Tournament Poker - Entry Level

     I came to Vegas to work and I also came to Vegas to play some Poker. I really don’t want to play against the best in the world because I know that my game is simply not tough enough. I need a little softer competition. Unlike the compulsive gambler, I get a high from winning rather than losing. This makes the Stratosphere well suited to the game I am looking for in Vegas. The Stratosphere Poker Room has a mixture of tough local players and tourists with the occasional WSOP player taking advantage of the Stratosphere’s inexpensive room rates. Some of the tourists really play well and some are beginners. This is a good mix for me. The hard line Poker professionals don’t waste their time playing $60 tournaments and $1-$2 No Limit Hold’em. That suits me just fine. My Poker bankroll insists that I play at these levels until I can win enough to play at higher limits.

     The Tuesday 8 PM $60 tournament at the Stratosphere was just one table of ten players when I signed up, but they got a few more entries and we had 19 on two tables by the end of the first level. Each player starts with 4000 in chips. With the blinds set at 25 and 50, this gives the player 80 Big Blinds (BBs) to work with. After 20 minutes the blinds go up to 50 and 100 and up from there every 20 minutes.

     My cards simply didn’t have any rhythm for the first few levels. My raises were called and my “Continuation” bets were met with check-raises forcing me to fold. At the 100-200 level I had 1800 left, only 9 BBs. I always have a sense of desperation whenever I have less than 10 BBs. I needed to start accumulating some chips or risk being blinded into oblivion.

     I was on the button and it was folded around to me. Nine BBs is enough to make the blinds fold unless they have a real hand. In fact the guy in the Big Blind had a stack slightly smaller than mine. To me that made the 6-5 off suit I was holding a power hand worth shoving with. I pushed my stack forward and announced, “All in.” The lady in the Small Blind folded and after some painful soul searching, the young buck in the Big Blind decided to put his tournament life at risk with an ace and a ten. Well, at least I had two “live” cards. I spiked a five on the flop and the board ran out favorably giving me a 3500 chip pot. After that pot, the rhythm of the game changed. The under-the-gun player, a burly, savvy tournament player called Big John, limped in for 200 and from late position with pocket nines I raised it to 800.

     He said, “Is it just me?” and folded his cards, giving me the small pot.

     I was pleased he didn’t come over the top because I would not have been able to continue. As I raked in the chips he said, “Five-six again?”

     “Are you kidding?” I replied, “I’d have gone all in with five-six!”

     The player to my right was dressed in all black with dark sunglasses. He was quiet and as expected played tight and aggressive. He had lost a few pots and was left with a medium-small stack. Big John raised and after some thought, the man in black, leaning on his right elbow and gesturing with his open hand asked the dealer, “How much is it?”

     Then he pushed his chips forward announcing, “All in.” Big John called and when the cards were turned up we saw the man in black’s pocket aces. The Aces held up. The man in black doubled up and Big John took a hit to his stack.

     Big John said, “So that’s your tell, huh? The ‘How much is it?’ That’s your Aces tell, huh?”

     We laughed.

     Next hand Big John was at it again, limping in. I had a strong Ace so I leaned over on my right elbow, gestured with my right hand and trying to match the man in black’s serious tone said, “How much is it?”

     The table erupted with laughter.

     “Aces?”

     “No, Five-six!” I lied with false sincerity. Then I raised and everyone folded. I smiled and traded the dealer my face down cards for the small pot.

     I worked my way up to a larger than average stack when with ten players remaining, we consolidated the tables. Then came a card rush. Five hands in a row: AK, KK, AK, QQ (no callers), AQ big pot. There may have been a few smaller hands in between that I folded but it felt like I was playing and winning every hand. In the second AK hand, after two callers, I simply limped and won a nice pot when I flopped a King and got a caller for my small bets all the way to the river. The AQ hand was one limper plus Blind versus Blind. I was in the Small Blind. I made a small raise. The Big Blind called and the limper folded. I checked in the blind before the dealer acted and I watched my opponent watch the dealer put out the flop. My opponent seemed unsure, picked up some chips, thought better of it, put them back on his stack and checked. The dealer put out the Turn card and I looked at the board for the first time. It was 10-6-Q-Q giving me trip Queens. I bet 3000 and got a call. The River was an Ace giving me the Queens full of Aces Full House. I bet 12000 which was about three quarters of my opponent’s stack. He called and showed A-10, his pair of tens counterfeited by the pair of queens on the board.

     At this point I had amassed about 39000 chips. This was over half of the chips in play in the entire tournament. If my friends Barry or Tim were here they would tell me to take a walk and come back when I reached the money. The cards helped. The rush was over as I looked at a string of hands where no card was higher than a seven. Twice I folded the Small Blind when it was folded around to me. I let them knock each other out. The few times I raised or re-raised I got no callers and won small pots without a fight.

     This tournament paid three players. We were now down to four. The Frenchman (who was not French but French Canadian) who had busted Barry the other night with pocket aces suggested we each put something up for the bubble boy. That way the player busting out on the money bubble wouldn’t go away empty handed. They all agreed on $20 per player giving the bubble boy an $80 prize for his efforts. I couldn’t in good conscience say no. A little voice in my head was saying, “Yes, it’s a lousy bet because there is no way you will be next to go out but if you’re an arrogant ass and say, ‘No,’ the poker gods will make you lose every hand from now on.” On the other hand, agreeing to donate $20 to pay the bubble was like taking an umbrella on a cloudy day. If you take it, it won’t rain. It was also an opportunity to be a “Great Guy”. One of my philosophies for living is that when you get that occasional opportunity to be a really great guy, you should take advantage of it.

     I pulled out a twenty and told everyone I would hold the money being the least likely player to win it.

     The next hand I busted the Frenchman. He had the smallest stack and having successfully negotiated a safety net for himself pushed all in. I was on the button with K-10 suited. I called. The Big Blind also called. There was a king on the flop and we went check-check. Another king hit the Turn and I couldn’t check anymore. The Big folded and when the cards were turned up I was shocked to see the case king in the Frenchman’s hand. I had him outkicked with my ten to his nine. The river was a blank and my ten kicker held up to get me into the money, the top three, with a dominating chip stack.

     A few hands later I found a pair of nines in my hand and called an all in raise. My 9-9 was a 70% favorite against my opponent’s A-7 and it held up when the board ran out without an ace. This put me in the top two with a 9 to 1 chip lead.

     The heads up session was pretty short. 3 small pots with no calls, then I raised with J-10, both hearts. He re-raised and I called. He had A-10 off suit, both black. It was literally a coin flip. I haven’t run the exact hand on pokercalc.com but if it is not 50-50, it’s only 55-45 in favor of the A-10. Small cards flop but I catch a Jack on the Turn and when the board paired on the River it was all over.

     First place paid $418 less a $25 dealer tip, less $20 for the bubble boy. My miniscule Poker bankroll is very happy.

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.