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.