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.
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