Monday, October 24, 2011

Dennis Phillips

Dennis Phillips is a professional poker player from the St. Louis area.  He wasn't always just a poker player.  He worked as a manager at a trucking company when in 2008 he made the final table of the World Series of Poker.  He finished third in that event taking home $4.5 million and changing his life forever.

Dennis plays a tight, aggressive, old school style of poker typical of many of the grinders seen on the circuit.  He plays his big pairs and strong aces for raises up front and the speculative hands in late position if he can see a cheap flop.  This style makes it hard to take any chips off of him but carries him deep into most of the events he plays.  As expected, this style has won him a lot of money but coming into Chicago, Dennis has never won a ring or a bracelet at a WSOP event.

Thursday was "Satellite Day" at the Horseshoe.  Satellites are tournaments that pay out in entries or seats to another, higher buy-in tournament.  The Main Event at the Horseshoe will have a $1,600 entry fee.  The honest way a player gets into such an event is not to just plunk down sixteen hundred bucks but to win your way in.  For $150 you can win a seat in the $1,600 event the next day.  The way the "Mega" satellite tournaments work is that once the prize pool has been established, the number of seats can be determined.  For example: After the rake and the dealer tokes have been deducted from the entry fees there might be $17,000 in the total prize pool.  Ten seats would be the prize with the player finishing 11th getting the remaining $1000 in cash.

In the Mega Satellites for the Main Event three seats were added by the house at each one.  The house was giving the players back much of the rake taken in at the entry fees.  It makes the satellites an attractive value playing "juice free".

The 9 pm $150 Mega was also a rebuy tournament.  Players start with 4000 chips and if they fall below 2000 they can buy another 2000 for $100 or if they bust out they can buy 4000 for $200.  At the end of the rebuy period, after the first six twenty minute levels, players can add 2000 or 4000 to their stack as an add-on for $100 per 2000 chips.  All of the rebuy money is added to the prize pool with no rake for the house, however, their is still a 3% toke taken out for "dealers and staff".  By the time the players came back from the 11 pm break, the announcement came out that 17 seats would be available. 

This mega satellite tournament was small enough that all of the tables fit on the stage of the Venue leaving enough room for the final table arena encircled with gold ropes and monitored by an internet web camera suspended above the table.

I pushed into the separate $1,100 final table just before the mega satellite was finishing up.  When they got to their final seventeen the tournament abruptly ended and the stage was empty except for this final table of the $1,100 tournament that had begun the day before.  Dennis Phillips had made the final table despite feeling ill all day.  By this time there were only three players left, each with a mound of chips in front of them.  When Gordon Vayo busted the third player, he had about a 2 to 1 chip lead on Dennis.  The blinds were up to 15,000 and 30,000 with a 5000 chip ante but with over 3 million in chips between the two of them, they could still play some small ball.  And they did.  Back and forth went the blinds and antes.  Shuffle, shuffle, box, shuffle, deal, raise, fold, repeat.  Occasionally, a call.  Put out a flop. Bet. Fold. Over and over.  Gordon and Dennis grinding it out.  30 minutes I dealt, then a 30 minute break while Jason dealt. 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off.  Shuffle, shuffle, box, shuffle, deal, raise, fold, repeat.  During one break I straightened all the chairs and tables on the stage, bussed tables and picked up all the trash.  30 minutes on, 30 minutes off. Shuffle, shuffle, box, shuffle, deal, raise, fold, repeat.  This was going to take a while.

A few hours into it, Dennis says, "You know how this is going to end.  One of us is going to have a pair against a big ace and it's all going in."  About two hands later, just that happened.  Raise. Re-raise. "I'm all in."  Think, think, think, ... ..."I call."

Dennis turned over two sevens while Gordon showed an Ace and a Jack.  I tried to position the cards so they would show up under the web cam and put out the flop.  Jack in the window followed by a ten and an eight rainbow.  The suits were irrelevant.  With Gordon's big chip lead, Dennis needed another seven for a set or a nine to make the gutshot straight.  The Turn card was a four.  No help.  The River brought the nine.  Straight.  Kill the Jacks.  Dennis starting pushing stacks of chips forward.  I was momentarily confused but then, oh yeah, I gotta count all those chips.  There were over a million in stacks of powder blue 25,000 chips and blaze orange 5,000 chips.  The count was verified by Jeremy, the Floor Supervisor, and then Gordon counted out an equal amount from his mound of chips.  It was a complete reversal.  Dennis, once a 2 to 1 dog now held a 2 to 1 chip advantage.

Back to small ball.  30 minutes on, 30 minutes off. Shuffle, shuffle, box, shuffle, deal, raise, fold, repeat.  By 5:30 am with the stacks about the same, Jason dealing, Jeremy and I watching, it went raise, re-raise, all in and call.  This time, Gordon showed the pair, Sixes, while Dennis turned over an Ace and a Queen.  The Sixes never improved but a Queen hit the board and it was all over.  There was just few spectators, Dennis' girlfriend, Jeremy, Jason, the payout person and me.  The rest of the place was empty except the security guards.  According to the media guy, there were 35 people watching the final hand over the internet.

Dennis took home $55,045, a seat in the $1,600 Main Event and a WSOP Circuit gold ring.  He was then taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a ruptured appendix.  Rather than playing in the Main Event, he will be recovering from surgery.  I imagine he will still be a happy guy.

Dennis Phillips will forever be able to say he won a WSOP Circuit event and I will be always be able to say I dealt the final table of Dennis Phillips' first WSOP tournament win.

5:30 am. I had started the day at 11:30 am. 18 hours of dealing. I never worked this hard when I was working. So much for an easy retirement.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

WSOP Circuit Chicago

The Venue at The Horseshoe
OK, it's the closest casino to Chicago - The Horseshoe Hammond, IN.  To comply with Indiana gambling laws it is a building built out over the water so that it can technically be a "boat" located on the water.
This is the largest WSOP "Circuit" event of the 17 stops on tour that runs from September 2011 to May 2012.  It is held in "The Venue" which is the Horseshoe Casino's theatre, cleared of theatre seats replaced by 99 poker tables.  There are 12 tournaments that will award WSOP Circuit rings to the winner in addition to prize money as well as daily satellite tournaments and nightly non-ring tournaments.
Event #1 was $350 entry fee with $500,000 guaranteed prize pool with day 1 of the tournament spread over two days to accommodate all of the entries.  There was a fantastic turnout with 1392 entries on the first "Day 1" and an additional 1609 on "Day 1B" for a total of 3001 entries, the largest field ever at a WSOP Circuit event.  Something like 500 of the entries on 1B were people who busted out 1A and were allowed to re-enter as a new player on 1B.  The place was packed.  86 Circuit dealers were augmented by local "House" dealers to fill all of the tables in The Venue plus a share of tables set up in Horseshoe's Poker room.

For dealers looking for work, this is the place to be.  There are daily tournaments at noon, five and seven along with Mega-satellites and single table satellites running throughout the days.  Many of the tournaments are two day events with the first and last being three and four days.  We are scheduled to work every day of the event with no days off.  One shift.  Start at 11 each day and work until no longer needed, generally getting cut between 9 pm and 2 am.  One day I worked until 5:30 am.

It will be interesting to see how the pay works out.  Dealers are paid minimum wage plus dealer tokes.  The toke rate is determined by the number of tournament entries.  3% of each prize pool is held out for dealers and other tournament staff.  The dealer share, plus any tips left by winners, is divided by the dealers according to how many hours were worked.  We should do quite well because the pool of funds is being shared by a small group of dealers working ten, twelve or more hours a day rather than spreading it out over a larger group working more standard eight hour days.  The total number of hours it takes to deal a tournament will be the same, but at this event, those hours are being worked by fewer dealers than I have seen in the past.  This is a good thing.  Nearly all of the dealers are here from out of town and have little else to do but work.  May as well make money instead of reading a book in the hotel room.

More later...

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Late Registration

Last year I wrote an article about the "Latecomer Celebrities."  The issue of entering a tournament late has arisen again, this time at the European Poker Tour (EPT) London.  Daniel Negreanu in particular has been "tweeting" his dissatisfaction with the EPT officials who decided that any late registrants would be penalized chips for their lateness.  He said:
@RealKidPoker: The buy in for the high roller is £20,000 but if decide to skip the early levels and rest EPT tourney directors will penalize your stack!
Players LOVE the option of late registration so MOST tours cater to them but not the EPT guys. They are driving me absolutely crazy.

Matt Savage weighed in on the subject saying that he thought late registrants should get a full stack.  He said:

@SavagePoker:  Late reg advantage/disadvantage too minimal to determine so allow most flexibility for players to get in (traffic, schedules, flights, other.)


At the WSOP they have a rule that if a player registers before the tournament starts, his chip stack is set out at his seat.  The blinds are paid from this stack and his hands are folded until he shows up.  On the other hand, a player who registers after the event has begun will get a seat assignment and a full stack of chips.  I see a problem when someone registers early, but for what ever reason shows up late, gets blinded off while the guys that don't even register until after the event has started get a full stack.  This seems to be very unfair to the players who are faithful enough to the tournament to actually send their money in early or avoid the crush of the long registration lines by signing up the night before.  The faithful get punished while those who don't commit until the last minute are rewarded.

First of all, the EPT and the WSOP need to get together and decide on the rules for late registration.  It would be nice if they all agreed to use the same rules whether hosting a Poker tournament in London or Las Vegas.

The WSOP rules state that any player registering after an event has begun will receive a full starting chip stack.  Registration remains open for the first four levels, except the Main Event where it is open for two levels.  It further explains that a player who is registered but does not show up will have their chips blinded off until they show up or until the start of the third level when they will be removed and entry fee refunded.

My view is that I think we need to be consistant - both for pre-registration / late registration as well as WSOP / EPT tournaments.

If the big name pros like Negreanu, et al think they gain a slight advantage by resting and entering tournaments late and not playing the "unimportant" first four levels, they why should we have them at all?  Why not just start the tournament with the blinds and antes at a level equivalent to that of level four or five?

Well, many think those early levels represent much of the "value" of buying into the tournament.  They like the idea of getting a lot of "play" for their buy in and being able to play for some time without feeling that every hand they get involved in is a "Shove or fold" situation.  Big Stack Poker is fun and Big Stack Poker is what you get to play at the beginning of tournaments.  Of course, the big name pros are not in it for the fun, they are in it for the money.  There is also the idea that many in the field have entered the tournament with the idea that they will be able to sit at the same table with and compete with some of the star players that they and their friends have seen on television.  Allowing players to routinely skip the first few levels without any penalty kills the idea that one of the draws to the tournament is the possibility that you might be playing with somebody famous.  In the large field events, doesn't much of the prize pool come from the large number of players who don't have much of a chance but want to try to catch lightening in a bottle?

I think the big name players owe it to the event and to those casual players to show up for those first "unimportant" levels and give the casual players their shot.  Odds are it would be profitable for them.  They are, after all, the better players, aren't they?

To the Tournament Directors Association, the WSOP, the EPT, Matt Savage and Jack Effel, here is my proposal regarding starting tournaments:

  1. Pre-registered no shows and late registrants will be treated the same.
     
  2. Chip stacks will not be placed at a player's seat until they have shown up to play.  This means that the only time a players chips are "blinded off" is when they have shown up to play and left the table.
     
  3. There will be no penalty for any late entrants during level one.
     
  4. Players entering during levels two, three or four will forfeit 5% of their chip stack for each complete level missed e.g. a player entering any time during level three will forfeit 10% of their starting stack.  The maximum penalty would be 15% of the starting chip stack.

 I think these rules would be good to adopt because they provide a lot of incentives that would drive desirable behaviors.  First off, people would not risk being punished for registering early.  This should help tournament organizers by increasing the number of players who take advantage of early registration and cut down (a little) on long registration lines immediately before the start of a tournament.  It would give the "famous" pros an incentive to show up and play the early "unimportant" levels which would increase the odds that the casual player would get a chance to play with a big name.  This should increase the desirability of playing in the tournament and increase participation.  Tournament Directors should like this plus the pros should like this because the more "Dead Money" you can get into a field, the better the payouts are when you cash in.  Players who desire to start late still can and while there is a penalty, it is not a killer.  In the typical $1500 WSOP event, the starting stack is 4500.  A player starting as late as possible would start with 3825 giving up 675, which is less than three and a half Level Five Big Blinds where the blinds are 100-200. 

Some will argue that any advantage to starting late is insignificant and even starting with a full stack it is smaller than an average stack because the average stack in the tournament is be slightly higher by then as some players will bust out during the first levels.  While this is true, there should be some price to pay for the priviledge of not putting any of your chips at risk.  The price I have suggested is less than a player would pay if their stack were set out and blinded off, losing the blinds as the button orbits the table at a rate of 30 hands per hour, but certainly more than the nothing that is currently used for late registrants.  It is also less than the penalty one pays to register early and show up late.

The procedure for dealers would be cleaner also:  Only put out a chip stack to a player who has shown up.  Anyone showing up during level one gets a full stack whether they registered early or late.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

How busy was it?


Phil Laak and me dealing Stud 8
Tournaments were starting throughout the day.  A typical day during the week would look something like this:

9am   $75 Daily Turbo Mega Satellite
Noon  No Limit Bracelet Event
2pm  Daily Deep Stack $235 Tournament
2:30  Day 2 of yesterday's noon event restart
2:30  Day 3 of prior noon event, 3 tables to final table
3:00  Day 2 of yesterday's 5pm event restart
3:00  Day 3 of prior 5pm event, 3 tables to final table
4pm  Daily $330 Mega Satellite
5pm  Bracelet Event (usually other than full table NLH)
6pm  Daily Deep Stack $185 Tournament
8pm  Daily $550 Mega Satellite
10pm Daily Deep Stack $135 Tournament
10 to 40 Tables of single table satellite tournaments 24 hours
10 to 50 Tables of "Live Action" cash games

Yes, we were busy.  The noon events regularly had over 1000 players and sometimes over 2000.  The 2pm Deep Stack was very popular and often had fields of over 1000 players, especially on days when the noon event was either a less popular event or a higher entry fee.  Between the Amazon Room and the Pavilion Room there were 380 tables set up.  There were also 14 overflow tables set up essentially in the hallway near the casino.  Many days a dealer could start the day in a tournament and as the tables broke and the tournament field melted down, the tables would be re-opened for cash games or single table satellites.  Many weeks we were scheduled for six days.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Closing up the 2011 WSOP

Day 4 of the Main Event is now in the books.  There are 378 players left in the tournament.  The "Live Action" cash games are no longer running in the Pavilion, just in the Rio's regular Poker Room in the regular casino.  The 275 tables in the Pavilion Room are being broken down and moved into storage.  Of the original 1000 dealers on the staff, only about 50 will be needed to handle the remainder of the tournament, and that number will quickly go down as the field will likely be reduced by more than half by day's end.

My time at the WSOP is done.  Time to catch a plane bound for home.

So how did I do?  Was it worth it?  Yes.  It was a terrific experience.  It was fun and it was challenging.  Sometimes it was frustrating and sometimes a little demeaning as some players give dealers the same regard they would give to servants, but others sometimes show a little respect.  I must admit, there is a thrill to being the dealer at a table filled with celebrities and famous players that are seen on TV and whose books I have read.  It's prettty cool.

Financially, it works out pretty well.  Could be better, but it is a worthwhile venture.  Airfare, housing and car for seven weeks ran about $2300 and after taxes I will take home between $6000 and $7000 depending on how things work out for the Main Event.  It might work out to be more than that because this year I was able to work many more tournament downs due to the addition of the Daily Deep Stack Tournaments.  Those events filled in many days that in previous years I would have simply gotten out early or dealt a few tables in "Live Action" before going home.  In any case, it is profitable.  I wouldn't want to try to feed a family and make mortgage payments solely on the income as many do, but as a part time job in my early retirement, it's a pretty sweet deal.

As for my poker playing, I also came out ahead.  I brought a thousand with me to bankroll my poker.  Along about week two I had busted my bankroll completely and had to reload.  My luck and my play then improved as I had a streak of profitable cash sessions that looked like +200, +100, +600, +1400, +100 and suddenly my bankroll was back and I had doubled it.

The best was a session of $1-$2 No Limit Hold'em at Green Valley Ranch.  We liked GVR because we liked to have dinner at P. F. Chang's right outside the casino and then head over to the poker room.

I bought in for $300 and was able to catch some really nice hands.  A "Push Monkey" as my housemate Barry called him, was on my left putting a lot of money in the pot.  I was able to relieve him of quite a bit of it. I was seated close to the cashier podium where the chips were kept and as my stacks of $5 chips were piling up I leaned back and asked Tammy to bring me $300 in "Green" ($25 chips).  A while later, because I didn't want to have an ostentatious pile of chips ( I was running good enough I didn't want players to be afraid to put money in the pot) I asked Tammy to bring me $500 in "Black" ($100 chips) and finally, later on, "Tammy, $400 Black, please."  I really got a kick out of being able to do that.

Barry was stuck and wanted to keep playing and as we had driven in one car, I couldn't really just leave or insist that Barry quit, so I went down and saw a movie, "Horrible Bosses" in the casino's multiplex cinema.  When I came back, Barry was sitting at a short handed $4-$8 Limit table leaning on three racks of white chips (100 $1 chips in each rack).  He talked me into joining the game.  My luck continued and between us we cleaned out the rest of the table.  I wound up about another $150 ahead and Barry added about the same.  Three of the four other players left the table broke and the last finally won a pot and quit before another hand was dealt.  That was fun!

So from a work standpoint it was a good trip.  From a Poker standpoint it was also a good trip.  I guess I'll have to do it all again next year.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Featured table pic with Daniel Negreanu

Featured table 2. 
ESPN camera crews are roaming the poker rooms. Live streaming of two featured tables on ESPN2 and ESPN3 today!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

WSOP Main Event Update

After four "Day ones", the fields came together for "Day 2A on Monday and Day 2B on Tuesday.  The 6865 player field has now shrunken down to 1864.  Media day today gives the players a day off before the push toward the money on Thursday when the entire remaining field will play together for the first time.

Updates at http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/updates.asp?tid=11497&grid=821

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Side Pot Mania

All in, all in and call
One of the challenges facing the "Part Time" dealer is keeping one's whits about when complex situations arise.  Much like Timmy Louie's five-way all in pot, I had a three/four way pot with an all in and a folded hand with money in the side pot that was tough to figure out.  Actually, when sitting at a desk and analyzing it, the solution seems simple and straightforward, but it becomes difficult when in the heat of the moment, under pressure to get it right and with at least three different players shouting out different suggestions of how to handle it (inevitable with some of them simply incorrect).

Here is how the situation unfolded:

Big pot, all in situation.  Large stack versus large stack.  Exciting hand with people standing up around the table watching as the cards come out, the winner being declared and then the stacks being counted down to see if the loser is out or has chips left.  End result was the loser had 1200 left.  For the next hand, the ante was 400 and the blinds were 1500 and 3000.  The loser was in the small blind, so after putting in his 400 ante, he had 800 left and was all in for less than the required small blind.

Now, an experienced dealer would immediately recognize the situation and see that whatever happens in the hand, the big blind will need to be split or changed up because only 800 of the 3000 will go into the main pot - to cover the all in player's bet.  The rest will go into a side pot and be contested by others in the pot.  This is easy to see looking back, but a little tougher in the midst of a new hand in the aftermath of a big emotional showdown.

A middle position player with a deep stack then makes a raise to 8700 which is followed by a fold and an all in re-raise.  The big blind player folds and the raiser asks that the bets be pulled in so he can see how much it is to call.  The bets needed to be pulled into a side pot because of the short stack all in player.  The raiser says, "OK, I call." And all hell breaks loose as three different players start shouting instructions to the dealer as to how to handle the side pot including one who insists we simply deal out the cards and figure out who wins what later (which is not an option in a tournament situation).  Another is shouting, "Just take out the eleven-four.  Just take out the eleven-four!" Which makes no sense to me at all.

Eventually, the light goes on in my head when a player points out that only 800 of the big blind should go into the main pot.  I then make change and take the 800 in from the big blind, the all in small blind, 1600 from the bets taken in (which I kept separate) to determine the call into the main pot, then I place the remainder of the big blind in front of the first all in player as a side pot, which actually also includes the bets taken in plus the remainder of the second all in player's stack.  People are still shouting instructions and amounts but I pause and quickly explain, "This is the main pot that he is in for," indicating the short stack. "The rest is on the side between these two players," knowing that if the second all in player wins, the deep stack must pay the remainder, while if the deeper stack wins, the side pot including the chips in front of the larger all in player will be shipped.

Burn and Turn, burn and River.  The second all in player wins it all with pocket Aces, the short stack mucks his losing hand and leaves the table and the pots are paid.  Whew!

It was confusing.  This is where dealer experience pays off.  The longer you deal, the more situations you run into where short stacks go all in and side pots need to be created.  I can't recall any situation this year where I had a player all in for less than the big blind.  The subsequent raise and re-raise with a request to pull in the bets created additional complexity with the multiple all in, side pot scenario.  Yes, eventually I sorted it all out and got all the pots right.  In the future, I will be more confident and will be able to control the table more effectively.

Aftermath:  It took me until the next morning to figure out what the "eleven-four" was.  He incorrectly was thinking that because the big blind was 3000, it was in the main pot along with 3000 from each of the deeper stacks.  Eleven-four represented what was remaining of the 8700 raise that was taken in from each of the two larger stacks less 3000 from each for the big blind.  This was incorrect because only 800 of the big blind went into the main pot while 2200 went into the side pot.  Thinking along those lines, eleven-four should have been "fourteen-eight" but from my perspective, rather than doing the math I was better off setting the chips up and then taking in 800 from each and creating the side pot with the remainder.

A really good dealer can do the math and move the chips amid lots of shouting of different numbers and sometimes incorrect instructions from several players, do it confidently, handle the pressure, control the players and the situation and get it all done right taking a minimal amount of time to do it.  That is when a dealer is earning his money.

Monday, July 11, 2011

The Main Event by the Numbers

Four days (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) registered 6,865 entries into the World Series of Poker Main Event known as the 2011 World Championship of No Limit Texas Hold'em.  First prize is $8.7 million.

How does this compare to previous years?

Third largest field ever.  The largest was 8773 players in 2006.  First prize of $12 million was won by Jamie Gold.

2010 had 7319 and paid $8.9 million to the winner.
2009 had 6494 and paid $8.5 million to the winner.
2008 had 6844 and paid $9.1 million to the winner.

Don't think you have to win it to make money in this tournament.  The top ten percent or so is paid.  At worst,  if you just make it to the money you will nearly double your initial investment.  In 2011, 693 places will be paid. 693rd gets $19,359.  Even 72nd place gets over $100 k.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

The Main Event Begins Today

It's July 7th.  We have played 57 "Bracelet Event" tournaments plus over a hundred "Daily Deep Stack" and "Mega Satellite" tournaments leading up to the largest Poker tournament in the world.

Day 1 will stretch over four days.  Players may start their Day 1 on any of the next four days.  Talk is that the largest field will be on Saturday (Day 1C).  On Monday, players remaining from Thursday (1A) and Saturday (1C) will play their Day 2.  Tuesday, players who made it through their day 1 on Friday (1B) and on Sunday (1D) will be combined to play their Day 2.  The Main Event gives the players a break on Wednesday, then brings all the remaining players together for the first time on Thursday.  Play will continue for five days until the final nine players remain.  This will constitute the Main Event Final Table.

Then things get a little weird.  The final nine will all be in the money to the tune of over a million dollars each and playing for a top prize of over eight million ($8.9 million in 2010).  But they won't actually play for it until November 5th.  In order to make ESPN's broadcast coverage more timely and relevant, ESPN has gotten the WSOP to delay the final table until the entire season of weekly broadcasts has been complete, making their broadcast of the final table "Near real-time".  During the four month break, the final nine players will be able to line up sponsorships, make book deals, hire coaches and financial advisers and prepare themselves for what may be a life transforming event. Although some of the final nine may be financially well off, be assured that whatever place they take, it will result in the largest payday of their life.

Friday, July 1, 2011

This can only happen in a cash game...

...And only in Vegas.


On my day off I found myself downtown late at the $1-$2 table behind the photographs of Poker's Hall of Fame members in Binion's Poker Room.  Binion's is where the World Series of Poker originated and where "Nick the Greek" Dandolos lost over $2 million to Johnny Moss in a heads up match that lasted some five months and ended with the famous line, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go."

I raised to twelve from the button holding a king and queen, both hearts and got two callers.  The flop didn't exactly cooperate when it came down A - Q - 6 with two spades but my callers checked to me and I led out with twenty-five which got a call from a Frenchman in seat two.  He checked the ten that fell on the turn and I checked behind.  The deuce of spades came on the river completing the possible flush.  The Frenchman led out with fifty which made me pause and think.  Then, as I cut out fifty in chips considering a call he said something to me about calling "that".

I said, "you know, that's a very dangerous board out there.  The flush got there. The Broadway straight got there and anyone with two big cards probably made two pair."

He didn't seem very confident asking, "Are you calling, then?"

"I'll make you a deal.  I won't call your fifty if you give me half of what's in the pot."

What?"

"You keep that fifty you just put out and we'll just split what's in the middle."

Pause to think.  "Alright then."

The dealer, who was following this exchange like a spectator at a ping pong match looked at me with a "what do I do now" expression and I told him, "Go ahead and split the pot. We're good."

Honestly, I was shocked that it actually worked.  The only thing I could beat was a bluff.  If he actually had a flush or a straight (or a pair of brass balls) he would never have agreed to the split.  He would have insisted on taking the whole pot unless I paid to see his hand.  On the other hand, with me showing some strength earlier and seriously considering calling, he was happy to take half the pot with his bluff.  That way he comes away a winner rather than losing the pot plus his fifty dollar bluff.  The more I think about it, if he was simply bluffing, taking half the pot without showing his cards must have seemed like a pretty good deal, almost as good as taking the whole pot with the bluff.

I seriously doubt that I could pull that off in the Poker Room at the Hard Rock in Tampa, but this is Binion's baby, and this is Vegas.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Overheard at the Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw

$2500 was the entry fee for the 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship.  Frank Kassela (pictured) the 2010 WSOP Player of the Year was in seat three at my table.

This event is one of the few times players get to play old fashioned Draw Poker albeit, the lowball version. In this incarnation, not only do the players strive to make the lowest ranking poker hand (2,3,4,5,7 with no flush), they are allowed three draws to achieve it with a betting round after each one.  The game is played with a limit structure utilizing a button with Small and Big Blinds.  The first two rounds of betting, before and after the first draw, are at the level of the Big Blind followed by betting rounds at double that amount after the second and final draws.

While waiting for the tournament to begin a player, a Mr. Wachtel I believe, walked up and offered Frank Kassela a "last longer" bet for $2000 which Frank happily agreed to, the qualifier being that the winner must finish "in the money" in the tournament in order to collect.

At this tournament, I also had the pleasure of dealing to David Sklansky, author of several of the foremost books on poker and its strategies.  During a pause in the action I asked the grey bearded poker authority why 5 Card Draw High wasn't in the mix of tournaments at the Series.  His amusing and curious answer was that it used to be a bracelet event, however, the player who last won it was so good that they decided that due to a lack of competition they would simply discontinue the event.

David Sklanski, winner of 3 WSOP Bracelets and the last player  to  win  a bracelet for 5 Card Draw High (1982)
In 1983 the only Draw Poker games at the Series were of the lowball variety and 5 Card Draw has not been in the mix since.  I used to have a lot of respect for David Sklansky.  I have read most all of his books.  Now I really like him.  Funny guy that Sklansky, clever sense of humor. LOL.

Follow up note: Neither Kassela nor Wachtel finished in the money in the 2-7 Triple Draw.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Timmy Louie

Timmy Louie is one of the sharper dealers in our crew.  He can deal all the games in the ten game mixed event and gets a kick out of dealing the higher buy-in events and working later in the tournaments.  One day last week when assignments were being made he could be heard saying, "Wait a minute, guys.  I didn't sign up to work with green chips.  No way.  No green chips in my contract."  The green chips are the 25 chips that are removed from play after the first several levels of most of our tournaments.

The hand of the day in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha championship tournament was dealt by Timmy Louie.  It was a five-way all in gambler's paradise described by Poker News:


Prepare yourself for some mental gymnastics. PLO is a gambler's game, and if you've ever wondered why it's called four-card bingo, this ought to explain it.
The hand started like any other. Dario Alioto opened to 5,200. Emil "whitelime" Patel called from middle position, and Aaron Schaff called from the hijack. David Ewing in the cutoff only had 29,800 and tried to go all in. But Patel pointed out that he could only raise to 29,000, so he took back his 800, laughing about how it was going to change everything. Then the small blind, EPT Grand Final winner Ivan Freitez, cold called, and things started to get interesting. Alioto called as well, putting the action to Patel. He surprised everyone by repotting, putting himself all in for around 140,000. Oh boy.
Schaff called all in for about 105,000 . Ewing tossed in his last 800. And all eyes were on Freitez, who had everyone but Alioto covered. After a minute of thought, Freitez moved all in as well. It was 158,400 for Alioto to call. With four people all in in front of him, he could only shrug and make the call.
By this point, half of the players left in the tournament were crowding around the table and everyone was shouting at the dealer about how best to pull in the chips and separate the side pots. Five minutes in, the dealer was still counting stacks. The players couldn't wait any longer for showdown and started flashing their cards to each other. Somehow, no one had aces. With the floor calling for calm and the crowd closing in on the table, it was finally time for showdown and a board.
Ewing:  - covered by everyone (5.84% to win main pot)*
Schaff:  - covered by everyone but Ewing (22.01% to win main pot)*
Patel:  - covered by Freitez and Alioto (27.47% to win main pot)*
Freitez:  - covered by Alioto (21.42% to win main pot)*
Alioto:  - (19.7% to win main pot)*
At long last, the flop came . Schaff was the only one with a spade draw, and Freitez hit two pair. The  on the turn gave Schaff a flush and Freitez a set of fours. He could scoop the whole thing if he hit a boat. The river was a total blank - the . Schaff took the main pot and the smaller side pot, eliminating Ewing. Freitez took the rest, knocking out Patel. Alioto started shouting at the floor about needing to pay off an extra 20,000 to Freitez that wasn't in the pot. Finally the floor quieted him, the dust settled, and the chips were restacked.
Results:
David Ewing - eliminated
Emil Patel - eliminated
Aaron Schaff - 348,000
Ivan Freitez - 227,000
Dario Alioto - 351,000
Devilfish came over from the next table to add his two cents. "There's a cash game later, guys, and you're all invited."
*calculated at twodimes.net

Just for the record...

Maybe it is the competition.  Barry says he plays better and wins more against good players because they know when to fold.  I on the other hand tell Barry that I play better against bad players, just because they make more mistakes.

The $1- $2 No Limit Hold'em game at Green Valley Ranch is a good example.  We headed down there last night after work to relax a little after our day of grinding out 14 downs of Pot Limit Omaha.  People kept betting into me with inferior hands.  I just kept calling and winning.  It all started with jacks.  I raised to $8 pre-flop and got two callers.  The flop came out king high so I checked and caught a third jack for free on the turn.  A player bet into me and I raised.  After a blank fell on the river, he checked to me and I bet about the pot and he called with the pair of kings that lost to my set of jacks.

A few hands later I woke up with QQ and made a healthy raise to $15, I think and got called by three or four hopefuls.  A king showed up on the flop along with two tens.  I didn't really even notice that there were two diamonds there also.  I didn't like the king too much, nor the tens but made the continuation bet anyways.  I got a caller, so i figured I better shut it down.  Check, check and I caught a Queen of diamonds on the river.  I was so excited about catching a card to beat somebody with a king or a ten that when he bet $40 into me, I just called.  I was just so happy to have made a winner that it didn't occur to me to raise.  Silly me.  When I called he flipped over an ace high diamond flush and the whole table realized that I could have probably won his whole stack with a raise on the end.

After that beginning, I cooled off a little and kind of treaded water for a few orbits before catching a set of sixes against Johnny, the local bully.  When Johnny had a hand he would make it $30 to go.  Mostly, I suppose, with A-x or small pairs.  I flopped a set of sixes with an ace on board and Johnny bet $25 which met my raise to $50.  He called.  He then led out for $50 on the turn and I made it $100. Johnny called. The board paired tens on the end giving me an uncomfortable sixes full of tens made more uncomfortable when Johnny put a stack of 20 red chips in the pot.  I called the $100 and Johnny showed a weak two pair "Aces up" that lost to my upside down boat.

This was a great result but generally, I don't like having upside down boats.  They usually sink.  When you make sixes full of tens and you bet, most players with weaker hands will fold while an opponent holding tens full will call or raise you back.  It puts you in a situation of not getting paid by any hands worse than yours and getting called only by hands that beat you.  In Poker, the desire is to have just the opposite situation where a better hand can fold to your bet or a weaker hand than yours will call.

I am sure that a more skilled group of players would have lost a lot less to me over the course of the evening.

And just for the record, Barry also took home enough profit to buy us a steak dinner at Smith and Wollenski's.  He didn't, but he could have.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

And I'm a player, too?

Yeah, but you wouldn't know it from my play.  Tried the 2:00 Deep Stack tournament and lost half my stack on the first hand I played with top pair.  Outkicked.  Blinded down then won a race, then lost a race.

Won back half my entry playing 3-6 at Sam's Town but lost a wad playing No Limit at Monte Carlo and followed up by losing two buy-ins at the WSOP $1-$3 No Limit game ultimately whiffing a 3-way all in with a straight draw - flush draw - straight flush gut shot draw.  The winner had a pair of eights.  I simply suck.  I'm just getting frustrated by seeing these guys hit the table wearing gold Submariners, flashing stacks of hundreds and raising me $50 on every $10 "information" bet that I make or worse, check-raising me $150 when I pot the flop in position with second pair.  The worst part is watching them dump $300, $600 or $1000 on the table with loose play and seeing everybody else flopping sets or straights or hitting draws.  When the "Push Monkeys" as Barry calls them are giving it away, I can't find a hand to play.

I suppose it is a form of going "on tilt".  I get frustrated with not getting goods cards, so I wind up shoving a bunch of chips into the pot when I get a good starting hand, then following up with bluffs that have little chance of success when I miss.  Usuallly the other guy has the hand I am representing with my bluff.  My thinking seems to go like this:
I need to bet to make that flush draw pay to get there.  Now that the flush draw came in, I'll bluff like I got there, and I get called by the guy that actually did.

 Great read, huh?  It's almost as good as my squeeze play.  A squeeze play is made when an aggressive player makes a standard raise and gets a call, the squeezer (usually in the small or big blind) is last to act and makes a raise of four to five times the size of the original raise.  When it works, the original raiser is someone who often raises light and has a big range.  The assumption is that the caller has a weak holding because he would have re-raised with a strong hand.  When successful, they both fold.  It is kind of a corollary to the idea that if someone raises from the big or small blind, they should have a very powerful hand like a pair of Aces, Kings or Queens in the hole because why else would a player be willing to play the hand, now with a big re-raised pot, out of position?

I've got to play with better discipline and make better decisions.  I need to pick my spots better and when the situation doesn't fit, walk away rather than talking myself into trying to get lucky.  At the table, it is tough to do.  I sit and watch pot after pot pushed to hands that I would never play.  It's tough to play against the Push Monkeys, but while those guys seem to steal a lot of pots, they also go broke a lot.  They suffer big swings.  I just need to figure out how to scoop up my share when they have a downswing and avoid them when they are on a rush.  But careful, because even the Push Monkeys get Aces occasionally.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Unabomber

Before getting down to the final table, Phil Laak (pictured with me dealing) and Eric Seidel were eliminated on one hand by David Benyamine.  Phil is always very amusing.  He played this entire tournament while reading books between hands.  All of the books he read were books on playing 7 Card Stud High-Low 8 or better.  At the time he was eliminated, he was reading the section of the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide that dealt with 7 Card Stud High-Low.  That chapter in the book was written by Ted Forrest who was at an adjacent table and eventually finished fourth in the tournament.

Stud 8 - Final Table

I took this photo of the new ESPN Final Table arena just before I dealt a down.  The dealer in the photo is Mark Cain.
For a while we were streaming live on the Internet.  Three dealers share the duty rotating positions every 30 minutes.  One is in the box dealing, another is standby and escorts any players busting out over to payouts to assure they go through the procedure to get paid and the third is on break.
I was able to deal one down (30 minutes) but when it got back to me there was a dinner break for the players and after they returned my shift was over and we were replaced by swing shift dealers.

This was a star studded final table including Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, David Benyamine and last year's Main Event runner up John Racener.

Phil Hellmuth holds a record eleven WSOP bracelets and won the Main Event in 1989.  Some people criticize him for having only been able to win tournaments in No Limit Hold'em events but Phil has been working hard to debunk that line.  Earlier in this year's WSOP he made the final table of the 2-7 No Limit Draw Poker championship and after having the heads-up chip lead, lost the bracelet to John Juanda.  In this 7 Card Stud High-Low Championship he arrived at the final table with below the average in chips, but made a run at the title eventually finishing runner-up for the second time in two weeks.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Norm Chad

Norm Chad plays as well as comments
I was able to get a table to get an assignment to deal day two of the $10,000 entry  Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship.  Norm Chad, ESPN Poker analyst and commentator sat to my right in the number eight seat.  In addition to commentating, Norm also likes to play a little poker and is often seen playing his preferred game, Seven Card Stud.  This tournament was filled with name players, people you would see often on televised poker shows like High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark.  


Last year I also had Norm at one of my tables and I told him a joke I made up about Phil Hellmuth going back to Wisconsin to sell "Poker Brats".  Now, of course, you need to know a little about Phil Hellmuth to get the joke.  (You can skip this if you are a die hard Poker fan and live in the midwest.)  Phil Hellmuth is known to be one of, if not the one and only greatest tournament poker player alive, however, his ego sometimes gets him in trouble as he pouts and rants and acts like a child when he loses, earning him the knickname, "The Poker Brat", coined by Norman Chad.  Phil also grew up in Wisconsin, home to the world's greatest source of Bratwurst, served at most all Wisconsin sporting events and more popular around there than hot dogs.


During a lull in this year's action I mentioned to Norm that he didn't use my line about Hellmuth going back to Wisconsin to sell Poker Brats.  He laughed out loud and told me that he liked it, but it didn't make the broadcast.  He said, "But, I wrote it down!"  I told him I was honored.

The Buzman Deals a Final Table