Casino War

     My golf buddy Darren had asked me, “How does the casino make any money playing ‘War’? You put up a bet. The dealer gives you a card and then turns a card up for him. If your card is bigger you win. If the dealer’s card is bigger you lose. So how does the house make money?”

     My curiosity got to me so I went over to a table and the dealer showed me the rules. The house makes money on ties. They give you a choice and neither option is very pleasing. In the event of a tie, you have the option to surrender half your original wager e.g. you bet $10 and both you and the dealer are dealt a 5. The dealer takes $5 from you and you go on to the next hand. The other option is to go to war. You put up an additional $10 and the dealer puts up $10 and whoever wins gets all $30. This means that you are being paid one-half to one on a 50-50 proposition. This is a really bad bet. The only thing that makes it a little easier to swallow is the “Tie Circle”. Before the hand starts, you can place a bet in the Tie Circle and if your card matches the dealer’s you get paid 10 to 1. BTW it is about 13 to 1 against a tie.

     Let’s say you play 13 hands. Win 6, lose 6 and tie one. Bet $50 on each hand with $5 in the Tie Circle each time. If you opted to not go to war on the tie, you surrender $25 but collect $50 on the tie bet so the result is a profit of $25. On the six hands you lose, it costs $330. On the six hands you win, you put up $55, get paid $50 but lose the $5 on the tie bet for a net of $45 profit per hand – a total of $270. So every 13 hands, the expectation will be to win $295 and lose $330 for a net loss of $35 on a total wagered of $715 giving the house a 4.9% advantage. There is likely a more optimal strategy, but I would bet you can’t get the house edge to less than 4%.

     My recommendation: Play Blackjack, Craps or Poker.

We Arrive

Barry and I showed up for the 8:00 tournament at nearly 9:00. There had been only 12 entries. It seems the slow economy has hit Las Vegas pretty hard. We paid our entry fee and took our seats at the final table with $4000 with the blinds at $100 and $200. It seemed we walked in and took over. Barry’s first hand got him all in against the chip leader, doubling him up. Next hand, I increased my stack by half and on the third hand Barry busts a player making him the new chip leader. Ah, but the Poker gods are a fickle lot. I get AK on the button, raise and get no callers. Next hand I get it again, raise, get a caller, a white haired grandma who also calls my bluff when I miss the flop and beats me with a middle pair. Then I lose a hand when I have to fold my top pair when it looks like I am outkicked.  As a result I am short stacked. By that time there were five left. This tournament will pay three places.

Two big stacks clash and pocket aces hold up to create a new chip leader. Desperate to get enough chips to last a few orbits, I decide to try to steal the blinds from my position on the button. The newly crowned chip leader was in the big blind. He hadn’t yet stacked up his chips from the previous hand when he peeks down and sees two black jacks and calls my all-in raise. End of tournament for me.

Barry on the other hand is sitting pretty good in second place against the chip leader, a fortyish guy in a button down shirt, and the white haired grandma who never raises and seems to call anything if she hits any pair. Barry loses a couple small pots to her when he just can’t hit. Then he finds AK on the button, goes all in and it’s Grandma’s turn to find pocket jacks in the big blind. She flops a third jack and Barry is crippled. A few hands later Barry is out in third place. Third place paid over $100, so he didn’t do too badly.

We moved over to the cash table and played a little $1 - $2 for an hour or two. Barry got busted when his big pair ran into a Frenchman with pocket aces. I was able to stay just shy of even for quite a while before picking up pocket sevens. I had noticed that the players in the seven and eight seats were willing to put all their chips in the pot with just one pair. This can be fatal in No Limit Hold’em. The flop came 7-8-Q giving me a set of three sevens and the eight seat bet out.  I made a small raise and he called. The Turn card looked like it didn’t help anyone, so when he bet I raised enough that it took all of his chips to call. The pot was about $150. He flipped over an ace and an eight and he was drawing dead on the river. Even if he caught an eight, he would make Three-of-a-Kind-Eights but I would have a Full House, 777-88. After raking in that pot I played a few extremely conservative hands and racked up my chips, happy to leave with a small profit for the evening.

Back in Vegas for WSOP 2010

Here we go again! This will be my third trip to Vegas to deal the World Series of Poker. I suppose I should update my blog’s web address because “rookie dealer” doesn’t really describe the situation anymore. On the other hand, I will still be a little nervous the first time I take my seat in the dealer’s chair in an event. I think.
I was very happy to get a warm up last weekend. On Friday I dealt a small No Limit Hold’em tournament at Innisbrook Country Club where an organization of beer and wine distributors were having a meeting. Saturday, I dealt a fundraiser tournament at Incarnation Catholic Church. Certainly, it is not the same as dealing a WSOP tournament and it doesn’t provide any practice keeping track of the pot size or taking a rake, but it was a welcome refresher to tune up my hands and remind myself of tournament procedures.
I arrived at McCarran Airport after a blessedly uneventful flight from Tampa. Luck was apparently on my side because there was a long line into security but just as I was walking up they opened a second line and I breezed right through. At Las Vegas, my friend Barry volunteered to give me a ride from the airport.
The burly former skydiving instructor drove his Mitsubishi Spyder from Tampa. Our original idea was to room together and share some expenses. It might be possible to rent a furnished condo and save a bunch of money however, doing it long distance from Tampa has proven to be difficult. Second alternative is to stay with the same folks I stayed last year. Sara had said she could have a room available for each of us. The price is good and it is just really nice to come home to a “home” rather than to a hotel or a cramped Extended Stay America room. Barry had arrived in Vegas a few days earlier because he wanted to try to get a second job at the Venetian.
During the WSOP, the Venetian runs their Deep Stack Series which is a series of poker tournaments with much smaller buy-ins than WSOP in the Venetian’s beautifully renovated, extended Poker room. Their strategy is to offer WSOP players a much nicer environment with a buy-in that competes directly with WSOP’s “Nightly No Limit” events. Many players, after busting out of their daytime WSOP event are looking for something to do. WSOP fills that need with cash games and small buy-in events conveniently located in the Rio’s convention center right there with the regular WSOP events. At The Venetian a player can play in similar price events against softer competition and enjoy the ambience of one of the posh destinations on The Strip. At the Venetian, you don’t have to play your poker in a conference room.
The popularity of the Venetian tournaments created a need for additional part time dealers. Barry wanted to fill that need by working days at WSOP and evenings at The Venetian. To get the job he needed to do a live audition for The Venetian supervisors. The audition consists of dealing a few mock hands to dealers posing as players. It allows them to be assured a prospective hire knows the basics and gives them a way to choose the better dealers when they have multiple applicants. The supervisor had him deal a few No Limit hands, some Omaha Hi-Lo and a couple Seven Card Stud hands. A little rusty, Barry made a few mistakes and got the, “we’ll be in touch” followed by a thank you but no thank you email. This means Barry will have more time to play Poker this year. This might not be such a bad thing if Barry can get his game and a bankroll together.
After picking up the rental car, the same Miata I rented last year, we headed over to the Stratosphere. I guess I just can’t pass up a good deal. I get a great price on the Miata in return for the risk that it might not make it for six weeks. The Stratosphere offered rooms for 60% off until Friday and seeing that I like their inexpensive tournaments, I couldn’t pass up the deal. I'll move to Sara's place on Friday for the duration.

Coming Soon: WSOP 2010 (click for schedule)

Opening Day for WSOP 2010 is May 27th when Cash Games will be spread and Satellites begin. I plan to be there. Dealer and Staff orientation is May 24th and I plan to post blogs with anything new or interesting.

This year I'll be spending the first few days at the Stratosphere Hotel. They offered a rate I just couldn't pass up (like $25 a night) and I thought it would be fun to spend those first few days playing the Stratosphere's daily No Limit Hold'em tournaments. I had some success winning one and cashing in several in '08 and '09, so I thought I would give it a go this year, really commit to it and see what happens. It is not a real big risk. Each tournament has an entry fee of around $50 with about 40 players and paying the top four or five finishers.

I like the Stratosphere tournaments because I think I can be competitive there. First off, it is far enough from the Rio that most WSOP tournament players don't stay there, however, last year several were in residence including a former professional baseball pitcher named Adam and a Norwiegen player called Acid. Otherwise, the tournament fields are made up of a few local regulars and the rest is tourists that often make the field softer than any you find in the WSOP or at the high stakes haunts like Bellagio or Venetian. Neither my game nor my ego is yet ready for major league competition.

By the end of the week I will be settling into more permanent digs renting a room from Sara and Al just south of the airport.

More to come...

Last Day at WSOP 2009

My last day of dealing was eventful only because I decided to try to make a little extra by hanging around and seeing if a dealer was needed anywhere. After my shift ended I begged for a little overtime and was offered a spot in the "Nightly No Limit" tournament. This is a $200 buy-in tournament that usually draws its players from the ones who bust out earlier in the day. This was no exception, although, this late in the proceedings the field was considerably smaller than usual, only 40 players. One of those players was the famous Chris Moneymaker.

In 2003, Chris had won a seat in the Main Event by winning a $40 tournament on line at Poker Stars. Chris parlayed that effort into winning over $5 million by winning the Main Event that year and kicking off a huge craze in Internet Poker. Yes, he had busted out of this year's Main Event and was looking for a little more action. He decided to play the Nightly No Limit. Aside from a few cash tables, this was the only other action around.

It worked out that we had exactly 4 dealers for the four tables, so rather than moving or "Pushing" through the tables, we stayed at the same table for two hours and Chris was at my table the entire time. He is a dream at the table. He is courteous and has fun bantering with the other players, always willing to stop and sign an autograph and acknowledge people who drop by to say, "Hello."

His most interesting hand was when he raised before the flop and got one caller. He made a rather large bet on the flop and his opponent made a large raise. It was large enough that Chris needed to go all in in order to call. After thinking for a minute he said, "Well, if I have to, this is the hand I'll go home with." With that he pushed in the last of his chips and turned over his pocket Aces. They were good enough to win the hand and double him up. After that, Chris just kept collecting chips and was the chip leader going into the first break.

The night shift showed up to relieve the dealers and Chris was happy to pose with me for a photo. That was my last official act of the 2009 WSOP. It was great fun. I made a little more money than in 2008 and I am glad they called to ask me back. I hope to return in 2010.

Almost Ready to Wrap

The second day of Day Two was my last at this year's WSOP. You may be wondering why I decided to leave Vegas before the end. First some background info...
The World Series of Poker is much more than the Main Event you see on ESPN. This is a good thing from the dealer's perspective because a dealer can only make money when there is a game to deal. The Main Event doesn't even start until WSOP has been running for six weeks. Here is a rundown of what goes on over the six weeks of the WSOP:

• 57 "Bracelet" events which are the tournaments you hear about when people say "So and so has won five bracelets." A player can win a bunch of bracelets and never get into the money at the Main Event. The events are scheduled so that one will start at Noon and another at 5:00 PM Most are 3-day events with day two starting at 2:00 PM and the final table on the third day at 2:00 PM on one of the two ESPN tables equipped with Hole Card Cameras and flying boom cameras and everything.
  


• Mega Satellites run daily at 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM. A Mega Satellite is a tournament that pays out in tournament entry dollars rather than cash. The idea is that a player could enter a Mega for $550 and win a $10,000 entry into the main event. For example if 200 people enter the 8 PM $550 Mega, the prize pool would be a little over $100,000 and the top 10 finishers would each win $10,000 in Tournament Entry Tokens (AKA Lammers - they look like chips) plus a little cash (can be used to tip the dealers!) No bonus for first place. As long as you are still alive with one chip left in tenth place, you will get the same as the chip leader.
  


• There are nightly No Limit Tournaments at 7:00 PM ($340 buy-in) and 11:00 PM ($200 buy-in) that regularly have 50 or more players. Generally, the top 10% get paid and the winner is paid about a third of the total prize pool (or a quarter if there are more than 100 entries).
  


• Single Table Satellites run all day. As soon as ten people enter, the dealing begins. On busy days there will easily be ten STS tables running at once. Buy-ins range from $125 to $1060 and winners get $500 lammers plus cash.
  


• Cash games are played in the Amazon Room on about 30 tables in the "Red" area with a wide variety of games and buy-ins running 24 hours a day.
  

A typical day in the middle of the WSOP looks like this:

• Morning: Cash games and Satellites ongoing all day. As players bust out of the tournaments, they fill in Cash and STS tables all day.
  


• 12:00 Pot Limit Omaha begins
  


• 2:00 Day 2 for Limit Hold'em and for Stud Hi-Lo plus final tables for two earlier events
  


• 3:00 $330 Mega Satellite
  


• 5:00 Seven Card Razz event begins
  


• 7:00 Nightly No Limit Tournament $340
  


• 8:00 $550 Mega Satellite
  


• 11:00 Nightly No Limit Tournament $200 buy-in.
  

As you can see there is a lot of opportunities for a dealer to work.
Once the Main Event begins, the Satellites stop running and all of the preliminary events are completed leaving only the Main Event to be dealt. Of course, that is a big event. It takes four days to get everyone started in the Main Event followed by two "Day Twos" then a day off and then Day 3 starts with the entire field playing on the same day for the first time.
With no Satellites being run and all other bracelet events completed, there will obviously be far too many dealers for the number of tables there are by day 3. With that, I decided to end my 2009 after Day 2B. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to deal enough to cover my car and room rental costs if I stayed for the day off and then dealt only a few downs on Day 3. Day 2B, however, was well worth staying for.

The MAIN EVENT has begun

Yes, the main event has begun and I have been dealing and dealing. I had gotten scheduled to deal all four days of Day 1. Huh?

This is how it works: There is not enough room, poker tables or dealers to accommodate the over 6000 expected entrants to the tournament, so Day 1 is spread over four days: 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d. Then, after about half of the entrants get knocked out on their Day 1, 1a and 1b are combined to play Day 2a and 1c and 1d are combined for Day 2b. At the end of those two day 2's, they are combined to play a Day 3, then a day four, five and six until they reach the Final Table of Nine players. Due to television, at the request of ESPN, the Final Table is postponed until November when the "November Nine" get together and play down to the winner. The Final Table will be broadcast on ESPN in "near real time" to preserve the suspense of who wins until the last possible moment.

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Day 1a was interesting for me as I pushed into table 107 showcasing actor Jason Alexander (George Costanza of Seinfeld fame) in Seat 7 and rapper Nelly in Seat 8. During a break in the action, both were interviewed by ESPN, but I think the camera shot over my shoulder and kept me out of the picture. Jason proved that with a little luck and some good poker discipline you can do well at the Main event as he nearly tripled his $30,000 stack by the end of the day. This put him in a great position starting his Day 2a sixth in chips of the 1476 that survived 1a and 1b. When Day 2a starts, ESPN will be filming Jason along with former WSOP Champion Greg Raymer at the featured table. I may have to go watch that one to see if the incredibly skilled Raymer is able to pry chips loose from the tight fisted Jason Alexander's large stack.

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Day 1c was notable for me because I dealt to Jeffery Lisandro (pictured above). Jeffery is special because he has won three WSOP Bracelet events this year. He won at 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo World Championship and the Razz (7 Card lowball). With the size and skill of the fields today, this is truly an historic and amazing feat. Although all of his wins were in Stud games, do not discount his skills in No Limit Hold'em. Jeffery is among the chip leaders at the end of Day 1c and I hope ESPN follows this Aussie throughout the tournament.

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Day 1d was amazing. A tribute to procrastination while day 1b only had 873 runners, 1d was sold out. There is only 280 tables set up for WSOP, but they built tables and put them in the hallway (near Buzio's Seafood Restaurant) and converted the Rio's casino Poker Room for WSOP use. In the end we spread 301 tables and were able to seat 2809 players.* Rumor had it that because they cut off at 2809, people outside registration were offering up to $15,000 for a $10,000 seat in the Main Event. That may be an exaggeration, but at my table, Carlos Fernandez, 14 year veteran of the WSOP, told me that he was offered $12,000 cash just before they opened the doors. Obviously, he turned down the offer. Carlos is an interesting character, big strong, bald headed and imposing but nothing but a pure gentleman at the tables. He will always be courteous and considerate as he relieves you of the chips in your stack.

*I know 301 times 9 is 2709 but the official web site is reporting

2809 entries which is really interesting because they refused to

allow alternates this year for any of the 57 tournaments, so I

do not know how they seated the other 100 players.

The sold out house and the extra tables caused a rare shortage of dealers. Usually, about 20% more dealers than tables are scheduled. This way, every five tables, each dealer will be able to take a break. Typically, a dealer would "Push" the end of a five table row, get "pushed" over one table every half hour and take a break at the end of the row. That way, you work for two and a half hours, get a half hour break, then start again. On Day 1d, we stayed at the same table with no push for the first two hours, then we rotated without any breaks and dealt again. We did this all day until the 6 PM dealers came in to relieve us at 6:30. Our only bathroom breaks were during the scheduled player breaks when a few of us at a time could run out to the restroom and cut in line in front of 50 or 60 players waiting. The players were really nice about it as they could see what was going on. After I was relieved, I clocked out and headed to the Employee Dining Room to get something to eat. When I came back I found my friend Barry still at the tables. He volunteered to deal overtime and wound up dealing through the entire swing shift!

6494 players have entered the 2009 WSOP Main Event, just a few short of last year's total. First place will win $8.5 million and any player making it to the final table (the November Nine) will be paid over one million dollars. The top 10% of entries (actually only 648 places) will make the money and a player who is eliminated just inside the money bubble will more than double the $10,000 entry fee.