The End

Back at home and wish I wasn't.

Long drive and a lot to think about... Out of the 3 options I had for my future plans went out the window and the two others still remain uncertain. One thing is for sure, I need to do something quick as I did not get to save as much money as anticipated ( I know shocker, right? ).

Day 4 was eventful for me, as I came into work and was told to be a runner. A runner's responsibility was to take a the most recent player who busted out of the Main Event to the proper cage to get paid out. I pretty disappointed that my last there I wouldn't even get a chance to deal. I do think there is a chance I may have got on ESPN, as I went behind the table of some dramatic situation with Phil Hellmuth on the table.

My overall experience at the Series is a really great one. Sure you heard your complaints of people on how much they were making, but for those that have limited financial responsibilities and no wife and kids to go home to I would have done it again for even less.

I forever can say that I dealt the 2009 World Series of Poker. I became a much better dealer, I had tons of fun in one of the most fun cities known to man, I met some great people, and I got a couple of doors opened up for me... I have no complaints.

Here is a top five list of things I will miss and not miss about the World Series of Poker...

Miss:

1. The girls you see everyday on the rail, crazy!

2. Playing Chinese Poker in the break room

3. Dealing the Omaha 8/b 75-150 game. I learned so much from sweating that game from the box.

4. Dealing some horrendous bad beats or coolers

5. From time to time being complemented on doing some aspect of a job you love well.

Not Miss:

1. Being told to chop a 2 dollar chip or 5 dollar chip, so they can give you one of it.

2. Being berated when you are right and the player is wrong

3. Scooping up a bet or cards from the player in seat 7 ( I am lefty )

4. Your table breaking out of an event you really wanted to deal in

5. The Bobbie Sandwich

I would also like to say that the staff did a tremendous job, no joke. Sure there were some rulings you kind of just shook your head at... but everyone was extremely professional, knowledgeable and very helpful. How they can run a 7 week series with that many players floating about and endless options with seemingly no hitches is just astounding to me.

A special thanks to Kim Smith for giving me this opportunity, now I wish she would just return her emails as I would like to make sure she knows how grateful I am.

And an extra job well done to Monica, Collins and Dan the swing shift Dealer Coordinators for being well organized and most importantly fair.

I am stoked to watched the taped events on ESPN and seeing people I know and dealt to... that should be a lotof fun. I can't wait to watch the Final Table too, mainly because Phil Ivey will be there... the man is sick, two bracelets this year, millions of cashes and millions of dollars in prop bet wins.

My goal next year is to work on my dealing enough to deal one or more Event Final Tables.

I cannot wait to go back next year and do it all over again.

Main Event and Misc.

I will try to keep it brief, but there is a lot of stuff I have seen or heard the last couple of days that I want to blog...

First of all, dealing Day 1d was as boring as boring can be. Everyone plays wicked tight during the Main Event first day it is scary... I don't blame them but it is just boring. Check-call on all streets with a set, non-bets with flushes on a paired board, things like that. Pre-flop is a different story, there was a lot of 3 bets and so forth, but everyone played post-flop like a knit. I did not knock out one single person. I did have some all-in calls but never busted anyone. Sick, right?

I did deal 14 straight downs as there was a sellout crowd of over 2800 players for that day alone... which I was stoked about, since I had a bet for over 6200 and we ended up having just about 6500. We would have had over 7k, but over 500 people got turned down because it soldout. How much would that suck, to be turned down to the one tournament you always dreamt about playing or have been waiting all year for? But to defend my employer, registration has been opened online since March and at the Rio since late May. Still... not fun! WSOP Staff will surely have to come up with some sort of system to balance the play for each day, since this kind of thing does not happen again.

The best thing that happened to me was on the last hand of the day...

I am pitching all of my cards and it gets to the very last card on the button and it flips over, a queen of clubs. I give the guy his new card and nothing is said. 2 people limp and then the button makes a raise to 2100 and the first limper calls.

Flop 7d-4s-2c

Check, bet 3300, calls

Turn 10c

Check, bet 5600, calls ( caller says " I guarantee I have you crushed" )

River 9h

Check, bet 12k-ish, calls

Button flips over hand and says "I have nothing, ace high". Limper flips over a set of fours.

At this point we start our bagging button players proceeds to say "Dealer to you realize how much money you have lost me? I would have had A-Q!". I was in utter shock, the guy still would have had no pair... but regardless he 3-barreled bluff on the last hand of the day against a guy that is clearly playing a defensive game to get to day 2,and he is calling your bets and tells you he has you crushed. I am sorry but don't blame me for playing your hand like complete garbage, especially since it would not have made a lick of difference. Crazy Stuff! I wish I could have just laughed at his face.

I had the day off during Day 2a, but just dealt Day 2b tonight. A little bit more exciting play and a lot more emotion being shown.

I dealt a sick big hand, real early...

Average stack at this point was less than 60k and blinds were 400-800 with a 100 ante.

MP player with a stack at around 150k raises to 2200 everyone folds to the SB, who is this loud British guy who has to be in his late 50's or 60's. He 3-bets to 6k, and MP player calls.

Flop Ad-7d-3d

British guy goes all in for 67k. MP player goes in the tank for like 2 minutes and makes the call with Ah-Qs. British guy shows Kd-Ks

Turn 9d

All of the sudden the guy jumps out of his seat and lets out a scream and then he says " London, can you hear me!", as loud as he can. Of course, I am laughing at how silly this guy looks and so is everyone at the table but the guy who just lost the pot to him.

After I push him the pot one of the floormen comes over and issues him a warning for excessive celebration.

I dealt to Shane Schleger two days straight, and he has to be open-raising more pots than anyone else in history. I mean honestly at least 3 hands an orbit.

Toto Leonidas, who I also dealt to, was also open-raising a ton and also doing a lot of 3-betting.

Dealt to Nick Schulman and he seemed genuinely upset at how card-dead he was. Also, at one point I heard one of the ESPN producers ask one of the print media employees who he was, since this employee kept eyeballing his stack. I thought at this point I may have have got some TV time, but nothing doing... I will tell you what though the girl who is one of the ESPN producers is seriously distracting me, she is so damn cute it is ridiculous. I keep honestly starring at her, and I know she has caught me more than one time.

As it gets time to go home I am starting to get multiple possible options to keep dealing. I have an interview today for a job here in a Vegas casino, the other is something I recently heard about dealers being needed in NH and me having a connection to possibly getting into there, and the last is possibly opening up my own business back at home ( involving poker ). My first option would be to stay here, but I would take any of the 3 at this point. As soon or if one becomes a reality and not just a possibility I will take it.

I am staying until Day 4, and I am sure by that time things will be a lot more exciting since we will be in the money at some point during that day.

Main Event News

Yesterday was the first day of the Main Event.

Nutty stuff, but not as nutty as I would have anticipated. Last time I was here, when I played in 2006, you could barely move it was so crowded... not so much this time.

We had 1100+ players the first day, and that was not far from last year at 1300+. But for whatever reason they decided that it would be a smart idea to have day 1b on the 4th of July... of course they got just around 900 players, the lowest total for any day one since 2003. I still say we will have about 5500, but that is not good news for me as I have a bet with a co-worker where I took over 6200 and he took the under...

I made this bet at the start of the series when every tournament was exceeding expected turnout... but come to find out it was because the Online sites were not giving entries to the WSOP Main Event like usual, but rather 10k and you can buy-in to whatever tournament. So, of course tons of people opted to play multiple smaller events than take one shot at the 10k Main Event.

Dealing Day 1a was fun though. We had media all over the place, taking pictures, filming, or even standing there taking notes on what happened during some of the bigger hands dealt.

We also were told any time we had an all-in and a call we were to yell this out, so if the ESPN crew cameras were around they could film it. I had this happen my very first table of the night...

Blinds 150-300

UTG, a older gentlemen with around 8k behind, raises to 800.

MP, a European PokerStars sponsored player who cameras were taking a lot of photos of, re-raises to 2200.

Folds around to UTG who makes the call

FLOP: Qd-Js-X

UTG goes all-in

MP player insta-calls

Hand is flipped over

UTG ( Kd-Qc )

MP ( Ks-Kh )

"ALL-IN CALL ON TABLE 71"

ESPN Crews come, Pokernews comes, and like 3 other media writers stand there with notepads...

TURN: 10s

River: 9d

Chop-Chop

So nothing too exciting, but I did get my ten seconds of fame... well, at least my arm did.

Unfortunately today I got stuck dealing Satellites, as there are still a ton of people hoping to find a way to play this event for cheap. But, I do hope to deal the Main Event tomorrow, as it should be the busiest of all the days and a mad house.

On an unrelated note, I have been playing Chinese Poker and Rummy at the Employee Break Room non-stop. We have been playing Chinese a dollar a point with just random employees... 2-7 in the middle and +1 on scoops, nothing fancy. As for Rummy it is usually just for fun, though I would like to throw around some action on that... but we have been playing 4 card runs only and you must have a set and a run to laydown; which makes the game insanely more complex and more strategical.

Almost time to pack and leave this place, and to be honest I don't want to. I have a handful of options, none of them concrete... some involve me staying out here, and that will be my first choice.

Half & Half Part 2

So here is the scoop on that half PLO and half PLO 8/b game I played...

We were playing with almost every player doing a five dollar button straddle and every player being at least 200 bb's deep. Game was very limpy and was playing lagy post-flop.
There was an even mix of players, some horrendous, some average, some good. So to be honest I was not sure what my strategy overall should be, as the players who were good were lagy and the average players were tag post-flop and the horrible players were just overall involved in every hand.
Overall, I ended up doing a lot of open limping from early on with hands that were playing well multi-way, and was loving those hands much more than any premium hand from early as you could never limit the field with a pot-sized raise (if they wanted to play they would no matter the early raise)... and was raising for value in late position with multiple hands to isolate ( a pot-sized raise here actually could thin the field ) and disguise my hand better.

Here are a couple of the hands that I was involved in...
1. PLO 8/b, As-2s-Qd-10d.
No Button straddle this hand. Playing six-handed, 2 limpers, I am on the button and raise to 10.
Both limpers call.

Flop Qs-10c-3d
I hit the flop decently, but am not getting married to it, surely. But I did want to maintain my bet-sizing a little smaller, in case I got check-raised ( which was happening often in this game ) and putting me to a tough decision.
Checked to me and I bet 18.
First limper folds and second limper ( who is a very good player, capable of a bluff with a blank queen here or air ) check-raises me to 75.
I am putting him on a K-J-( A or 9 )- X wrap, a queen and a wrap or turning a Q or 10 into a semi-bluff. I didn't place his range to include a set, because he was observant enough to notice that my c-betting frequency was not big, since most flops were playing very loose and extremely multi-way. Not to mention if he held a set he did not want me to get a free card on a board that more than likely hit my hand ranges either really big or piss poor.
I decided I did not want to play for the rest of my money on the flop ( began the hand with 350-ish ), and was going to go with it if a non-wrap clincher card came on the turn... as I knew he would probably fire pot-sized or close to it even if he missed.

Turn 10s
Gin!!! I am not going anywhere now.
He fires 120. I've got around 270 at this point and decided to make a quick call, trying to make him believe I was just taking a stand with aces and if he hits maybe he will fire off the rest of his chips on the river and give him a chance to bluff the river.

River 4h
He checks the river! NO!!!!!
So now I fire the rest, as I felt I couldn't pull out some weird bet size that would get called. Of course, he folded.
Bummer.

2. PLO, Ad-Qd-Js-9c ($450)... I think I played this hand real poorly and got lucky to win
Button straddle to start and I am in the small blind. I raise to 15, bb called, mp caller and button calls.

Flop 10c-8c-3s
I check, and for no particular reason why. Checks around

Turn 5d
I bet 45. Again, unsure why it was okay to bet now and not before. I had no real plan in the hand, I just played it like a complete fool.
Button thinks for a long time and smooth calls.


River Ac
I start to analyze the hand for a second before doing anything... and the button's indecisiveness gave me the instinct that he had a set of 5's or 3's. I decided if I applied the pressure with a pot-sized bet he would fold, as he seemed to be playing squeaky clean after being up a couple of bills for the night.
So I bet 140. He mulls it over for about a minute and folds.

Funny how this game is... one minute you have a plan for the entire hand and you win and then you enter the next one with no real hope and still pull one out of your ass.

Another awesome incident that happened at this table and a first for me, through a decent amount of years playing live...
This older gentleman, who was playing horrendously bad was down 20 dimes in this game and when he went to reach into his pocket for another 500 his wife came in behind him and started to scold him. He said he would be done in a half hour... she just drifted back about 25 feet and had this look to her like her head was going to explode.
About 5 minutes later he lost 300 dollars check-calling a flop, turn and river bet with one pair and a gutshot. After that hand a Rio security guard tapped this guy on the shoulder and said " Sir, it is about time you go up to your room ", he then immediately picks up his cheques and leaves.
I know some people like to think of me as a degenerate at times, but I have never got to that level... and I sure as hell hope I never do either.

Main Event starts in two days. Let's see what kind of mob we will have at the Rio then!

"I Luuuv play Poqua"- Chau Giang

Here is the latest....

Tonight I dealt cash and I think I am beginning to enjoy it as much as tournaments, as long as there is a balance of both. People are starting to tip better and getting to deal multiple games is a lot less boring than the same thing all day long.

For instance tonight I got to deal a Pot-Limit Omaha 8/B game with 6 cards. How crazy is that? I find dealing those new weird games dynamite. Like dealing Baducy... which is a split-pot game dealt with five cards, 3 draws, and you form your best badugi and 2-7 triple draw hand. Whoever comes up wth these weird alterations to games has to be a sick sick degenerate, but I love it.

I dealt a pot tonight that was 250 bb's deep and Queen high won. How sick is that... queen high! One player had an open-ended straight flush draw and one had the queen high flush draw. These people at the series are just sick gamblers, and all these pots play huge because of it.

Also, while dealing the 10-20 Omaha 8/B game all I thought about was jumping in... that has to one one of my worst games, but the play was so incredibly soft that I just wanted to ask for an early out just to play it. I actually went to go put my name on the list to play it after I got done, but the game had broken up.

On the other hand, my few days off this week were pretty eventful.

I started it off by playing at a deepstack tournament at the Venetian. I had a really soft table draw and was chipping up quickly. Unfortunately the soft spots at my table eventfully went broke and started being filled by decent players. I went into the final 5 tables ( out of 288 players ) with 39k and average just over 35... only problem is that the blinds were now 1.5k-3k. I showed my stack with 8's from EP and got called by 10's and was knocked down to 9k. Shipped the rest UTG with Kd-4d and got put into the pot heads up against A-10 and went packing.

Next day I played at the Mirage. Started by playing 5-10 with a full kill Omaha 8/B, was up a couple of bills for a while until I decided it was time to start playing bad, because that is what I do... so I cashed out even. Then I moved on to 4/8 Limit Hold-Em and played like donkey kong in that game and lost 15 big bets real quick, by trying to run over a 4-handed idiots who would never fold... but I unfortunately could never hit.

Next day, after work, I decided to go play the 1/2 PLO at the upstairs poker room at the Rio. I knew the game was going to play big already, so I bought in for 250 bb's, as there was no max. This actually was somewhat small in comparison to how large some people were playing behind, there was one guy that must have had a 5k stack.We had a 5 dollar button straddle being done by almost every player and an often re-raise of pot pre-flop that would get 3 callers on average.... so I was not joking when I am telling you the game was playing really big. I want to talk more about that game, and will on my next blog entry... as all the stories in regards to this game would make a already long blog just unbearably long. But I will say I made 3 bills, which is almost like a break even, since every pot was around 200 dollars or more.

Itching to play some more cards. I get two days off starting Tuesday and intend to play all day on both those days.

Random Facts

- I now have 3 guys to sweat over a Main Event Final Table, as they all told me they would reward me handsomely if they made it. One guy told me he'd buy me a camaro, I am not sure I want it.

- Everyone says Todd Brunson is not typically nice to dealers, but he was ultra nice to me.

- Most people do not enjoy dealing the non-traditional Hold 'Em Events, I love them.

- Saw a dealer ask for The Grinder's autograph while in the box. Smartest, and most professional move I have ever seen.

- I generally am not a fan of the elderly, but when it comes to a seniors event for poker, they are the best. Someone told me today, "It is like a big VFW Reunion, all they do is talk and limp"... I don't disagree. Only problem is getting them to leave the room on a break, they don't trust me with their chips.

- I am tired of waking up everyday at 3PM PST. I want to do something else besides sleep and work.

- I am thankful for the Employee Dining Room and the free snacks in the break room... but if I have to eat there one more time I am going to punch myself. Have you ever ate a Bobbie sandwich? well, they are delicious... it is like having thanksgiving left overs all combined into one... but I also don't want to have thanksgiving 50 times in two weeks.

- Two days off starting tomorrow. Going to play some golf, poker, eat real food. Cross your fingers that I stay away from the pit.

- As you can see he last couple of days have been boring, so I just wrote some random facts.

Cash Games vs Tournaments

I have had a handful of jobs in my lifetime and dealing the WSOP Events is nothing like any of them, but dealing WSOP cash games is a lot like them... only I tend to get paid a little bit better.

Let me explain why! With every job you seem to see a lot of blaming going around and hardly see any real owning of problems, that all happens in live. With every job there seems to be a lot of people you can enjoy the company of and some you just can't stand, also happens in live. And with every job there seems to be those days where you just can't wait until it is all over, and that also happens in live.

A lot of people complain about dealing cash, and I guess this is going to make me one of those... but to be honest I am more explaining the fact that I love dealing tournaments so much better than live. Cash is not so bad as to say I hate it or wouldn't do it, but it is just not the same.

This is a typical day for me if I am doing tournaments....

1. Start at 6:30, deal a handful of hands and then players go on dinner break

2. Do 2-3 tables while the players are still on break and get paid for it

3. Deal for most if not the rest of the day to clear cut guidelines and not to mention the same game.

See... simple and also to me, fun.

Here is my day in live....

1. Get my table assignment

2. First table

- Count my well, which is a process that you get yelled at if not done quick enough.

- My pitch is generally not come into full gear from the first push so I may flip over a card during the entire time I am there and may get yelled at for that ( from the players )

3. Second table

- Ask for a time rake, in which all the players want to take out of the first pot. At first we were not allowed to take out of the first pot, now apparently we are... so players are a lot more nice about it, but still like to say smart comments from time to time.

4. Deal many times over, generally with one break in btwn, to multiple games with players wanting to change or alter multiple policies you have come to know. And of course most alterations are allowed, since the players run the game, the house does not.

- Now, since the players run the show generally, when they get out of line on a rule and you try to fix it they get snappy because.... well, they normally make the rules around those parts and don't want you to have any say.

5. Cash in my money and have worked 50 times harder than i would have dealing tournaments and made typically less money.

On the other side of all this... you get to deal a ton of different games, and mixing it up is fun for me. I am not the guy that likes to do the same thing over and over again. Also, you do meet a lot of really great people that never complain and are a lot less stressed than in a tournament. And you get to have cash in your pocket right away instead of waiting and guessing how much you are getting paid for that day.

So all in all, you have those players you enjoy dealing to and those that you wish would let you do your job and not jump on you for silly little things. You also have so many types of games and types of limits that it is too hard to come up with stringent guidelines to follow, as some players or tables just like a different brand of whatever game they are playing. And, you wish there was overall less to worry about without people jumping on you for, but that is the way with any job really.

If anyone happens to read this next year as a first timer, take this as a possible means to enjoy yourself a little more at the tables.... Be one of those people that take their job too seriously. Be like one of those hall monitors from back in the days at school that are just way too uptight. Seriously, that sounds odd but that is what the players want, or at least it seems to me. They want a dealer that knows what he is doing, and will fix things when it goes wrong not just settle for some player at the table's answer to the right decision. I tend to be like a robot and as soon as a player does something wrong ( that is not debatable, of course ), I snap at them to fix it and don't take no for an answer... as soon as you are done doing that they know you got this and they don't have to worry about watching over you ( even if they maybe still do ).

I am going to go get ready for work now and hopefully have a relaxing day of doing tournaments, since I have done cash 4 out of the last 5 nights.

Nada

Let's see, not much to write about....

Had a couple days off and didn't do much with them. Watched Star Trek in IMAX at the Palms... it must have been the first time I went to the movie theaters in years.

Played the 11PM Daily at the Sahara again and got knocked out middle of the tournament with my aces versus a pair and flush-draw flop for my opponent, when he hit two pair on the turn. John got knocked 14th when it paid top 9 and last week he got 12th when it paid top 5... good to see he likes to waste time.

Went back to work yesterday and I will now work 7 days straight. Yesterday was the 5k PLO and that was the only event... so the room was pretty empty. I got put in the Brasilia to deal single table satellites. I had only done two of those thus far, but I did 4 alone yesterday. Pretty decent night, made about 260 in tokes. Saw some really great playing on my first $535 s-n-g... it always makes it less boring to deal NL Hold 'Em when there seems to some really interesting and creative playing. As for the other one's, they were uneventful and rather quick.

Today is some monstrosity NL Hold 'EM event and the 10k Stud 8/b, which the the one I hope to deal.... but I probably won't be so lucky. I do need the tournament downs bad this week though, as I only have 15 for the whole week... which will make my check pretty piss poor.

I get my check today and it will all be going away as soon as I get it to pay for other things... such is life.

* Picture found at http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/la/las-vegas-the-palms-casino-resort.jpg

Asians Can Read my Soul

The last couple of days have been rather uneventful, in the terms of dealing, but a lot of fun otherwise.

The day after the half and half event I came into work and all 3 rooms seemed to be jam packed with players, due to the 1.5k NLHE and the 3k HORSE and other Day 2 or 3's from other on-going events.

Unfortunately, my day didn't parallel the day Harrah's was having. I got put into the 1.5k and dealt 3 hands before my table broke. When your table breaks you get a break right away and then are homeless and have to be re-assigned to a new location... and since this tournament was breaking so darn fast there was tons and tons of dealers with nowhere to go. So, I go see my Dealer Coordinator and he tells me that I go on break again and then come back to see him in a half hour.

I was feeling really crappy that day, the upstairs area of our town home is really hot, so I sleep with a portable fan right next to my damn face... and that had unfortunately given me a sore throat and uncontrollable coughing. Needless to say, 2 straight breaks was not helping, as I rather have my time occupied so I would not feel worse.

Finally, when I go back to see Dan the D.C. again, he tells me that I am going to deal the Mega-Satellite into the Main Event. Mega's are multi-table satellites that award seats to the main even for every 10k in the prize pool. I dealt that for two downs and then Dino comes to see me on my push to get my keys because he had been sent home early. I told him I felt like crap and if he wanted to say he could take my spot. After some deliberation, he decided he should, since he had already missed a couple of days, due to his own illness, and took my spot.

From there, I had to go to the Gold Coast, which is right next to The Rio, to cash my check. Great thing about cashing your check here is that they not only do it for free but they usually comp you something too... because they obviously want you to come in and put your paycheck in play. Well, that is excatly what I did. I had been so darn good about not gambling but as soon as I got my money from the cashier's cage they called out open seats or 1/2 NLHE in the poker room.... so naturally I could not resist.

The room itself is tiny as it fits only four tables, but the dealers were really good and friendly and the players the same. The game was playing pretty loosey goosey pre-flop, but people were making big lay downs after the flop... so this seemed like my sort of game. I pounced on weakness and was taking down tons of pots with bluffs, semi-bluffs, and of course made hands. I ran over the table for a while until this Asian guy decided to read my soul and make one of the sickest reads I have ever seen, on me or otherwise. Here is how the hand played out...

I had Js-6s and raised from the button after two limpers to 8 bucks. I was often raising my button as I was just trying to establish the lead from position since people were playing their hands so weak-tight after the flop. Anyhow, the small blind and both limpers call.

Flop Qc-9s-9c

Check around to me and I naturally checked on a four handed flop with the texture of that board.

Turn 8s

Check around to me. Now, I did something where I was trying to establish a play for later... I checked, but some time before I did it, trying to establish like I had a hand and was deciding whether or not to bet... because I planned on betting the river if it got checked to me on the river.

River 7d

So it all went according to plan and it got checked to me again and I fired 15. I figured I may get called with pocket pair here, but thought everything else was folding, and thought it was a good spot to bluff. I thought the bet sizing was not poor, since it was half the pot and taking a line of 2/3 or 3/4 would seem like a bluff and 1/2 seemed like either a value bet with a pocket pair or a big hand trying to get another pair to pay me off.

Well, the unthinkable happened the small blind check-raised me to 30. Everyone in between folded and when it got back to me I just kept thinking of what hand would he check-raise me with here. I figured any full house or straight would probably lead the river since the 7 seemed like a non-action card and the flop and turn had been checked already.... a queen would have either lead or check-called and a pocket pair the same. I thought maybe he had a blank 9 and thought he was ahead.... but the more I thought about it the more I thought he would lead the turn for info.

So my instinct was overall telling me he was putting me on a steal, and was re-steal bluffing... but if I was wrong I may have fold equity to a queen, some against a 9 and very little but still something against a straight. So I decided to pounce and I re-raised to 90. He thought about it for what seemed like forever... I concentrated on a spot and did not move my eyes from there. He finally called and said "I have an Ace". He had Ah-5h. I was in utter shock. I mean the guy made an absolute soul read on me. That is just purely nutty.

Obviously that kind of took the wind out my sails, and I played a lot more straight up from there. I still ended the night 140 up, but I was not having as much fun.

After cashing out I went back to the Rio to pick up John and Dino and we went back there again, but this time just to have a good time with some other dealers playing 2/4 limit hold'em. We met the fastest dealer in history, named Coco and really had some fun with her on the table. I cashed out 5 dollars up at 7AM and went to bed so I could make it into work the next day.

Half and Half Split

Last night was the night I dealt to what seemed like an endless slew of well-known pro's, in the Omaha Hi-Low/Stud Hi-Low 8/b tournament. It all started with Amnon Fillipi, who thankfully helped me out by letting me know exactly what the levels were for both games as I could not find my structure sheet anywhere. Thankfully, soon after a Floor Supervisor came over and gave me one where I placed on my open 8 seat... later when the levels would change again I again could not find my sheet; this time it was because Brandon Cantu was sitting on it, as he occupied the 8 seat.

From there I went on to deal to Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, Chris Ferguson, David Slansky, Chino Rheem, Jennifer Harman, Bart Hanson, Bryan Devonshire, The Grinder, John Cernuto and others.

The highlights from that were...

I managed to cripple and knock out Daniel Negreanu on consecutive hands, and his commentary during the hand in which he was crippled was hilarious. As soon as I did knock him out, during Omaha 8 a giant crowd railing him behind the ropes left. I had Gavin Smith stick around and help me do my race off and bet Dutch Boyd 1k on who would get the higher card. Talked about being a non-believer of God with Chris Ferguson, David Slansky and Ralph Perry... and heard them discuss a prop bet on percentage of people polled having no religious affiliation at 30% over/under. Heard David Singer and Gavin Smith get into a verbal war with each other over Gavin Smith calling David a "Rule Monger" on PokerRoad Radio. Dealt some sick sick hands to The Grinder as he nearly doubled while I was there. Heard Bryan Devonshire feel real uncomfortable when Bart Hanson ask him what happened Ali Nejad, the previous host to PokerRoad Radio. Heard Daniel Negreanu and Chris Redlock discuss a 5k last longer bet, as both were short stacked at the time ( Daniel lost that obviously ). And when Chris Ferguson criticized our little signs, on the table, that indicate which game we are on... I jokingly criticized him back when I said " Well, are you not on the Advisory Board for the WSOP? You should probably do something bout that!".

I was so excited to finally deal something besides Hold 'Em, it just bores me. Stud 8 and Omaha 8, there is always something to do and it is more exciting as there is generally always action until showdown. Today is the Pot-Limit Omaha 8/B, that may be the most complex game to deal overall, so I hope I can get in the box and deal a couple of those downs.

I got my check yesterday and I was very surprised with the amount, on the negative side not positive. It was not a bad check, is that I was foolish enough to listen to the rumors from other dealers that we were going to be paid a ridiculous more per down than it really was.... oh well, that is life.

Losing and Winning a New Car in PLO is Fun!

The day finally came yesterday, I dealt in the Nosebleed Stakes Pot Limit Omaha... 50/100 with a 200 dollar straddle. I have never seen that much cash surrounding me in my life, just brick after brick of cash. Nutty Stuff!

So when I first sit down I notice that the guy in seat 9 has two-hundred in cash in front of him, so I imagined it must have been from the last pot he did not stack yet... so naturally I deal and then I see seat 1 putting in 200 and so forth, and then it hits me that they put a straddle in middle position, in which at the WSOP is not allowed. I ask the table what we are doing and of course I get yelled at to just deal that the floor has allowed it, and I oblige.

Second hand I deal of course we have a straddle and five limpers before it gets pumped to six-hundred. All six limpers and both blinds call, an 8-handed raised pot at the nosebleeds nice.

We have a $4800 pot before we even see a flop.

Flop Ad-Qc-10s

UTG a fiery Hispanic man comes out betting 3k. Now I don't know much about Omaha, but I would imagine on a board with with that kind of texture with 8 people seeing that board we may see a big pot brewing, and thankfully it did not disappoint. Middle-Aged man in seat 5 (MP) asks me what is in he pot dealer, and I reply " 78 hundred, sir". He thinks it over and smooth-calls for the 3k. We get one more player in there, the button, and then we see the turn...

Turn 10d

The turn seemed as though that may make for a whole lot of drama or at least some long deliberations, but nothing doing as it went check around. So here comes the river...

River 4s

Now here comes that little old Hispanic man firing at it again for a wrapped 5k and 2 more spread out, making it 7,000 total. Middle-Aged man thinks it over for a long time and kept muttering something to himself, before finally calling off what he had behind... which was 6500. Sure enough the player on the button quickly calls.

The Puerto Rican man flips his hand for the side-pot and shows A-10-K-J, for a full house and a flopped straight and I figured that the guy on the button was going to flip over a winner... and no doing, he mucks. Middle-Aged man flips over A-10-Q-J for the same hand for the massive 33,300 main.

At this point my head is spinning, because I had been previously warned to not touch their cash when it came time to split, that a player would do it... but no one was man-ing up and the pot just stood there for a handful of seconds. I decide that I should just go ahead and open up the guys 5k brick and start splitting all of the cash... instantly I get a ear-full from like 5 players telling me that I should pass over the chips to one of the winners and the cash to the other and they will split it themselves. I actually felt relieved by that response and moved on the next hand.

From there, I dealt a handful of other massive pots... none of which got to showdown though. But the whole time I could not stop wondering that the guy from the button over-called with. He didn't raise the flop, he checked the turn and OVER-CALLED the river. I honestly have no clue... maybe a K-J-x-x with no re-draws and just did not want to play for all his chips, but then why in the world would he overcall the river.

Like I said before, I don't know much about PLO but the game just seemed really soft to me. A ton of limping, a ridiculous amount small ball type of action... I mean I never had a pot-sized bet, but there was so much marginally loose action that every pot got to be a decent size. I couldn't believe I did not see one big name at that table ripping it apart. There was one young kid, who was playing the best by far of anyone there, but I am really not sure who he was.

Overall in tips I had a pretty bad night but i did get in 5 tournament downs, so that kind of makes up for it. Again in my tables I dealt I did not recognize one player, though again I saw plenty of them in the big fields. Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu are having great WSOP's thus far... Phil Ivey has 3 cashes and a bracelet and Daniel I believe has 4 cashes, a second, and still in the Omaha 8/B with 15 left. Hopefully, I will deal to some of these guys soon as I have 6 straight days of work coming up.

Three days off in a row and the only thing I manage to do in this city with endless things to do, is go to the best voted location for hot dogs in Vegas. I guess as a fat man that is exciting. For 1.99 I got an enormous hot dog with some chili and onions, yum!

After delving into deliciousness at the Slots-of-Fun dive casino, I saw that they were offering 1 dollar roulette. Now when I see "$1 Wheel" written on the slot that indicates the min/max sign I would figure you can bet one dollar on any of the inside or outside bets... well apparently not! It was a 4 dollar min for the inside and outside. I guess I could have walked out at this time but what true degenerate could do that. I lost the 20 I put in within two spins and walked out.

Went back into work yesterday and I was told to go into the Ladies Hold'Em Event. I was thrilled to be surrounded by "ladies" for a whole half hour until my table broke and I was told to go back into the live games. I am shocked that after 3 full days of dealing cash I have yet to do deal a PLO game in live. I hear those players are absolutely crazy at times, in terms of the action and how they re-act to the dealers.

I did however deal to probably the best dude today, Teddy "Iceman" Monroe. I dealt to him at a 3-handed 100-200 limit hold-em game. He was friendly as can be to all the railbirds, the chip runners, the floor staff, and most of all the dealers. He kept on trying to convince people on the rail to join in the fun and the way he would go about it was hilarious... I did not stop laughing at the table. At one point he threw some really hot looking chick a $500 dollar chip and told her to buy herself something nice, I wish I had that kind of cash. The best part of dealing to him was when he kept telling me I needed a fill when I really did not... but I was not about to argue with the best tipper in the house, thus far. So, I call for a fill and immediately after he throws me 2 green chips ($25) and tells me to break it into reds ($5) and then throws me two red birds back and says "See you needed a fill, I needed more chips to tip you".

I also dealt to the reverse of the Iceman. I pushed a guy five straight kill pots in Omaha 8/B at 100-200 for over $1600 a piece and he managed to not tip me one dollar the entire time. These guys will make prop-bets on who will curse first for 10k, but they can't tip me even 1 dollar a hand? BS!

Besides for all that, I watched the Limit Hold'Em Final Table... and Daniel Negreanu came into heads-up with a pretty good chip lead, but you can tell his opponent was a heads-up specialist as he honestly schooled Daniel and took down the bracelet.

Another day another dollar today. I am hoping to get plenty of tournament downs today, as they are valued a lot higher per hour than the tips we have been getting... though last nights $148 dollars, mainly thanks to Iceman, was not a bad night.

Ass-Girl on Rail

The other day was very dull... no yelling, no screw ups, no pros. Dealt in the live games strictly, but my new assertive demeanor really lead me to no problems from players or anyone else. I did deal in the 75-150 Omaha 8/b with a half kill ( sort of ) for the first time... that may be my favorite game to deal, probably my worst game as a player but favorite as a dealer, funny how that works.

There is one thing about Vegas that holds a special place in my heart, the women. It is honestly out of control. Take International Mall, the Rays games, and USF and put it all together and you get Vegas at night. Well, some of these girls ( honestly most ) are gold diggers who think they are the next Sharon Stone in Casino... so naturally that leads them to the WSOP and their players. I left picture here as a remembrance... this girl took her pants off in the middle of the Brasilia room and next thing you know the media swarmed her and took pictures of her ass, I don't blame them.

Phil Ivey won the 2,500 NL 2-7 single draw today, his sixth bracelet. I wish he would give me like 5 percent of his net worth and I would be set right now... and then maybe i could enjoy myself in Vegas, especially since I have the next two days off.

BTW... this picture along with many other hot attractive females railbiriding can be found at http://wickedchopspoker.com/girls-on-the-rail-and-floor-photo-dump/

Time Is Relative

I really could have done without Sunday!

Sunday was the first day I got put into the live games. First table I deal at... 50-100 Stud 8 or better with a time rake. I have never collected or seen a dealer collect a time rake before... granted I know how it works, but the way the players want to do it is not always the same.

To start off the "table captain" throws me 75 dollars when the time rake was 64. The tell me not to worry about making change now and deal, so I do as they ask. After the hand is over they start throwing chips around to each other and making their own change and prop bets and god knows what else. Finally I am asked to throw the 25 dollar chip to the player who won the last pot and he threw me 3 reds and then I again had to break change for one of the 5's. I know what they wanted to get accomplished was to take the money out of the first pot and to speed up the game... but to be honest I am not sure it was much faster that way.

Next table is 25-50 NLHE, man that game played so insanely big. I mean the game was as loose as one can imagine and everyone seemed to be at least 300 bb's deep. I kept dealing giant pot after giant pot, and it was kind of exciting to deal it.

From there I dealt another handful of mix games tables on my way to the lower stakes area, where I dealt strictly 2-5 NLHE. The tips are obviously a lot better at those tables, as the players are just having a good time... but I essentially lost 1/4 of the tips I got from those guys when I miscounted my well on one of my tables, and when it broke two hands into my push the floor told me I owed 15 dollars to complete it. After that you can believe I double checked it always and was less worried about the players thinking poorly of how much time it took me to count.

Overall it was not a horrible day, it was just mentally draining because it was relatively new to me and I managed to get only one break during my 7 1/2 hours there. If you count the 20 dollars I lost overall from my miscounted wells I made $113 in tips... which is not a great night but I was not unhappy either.

The next day, Monday, was a good change of pace. I got there and was told to deal live again, but thankfully this girl sought me out and told me she was scared to deal in the Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, I told her we could switch if she liked, and that is exactly what we did. I dealt that for most of the day, and it went off without a single mistake... which I am really proud off, since PLO is one of the harder games to deal. Towards the end of the day, I got pushed into the nightly tournament, and that went relatively well also.

That whole night I did not deal to one well-known pro, granted I saw plenty... most of them were playing the 10k Stud World Championship Event. Despite that I had a really great night, 13 tournament downs. My second paycheck should be pretty darn good, since I have logged in 29 tournament downs for the week thus far ( work week ends on Thursday ), and I was told that the tournament down average for this week is around 39 dollars per down.

I go back in tonight, after having the day off yesterday. Dino, John and I played a Multi at the Sahara last night... real cheap one, since I am still broke. The field was really soft, I thought... but the structure was pretty piss poor ( granted good for how cheap it was ). I got knocked out in the 1k-2k blind levels and the average was 14k... I called a 5k all-in and the big blind also called, who coincidentally had 5k, as well called. It was 10's, A-5 against my Ad-Qd.... A-5 hit a club flush with four of them out there and him having the only club. That left me with only 2k behind and I went in very next hand with A-8 versus only the big blind with J-6.... six on the flop and I didn't catch up after.

Hoping to make some good money tonight, so I can end this brokenness ( if that is even a word ) and maybe play some more down the line.

Event #4 1K NLHE Recap

6,000 players for Event #4 (1k NL Hold 'Em), pretty sick!

3000 players started day 1a yesterday, and I dealt to 11 of those tables. We saw a rate of over 4 players per minute knocked out. We played 10 levels and we went from 3000 to 300 and something... crazy action!

The tournament was rather uneventful, in terms of dealing, but I did deal a whole lot of bad beats... Queens versus 8's no good, kings versus 4's no good, queens versus A-10 on a 9 high flop no good, made straight versus set on turn no good. It seemed like almost every time someone was all-in they would have the worst of it and I would double them up.

I did deal to David Williams, I must have made him lose over 50 percent of his stack during the half hour I was there. He got 3-bet twice by the same player and folded both times, got 3-bet again by another player and same thing. And he made a flop and turn flat-call after his pre-flop raise and mucked on a check check river with the board ten high, when his opponent showed J-10. I could see he was a little frustrated, but I am pretty sure he made it through the day, so I guess it did not get to him too much.

Remember last year when Dennis Phillips had that little hat he made well-known pros sign? Well, some other guy at my table was doing the same. He seemed to have a decent amount of signatures already. During my time on his table TJ Cloutier came by to talk to Berry Johnston (A Poker Hall of Famer and has the second most cashes in WSOP history) and the guy with the hat asked TJ to sign it... TJ glad did, but s he was signing he says " You are going to want to get his autograph too, he is in the Hall of Fame", and everyone was in shock as no one at the table seemed to know who he was. The table talk then proceeded as people asked all kinds of ridiculous questions... but it made dealing the table a lot more fun, as it is usually very quiet all around.

Speaking of a fun and talkative table, my second to last table of the night was certainly that. They had only about 40 minutes before the day was over with and everyone was new and wanted to make it through. So when I push in everyone starts telling me to deal slow, I of course dealt as normal but the players sure did act slow. At one point one of the players suggested that the players take 30 seconds to act every time, no matter what... everyone thought this was a genius idea, and for the remaining 15 minutes I was there, that is exactly what they did.

Overall... a mistake free and busy day. Crossing my fingers that I deal Day 1b today!

OMA-HAHA 8 or Better

How is it that my first table of the day for both of my first days have been with two of the biggest tournament directors in the world? Some may think that would make me more nervous, but it actually made me less. I guess knowing that someone is there to correct me in case I screw it all up made me feel more comfortable... strange but true.

Oh by the way, that guy was Matt Savage. He was wearing these huge headphones and seemed to be genuinely disinterested from the game, but still was taking pot after pot in the Omaha 8b tournament I was dealing to him in. He had so many chips in fact that he was the person I was doing my race off from. He actually bought up every one's greens before it was even time for me to race off, which made things a heck of a lot easier.

From there I had 3 downs of nothing,as the players went on dinner break, then I went on break. Everett and Romas were there to support us, great couple of guys. Everett is the kind of guy I want to be later in life; relaxed, care-free and still enjoys a good time. After some chatting it up with the boys I went back to the table to deal the Omaha 8/b tournament again and was truly enjoying the change of pace from hold 'em, as these days that is a game that bores me.

Before I finished dealing to my last Omaha table, the tournament director came over and had the players bag their chips and move them from the Brasilia room ( which is normally a satellite room only ) to the Amazon, where all events and bigger action are at. I unfortunately did not move with them, as they had their dealers ready for that side of the room. They,told me along with John and Dino to wait by a podium where our bosses stand around at and essentially wait to hear where dealers are needed where. John eventually scatters to deal in the cash game area, Dino goes back into Omaha and I get to told to back into the Brasilia to deal a single-table satellite.

I get to the Satellite table and everything is set-up, the chips the decks, but I was never advised on what buy-in satellite I was going to be dealing and what the starting stacks were, nothing. So in my box I find a little sheet that has the structure, and in terms of pay-outs, when I first looked at it I could have sworn it was not written in English. Finally with the help of Bobby, my old instructor and new Dealer Coordinator, we figured it all out.

The first player to arrive at my $235 table was Chris Bigler, and this is not to offend him, but I had to double check the slip for the amount we were playing for, because I did not figure a well-known player like him to be playing a 235. Well it was, and players started to slowly trickle in. The players were all very nice and very patient as it took a lot of time to get our total 10 players and get the cards in the air. The dealing went pretty smoothly, I thought so anyway, the only thing I was not happy with was the fact that it seemed to take forever... it paid top 2 and it took over 2:30 hours to get to that point. This table was squeaky clean tight! Chris Bigler was actually one of the first out, having 8's against a set on a queen high board. He put in a 3rd bet with it, which seemed odd, but I guess due to the fact that he was playing the pot against the most aggressive player at the table it was not completely off mark, I just don't like risking my stack that early in that spot... but I guess that is why he is the professional and I am in the box.

So to top off some fun, I continued my streak of dealing some pretty tough beats... it seems like I enjoy doubling up the shorter stack when they have the worst of it, but I don't. The entire tournament was full of these bad beats and weird hero calls that were never right. Eventually we got down to two; and one of the players I'd have to say was playing the best of that table, so it was well deserved and the other guy... well, no offense to him but it was more luck than skill.

Today is the first day of the 1k No-Limit Event. It is going to be absolute madness in there. Every room is going to have players for this tournament. It will have two Day 1's, with 3,000 players starting off the first day one.... PRETTY SICK! I hope I get some downs of that, but to be honest I really hope they put me back in the Omaha 8b for a little bit, I want to have some fun!

Strange first day. Well, maybe not strange for most but for me.
I was so nervous that I couldn't keep my shirt buttoned to the top without losing my breath.
Our start time was at 6PM, as we are all on the swing shift. We get there at 5:30 and yet manage to only sign in at 6:01, as the line to clock-in was insane. We sit down waiting for our Dealer Coordinator to give us our assignments and he starts calling name by name and our names are never mentioned. He tells us and a handful of other people that we have to come back at 7:15 to see if they can get us in tonight, as it is the first day and awfully slow.
So we eat a couple of sandwiches in the break room wait for 7:15 anxiously. 7:15 finally comes after it seemed like an eternity and yet again we are not called upon. So he tells us we can either early out or wait until 11 to push... so we all get up to E.O. and next thing you know I hear Dan, the Dealer Coordinator say my name. He asks me if I want to deal or go home, I tell him I am ready to deal and he says I will be pushing the Casino Employees event at 8PM.
I get to my assigned section and I see that the players are on dinner break ( 90 minutes long ). After some calculation I figure out that I will be getting about 20 minutes of my 30 minute push with no players ( great thing about that is I still get paid for that down either same amount as if everyone was there ). I sit there for 15 minutes then the first player comes back to sit and it was Jack McCelland, which is he current Tournament Director for the Bellagio, and one of the most popular tournament directors out there. Of course, this made me even more nervous to deal.
First hand in perfect, second perfect and so on. The only thing I screw up on is the procedure of when to pick up the antes ( did it after my cut ).
Naturally I am feeling good about myself before my second deal and the nerves had worn off. But, I could not have predicted what was about to come next... I get to my table and the dealer had spread the deck in a manner I had never seen; I didn't question it and just washed up the cards, picked them up and was about to start my shuffle. Middle of my shuffle I start thinking that there is no way there is 52 cards in this deck... of course I get nervous because I am not sure if I should follow regular procedure and deal then count the stub, just to re-assure my theory or if I should count right then and there before my deal. Thankfully, one of the players says " Dealer is that 52 cards". I told him " No, I really don't think it is ", at this point I look down at my well and there are 20 cards sitting there in the cards slot. I bring the cards out and start counting the deck, and one of the players proceeds to laugh and one of the floor supervisors says " I am going to watch a hand to make sure you guys are going to be alright". At this point I panic, because the floor and the players are thinking I was the cause for this screw up. Of course, it went downhill from there, I screw up up like 3 times in that half hour span due to my nerves.
I spoke to the tournament director about the situation and he assured me that he was there to help me in case something like that happened again... that made me feel a lot better and from there I was flawless. I even received a handful of compliments on a job well done.
At 12:30 I get told that I need to go home early, as the graveyard shift was coming in and there was not enough work for everyone. I call John to come pick me up and he doesn't answer for another hour as he is passed out cold back at the house... I didn't mind because it gave me a chance to eat a couple delicious ice cream cones at the break room.
My next day is Friday, and that will be the Omaha Hi-Low 8/B tournament. I don't expect a big turnout for that, but the cash games should be rolling pretty good by that point... so I do expect decent work that day.

Nerves of Steel

Starting to get nervous! I felt kind of awkward not feeling nervous up until this point, but it finally has started to kick in.
It is a whirlwind of emotions, because I am also super-excited.
Funny how the last couple of jobs I have had, I have been excited to get up for... first time I could say that was this year. I hope the excitement stays with me for a long time to come.
We have been practicing non-stop the last couple of days, and have had pretty good practice sessions. John, Dino, Shannon and I all seem to be pretty ready... or at least as ready as we will ever be... which is a good thing, because I don't want to see any of us get fired early ( both for the fact that I enjoy their company and financial reasons, haha ).
First event is the Casino Employee Event. John will actually be playing, as he is the only one with enough money to get himself in at 500 bucks. Hope he does well, as he has promised us a good time if he does. This event being the first I believe is going to be the perfect start for new dealers, such as myself. I am sure the players/dealers will be expecting a job well done, but will probably be more sympathetic to a few minor screw ups... so this will be the perfect setting to get the early jitters out of the way.
World Series of Poker starts now!!!!!

Harrah's Entertainment We Need Entertainment!

Lebron did it to me in Game 2. It was like I called him a bitch and he just stepped it up. Sorry Lebron!
Today was my orientation day over at the Rio. Not what I was expecting; I was was thinking there would be a long and tedious lecture on game procedures, while someone read from a book verbatim. While it was long and tedious, it was all more about typical corporate policy; such as coping with diversity in the work field, anti-harassment procedures, safety and health, etc etc.
Everett, which is this perverted old man who may be my hero and also went to my dealer's class, hung out with me there and we looked up our schedules and made sure we found out how to clock in and out. I can't say I am thrilled with the schedule, I know the first couple of weeks is really slow... but 6 days off in the first 15 days is not what I wanted to see, especially with how broke I am. I hope after the first couple of weeks we get a consistant 40 hour work-week. Regardless, it is finally starting to hit me that we are starting and I am more excited than I am nervous... I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing.
Later John, Dino and I went all over to find a place to see the UFC Fight, and all the strip casinos were not playing it and it seemed like every station casino had their rooms full. Needless to say we did not get a chance to see it. Either way we did see a lot of off-strip casinos; the Green Valley Ranch in Henderson is filled with hot and rich older women... I am thinking I need to hang out there more often.
Through out everything so far I have been very proud of myself to gamble very seldom, and the times I have at only like 10 bucks a pop. After making a couple of bucks today at the roulette wheel ( Drew Bledsoe black 11 came through for me ), I still didn't go crazy and decide to gamble more with it... though I did have to fight temptation.
I am hoping to get a final practice session in at the house tomorrow and then it is go time on Tuesday.

Not This Year Lebron!

I am not sure I could be paid enough money to be a trucker. Screw water boarding just make a terrorist have to drive cross-country with no sleep, that should do the trick. Needless to say, going to go pick up my car was not the most enjoyable experience ever. 18 hours of non-stop bullshit and valleys; I would rather listen to aerosmith and steven tyler's shitty vocals for 18 hours instead.
The day before we left to get the car we packed up the rental and went down to Caesar's to watch the Nuggets/Lakers game. John and I decided while we there to put up some dough on the Magic +600 to win the series versus Cleveland.... looking pretty good after Magic's one-point win yesterday. After losing Shannon to the pit-games me, Dino and John walked the strip for a while and had a good fucking time.
Today we went to MGM to go watch the Rays game, but since they were playing Athletics it was blacked out as apparently all A's games are around Vegas. But the magic that is the virtual horse racing game, killed a couple of hours.
Five days until the Series begins. Hoping for some decent money early in the game, as this degenerate is broke.

Inside the Rio!

I went to the Rio to take care of my hiring registration and gaming license today and saw the inner workings of an equally long-winded maze from the basement as to the gaming floor. I had always heard that there was another world underneath these Vegas casinos, but I could not have expected this. We got lost repeatedly, and it seemed like we had walked miles. Before we got there we were told to check-in with security... well, we just walked right in and when we passed security they didn't ask for any sort of identification and we just kept going, granted unsure as to where.
The whole experience was kind of fun, though there was nothing really exciting down there, just long halls and multiple offices.
The only thing that was ruining the whole thing for me was seeing the Omaha lady. This older lady from New York is referenced to as the Omaha lady at Tampa Hard Rock, and the mantra did not really start because she used to play mainly the omaha games... but because she was a total bitch. Typical New York woman, very arrogant, absurdly blunt and flat out rude. One of my favorite poker moments was check-raising this lady on the river and really sticking the needle in by yelling "pop-pop-pop" at her when doing it... that story doesn't even remotely begin to explain how much I dislike this lady, and there are a lot more people in Tampa that share the same sentiment. To make matters even worse is that I saw her in the human resources office filling out her paperwork to deal as well... You have got to be kidding, I am going to work with this lady, AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
I am supposed to hear about my car later today, and I am crossing my fingers on some good and cheap news. If it gets fixed by sometime today or tomorrow I will have to travel 8 hours each way to go pick it up, fun stuff.

I'm Here!

When is Obama going to fix all my problems? If he could just invest some money into a social program that would help people with constant car problems to just travel telepathically. That would fix a lot of my problems.

I hope I have all of the receipts for all of the car fix ups I have over the past couple of years, because I intend to call Guinness World Records... I think I have that category locked.

The start of my car trip to Vegas was going exceedingly well. We seemed to be going at record pace; stopping only when needing to fill-up and once for food. Dino ( another WSOP dealer and friend ) did a lot of the driving, through his request. We had drinks and snacks in the car and an iPod with good tunes. In comparison to other road trips, this one seemed to be nearly perfect...

We reach New Mexico and things at first got even better, the view on the road was surreal and I started to monitor Garmin for a countdown to Vegas, as we were only 8 hours away. But as is my luck, the car suddenly decided it would finally die on me. I swear, at times I believe the car has a mind of it's own and likes to torture me for fun... I can just hear the car saying to himself " This interstate driving is really hard work and look at Joao over there all relaxed, I won't have it!"

Thankfully, I purchased AAA Roadside the day before we left. We had the car towed to Albuquerque; but since it was after hours at this point we had to spend the night and wait to hear what was wrong the following day. The next day we wait on a diagnostic for four hours only to hear that they could do nothing, and the car needed to be looked at from the Cadillac dealership in town which would only open on Monday ( it was Saturday afternoon ). At this moment I panicked, I just was to sure what options we had... I had to be in Vegas by Tuesday at the latest to complete my hiring process and I needed a car to get there. Dino and I decided on renting a vehicle, despite our severe lack of funds, and come back to New Mexico to pick up the car once it was taken care of.

Once, we got the rental nothing was going to stop me, I didn't care if I had to walk there, I just wanted to get there! 8 hours later we get into town pick up Shannon ( another WSOP dealer ) from the airport headed home and relaxed.

Today I intend on getting myself a haircut, purchase some things I am missing around here ( yay to spending more money ), and at night I am going to take Shannon and Dino out on the town as they have never been here. Since, money is a factor right now we may just walk the strip and eventually pick a sports book to watch some baseball and get our drink on.