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.