Hellmuth number fourteen number one

$10,000 entry Razz Final Table

I had the privilege of being one of the three dealers to deal the final table of Event 17, the Razz Championship. It is not only a "Bracelet Event" but it is also considered a "World Championship" as are all events at the WSOP that have a $10,000 entry fee.

The three of us, Eric Green, Shaun Harris and I, began setting up two tables for the last sixteen players at about 1:30 pm and finished up a little after midnight.

What is Razz?  It is a variation of 7-Card Stud lowball. It is dealt like 7-Card Stud but the winning hand is the lowest combination of five cards, the best being A-2-3-4-5-x-x. Straights and Flushes have no bearing on the hand value. Some say it is not really Poker because it does not use the conventional poker rank of hands but the essential elements of poker are there: the ability to win pots with the best hand at showdown and the ability to win by betting to convince your opponent to fold.

We started the day with two tabes in the northeast corner of the Amazon Room. Shaun was on 446, Eric on 449 and I was on first break.  Every half hour we rotate, so we do 30 minutes at 446, 30 minutes on 449 followed by a 30 minute break. We ran this rotation until around 3:30 when the seventh player had busted out losing all of his chips. With 9 players left we took a quick break and moved our table into the Amazon Arena, the stadium like setup where Championship final tables are broadcast live on the Internet, recorded and archived.

Dealers stay in the same rotation but responsibilities change. One dealer is at the table, one acts as a runner assisting the floor and players with whatever is needed and escorting any player busting out to the payout clerk for processing, and the third on break. The difference is that when on a final table, you get paid for all three positions as if you were dealing continuously.

That is the rotation we were in. The extra money isn't really important to me, although I appreciate being fairly compensated for my labor, I get great personal satisfaction from being in the center of the arena, on camera, with a lot on the line and proving to myself that I can perform well under the stress.   On this day, I was quick, accurate, precise and my procedures were by the book right down to clearing my hand after the cut (a procedure many dealers fail to perform). It can be tough. You have an earpiece in your ear with a producer giving some instructions as you deal. There are many spectators in the stadium all watching your moves with multiple video screens showing every action and a set of video cameras with potentially thousands of viewers all around the world watching the game you are running. Seeing that I do this part-time as a hobby rather than for a living, I'm pretty proud of being able to perform in the arena.

But enough about me. Phil Hellmuth, who has won the Main Event and won more WSOP Bracelets than any other captured his 14th bracelet by winning this 2015 World Championship Razz Event. Eric Green had the privilege of dealing the final winning hand.

Reports of the Death of Poker are Greatly Exaggerated

Poker seems to be alive and well.  Last week the World Series of Poker held a tournament marketed to the masses. They called it The Colossus. At $565 it was the lowest entry fee of any event the WSOP has ever held where the winner receives one of the coveted gold bracelets in addition to the prize money. The result was the largest field ever for a live poker tournament. 22,374 entries were sold with multiple starting times over two days with the stipulation that if you busted out of one flight you could enter again into one of the later flights.  Unknown how many re-entries were logged. First prize was the bracelet and $638,880 of the over $11 million prize pool.

The popularity of the event also boosted the success of poker at other venues. WSOP's own 3PM Deepstack tournament set a record with 2149 entries. Planet Hollywood and the Golden Nugget were scrambling for dealers for their tournaments that run simultaneously with the WSOP. At the Wynn Poker Room their tournament was sold out and for the seven or eight tables of $1-$3 No Limit Hold'em there were 91 people on the waiting list to get a seat.

As the tournament was marketed to more recreational players, it was not without controversy. When the prize pool payouts were announced Twitter exploded. Many were incensed that the winner wouldn't come close to winning a million dollars. The structure that was used, like all other bracelet events, paid out to all who made it into the top 10%. Spreading out $11 million to over 2200 winners looked nice to the guy that finished in 1000th place but many were still disappointed that it works out that the winner would "only" get about 6% of the total prize pool.

The other controversy is with the dealer pay. A portion of the dealer's pay is determined by a small percentage of the entry fee, known as "tokes", divided up by all the dealers according to how much time they spent dealing. Looking at the small fee and the slow structure of the tournament, many dealers were worried that the toke rate would be very low. In fact when it was announced, dealers were in an uproar over the smallest toke rate in the history of the WSOP. It was about 30% lower than previous rates. One of the best paid dealer jobs in town had become one of the worst. The upside was that there was a lot of work. Many dealers were able to work double shifts with overtime making less per hour than elsewhere but logging many more hours. All in all if the toke rate goes back up next week, it will be an anomaly.

Seeing the WSOP set records and seeing poker rooms all over town overflowing with poker players makes me feel pretty good about the state of poker these days.