Bayou Poker

The 2010 Bayou Poker Challenge turnout was a little bit of a disappointment for some folks.  The Poker Tournament was scheduled opposite the WSOP Circuit Event in Atlantic City which is a "Regional Championship" carrying Player of the Year Points coveted by the top players.  Harrah's (owners of the WSOP brand) decided that they didn't want the Bayou to compete with AC so they didn't support it with any advertising money.  They didn't even include it on the WSOP Circuit schedule posted at the official WSOP web site.  I found it interesting that Nolan Dalla, the Media Director for the WSOP spent his time in New Orleans rather than AC.  He sat in a booth in the middle of the tournament area pounding out press releases during the event.

However, the week was not without well known knicknamed celebrities such as "Miami" John Cernuto and defending champion Alan "Chainsaw" Kessler.

Miami John used to be an air traffic controller at Miami-Dade airport, but I haven't figured out how Kessler got his knickname.  He is more of a nebbish than a "Dog the Bounty Hunter" type, but he sure can play poker.  He won this tournament last year and defended his title this year making the final table and finishing 8th.  He has won about $2 million playing in poker tournaments according to Bluff Magazine.

There were also several players that I recognized, but couldn't name, from the World Series of Poker tables over the last few years.

There were 15 events and 4 Super Satellites with between 75 and 200 entries into each event.  First Prize for many events was over $10,000 plus a championship WSOP ring and the Main Event winner, Tyler Smith took home $66,488 for his excellent play.

We started with too many dealers for the size of the fields but after limiting the use of the local "On call" casino dealers and some attrition from circuit dealers who could see that hours might be limited, we got a reasonable amount of work.  The supervisors tried to even out the hours when it made sense and I wound up working a full day most of the time.  I had one really short day and one day where I dealt 13 hours before breaking a table and calling it quits.

In all it was an enjoyable work experience.  Management was fair, food in the Employee Dining Room was good as well as inexpensive and I had some time to take in a little of the sights of the city.  While I missed getting a Po Boy at Mother's, I was able to treat myself to an order the famous Cafe du Monde Beignets.