Saturday, November 17, 2012

Belterra - Heartland Poker Tour 3

Things are heating up here at Belterra.  The tournaments down the way at Hollywood Casino are winding down and the players are migrating here for our $1,650 buy-in Main Event.  To encourage play and increase the field size without having to add tables and dealers, there are three "flights" of Day 1 players.  The first flight was Friday evening.  Day "1B" is being played Saturday morning and "1C" Saturday evening.

I spent a few hours yesterday with Greg Raymer seated at my right. We were locked in for a while as the tournament poker room filled up.  It was nice to see all 20 of our tournament tables in action, a first for this trip.  Greg was a delight to have at the table.  He has embraced the role of "Poker Ambassador" since his victory at the 2004 World Series of Poker.  Not only is he an excellent player but he has a colorful past which he shares in stories at the poker table.  At the time Greg won the WSOP he was a patent attorney playing poker as a hobby.  He also spent a little of his youth trying to be a stand-up comedian and was a radio disc jockey during his college days.  He also tours the country teaching poker strategy and running "How to Play" seminars.  Greg finished the night fourth in chips of the 84 that kicked off Day 1A.  25 players survived and will join the survivors of Days 1B and 1C on Sunday when the full field is assembled to play down to the final table.

In the meantime, I think I need to take a nap and prepare myself to deal Day 1C at 6 PM which will finish at about 2:30 Sunday morning.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Belterra - Heartland Poker Tour 2


The participation here at Belterra is running below projections. With a few celebrities showing up this weekend plus the excitement of the final table being televised,  our action should improve.

This is such a nice facility and the people have been great.  I sure hope things pick up.  They've set us up in a ballroom with brand new chips and tables.  It is a very nice setting for a poker tournament, away from the smoke and noise of the casino floor but easy access for a guest of the hotel.

Now all we need is a few hundred players and we'll all be happy.  I don't expect 3000 like we had in Chicago, just a few hundred and we can put all the dealers to work.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Belterra - Heartland Poker Tour 1

The Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) runs some 17 events across the Midwest.   They are not as rich as the WSOP Circuit events because the fields are smaller but the final tables of all the HPT events are televised.  The buy-in for the Main Event is about the same as the WSOP Circuit at $1650 but with smaller fields, chances of winning are better.

Belterra looks like a pretty fantastic resort.  It is located between Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH on the banks of the Ohio River which forms the border between Indiana and Kentucky.  It started as a riverboat casino and now they have built a beautiful hotel around the boat with classy shops and restaurants and, get this, a Tom Fazio designed championship golf course.  Fazio also designed Hunter's Green CC where I live and has more courses rated in the top 100 in the USA than any other architect.  The weather isn't too bad here (50's and 60's) so if I get a day off, I may have to play it.

How has my week gone...?

Monday:

Pack up, pick up Barry and point the Mustang north on I-75.  We headed out around 8:30 having decided that it would be better to take this trip in two easy bites rather than one long 16 or 17 hour grind.  We even thought we might have time to stop in at the poker room at the Lake City Jai Alai, but when we got there around noon, they didn't look real busy so we pressed on to Chattanooga.  Dinner was at O'Charley's.  A couple of rib eye's accompanied by a serving of Monday Night Football in the bar followed by a night at the Chattanooga Travelodge.

Tuesday:

Taking it slow, we slept in and between enjoying the complimentary breakfast and listening to the pundits on Fox News extol the virtues of conservatism and predict election outcomes, we didn't get going until check out time at 11:00.  Tennessee and Kentucky are beautiful places to drive through this time of year.  We watched the fall colors of southern Tennessee fade as we sped north into the rolling hills of Kentucky.

Our home for the next 12 days or so is the Ogle Haus Hotel in Vevay, IN and my first floor room opens out to a small patio overlooking the Ohio River.  Vevay is a small town.  It has one single traffic light on Main Street.  The featured restaurants are Moe's Steakhouse, River House Bar and Grill, AJ's Diner (Breakfast and lunch only) and Granny's Home Cookin'.  Later, we actually tried to stop at Granny's but they were closed for renovations.  Dinner at Moe's Steakhouse was less than impressive but acceptable.
The Miss Belterra, cir. 2002

Wednesday:

The Indiana Gaming Commission wants to make sure that they have honest and trustworthy people working in the casinos, so we had our gaming interview and license application, which costs us $200. Ouch! Followed by a drug test.  They used the saliva test like they did in Florida rather than the urine test.  It is tougher to falsify and I think it is quicker, easier and less costly than sending a urine sample to a lab for processing.  Unless it isn't reliable, which is unlikely, I don't see why anyone would still use a urine test.

After we got processed by Human Resources, the rest of the day was free.  We decided to head over  to Lawrenceburg to the Hollywood Casino, the site of our previous job at the Tri-State Poker Championship.  While Lawrenceburg is actually in Indiana, it really is just outside the Cincinnati suburbs about 20 miles from downtown.  It really serves the Cincy market.  On the way, I introduced Barry to Skyline Chili, a Cincinnati staple I discovered some 30 years ago (OMG) while on frequent AT&T training classes held there.  Skyline Chili is a plate of spaghetti covered with meaty chili, beans and onions and covered with shredded cheddar cheese with a splash of Tobasco.  People from the area love it and there is a healthy rivalry between Skyline and Gold Star for the best Chili that has been going on ever since probably the 1940's.  Barry was unimpressed.

At Hollywood, we played PLO (Pot Limit Omaha).  The game was $1-$3-$5 blinds with a buy-in minimum of $200 and a maximum of $1000.  I bought in short for $300 and after an hour or so got it all in with the best hand against a small wrap straight draw and got sucked out on.  I bought in again for another $300 and had a little better luck second time around.  Several players had well over $1000 on the table and a player named Ray, in seat 2 had at least $3000.  Ray was pretty tough.  He frequently got me off my draw by raising the pot after I opened.  So I changed my strategy and waited until I had a solid "made hand" and when he tried to raise me off it, I re-raised all in.  After he tanked for a while he decided to call and never caught up.

An incident occurred at the table regarding the size of the pot.  PLO is one of the toughest games to deal because it is the dealer's responsibility to know how much is in the pot and to determine how much a raise is when a player says, "I'll raise the Pot."  I suppose that's why I like to play it and I pride myself on how well I do the math to keep up when I deal it.  It is not easy.  In this instance there was a raise to $20 followed by a reraise to $65 and Ray called the $65.  The Blinds (1, 3 and 5) folded and the original raiser said, "Pot." Then put out a bunch of chips and obviously didn't know how much it was supposed to be and the dealer said $320.  The first $65 folded and Ray questioned the amount.  He said he wasn't sure of the correct amount but that $320 was wrong.  Now realizing that often in PLO, the players help out the dealer, tracking the pot and doing the math, I didn't feel uncomfortable agreeing with Ray that that wasn't right and then in my head multiplying 65 times 4 and adding 10 (rounding up the blind bets) and getting $270.  Barry also chimed in that it was $270 (after all, this poor guy had two PLO dealers at his table and didn't know it) but Joe the dealer stuck firm to his guns saying, "The bet is $320 and I can't change it."  There was some back and forth between a bunch of players (with several other numbers being thrown out in addition to $270) and ray saying that this just wasn't right but when the voices started getting raised, Barry and I backed off - fully expecting Ray to call for a floor supervisor to settle the matter, but instead, he just folded, grumbling about how it wasn't right and how he would have called $270 but not $320.  Sometimes, when it's wrong you need to step in and do something to preserve the fairness of the game, but sometimes, you need to just back off and let the players involved in the hand work it out with the dealer. It is really the player in the hand's responsibility to request a floor supervisor when they feel it is needed.

Doug Schertz stopped by the table to say he was hitting the buffet because he got a two-for-one coupon for signing up for a player's card.  Doug, a math teacher in a past life, is retired and now travelling and dealing the circuit and the WSOP.  He's a kindred spirit.  I was about $250 ahead and decided to cash out and join him.  Barry did as well. We both signed up for cards and got the buffet coupons.  Our problem was what to do with them because two-for-one doesn't work very well with three.

The cashier said she wouldn't give me a half price on the third one, so I waited for another customer to arrive.  I offered to share my two-fer but he said he gets it free.  Must be a high roller.  Then a couple came up and I offered it to them and they declined and the husband said, "We have enough points on the card to get it free, but since you're so nice to offer, we'll buy yours."  So he did.  Then I offered the coupon and they said, "No thanks.." But I insisted they take it and if they didn't use it in the future they could give it to somebody else who didn't have one.  The wife was happy with that arrangement.

Barry's analysis, "How do you like that?  Not only does he win at the PLO table, he gets his dinner for free!"

After dinner, Doug headed up to the Poker Room while Barry and I signed up for the nightly No Limit Tournament just starting in the ballroom.  The tournament took care of our evening's entertainment.  Barry busted out early and headed back to the Poker Room but I made a nice deep run.  The field had 185 in it and with about 30 players remaining and an above average chip stack, I made a mistake and tried to get a retired Marine off his hand.  He called and most of my stack was gone.  It was not my best Poker play at that point in the proceedings.  I nursed the small stack for a level or two and finally succumbed the ever increasing blinds and got it all in with a loser.  Turns out I busted in 20th place, but they only paid the top 18 finishers. So close and yet so stupid.

Thursday:

Orientation, training, diversity sensitivity, HR pablum, tour of the facility, welcome speech by the Operations VP and they bought us lunch at their buffet.  We even get paid for the day!  We also found out that while we needed to pay them $200 for the gaming license, rather than it being terminated when we leave, they are converting us all to "On Call" status so that for future events, we can save the $200 and not have to go through drug testing, background checks or gaming interviews.  We will be on the payroll already.  The VP said that he plans to host about four events of this size every year.  Hmmm.  I'm an "on call" dealer with a 1600 mile round trip commute to get to work.

Friday:

We got assigned to Swing Shift.  The good is that we get to deal the later parts of the tournament that I find more interesting to deal, but there is much less opportunity for overtime.  In Chicago, we had 85 dealers, all on one shift, but here we have about 35 dealers on two shifts.  There are only 20 tables set up for the tournament.

Getting ready to go to work and out in the lobby, I ran into Billy and Mary, a couple who travel together and both deal.  They were assigned to day shift.  So why were they in the lobby at 4:30?  Billy tells me that there were more dealers than players at the start of the tournament.  Not a good sign.

We arrived on time and ready to go and were greeted by a mostly empty tournament Poker Room.  Nonetheless, we started the evening $135 tournament and with late registration we got about 50 players.  I actually got to deal 5 downs before they sent me home.  Apparently, there was no need to check the cash games for work.  The locals had it handled.

It was kind of a slow start, but the staff was encouraged and expects the fields to improve as we progress.  The Hollywood casino in Lawrenceburg decided to host a tournament series in direct competition to the HPT at Belterra.  Word is that they had 28 tables and a line out the door.  Thing is, having been there two nights ago, I know that there are about 40 tables ready to go in their tournament room.  Sounds like they are short of dealers.

That's another mess.  Last March, Barry and I dealt the Tri-State Poker Championship at Hollywood in Lawrenceburg.  They used Charlie's crew of travelling dealers.  Since then the Poker manager has been let go.  Seems management didn't like using travelling dealers for the tournament events among other things.  For this event they (Hollywood) jammed a bunch of Blackjack and Roulette dealers through a training class and ordained them Poker Dealers.  Of course, they still need dealers to deal Blackjack.  The result is that they appear to have Poker Tables, cards, chips and players, but not enough dealers to service the demand.

I always said that the managers wouldn't get fired for having a bunch of extra dealers hanging out in the break room collecting minimum wage, but they would get fired if they had players and tables but no dealers.  We will see if that turns out to be true.

In any case, it is good news for us because if Hollywood has too few dealers and the ones they have are inexperienced, we might be able to pick up some overflow.  We have an excellent dealing crew here made up of seasoned WSOP and WSOP Circuit dealers.  We will have no problem manning all of our 20 tables and even several more if they set them up.  I am looking forward to a much better turnout on Saturday.


Monday, October 29, 2012

Chicago in the rearview mirror

I finally got a chance to spend a little time with my daughter, Mary on this trip.  It was worth the drive from Hammond to the other side of Chicago to see her.  Monday was one of the first times I got off early.   Barry, my roomie this trip and travelling companion and I drove through Chicago, up Lake Shore Drive and after killing some time at the Old Orchard Mall, met Mary for dinner at McCormick & Schmick's Seafood.  This was the last chance to get together with her before we start back to Tampa on Tuesday morning.
 
We worked very hard on this trip.  I think we averaged over 11 hours a day through Sunday night without a day off since the event began on October 11th.  Working that many hours is somewhat by choice.  The DC (Dealer Coordinator) maintains an EO (Early Out) list. Putting your name on the EO list doesn't mean you will go home right away, but as the tournaments melt down and fewer dealers are needed, the DC usually looks at the EO list to see who to cut first.  Some dealers come in and sign up for EO every day, others, who don't mind working (and you only make money if you work) very rarely sign the EO list.  Obviously, if I didn't get a kick out of dealing, I wouldn't be here, so I rarely sign up for EO.  I figure that as long as I am here, I may as well be working.
 
Interesting development in Event 11, which started on Sunday. Two ladies, Wendy Freedman and Amanda Musumeci made the final table.  This is rare on the WSOP Circuit because the fields are made up chiefly of men.  Poker is a lot more popular with men than women. At the 2012 WSOP women made up only 3.77% of the entrants.  The Event 11 final table took 5 hours and resulted in Amanda and Wendy squaring off heads up, with Amanda "The Real Mander" getting the best of it and winning the ring.  This was one of the few WSOP sanctioned events where women finished 1-2.
 
Amanda keeps a blog of her exploits as a poker professional at therealmander.blogspot.com .  She also advertises on her blog for backers i.e. people to pay her tournament entry fees in return for a percentage of any of her winnings.  I wonder how that is working out?  She has been a money maker in 2011 and 2012 on the circuit.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Chicago Poker 2012 WSOP Circuit

I'm back on the circuit at the WSOP Circuit Event in Hammond, IN, just outside of Chicago. It's one of the best events on the WSOP Circuit for both the players and the dealers. Overheard at the table, from a writer for "Ante Up" magazine, "This tournament is the best value anywhere. You can't beat the structure. It's the best."  It's good for the dealers because there is a lot of work and they negotiated a good rate on the hotel.

They are keeping us very busy. Turbo tournaments have been added to fill in as the main tournaments wind down. The Turbos are good for us because they melt down quicker, take less manpower and generate revenue for us.  This is exactly opposite of adding the Deepstack tournaments at the WSOP in Vegas. The Deepstacks take a long time to melt down and dilute the pay rate for the dealers.  

Rumor has it we are getting new cards today. Hooray!  We have been using playing cards from 2008. Not only have they warped over time (the Ace of spades is bowed in each deck) they get dirty and sticky with use making them difficult to spread, shuffle and pitch.  

I do wish we had a little time off here. Sure, it wouldn't be "efficient" but it would give me time to visit with my friends and relatives here in Chicago. I hate not having a day somewhere in this to visit my daughter. 

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Big One for One Drop

The Big One for One Drop is the big thing at the 2012 WSOP.  It is a small tournament - just 48 players, but with a big buy-in: One Million Dollars!  From the entries they are taking $111,000 as a donation to the One Drop charity which provides safe drinking water to people around the world without access to it.

In the photo, there is a block of $18 million dollars in hundred dollar bills, the First Place Prize.  Second is no slouch at ten million.

Jack Effel is the WSOP Tournament Director and handled the Master of Cerimonies Duties such as introducing the players.  He seemed to try to do a Bruce Buffer imitation with the introductions but that being the case, he probably should have just hired Bruce Buffer (the voice of professional Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts) who spends a lot of time in Vegas and was here a few days ago playing some Poker.  I said' "Hello" to Bruce and he talked to me like we were old friends when I ran into him.  I am now a huge Bruce Buffer fan.

The field for this event was limited to 48 players and was filled by an eclectic mix of professional poker players and wealthy businessmen that like to play poker.  The day before the tournament started, the WSOP held a Satellite tournament with a buy-in of $25,000 with the winner getting the 48th seat in the event.  The Dane, Gus Hansen won the seat but busted out of the tournament out of the money.  I was rooting for Gus.  I liked the idea that he won the Satellite and was therefore entering the tournament without backers putting up the million dollar entry fee.  Gus is a classic case of one who has won millions on the World Poker Tour and the WSOP only to lose it all in high stakes cash games.

You can read more about this fantastic tournament with the largest payout in the history of Poker by reading Nolan Dalla's excellent account at the WSOP web site here.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Arrived at WSOP 2012

Southwest Airlines took me swiftly and peanut free, undelayed to the McCarran Las Vegas Airport.  After stopping by Sara's place to pick up a key and drop the suitcase, we went out to dinner at our favorite $20 all-you-can-eat Yama Sushi restaurant and rather than going home, we decided to stop somewhere to play a little Poker.  Had another one of those sessions where if they didn't have it already, they sucked whatever they needed out of the deck to get it.  Lost to straights, flushes, even got it all in with AK versus A-10 and saw a 10 in the window. Back to back sets - the first one lost to a straight, the second won the minimum when noone flopped any draws.  Aaargh!  Hopefully, this will turn around soon or this will be a really long 7 weeks.

Orientation was Friday.  Welcome.  HR policy talks on responible gaming, checking I. D., dress code, discrimination and sexual harassment.  They spent very little or no time on some of the things that people would be interested to hear, like that we get employee discounts in the gift shops and restaurants at all the Caesars properties, where we go to pick up our paychecks, or the fact that while we are banned from playing in any bracelet events, we are allowed to play in the daily "Deep Stack" non-bracelet events and in the live action area when we are not on the clock.

The big news to most at orientation was the addition of Chip Tic, a process WSOP will use in all Bracelet events this year.  For the first time, they will have the dealers track players' chips and update them at each break.  The results will be available to all interested parties using the WSOP.com web site.  People will not only be able to track a player's progress in the tournament, but also be able to see which table they are sitting at, even as tables break and players are reassigned.  I will update you on how that project progresses.

After orientation, we had lunch at the T-Bird, went shopping in search of an inexpensive HDMI/Micro cable that would allow Barry to hook his tablet up to the big screen and show movies he downloaded.  No luck.  Cheapest we could find was $24.95 and those cables are available on EBay for about $5.  Instead, we went to see Men in Black III.  Great escapest, funny, action comedy.  Poker can wait until tomorrow.



New Final Table Arena for Bracelet Events. Note the unique "D" shaped table giving more room to the 4,5, and 6 seats

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Oops, busted!!

Getting to be a pattern:  No seats available on 1-3, so sit in at 1-2 while waiting and make money.

I won two big hands right away and was $150 up when they called for my 1-3 seat, so I happily took my profit and left.  Then I sat down at the new table and promptly got busted when a guy with 7-8 raised pre-flop and I got it all in with Top Pair Top Kicker (TPTK) on a flop of 7-8-Q.  I also ran into a Flush on the Turn that I didn't believe and gave away a total of about $450.  Not a good day.  I still need to stop and think whenever I want to put in a lot of money on a one pair hand.  Yes, I have to protect my hand, but I need to figure out how much protection costs and how often to pay off someone who is betting like they just drew out on me.


Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Aces again, Queens again

Back at the Hard Rock for another day of grinding it out.  Again there were a bunch of $1-$2 tables with seats open but the two $1-$3 tables had a list.  I was third on the list and went and bought $80 in red ($5) chips and $20 in white ($1) and another hundred in green ($25) just in case - and also to be used when I moved over to the $1-$3.  As you may know, the $1-$2 game at the Hard Rock has a minimum buy-in of $40 and a maximum buy-in of $100 while the $1-$3 tables go from $100 to $300.   I like to start with $100 at the $1-$2 and at least $200 at the $1-$3.

I have changed my strategy a little bit.  I no longer make continuation bets on the flop when facing three or more callers if I completely miss.  Well, most of the time anyways.  If the flop is Q-Q-3 and it is checked to me, I may take a stab at it. But, if I don't win it right there, I am probably done with it.

One of the first hands at $1-$2 was pocket queens.  They held up followed by some raises that got called by several and I had to give them up when I missed.  One hand I raised with some loosely connected cards, missed the flop and one of the out-of-position callers led out into me.  So I folded.  No sense in paying him off.  Then I did the same and picked up a double gutter i.e. two different cards could make me a straight.  It went like this: Raise with J-10.  Flop K-9-7.  Either an 8 or a Q makes me a straight.  A bet after the flop took it down.  Later, after limping from the button, the Small Blind makes it $8 to go and two of us call.  I flop a gut shot draw.  The Small Blind checks, amazingly because if you raise from the Small or Big Blind you are supposed to have a very strong hand like AA, KK or QQ which would dictate a continuation bet on the flop.  After the Turn, the Small Blind makes a weak lead at the pot and gets a call from across the table.  I figured that if I can catch a five on the River, I may be able to take somebody's whole stack and that is exactly what happened.  I caught the five, made my straight, the Small Blind lead out for about $20 and I raised enough to put him all in, about another $60.  He called with unimproved Pocket Aces.

About an hour later, I still had not been called to play $1-$3 but I could see that I was next on the list.  I got Pocket Aces in the Big Blind.  There were four callers, so $10 in the pot.  I raised $10 "on top." Two players called.  The flop had two suits, so I had to protect my hand.  I bet $25 and got one caller. A brick fell on the Turn.  No possible help to anyone. I looked at his stack which was short, about $30 left, so I bet it.  He called.  I showed him my Aces and after the River, he mucked his hand.  Next hand they called me.  I left the table with $325 plus the other hundred still in my pocket.

I also had some luck at the $1-$3 table.  QQ on one of my first hands busted a short stack right next to me and I was up $100.  Later, after scolding myself for calling $30 on the River when I only held the idiot end of a Jack high straight, I raised with AK of spades.  Flopped a flush draw and led out for $15.  One caller.  Missed.  Led out again for $15.  Called again.  Hit the flush on the River and gave it the Hollywood frown and a quick check.  My opponent led out for $30.  I thought about it, then raised to $90 and got a call.  She was floored when I turned over the nuts.  She tossed a set of jacks into the muck.  Several hands later I called a small raise with 5-7 of spades and also rivered a flush.  That was also good for a nice pot when I got called.  Lastly, I got Aces again and made a good raise.  The caller was the same guy I had busted with the queens.  He was short stacked again and called a big bet on the Turn.  I showed him the AA and seeing the last card he says, "Straight!" However, his straight was 6-7-8-10-J which is missing a nine.  I cashed out for the day at $717, up $517 for the afternoon.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Draw Poker

Shouldn't Draw Poker be a part of the World Series of Poker?  OK, yes, they do play a little Draw, but they play Lowball.  They play 2-7 Triple Draw and 2-7 No Limit.  That is it.  Somebody please explain to me why it is that they would play only Lowball Draw.  They are going to give away 61 WSOP Bracelets this year in, as they say in their press release, "all variations of Poker."
I definitely think they are missing something without a draw poker event.  If they can have a $10,000 entry fee for 2-7 No Limit Lowball, they can certainly have at least one event in No Limit Draw Poker - the game played by Wild Bill Hickock when he was murdered holding Aces and Eights, the game played in the movie "Big Hand for a Little Lady, the game played by Bret Maverick - the legend of the West, the game played by Omar sharif in "Funny Girl" when he was losing all of Fanny Brice's money and yes, the game Nicholas Cage was playing in "Honeymoon in Vegas" when he lost his wife to James Caan's higher straight flush.  C'mon guys, let's get the historic game back into the World Series of Poker.

I think I'll start tracking my poker results on my blog, just for the heck of it.

Played at Hard Rock today.  Played a few hands of $1-$2 No Limit Hold'em while waiting for a $1-$3 seat to open up.  I prefer $1-$3 at the Rock because the buy-in is minimum $100 versus the minimum $40 on the $1-$2.  The higher minimum makes for a better game because with larger stacks, there is a better chance that there will be a decision on every betting round.

I only played about three hands at $1-$2, but one of them was Pocket Queens.  Raised pre-flop and got heads-up.  Good flop of all low cards.  Bet - Raise - Reraise all in - Call.  Queens held up.  +70.

Then at the $1-$3 table I couldn't win a pot for the first hour.  If I hit top pair, somebody flopped two pair.  Down about $150 I bought in for an additional $100, just in case I got a hand. Next hand, on the button, caught AA.  A call, then a raise to $6 and a call and I raised it to $30.  The Big Blind called and so did the original raiser.  Flop comes J-J-9 rainbow suits.  I poke out $20 and the Big Blind goes all in for $82.  The raiser hems and haws and thinks out loud and says he's got a draw and just can't lay it down, so he calls for the $82 with just $11 left behind.  I start thinking out loud, 90 in the pot plus my 20 and then 160 is like $270.  $62 to win $270?  Well, even if I'm behind I probably have outs.  I call. I doubted that he had a Jack because most players in that situation would just call or raise minimally for fear that they would drive out their customers. The Big Blind guy had KK and the other had KQ for an inside straight draw with 2 overs to the board.   A couple of bricks on the Turn and River and my Aces held up.  Whew!

After that, I won a few small pots and lost a few small pots to add a little to my stack.  I cashed out for $508 which made me plus $208 for the day.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Home from Omaha

We blew out of Omaha  (Council Bluffs, Iowa) and headed home.  Sharing the driving makes a big difference.  We were able to drive straight through making only brief stops for gas and meals.  Back to life at home.

If I wanted to make a career of this, I could have worked the WSOP Circuit Event in St. Louis 4/12 to 4/23, tried to get hired for Chester, PA (Philly) 4/26 to 5/7 and followed that with the final pre-WSOP Circuit event 5/10 to 5/21 in New Orleans where I still have a valid gaming license.  I missed getting hired by the Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL for their World Poker Tour Showdown event 4/18 to 4/23 but I'm still in this as a part-time thing.  Working all those tournaments would be too much like having a full time job.  The real reason I wanted to do a few other events is that I wanted to be sure to keep my skills up so that I could be sharp for the WSOP and have a little fun along the way.

Back home I'm back to playing golf and poker.  The layoff did my golf game good.  First round back I shot a 2 over par 74, one of my top five best scores.  My poker game, maybe not so much.  I spent a little time at the Hard Rock asking myself, "Why does this always happen to me?" I still haven't quite figured out how to beat the push monkey.  Of course, there is the strategy of just playing very, very tight and only putting chips in the pot with extremely strong hands but the loose-aggressive players seem to see me coming and get out.  I wind up having sessions like the other day when over the course of a few hours, I got A-K or A-Q six times and never flopped top pair.  Frustrated, the seventh time, when I flopped Q-10-7 holding the A-Q I ran into a caller holding Q-10 and kicking my butt.  I know, I know, Phil Gordon says you should never go broke with just one pair, but sometimes, I just can't lay it down.

The main problem I have with loose, aggressive push monkeys is that I know that with their reckless style of play, they will eventually go broke and give back all the money they have won running people off of pots.  I just can't seem to be the one that busts them.

Not that I haven't had my share of good luck hands lately.  Here are some that made me smile:
  • I min-raised with pocket Kings and got reraised all-in by a short stack who is called by another player.  I re-reraised and got called for the side pot.  The flop comes King high.  I bet out and took the side pot.  The all in player shows pocket sevens and the board runs out with the fourth King on the River.  Sweet.  Kings have been trouble for me over the last few years.
  • Twice during one $1-$3 No Limit Hold'em session I cracked pocket Aces.  Once I made a Flush going all-in with two overs and a Flush draw, spiking the Flush on the River.  The other I called a big raise with pocket fives.  A five on the flop gave me the strength to think I could beat anything and so I went all-in when the raiser check-raised me.  Yes, I could be losing to a bigger set, but he called for his whole stack with just the Aces and my three fives held up.
  • There is an old Hold'em adage that pocket Aces are good to win a small pot or lose a big one but once in a while, they win a really big one.  I reraised with the Aces and got two callers.  The flop came 6-7-8 and with about $80 in the pot I went all-in for $250 and both of my opponents called.  My plan had been to price the draws out of the pot and thinking that I would only really get a call from someone who just hit three-of-a-kind I was really surprised when my opponents had 9-9 and 10-10.  I had to fade two nines, two tens and four fives to avoid the straights  My Aces held up and won a pot with almost $800 in it.
So the Poker bankroll remains intact and I'm just a grinder until I get back to the Series.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Event #1 at WSOP Council Bluffs

Brent Glantz
"Hey Buz!  Instead of going on break, I need you to push into Table 19.  It's that final table up front."

Event #1, a $350 buy-in tournament that began the day before with 355 entrants and a total prize pool of $103,305 had worked its way down to the final two players, Brent Glantz and Michael Nellis.  The table was set up at the front of the Horseshoe's Whiskey Roadhouse which is normally a bar and restaurant but now our WSOP Circuit Tournament venue.  The table is set up for live streaming video with one camera on the cards and another viewing a wide shot of the players at the table.

I dealt for about a half an hour pushing small pots back and forth when Brent broke through and won a sizable pot from Michael.  The very next hand Brent raised and Michael re-raised all in.  After a long deliberation, Brent called the bet.  Michael showed Ace-Queen off suit and Brent tabled a 9-8 suited in diamonds.  I put out the flop.  A Queen in the door had Michael screaming, "Yes! Yes!"  But then he realized that the next two cards were a nine and another  nine.  "Nooooo.." he groaned.  The Turn and River cards did not produce the Queen Michael was begging for and Brent captured the title with his Three-of-a-kind Nines.

For his excellent play and good luck, Brent received $23,764 and the champion's solid gold WSOP ring provided by the WSOP sponsors.

While this was not my first final table, I dealt finals before at the WSOP and at several circuit events, this was the first time I had ever dealt the absolute final hand of a major tournament ring event or bracelet event.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Council Bluffs, Iowa WSOP Circuit Event

Bike Night at the Quaker Steak 'n Lube.  50 or 60 Harleys and a few odd others like Indians, Victorys or Hondas.  Bunches of people outside, but tables available inside.  Hmmm.  Doesn't say much about the food.

We completed our work back in Lawrenceburg and headed out to Iowa.  Thinking it was a long drive, we figured on stopping about halfway in Peoria and completing the journey after a brief respite in some Peoria night stop.  Thanks to the beauty of AT&T's 3G we found some highly rated Lamb Chops at Jim's Steakhouse in Peoria which we thought a grand reward for successful completion of the Tri-State Poker event.  They were delicious and the place was old time luxury in the basement of a bunch of downtown Peoria law offices.  Onthe Internet, Barry found the Par-a-Dice Hotel and Casino just off the highway and found it had a Poker Room, so without checking in, we checked out the Poker Room.  There were two tables playing $1-$2 No Limit Hold'em and a tournament was starting up in a while which would draw more players.  Rather than napping, we played for a few hours.  We lost, but it wasn't due to being tired.  Just some unfortunate cards.  Twice I flopped a hidden three-of-a-kind top set and after all the money went in my opponent had made a hand and the board just wouldn't pair for me.  Once versus a straight, the second time versus a flush.

The Floor Supervisor checked the hotel and found that it was full.  Oops.  All the surrounding hotels were full.  We needed to drive about a half hour toward our destination in order to find a Sleep Inn along the way with available rooms.  By the time we got there Barry was napping and I was feeling good so I drove a couple hours, then Barry woke up and drove a few hours while I napped, and back to me about 70 miles from Omaha and onto the hotel.  We called and they said an early check-in would be no charge because they had rooms ready, so we were all set.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Chopping

  Often in smaller tournaments, when there is no obvious chip leader and it is getting down to the final table, players will start considering a chop.  In tournaments, most of the money is concentrated in the first few places.  If there are, say, seven players left in the field it frequently works out that in order to beat chopping the remaining money seven ways, a player would have to take second or third place in the tournament.  Consider this payout schedule from an earlier tournament:

1st $56,861
2nd $35,144
3rd $23,022
4th $15,937
5th $11,623
6th $8,907
7th $7,156
8th $6,017
9th $5,281
With seven players left in the tournament, chopping gives each player a payout of $22,664, and to beat that, a player would have to take third, and then beat it by only $358.

Another consideration was brought up at the final table of yesterday's Senior's event.  The numbers were smaller than the above example and a seven way chop was $4800.  In an interesting twist, one player considered the tax effect.  If you cash in a tournament for over $5000 the casino is required to report the winnings on a 1099-G and winnings from gambling are taxed at the rate of regular income.  So for somebody in the 30% tax bracket, $4800 is $4800 but $5000 turns into $3500.  Even $6000 is only $4200 net after taxes.  Something to think about.

Another thing was what to do about the bubble.  In the Senior's event 35 people get paid.  When there are 36 people left in the tournament, the next player out is the bubble and gets no money.  This means that people play very carefully (and slowly) at this point in the tournament.  All tables play one hand and do not start the next hand until all tables complete the current hand - that way it can be more correctly determined who was the next player to bust.  The problem it causes is that nobody wants to play as they all wait for the next person to burst the bubble and everybody remaining gets paid.  To encourage people to play, all 36 players agreed to put ten bucks in for the "Bubble Boy".  That way, the "Bubble Boy" had already busted and the player who busted 36th got the $360.  The joke was, 35th place only paid $340.  A player busted out 36th on the very next hand. :-)

The King of Hearts is known as "The Suicide King" because of the way he is depicted in most decks as having a sword in his head.  His tendency to show up at the most morbid of times was never more evident than in a hand I dealt the other day where Pocket Aces were up against Pocket Kings.  Both an ace and a king showed up on the Flop and when the odd card, a seven, paired on the Turn both players had Full Houses and all the money went in.  The Suicide King appeared on the River to make Four-of-a-Kind Kings and knock the Aces Full owner out of the tournament.  He was not happy.  At least he got his money in with the best of it and he'll have a good story to tell when someone asks how he did in that big Poker tournament the other day.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Tri-State Poker Championships

Eleven days, fourteen events.  The tournaments have buy-ins from $235 to $1600.  Drove up from Tampa with my buddy Barry - former actor, computer tech support, skydive instructor, poker player and current professional poker dealer.  We took the new Mustang.  Conveniently, I-75 runs from Tampa up through Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, directly to Cincinnati, just across the Ohio River from the new Hollywood Casino.  Hard to get lost when all you need to do is stay on I-75.  Not a difficult drive with good weather and alternating drivers.
While the check-in was pretty smooth and seamless when we worked the Chicago event, we were considered "vendor employees" at the Horseshoe.  At the last minute our managers discovered that the Hollywood decided they wanted a little tighter security and required that each of us get valid Indiana gaming licenses.  Makes check-in a little more hassle.  Forms to fill out, HR processes to go through, drug test, and we actually have to apply for a gaming license through the casino's HR department. Getting started here is a little more difficult.  While things were really smooth in Chicago, the same management crew is having a little more trouble this time around.
Woody Allen once said, "80% of success in life is just showing up."  What makes it a lot easier is when management lets everybody know with certainty when and where they need to be.  They've been having a little trouble with that this time around.  It is a new venue for this team.  I'm sure they'll get it together.

The challenge the casino has is that they while they would like to put on a big splashy poker tournament and get hundreds of players to show up at their casino, they don't have enough Poker Dealers to handle it.  Steve and Charlie to the rescue!  They contract with casinos all over to provide a crew of dealers to work the events.  They support the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the World Poker Tour (WPT) as well as other regional events like this one.  Depending on the gaming laws in each state and the requirements of each casino hosting the event, the dealers might be independent contractors, vendor staff or direct employees of the casino.  To deal the tournaments, dealers may or may not need a gaming license from the state, but if they want dealers to handle cash or deal any cash games outside of the tournamens, the license is required.

The different combinations are interesting.  When I worked New Orleans, we were paid as independent contractors rather than employees, but we still needed to get a Louisiana gaming license to deal.  In Chicago, we didn't need the license but were Horseshoe employees and were restricted to dealing the tournaments.  We couldn't handle cash or cash value casino chips.  For Iowa, we have been told that we will get a license and simply be added to the current dealer crew and take shifts at the cash tables as well as the tournaments.  Now here at Lawrenceburg, we have gone through the Penn National Gaming HR support process and are regular, temporary casino employees.  Later today we will complete the gaming license process.  That will free us of the restrictions of non-gaming employees and allow us to deal any table in the casino.  No word yet on whether we'll take advantage of that.  Cash games are nice because you usually get to keep your own tips.  We'll see how it all plays out.

Monday, March 5, 2012

No longer a "rookie" dealer putting out the river card at the 2012 Chicago Poker Classic.