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.