Thursday, July 16, 2009

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.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

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.



Sunday, July 5, 2009

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.


Wednesday, July 1, 2009

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!