even menacing at the poker table and here he was joking with players and literally just giving away his chips.  He could have unregistered for the tournament and gotten the $1000 back but I suppose he decided to have a little fun instead - and maybe collect a few fans along the way.

Oops! That's Poker

Sometimes you are the shark and sometimes you are the fish.  Last night I was the fish.  The way this No Limit Cash Game usually works out for me is that I play a bunch of hands resulting in small pots going back and forth and I stay about even.  Then there is a big hand and hopefully I am on the winning end of it.  Phil Gordon says, "Don't go broke with just one pair."  Problem is, sometimes it seems impossible to make better than one pair for hours at the table and that hand of AA just looks so very powerful. 

As it happened, I was running a little bad and was not even but down about a hundred fifty when I topped up my stack by purchasing an additional $100 in red $5 chips.  Then I felt I had a better size stack to go to war with.  I felt that it was a really good move because soon I was looking at two red Aces in my hand.  I made it $12 to go and got 2 callers.  An innocent looking flop of J-6-3 brought checks from my opponents, so I bet $30 into this $36 pot.  This is a little bigger than my normal "continuation" bet but I would be happy to take the pot down right there with no more action.   The first player then raised to $60 and the second folded.  I assumed he had hit Top Pair with a hand like K-J or something, so me with Aces would have to raise him back.  A good solid raise that would say, "I can beat Top Pair and you better just fold" would be about three times his raise which means I needed to call the $30 and add $60 on top.  Add this to the $30 I already had out there and I would be putting all but about $25 of my total chip stack out there.  No sense in doing that because if the $120 gets called, the remaining $25 goes in no matter what.  So I went, "All In."  To my surprise, my opponent considered the situation for about 2 seconds and said, I call."

At that point I realized that I might be in trouble, but still had hope that my opponent overplayed pocket Queens or a hand like K-J.  The dealer added two more cards to the board and the situation did not change.  I turned over my pocket aces and my opponent revealed the winning pocket sixes which made a "Set" a.k.a. Three-of-a-kind.  (Note: in Poker parlance a pocket pair matching a card on the board is a "Set" whereas a card in hand matching a pair on the board is known as "Trips".)  I had made the somewhat amateurish mistake of overplaying pocket Aces after the flop.  I could have tried to keep the pot small but I was seduced by the seeming power of the best possible starting hand.

I was pretty disgusted with my poor play and bad luck getting my aces cracked but felt a little better when one of my playing companions noted, "No shame in losin' with aces, man."

I suppose if there is a hand to get busted with, it's aces.  That said, I know I can play them better.  Rather than trying to blow everyone out with a pot size continuation bet I could have led with a more reasonable 1/3 to 1/2 pot size bet, then reassessed when my opponent executed the check-raise.  The problem is that although I know this, just like most other players, when you've been getting ground down and you haven't seen any winners for an hour or two, those Aces look like a saviour.  You know that heads-up you are at least an 80% favorite to win - but that also means that once out of every five times you play it, the aces will lose.  The great Doyle Brunson, in his book Super System or How I Made Over a Million Dollars Playing Poker, said, "Aces are usually good for winning a small pot or losing a big one."

Barry had shown up during the proceedings and we went to dinner.  I needed a break.  We hit the Pub for a roast chicken breast with Bok Choy and a Pub Pale Ale.  Recharged, we entered the 11:00 No Limit Hold'em tournament for $60.  I outlasted about half the field, but Barry chipped up with a series of bluffs and large bets and won a three-way "all in" pot when his aces held up.  This got him into the money but when the chip leader busted out both the third and fourth place finishers, Barry was at a big disadvantage in chips, but happily in second place.  The heads-up session lasted exactly one hand.  Barry raised all of it, got called and got beat.  Second place money, however, was a few hundred dollars, so he was pleased with the outcome.

While Barry was winning money over in the tournament I tried my hand again at the cash game.  They say that if you sit down at a poker game and can't find the sucker at the table, it's you.  That's kind of how I felt.

My final hand of the night was interesting if not disappointing.  I had pocket tens.  I raised to $10 and the young Brit to my immediate left re-raised it to $25.  A burly player who reminded me of John Candy called the $25 and then a guy who played nearly every pot, a tattooed Latino with a military style hair cut, also called.  Back to me.  I pushed the rest of my stack in making it a total of $75 "To go".  The young Brit was considering things and counting out a possible raise while kind of mumbling and thinking out loud, "What to do, what to do."

I said, "Go ahead and raise it, then you and I can go head to head."

He seriously considered it and gesturing to the Latino player, "He'll never fold it and I don't know about him either."  Then he folded.  The others called.

Near perfect situation:  Pocket tens versus two players with A-K and an overlay of money in the pot.  I am getting over 2 to 1 on my money if I win and I am a 65% favorite to win unless the Brit folded an ace - then I would be more like a 75% favorite.  But this also means that while I "got my money in good" I can still lose.  Which I did.  The board ran out three diamonds by the Turn and the fourth diamond on the River made a flush for the fellow with the king of diamonds.  According to the Card Player Magazine Odds Calculator, this will happen about 2% of the time.

 I guess it is just not my day.

The Death of Jazz in Vegas

I have come to realize that Jazz is dead in Vegas. The vision I have of a casino lounge with a Jazz quartet off in the corner, saxophone spinning out a soft “Take Five”, no longer exists. The idea of a tall and tan brunette in a low cut sequined gown cozying up to a microphone and cooing a soft jazzy “The Girl from Ipanema” is just a fantasy.

Is that what I really saw in 1980 when I took off for a few days to play Blackjack and Craps? Do I remember sitting in a lounge, sipping a scotch and relaxing to some smooth jazz or is it just my memory of some late night Rat Pack era movie set in a place that no longer exists and maybe never did?

We checked out the lounges on the strip and found no Jazz. Bellagio has a restaurant with live piano playing mood music and that’s as close as we could come. The Fontana lounge had an 80’s throwback band and even at Bally’s who preserves old style Vegas with their Jubilee! with kick lines of show girls wearing thousands of rhinestones concealing almost nothing had a loud rock band on their lounge stage.

I think some of the musicians still get it. The Piano player in the Petrossian Bar lit up when Jerry asked him to play “All Blues” from Miles Davis’ seminal “Kinda Blue” jazz album. I suspect there is some underground jazz movement here in Vegas. I might just have to search a little harder for it.

In the meantime, I might pedal over to Bellagio and slip the piano player a request for “Take Five” or “Harlem Nocturne”.

Random Thought

The Rio Hotel is themed for the "Carnival" of Rio de Janeiro.

The "Girl" from Ipanema was from that city in Brazil.

Wouldn't you think they would have an Ipanema Lounge playing Bossa Nova Music at the Rio?

Day Off with Sisters

I am the kid brother to the two beautiful women you see in the photo.  My sister Terrie is an artist living in Phoenix, AZ and Diane is a nurse in Hinkley, Ohio, so it is a rare occasion that we all get together.  As you can see, I just beam when I'm around my sisters.

I suppose in therapy it would be discovered that my vision of the ideal woman is some combination of my two sisters: Beautiful, intelligent, loving, nurturing, considerate and personable.  Just like my wife, Lillian.

We took the day and got away from the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip and headed up to Mount Charleston, about 45 minutes northeast of Las Vegas.  Near the top of the mountain there is a lodge where we had lunch.  Elevation 7650.  It was an interesting drive seeing the vegetation change from desert to Joshua tree forest to Junipers to Pine studded mountainsides as we made our way up to the lodge.

Diane, Bobby, Terrie and Jerry

I gotta lose some weight.

Snow still on the mountain

Awesome

Looking down valley

On the way back we stopped at the Rio's VooDoo Lounge for a drink and a view of the strip from atop the fiftieth floor.

Flamingo Flamenco

On Sunday, we held Day 1B of the second weekend $1000 No Limit Hold'em Tournament.  Last weekend we held the first these low entry fee tournaments and it was very successful.  They had over 4300 entries.  This weekend's $1000 was not nearly as popular.  There were 1922 entrants on Day 1A and only 1120 on Sunday, Day 1B.  This was some 30% below projections.  They asked the dealers for volunteers to take the day off.

Many local dealers are happy to have an unexpected day off but those of us in from out of town have room and car rental expenses and we need the work.

I spent the early part of my shift checking in players and re-routing them to their last minute table assignment.  The low turnout caused some problems where some tables only had one or two playeres assigned, so when they showed up, we filled in gaps in other tables that were nearly full but had open seats.  I was then able to deal for a couple hours before the field shrank down and my table broken.  I was then assigned to deal in the "Live Action" area.  This was nothing noteworthy except that I was able to deal a nice variety of games including $50-$100 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo and Omaha 8 in addition to the usual smaller No Limit Hold'em games.

I would have liked to catch up with Jim and Kristen playing cards at the Flamingo but by the time Barry and I finished our Salsbury Steak dinner at the EDR (Employee Dining Room) and headed over there, Jim and Kristen had already moved on to Caesar's Palace in search of Sushi.  We did, however, stop to play some Poker.

My first hand I flopped the nut Flush holding the Ace and Four of Spades.

When a guy with a very large stack to my right bet $25 on the Turn I raised to $50.

He said, "Why would you do that?"

I told him, "If another Spade hits the River, I'm going to win a big pot."

He said, "I'm all in."

I called. He had the second nut Flush and I won a $400+ pot! 

I may have earlier failed to mention to the gentleman that I was also going to win a big pot if a spade did not hit the River, but that was information I didn't want him have at the time.  You see, he was holding a Queen high Spade Flush and the reason he made such a large bet was because if I had a draw to a better Flush, he wanted me to pay dearly to outdraw him.  He simply didn't realize that he was already dead and had no possibility of winning the pot.

After that hand I played just a little better than break-even Poker for the next 3 hours until Barry yanked me off the table saying, "I gotta get you out of here before you lose back everything you've won!"

Jim Makes the Money!!!

That's right folks, Kristen's dad, Jim, nursed that baby stack of just over 2500 chips into Day 2 of the $1500 No Limit Hold'em Tournament.  In the first hour of Day 2, Jim put his chips on the line and pulled down several pots building the stack up to over 11,000 and held on to it until enough players had been eliminated that he would be "in the money".

I am on a break from another tournament and decide to go find out how Jim is doing.  In the Amazon Room Jim is sitting in the middle of a field of about 30 Tables.  From the rail area I can see him but there are no chips in front of him and he is looking intently toward the center of the table.   I can't see what is going on.  I'm in my dealer uniform, so I figure nobody will say anything if I just walk through the middle of the tournament area looking like I know what I am doing.  As I cruise past Jim's table the dealer is pushing a rather large mound of yellow $1000 chips in Jim's direction.  As I get closer, I see the pile slides right past Jim to a player two seats to his left.  He's out, but he's in the money.

Jim took 261st out of 2563 players, good enough for $2,802.

His official earnings are listed at the WSOP.com web site under "Players":  James Pell

I like the new 2010 WSOP Bracelets

"Lodden Thinks"

Antonio Esfandiari wasn't really sitting at table 154.  Barefoot, sandals on the floor, he was kneeling on his chair at the end of the table.  Antonio is very colorful with high energy and is a delight to have for entertainment at a poker table. 

In front of him on the rail was a short stack of hundred dollar bills.  These were being used to fund the "Proposition" bets he was making to amuse himself  (and everyone else) as the game goes on.  He got a few takers that he couldn't do 55 pushups.  He did 60 during the break.

 After I pushed into the table they started playing "Lodden Thinks".  This is a game that Antonio (and I think Phil Laak) came up with to break up the boredome of some long tournament sessions they were playing in London a year or two ago.  They would ask Johnny Lodden, a talented Norwegian Poker pro, what he tought about something and then bet to see who could come closest.  For example they asked him to think how many pushups Antonio could do without stopping.  Now it doesn't matter how many he can do, it only matters how many Lodden thinks he can do.  Once Lodden had a number in his head, then they would bid on the number.

• "Over 35"
• "Over 40"
• "Over 55"
• "Over 70"
• "I'll take the under for $100"
• "You got a bet!"

Then Johnny Lodden would reveal what he thought and the bet was paid off.

During my half hour at this table I dealt about 15 hands of Poker during which, one player posed as "Lodden" and the others bet on the following:

• How much money would it take to get Dave (in seat 5) to shave his head?
• On a scale of 1 to 100, 100 being the best movie you have ever seen, how would you rate "Inglorious Bastards"?
• Same question for "My Cousin Vinny".
• Phil Laak is playing $10-$20 No Limit Hold'em in a marathon session at Bellagio to try to set the world record for longest single session of poker without sleep.  How much money do you think he is up or down?
• Lifetime total for all the men at this table, how many hookers have they had?  "Including the dealer?'  "Yes, including Buz the dealer."

There was a lot of discussion, a lot of laughs, a lot of bidding and as far as I could tell, the money was about even on the proposition bets.

Michiganders

Beautiful, intelligent, witty, warm and personable, my friend Jim's daughter Kristen also sports a crafty Poker game.  Back in the days when I was living in Ann Arbor,  Kristen could often be found at the final tables of tournaments at the Windsor Ceasars or behind a mound of red chips at one of the cash tables.  This was, of course, during her breaks from law school at Michigan State.  Yes, it is always nice to have a backup career plan.

After missing the money in Friday's WSOP tournament, Kristen was off to Ceasar's Palace to see if she could win back her entry fee. 

In the meantime, Jim, her dad, with tounge planted firmly in cheek was struggling to make it to day two with a below average chip stack.  Jim plays a very solid game and it doesn't surprise me at all to see him go deep in a tournament like this.

Hellmuth Ranting

In the $1500 No Limit Hold'em event, Phil made it to the final three tables before getting his money in good, but losing a pot and a lot of his chips.

According to Pokernews Live Updates:

Phil Hellmuth was ranting about Max Steinberg who had just taken a pot from him with an ace-seven . The dealer quickly swept in the board so we weren't able to get the action, but Hellmuth was clearly frustrated. "It's a miracle you're still here," Hellmuth vented.

Not long after, Phil was eliminated in 15th place, ahead of 2,326 other players in his quest to extend his world leading count of 12 World Series of Poker bracelets.  Phil has hired a "Life Coach" to help him to deal better with these situations.

Note:  Max Steinberg finished second.  I am sure the $352,000 he took home will be salve to the bruising his ego took when Hellmuth was ranting about what a bad player he was.

Go Big or Go Home

All of the big name poker players I dealt to on day one of the $1500 have been eliminated except one - the great one, the "Poker Brat" Phil Hellmuth.  At the end of day two, Phil is sitting on a stack of a half million in chips and is in fifth place in the tournament.  There are 25 players remaining of the original field of 2,341 players.  Phil got his nickname because he has been prone to some unsportsmanlike displays of emotion after being on the losing end of a poker game.

I just thought of a new joke to tell Norm Chad, the ESPN Announcer for the World Series.

Back in Phil Hellmuth's home state of Wisconsin, there's a casino snack bar where you can get a "Poker Brät".  It's served with whine!

Latecomer Celebrities

If you watch Poker on TV, you have seen a lot of the famous Poker players that registered late for Wednesday's $1500 No Limit Hold'em tournament.  Players are allowed to register for WSOP tournaments up to 2 hours after they start.  They are given a full stack of chips even though they may face others who have been playing for a while.  Officials have decided that players who registered between noon and one o'clock will all start at one o'clock and those who registered between one and two o'clock will start at two o'clock at their own tables which were added to accommodate these additional players.

I drew an assignment to deal at a table in this area.  I was amazed when I saw who was being seated at my tables.

Here is a partial list of "famous" players I dealt to at the first three tables I pushed into:

Dan Heimiller - Won over a million dollars just in WSOP events
Men Nguyen - 6 WSOP Bracelets, "All you can eat, baby."
Chau Giang - Doyle's buddy in the "Big Game", 3 WSOP bracelets
Jonny Chan -  Featured in the movie Rounders and twice winner of the WSOP Main Event
Dewey Tomko - 3 Bracelets, Poker Hall of Fame 2008
Michael Binger - WPT star and won over $5 million in WSOP events
Phil Hellmuth - Holds WSOP record for winning Bracelets (12). Current number one
Allen Cunningham - five-time WSOP bracelet winner, Player of the Year at the 2005 WSOP
Jeff Shulman - 2009 Final Table WSOP Main Event and Editor of Cardplayer Magazine
John Phan - 2 WSOP Bracelets and 4 WPT televised final  tables.

Apparently, these players do not put much value in playing the first level of the tournament when the pots are very small and do not have a big impact on the outcome of the tournament.  In fact Phil Hellmuth is famous for buying into the Main Event and not showing up to play for the first hour or two, then making a grand entrance complete with costumes and television cameras.

Many of these late registrants also subscribe to the strategy of "Go big or go home" where they play extremely agressively and they either build a huge chip stack that can carry them to the top of the leaderboard or bust out quickly and not spend a lot of time in a tournament they will not make money in.  Proof of this is that in the first five hands I dealt, three players busted out of the tournament.  For two of those players, they busted out on the first hand they voluntarily put money into.  Just lit a match to $1500!

Working - Pitchin' Cards and Pushin' Pots

Yes, I am working.  No I am not simply spending all of my time playing Poker and writing up the results.

Saturday I dealt Day 1a of the $1000 Buy-in No Limit Tournament.  Turnout was lower than projected and Sunday I spent my entire day in the live cash games.  Monday I dealt the $1500 buy-in Day 1 start.

Lots of Hold'em.

Already I am a little bored dealing No Limit Hold'em to tournament players.  The cash games are a little more interesting.  In tournaments, there will be hand after hand after hand of fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, raise, fold fold. Push. Shuffle. Deal. Fold, fold, fold...etc.

People play a lot looser in cash games.  They figure they can try to get in cheap, get lucky and if they miss, lose a small pot or reload and try again.  Due to the fact that people usually play cash games with very deep stacks of chips relative to the opening bets, there is more "play."  By that I mean there are more hands where there is a decision on every street.  Every turn of a card changes the situation, changes the odds of winning, changes the information a player makes decisions with.

Also, in cash games, a.k.a. "Live" or "Live Action" games as a dealer you have to keep track of the pot.  In smaller games you need to count the pot and take the 10% rake (up to $5). In the popular Pot Limit games, you need to always know how much is in the pot to verify that a player is making a legal bet.  In Pot Limit it is typical for a player to ask the dealer how much is in the Pot or, "How much can I Pot it for?"  This also gets tricky when there has been one or more bets and a player says, "How much if I raise Pot?"  You feel like a mathlete after a few Pot Limit tables.  But it also makes dealing more interesting and challenging.

One disappointment in working day shift is that the majority of the noon events are straight No Limit Hold'em and most of the Stud, Lowball and Pot Limit events are scheduled for a 5 o'clock start.  Hmmm.

Maybe next year I will request to be on the 4 PM shift.  That way I will catch all of the mixed game events.  Both eight game mixed events and all three H.O.R.S.E. events on the 2010 schedule have a 5 o'clock start.  BTW:  H.O.R.S.E. is Hold'em / Omaha-8 / Razz (Lowball 7 Card Stud)/ 7 Card Stud / 7 Card Stud High-Low 8 or better. They switch games every hour.

On Sunday I dealt a cash game I had never seen spread before: 5 Card Pot Limit Omaha-8 Hi/Lo.  Omaha is usually played with 4 cards.  The Hi/Lo version is usually a limit rather thana Pot Limit game.  Dealing 5 cards limits the table to 8 players.  They also played it with small blind $5, Big Blind $10 and a $20 optional straddle (These are all bets made before cards are dealt).  The table had a maniac in seat one, immediately to the left of the dealer.  He wasn't a maniac in how he made his bets, just a maniac in the sense that he was hopped up on something.  He couldn't stay in his chair.  He was jumping around and he never stopped talking or yelling for the entire half hour I dealt.  He had two arguements with another player that I needed to call a supervisor to settle - and it was the exact same arguement both times and with the same player!  Then a new dealer came to the table and pushed me from the wrong side.  The toke box where the tips are collected is on the left, so if a dealer approaches from the right, the exiting dealer stands up right in front of the box and can retrieve the tips from the box.  By pushing in from the left, I exited to the right and walked away leaving my tips in the toke box.  It only took me a minute to figure out that something was missing and I went back to collect my tips.

The maniac said to me, "Hey Buz.  Thanks for putting up with all of my shit, you did a great job.  I never got a chance to tip you because I NEVER WON A DAMN POT! So here." And he tossed a five dollar tip into my toke box.

Busman's Holiday - Part two

We found two seats open on the $1-$2 No Limit table. I bought $200 worth of chips and told the waitress to bring me a Jack Daniels Manhattan with extra cherries. The idea was to just play tight, sip on my drink and relax. If I wanted to I could simply fold every hand, pay my $3 in blinds every ten hands, watch ESPN on the big screen behind the table and drink for free.

Yeah, right.

Instead of the nitty game with small pot after small pot being pushed, the betting was getting a little wild. A player, who introduced himself as Jerry, was making oversize bets at seemingly every pot he played. For example, he called a $7 raise. After the flop, he led out with a $30 bet (mind that the pot at this point is only $14). He got called, then after the Turn he bet $70. His opponent raises “All in” and Jerry calls.

Jerry is this big galoot with a bald head, an Amish style beard sans mustache, arms covered in tattoos and a kind of dopey demeanor which may have been related to the stuff he said he had been smoking up in his room.

After the “All in” call Jerry showed a flush draw against his opponent’s pocket pair. He missed his draw, shrugged his shoulders and counted $300 out to the dealer from a bankroll that looked like a stack of crisp new twenties three-quarters of an inch thick.

That betting sequence didn’t just happen once. Most hands that Jerry was involved in went like that. He won a lot of small pots when opponents just folded to his oversize bully bets, but when he was beat, his opponent would raise and if he had a pair or a draw, he would call it down to the river. In the meantime, I sat and sipped on my Jack Manhattan.

I raised before the flop with pocket eights and got a couple callers, but not from Jerry. The flop came out 6-8-K all different suits. Figuring someone probably had a king I led out about half the pot, which has become my standard “Continuation bet”. One player called. He led out after the turn card was dealt and I raised. A lot of money went into the pot and at the end, my three-of-a-kind eights held up.

I noticed that in this game, maybe because of Jerry’s maniacal play, my continuation bets weren’t getting any respect. I would have a “raising” hand like AK or AQ, raise it before the flop, miss the flop, lead out and invariably get called by one or two players acting as sheriff. I didn’t have to give up on too many of these hands to put a nice dent in my chip stack.

Then I looked down and found two lovely red Aces in my hand. I got one caller with a bigger than normal re-raise and a typical half-pot continuation bet. The board paired on the turn and a third spade showed up on the river. My opponent made a small “value” bet on the river and I called. He showed two pair, the queen in his hand matched one on the board. Then, with my best Al Pacino-as-Scarface Cuban accent showed my aces and said, “Say hello to my little friends.” No I didn’t. That would be really rude - to show someone up like that. At the Poker table I usually try to avoid angering my opponents. I don’t want them to resolve to play better against me.

A couple of hours of staying about even and I raised with AK. When after a call I flopped top two pair I slow-played, checking and calling the flop and the turn. My opponent had a shorter stack and he was pot committed by the river. He called my final bet with the last of his chips and I simply said, “Top two.” and turned over my ace and king. Resigned to his fate he slumped his shoulders, sighed and tossed his hand into the muck.

At this point I had built a stack of some $490. For me, this is a nice session of Poker. That is when I got into it with Jerry. He had changed seats and was now sitting on my immediate right. This was a good thing for me because it means that he must act first in almost every hand. Advantage Buz. It put me in a position where I could just fold to his oversize bets and lose the minimum while coming over the top of him to win a large bet when I felt I was ahead.

Jerry raised pre-flop and I called with a pocket pair of threes. It is a simple strategy: Call a raise with a small pocket pair and if you pick up a “set” (a hidden Three-of-a-kind) you can win big. Miss and you simply fold. No set, no bet. With two threes remaining in the deck my chances of spiking the set on the flop is about 12%.

Sure enough the flop came 3-9-8 and Jerry made an oversize bet of $30. I raised to $100 and without moving any chips and using a deep voice that came out like a bear growl Jerry responded, “All in.” He had close to $600 in front of him. He had me covered. There was a lot of ways I could lose this hand holding bottom set. I decided that it smelled like another big bluff and called. I flipped over my threes and he showed a ten and jack for a two way straight draw. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. It may have been the situation but the Manhattans certainly contributed. The dealer put a queen on the turn and just as I was recognizing that it completed Jerry’s straight he put out another nine giving me the winning full house. Whew! Talk about your emotional roller coaster.

After that, I avoided getting involved in any big hands, lost about $50 and cashed out for $940. It was my biggest winning day ever in a poker game.  :-)