Event #3, $1500 Pot Limit Holdem

Sue Phillips, the lead dealer coordinator addressed the nearly 250 dealers on day shift today and tried to ensure us that there would be more opportunities to work and make money as things shake out this year.  I have my doubts.  There are way too many dealers, and because they did a better job screening applicants this year, we are not seeing the same large number of "deer in the headlights" break-in newbies that are obviously not ready and likely to be released during the first week (there are a few).  Last year, there were probably around 150 dealers that were sent home or fired during the first few days.  Not so much this year.  I still feel like my skills and rules knowledge is on par with all but the very best dealers here, but it is clear that the overall quality of the dealers is much better this year.  Sue also reminded us that in a few days we will get another 70 or so tables in the mix and that some dealers who see their first checks will either leave (because they are not making as much as they can elsewhere) or choose not to work (sign the early out list, because now they have enough money to play instead of deal).  After the last two very short days, where I only accumulated 5 and 4 downs respectively, and the number of off days I have been given, I am very concerned that I will not make enough in the early going to cover my expenses.

Dealer assignments today are being made alphabetically, and since they started at the top of the alphabet, all of the tournament tables are given out well before we reach the "P"s.  A dozen or so dealers are given satellite assignments and about that many more are sent to live action.  About half of the room remains when the initial assignments are complete and the rest of us crowd forward a bit as the dealer coordinators discuss break table options.  They choose to try and avoid up-downs and set the break tables so that most dealers will get at least two consecutive downs and start assigning the first break dealers.  My new dealer friend Andrew, who worked last year's WSOP and stayed in Vegas permanently, securing a sports book job at the Hilton, anxiously predict our chances of picking up an assignment as the names roll through the "M"s and "N"s on the list.  We pick up two of the very last tables (his might have been the last one), they are very high numbers in the blue section, so there is a fair chance they will break even before we take a seat.

An hour later as I push into Blue 48, I am feeling a bit punchy and not very well.  I honestly think it is harder to wait for work than actually perform the dealing duties, and not spending more time in the break room over the past few days than actually dealing has worn on my nerves and prevented me from feeling like I am getting in any sort of groove.  I show up a little early and chat with the young floorman, Jason, who's energy and excitement about the job is quite infectious.  I notice that the first two tables, 49 & 50, have already broken (sorry Andrew) and figure that mine might not even last until my down starts.  Jason assures me that I will start my down, but admits that I might not finish it.

When I do push in, I immediately notice that the chair at this table has no escalator.  For some unknown reason, Harrah's doesn't have enough adjustable dealers chairs and still continues to put stubby ones in the string.  Many dealers carry around two and three pillows to raise themselves up to a decent dealing level.  It is very hard to deal from your chin while sitting on the floor.  There are health and safety concerns, in my opinion, but even worse I would think that Harrah's would prefer not to have their professional dealing staff carry these damn pillows around.  It looks silly, sloppy, amateur and not at all befitting the most prestigious poker tournament in the industry.  Even though I am six feet tall, last year I carried them around as well, but so far this year I had avoided doing so.  Then I recognize Men "The Master" Nguyen in seat 7, and he is nursing a severely damaged chip stack, just a couple of hundred chips remain from the 3,000 they started with less than half an hour ago.  On the very first hand I flash the first card to the three seat, and even though I acknowledge this, hold it back and announce that it will be replaced, Men makes a gruff comment and declares that it is the "ten of spades".  Ok, rough start for me.  It is starting to feel like this will be a pretty tough day for me.  I am extremely uncomfortable in this damn chair, and now embarrassed about my somewhat trivial flaw because its my goal to string together several days in a row without turning up a card and I didn't even make it through the first hand.  When I turn over the card, it is indeed a black ten, but its a club, and Men grumbles again.  On the second hand, Men is all-in for a raise of four times the big blind.  Almost everyone else folds to him, but the big blind makes the modest call, presumably just for the chance to knock out Men, who shows A-9 offsuit.  The big blind shows J-6 offsuit.  The flop missed both of them and Men survives the turn, but the river is a six and Men is eliminated from the event during the first level of play.  As he gathers his things, he states that it is better to be out early and go do something productive than sit around for eight hours and still not get paid, like the rest of the players at this table.  While he is quite correct, and I don't know how he lost most of his stack, many of the top pros take big gambles early on hoping to double up quick, stay ahead of the blinds and punish the soft/dead money stacks at the table.  If their gamble doesn't pay off, they are happy to find another game to invest their time towards, the buy-ins just aren't that significant to them.  But, the implication in Men's statement is clearly pointed at the other players at the table and the lack of respect that he has for their chances in this tournament.  He is a classy guy (..... not!), and then he snorts "Thanks, Dealer" sarcastically in my direction.  I make a quick glance at him with all intention of giving him a consoling look and nod in agreement with his time efficiency logic, but he's giving me evil eyes and I just divert my attention back to the table.  By the anger in his look, I presume that if I had expressed any sort of reaction to him, he'd follow up with something like "Do you think that's funny?"  He has a reputation of abusing dealers and taking out his frustrations on others at the table.  I can't wait to tell my dealing friend, Dusty from Chatanooga, who has had several ugly run-ins with The Master, about the bust-out.

 

My table breaks about a half of dozen hands later and it is back to the break room.  No assignments for almost an hour, then the 1:00pm dealers are given restart tables for the combined second day of event #2.  I wait patiently and finally get one of the last few tables in this section after all other dealers who have yet to work pick up an assignment.  Tournament restart assignments are awesome, they are the best games to deal.  Most all of the donkeys have been eliminated from the event and the remaining players really know what they are doing.  There seems to be a lot more poker being played, and position is key, so hands go pretty quickly as very few players enter pots during these levels.  They are either in the money, or close to it, so the player's are more geared up and the intensity is clear.  Their are wide spreads in stack sizes, so tactical strategy is much more complex than during early stages of the tournament.  I've considered volunteering for swing shift, even though I prefer days due to the Vegas heat, just so that I can more often land second day tourney restarts which are typically later in the afternoon and early evening.

As I setup my table, I notice two names that I think are top online players, Chris Vaughn and Chris Savage, who has the biggest chip stack at my table, but it turns out to be a different person with the same name, not the player known online as "brsavage" and there is some talk about that fact among the players as they gather ahead of him.  Since there was a redraw for table/seats, none of them had been playing together when their respective first days were suspended.  There are lots of recognizable players left in the field of about 550 players.  The lovely Erica Schoenberg is right behind me.  I see Aaron Kanter on a nearby table and John Murphy, who both have experience surviving very large fields advancing to main event final tables in recent years.  The hippie from Full Tilt (I won't use his name anymore, to be explained in a future post) is roaming around.  John Phan and Jon Hennigan are immediately recognizable and Houstonian Ayaz Mahmood is at a table in the string of tables ahead of me.

They are paying nearly 400 players and there are many, many short stacks and players are being eliminated right and left.  There is a small army of floor persons on staff ready to handle the money bubble, which of course is the largest in shear number of tables and players of any tournament that I have worked.  The staff is poised and professional though, many of them have handled this situation in previous main events, which have paid down to several hundred more places the last couple of years.  When we get within about 40 players of the money, assistant tournament director Jimmy Sommerfield starts making announcements to the players.  Everyone has a card with a four digit identifier on it that they are to keep with their chips - this assists the media representatives giving live chip counts and updates online.

When we get within 20 players of the money bubble, hand-for-hand dealing procedures commence.  At each table, we spread the deck face down and stand up when our hand is complete and wait patiently for all of the other 40-some tables to complete their hand.  When all the dealers are standing, Jimmy Sommerfield announces how many players have been eliminated and we sit back down and deal the next hand.  Everyone wants to make the money, so the action is ridiculously tight and there are many, many hands where no one is eliminated, but eventually we get down to about a half dozen from the money.  Sommerfield explains that anyone who busts out now should stay near their table, because if for some reason more players bust out on this hand than are necessary to be eliminated before reaching the money, then all of the players busted out on this hand will split the proceeds from the pertinent tournament positions.  

A player at my table bluffs off about 70% of his chips at a double paired board, but he was called by a slightly larger stack with a dry ace.  It was a huge call, out of position, for a significant share of his stack, that impressed most of the table.  The bluffer had bet the flop and the river, but checked the turn, which confused his opponent and probably induced the very dangerous money bubble call.  I think it was a real good bet, with play so tight, by the player, but if he had not checked the turn, it might have worked out for him.  Had it worked, he would have had enough chips to go deep into the tournament, and even though it didn't, he had enough to limp along through the bubble and still get paid.

During hand-for-hand, there are no dealer pushes, so I accumulate a few more downs, which I need dearly after the last couple of days.  Unfortunately, I am at another chair with no escalator, so I spend about two full hours nearly sitting on the floor (when I wasn't standing patiently, anyways).  The current tournament blind level expired while we were in hand-for-hand, but the tournament director announced that we would stay at these blinds until we reach the money and then we will have a short break.  This is a great compromise procedure in my opinion, as the players get nervous about the tournament clocks ticking away and blind pressure increasing during this tenuous period.  I have experienced tournament directors add back in a couple of minutes of play for each hand dealt during this delayed procedure to compensate the players for the lost time, but that approach seems pretty klugey to me.  I like this better and the players seem satisfied with the instruction regarding it.  Of course, during the delays, many of the players are roaming around trying to find out where the real damaged stacks are in relation to the blinds and who will be forced to put their tourney life at risk.  Sommerfield constantly begs them to return to their seats so that he and the floormen can more easily and accurately assess the situation.  Finally the last few bubble players are eliminated, the players congratulate themselves for making the money and we have a very happy group of winners left.  When they go on break, dealers are instructed to count their chip stacks and submit a form to the press representatives.  We aren't supposed to touch their chips, just eyeball the stacks and give reasonably close estimates.

After the break, John Friedberg joins my table with a decent sized stack.  I never quite get to Ayaz Mahmood's table before my shift ends, and although some of the faces seem familiar, I don't deal to any more notable professionals.

Battle For Bracelets Begins

Yesterday, Nenad Medic won the first Corum 2008 WSOP bracelet, along with almost $800K taking down the $10K World Championship Pot Limit Holdem event.  He bested 352 entrants and a very strong final table that included Andy Bloch, Kathy Leibert, Mike Sexton, Patrick Antonius and Phil Laak.  I didn't get a chance to witness any of the final table play, which started around 3pm, because I was dealing in the second flight of the first day for event #2 in the back of the Amazon room.  There must have been a very nice spectator audience for this star filled final table, because several times we heard them explode with excitement over big hands.  A somewhat muted applause could also be heard each time a player exited the tournament, even though we were at the very back of the blue section, probably close to 80 tables between our action and the final table grand stand.

The first big No-Limit Holdem event with a WSOP-minimum $1500 buy-in completed its first day with a second flight of nearly 1900 contestants.  After the first break, the tournament director announced officially what everyone was talking about - this is the largest live poker tournament field in history, of any buy-in size (excluding WSOP main events).  The official total number of participants is 3929, about 70 players short of capacity, making a prize pool of nearly $5.5 million and a first place prize over $830K, both WSOP preliminary event records. The first flight played down to about 250 players and we will play down to the exact time on the tournament clock today that they finished the day before, ensuring players in each flight have the same opportunity to accumulate chips prior to redrawing table/seat locations for the second day of play tomorrow. 

I was originally scheduled to start this day at 11:00 am, but dealer coordination is still an issue and the schedule has changed twice in the past few days.  At one point, this was to be an off day, then I was moved to a 2:00pm start, and with so many dealers around, I didn't get an assignment until 3:30pm, when additional breaks were added into the table push strings.  This means dealers are largely doing up-downs.  In the box for 30 minutes (down) and then on break for 30 minutes (up).  It is very hard to make any money this way and the dealers are all starting to grumble about the situation.

After a couple of turns in the dealer break room, I finally got my first assignment.  It is in the low numbers of the blue section, event #2, which should mean that I will avoid being reassigned before my shift ends since the table break order is from the high numbered tables downwards.  I did not see any notable professional players, but towards the end of one of my downs, Ron Price from Houston joined my table.  Ron deals for charity events and iHostPoker casino night parties with me occasionally.  He was once associated with the Amateur Poker League as a tournament director, host, regional manager, but when they moved out of most of the Houston marked he started his own bar poker league, Snowman Poker, which is by far the best organized recreational poker league in Texas.  They now have something like 10 or 12 venues around town every night of the week.  When I was running bar poker tournaments in the Clear Lake area, we tried very hard to emulate his successful formula.  I only dealt a few hands to Ron, and I don't think he even committed a single chip to the pot, so I am sure he was glad to see me move on.

While poker has been pretty popular in Europe and Scandinavia for sometime, they have been experiencing the same sort of explosion over the last couple of years that we saw the few years prior.  Since many of the countries have not banned internet poker, the biggest sites that have been closed to American players can still qualify and buy-in players via satellites to poker events in Europe and Asia.  The WSOP and WPT have created circuits of big events around the region over the last couple of years and their fields have been growing wildly, while attendance at events here in the US have mostly receded a bit.  One of the questions many people have about this years WSOP, which typically draws many European players to its events, is if this increase in events and attendance abroad will somehow impact the numbers of players that come across the pond to play here at the Rio.  If the first few days are any indication at all, it hasn't had much of an impact.  There are many, many recognizable foreign faces playing in the early events.  While I haven't learned all of their names, it seems clear that they have made the trip to play.  Those that do travel are also enjoying a very favorable monetary exchange rate due to the weakness of the US dollar and economy.

Event #2, $1500 No-Limit Holdem

Hey, look at me in action.  First image I've seen of myself in the box at this year's World Series of Poker.

Today was the first big $1500 No-Limit Holdem event.  The lowest open field buy-ins are very, very popular.  The past few years the WSOP has opened with one of these events on a Saturday and the fields have grown to around 3000 players.  In fact, they are so popular, that this year we are breaking up the first day into two flights, about half of the players start on Saturday and the rest will play on Sunday, only to meet for the first time as a complete field for day two action on Monday.  We have about 200 poker tables available right now, approximately 150 in the four quadrants of the Amazon room, a dozen in the regular casino poker room, another dozen or so outside of the Buzio's poker room, and maybe a few more than two dozen in the Tropical room, which are normally dedicated to satellite play.  In about a week, another convention space opens up that will be big enough for another 60 tables.  I think I heard that total capacity by the time of the next big $1500 event (and during the four days of the main event) will be 276 tables.  But right now, our capacity is about 2000 players, and the first day of this event has been sold out for a few days.  With 1300 or so already registered for the second day and anticipation that it may sell out as well, the field for this tournament will break all records for shear size in number of players for any live poker tournament in history - if you exclude the last three WSOP main events.  In 2004, the first year Harrah's operated the WSOP, when Greg Raymer was the champion, the main event had 2576 entrants.  Since then, the main event exploded to over 8,000 players, with a slight correction last year due to online qualifying restrictions.  So, this will be the fourth largest poker tournament field, period.

I was originally scheduled to be off yesterday.  Then I was scheduled for live action at 2pm, and then I saw notes posted stating that all dealers need to report at 11am for the second bracelet event.  There was a scheduling error and they were concerned that not enough dealers would be available.  It turned out to be somewhat of an over reaction that resulted in pretty inefficient use of labor resources.  We were largely up and down all day, and I got cut loose early.  I only dealt four downs in over five hours, on what was supposed to be the busiest day of the whole tournament.  It was disappointing because I needed the work and was looking forward to a long busy day, but since they called everyone in at 11am, we had a dealer glut, and I presume that also created somewhat of a need in other areas during the hours that I was not around.  Not sure about that.

I did recognize a few faces at my first couple of tables, but there were no notable professionals.  I was scheduled to push into a table that had both T.J. Cloutier and David Grey, but a mistake by the dealer coordinator created an unfortunate fiasco that resulted in me getting yanked from the table after I had signed the card, sat down and started shuffling.  I was assigned to the tournament tables in the regular cash section.  This quadrant of the Amazon room has red table placards.  As soon as enough players bust out, they try to open up tables in this area in order to get enough cash games started to keep the players here at the Rio and keep them from wandering off to other casinos.  Smart, right?  Well, the execution wasn't so good, at least for me.  

When a table breaks in this area, the dealer currently at the table is responsible for straightening everything out, returning the tournament materials, and preparing the table for the next cash game.  A dealer coordinator takes their employee badge and changes their paycode for tax purposes, as we have to withhold a specific amount per hour per a tip compliance agreement with the IRS when dealing cash games.  The dealer that would normally push into this table is instructed to "push around" that table and just go to the next tournament table in the string.  This happened to me a couple of times, and unfortunately, both times the table that broke in front of me was designated as a break table, meaning that the dealer exiting that table would first go on break before resuming the string.  I ended up in the break room for three consecutive downs.  Then, after the last one, I was all set to finally deal to Red 25, the table with Cloutier and Grey, when I get an immediate tap that interrupted my first shuffle.  The dealer coordinator explained that she made an error and sent two dealers to this table.  She pulled me in favor of the other dealer, even though, I was rightfully in line to deal and had actually confirmed my assignment with her before going to the break room.  I held my tongue and kept my attitude in check, but I tried to let her see my disappointment, at least in my eyes.  I never got back into the tournament after that and was released for the day.  

It was a letdown after yesterday was so much fun, but this sort of thing was all messed up because of the schedule.  I am not much of a complainer, but I blew off some steam to my friends Dusty and Heather from Chattanooga and then watched some of the Event #1 restart.  Then my friend Tim called and he had a friend playing in the $1500 event, so we watched her for awhile.  In this picture she has about 12,000 chips, four times the starting stack, so she had a good start at least.  I had to take care of some things with my time card and badge, so I didn't catch up with them after the player break, but it was nice to see her doing well.  Go Jinjui!

I will be dealing in the live action area late on Sunday afternoon.  I'll try to post some stories about what I have been hearing from those games later.

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack

Did you know that the World Series of Poker has a commissioner?

All of the major sports have commissioners that oversee the league front offices and set a tone for all of the league's teams.  They also arbitrate issues that arise and become the final authority for any violations or penalties that need to be enforced to keep everyone within the rules.  Is poker a sport?  It certainly gets a lot of coverage by the Entertainment Sports Programming Network (ESPN).  But, they also cover competitive darts, tournament dominos and spelling bees.

Perhaps, poker as a whole, would benefit from having a commissioner, but that would imply a whole lot more coordination and cooperation of the professional poker enterprises.  The World Series of Poker is an event, albeit the largest and most prestigious one in this gaming industry.  It is not, in any way, some umbrella organization that controls a professional sport.  Do the other headline events in fringe sports/game/entertainment enterprises have commissioners?  Does the Kentucky Derby have a commissioner?  How about Daytona, Wimbledon, the Iditarod, National Rodeo or the Masters?  I dunno, maybe the do.  It seems to me that the WSOP is a bit presumptive, having its own commissioner.  

Certainly, the role for the job has to be a lot different than the responsibilities that rest on David Stern of the NBA, Bud Selig of MLB, or Roger Goodell of the NFL.  There is a circuit of WSOP events that last throughout the year, some sort of collaboration with a new European tour, and lots of similar functions that deal with television rights, marketing, etc, but there are not any real franchises or players unions to deal with.  So, what are the responsibilities of the WSOP commissioner?  

From my observation, he is instrumental in expanding the WSOP brand for Harrah's.  He develops the ties needed with all of the sponsors and sets goals for marketing ties and probably all of the media relationships as well.  In this respect, he seems to be a perfect fit for the job.  His background, coming from NASCAR, where sponsorships are fundamental and ever present,  seems to make him uniquely qualified to meet this need.  When I was first introduced to him (in a large group, of course) he humbly admitted to not being a poker player.  They brought him in from outside to manage the business of building business.  And that he has.  The Amazon room is chuck full of banners hanging from the ceilings, along spectator barricades, entrances, hallways for their many sponsors.  Players are encouraged to develop sponsor relationships, wear logos on their clothing and promote products at the table.  Last year Phil Helmuth showed up at the main event in a jumpsuit loaded with corporate logos, just like a NASCAR driver.  Robert Williamson III wore a blazer that was covered with no less than a dozen sponsor logos.  The poker tables last year had sponsor logos everywhere.  This year they seem a bit more controlled, but they are still present and dealers are trained to work around them so that the sponsors will get maximum coverage if the media captures images or video of the action.

He has also set up a players action committee to promote input from the real poker people.  Its a smart move and has engaged professional players and given them some ownership over changes and issues with regard to the format and structure of the WSOP events, as well as rules and how things are managed during the event.  It has resulted in a lot of improvements, but their have, of course, been a few missteps as well.  Last year's poker peek playing cards was quite the fandango.  I think the four month hiatus for playing out the final table of the main event might just turn out that way as well.  But I have to give him some props for being proactive in searching out input and contribution from the players, a large group with many diverse opinions and attitudes about how poker tournaments should be executed.

He has a blog, but like most blogs, its not consistently updated.  Another poker blogger, Michelle Lewis, captured his thoughts in a fine interview last year that gives some insight into what his role is, or should be.  There is a pretty good video over at Cardplayer to kick off this years event that covers many of the current issues, especially the final table hiatus.

Event #1, World Championship Pot Limit Holdem

I finally settled on some temporary housing in Vegas this morning.  I had spent a few days at the Sahara and then almost a week on the floor at my friend Tim’s while checking the For Rent magazines, CraigsList want ads, etc looking for a place.  My problems wasn’t so much a lack of available rooms, but lack of funds and indecisive potential roommates.  A few days ago, I decided on just finding something for myself, and after a few rent a room from someone’s home opportunities didn’t end up fitting my criteria, I rode the buses and walked to most all of the rent-by-the-week furnished apartment complexes, and ironically, I settled on the same complex that I stayed at last year.  It just turned out to be the most economical and its on a main bus route to the Rio.  Its nice to have a bed again.

I might have jumped the gun giving props to the dealer coordination being much better organized with respect to scheduling.  During my first two off days, it turns out that the posted schedule has changed a couple of times and its still pending further modifications.  I know that it must be a huge job to coordinate this many dealers, but I never even got a phone call about the changes, if friends who were not scheduled to be off hadn’t called to fill me in, I wouldn’t have gotten to work on time my very first day, as my report time had changed from 1pm to 11am.  But that’s all good, because I need and want the work.

I was originally penciled in to work live action today, but the registration for Event #1, Pot Limit Holdem exceeded expectations and they needed more dealers for the first bracelet tournament event.  I was VERY happy to be redirected to this event, as I love dealing pot limit and seldom get the opportunity.  Add to it that this event had such a high buy-in and would likely be packed full of professional players, and this was one event that I did not want to miss out on, even if I might have needed the tokes from live action to meet short term expenses.

In fact, if I were a big time player with nearly unlimited resources, I think this would be the premier bracelet event that I would be looking forward to.  Pot limit is such a better format than no-limit or straight limit, in my opinion.  Also, the field should be much more reasonable in size than the main no-limit event, and yet large enough to have a very nice sized prize pool. As it turns out, the field required nearly 40 tables, topping out at just under 400 players, creating a total prize pool in the neighborhood of $4 million.  This is the first of what the WSOP is calling “World Championship” events.  In the past, the main no-limit holdem event was the only $10K buy-in, but a few years back they added the higher buy-in H.O.R.S.E event for the top professionals, and for the first time, this year they are also having $10K pot-limitOmaha and Holdem events, as well as limit Stud, Omaha 8, Holdem.

I set up my table and anxiously awaited for the first few players to come to my table.  Embracing the Rio’s commitment to service, I greeted each player with a smile and friendly “Welcome to the 2008 World Series of Poker” tag line as I handed them their 20K starting chips and an all-access bracelet.  One of the first players to show up was Vince Van Patten, the color commentator for the World Poker Tour broadcasts on the Travel Channel.  I would later deal to his partner, Mike Sexton as well.  The table started short handed as we had several purchased seats show up late, most of them were young foreign players, a Russian girl and a couple of Scandinavians.  One of the last few to arrive was the lovely Isabelle Mercier, now blonde, and it felt strange asking to see her photo identification as play was in progress.  I think I read somewhere that she used to be a dealer at the famed Aviation Club in Paris, France before becoming a tournament pro.

There are a ton of floor persons on staff, it seems.  I wonder if that is a reaction to some sort of criticism from last years players.  There does seem to be a small army of them, and from what I overheard during processing at human resources and orientation, they went through a much thorough training session this year (two full days and a test).  But even with all of them around, when a player on my first table spilled his coke all over the table and cards, I couldn’t seem to get any help from them, nor the wait staff, despite several calls for help.  I had to use my little flop sweat towel to clean things up.  Icky sticky and of little use to me the rest of the day.

We were on two and three table pushes most of the day, then just before the dinner break I actually strung together five downs without a break.  When on break, I did notice that the dealer room was well-stocked with much better food selections, they really seem to be trying to take care of us in that manner.  It is a very, very long walk to the employee dining room and not possible during a 20-25 minute break.

On one of my early tables I had Tommie Venas, from Houston, his chips already nearly doubled up, and Daniel Negreanu, whose stack had taken an early beating.  It’s impossible for me to be certain, but I wondered if they tangled on a big hand before I got there.  A nice mannered gentlemen with a few years on me comes to the table and asks if its alright to drink beer at the table.  I chuckled and told him that he’d have to show me his identification, which I needed to verify his registration card, and then said, “Yup, you’re 21, it’s ok” and got a smile from him and some levity from the table.  He had arrived almost an hour late, but was pleased as punch to see Negreanu ad the table and told him that he always wanted to play with him and loved his televised play.  Negreanu replied with a friendly “you must have me all figured out then” and handled the admiration with very comfortable conversation.  He must get this all the time.  The new player than proceeded to play every hand for well over a full button revolution and called off most of his 20K starting chips during my 30 minute down.  He was still hanging on when I left, but the professionals were feasting on him pretty well.  It must be nice to be able to have the resources to plop down $10,000 for such short prospects in a tournament like this, but I can tell you that he was enjoying himself far more than anyone else in my first few tables.

On another table, just following a player break, I had my freshly setup decks washed and shuffled just before the tournament clock ticked down the final few seconds for the player break.  Then I heard the tournament director announce that we would have about a two minute delay as they uploaded something to fix a timing anomaly.  I waited patiently with my cut card on the table in front of my ready deck for direction to start and noticed that a few players hadn’t yet returned, or perhaps came by and left once again.  When the “put the cards in the air” direction came over the public address system, I cut the deck, picked it up and pitched out the first hand.  The player at the button, and at least one other, weren’t at their seat, so I mucked their hands and got the action started.  After a few players made their initial actions, Lee Watkinson sat down at the button and asked in a rather perturbed manner, “How the hell could you have shuffled up and dealt the entire table in less than 15 seconds?”  I shrugged and tried to appease him with an apologetic glance, but he didn’t let go of it and made a couple more comments.  I stated that the TD had delayed things by a few minutes and that my deck was verified, washed, shuffled and ready by the time the clock was started.  He continued to grumble and I didn’t get any sort of support from other players, I presumed they either agreed with him or were just tired of hearing it, but I still thought to myself that his complaints were out of order.  He could have returned in time and if not quite late, would have heard the announcement and realized the delay actually afforded him extra time to take his seat.  A few hands later, another player got up from his seat to talk with a friend, but got back just before my last card was dealt to the button.  Watkinson didn’t miss the opportunity to let me know that I had killed his hand under what he thought were similar conditions.  I had to tell him that, in fact, the other player was at his seat, if not in it, when the last card was dealt to the button.  I left it unsaid that he had not been anywhere near the table well after several players had acted.

Over the eleven tournament downs that I accumulated before being relieved, I dealt to many more notable professionals, including: Thor Hansen, Jean-Robert Belande, Jason Lester, Burt Boutin, Eric Seidel, Keith Lehr, Jamie Gold, Phil Laak, Jeffrey Lassandro, Vanessa Rousso, Jared Hamby, Duey Tomko, Ted Lawson, Bill Edler, Beth Shak, Andy Bloch, Max Pescatori, Dario Mineri and Roland deWolfe.  Of course there were many more recognizable faces on the tables that I didn't get to.  I hope that I get to go into the restart for this event at 2pm on Saturday.

Summer in Vegas is Tourney Player's Dream

Anyone know where there is a decent poker tournament?

Better come to Las Vegas this summer.  There are no less than six major poker events being held simultaneously.  It's not just the World Series of Poker anymore, and the competition is so fierce, that tourney players are getting better and better deals pretty much everywhere they play.

The first direct competition for the WSOP came from the World Poker Tour, which added another event at The Bellagio.  While this venue still maintains the best high stakes live action games in town, their tournament fields, when compared to those over at the Rio, have not been very impressive.  The last couple of year's the favored tournament alternative to the WSOP has been the Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza.  With modest buy-ins, lots of chips, and a decent blind structure, this room has attracted the value-minded tournament players in droves.  It has been so successful, that the Venetian is now replicating the formula three times a year. In the past, it has been all No-Limit Texas Holdem, but this time around they have added a pot limit Omaha event, a limit Omaha hi/low split event, and a H.O.R.S.E. event to the mix.  There is still plenty of NL Holdem, though, there are no less than 13 $330 buy-in events that start with 4,500 tourney chips, 19 $540 and 8 $1060 buy-in events that start with 7,500 tourney chips, as well as a couple of $2500 and a $5000 final event that start with 10,000 tourney chips.  All of these events have an "optional" $10 staff bonus that adds 1,500/2,500/5,000 more starting chips.  Not that you would care to compete without this add-on, but I dare you to try and decline the option.  Their staff will scoff at you and tell you that the registration system really isn't set up that way.  Sort of funny in a way, but I am all about paying the dealers!

Last year, Binion's tried to wrangle back some of its poker glory by running its own Binions Poker Classic series, and it was quite successful, drawing large crowds for modest buy-ins.  With very few exceptions, they run an event similar in structure the day before each WSOP event.  The tournament buy-in is 10% of the bracelet event at the Rio and can be viewed as a very decent warm-up for those events.  Cashing in these events will more than afford you a buy-in at the Rio too, as the field sizes create very nice prize pools.  The blind periods are about half as long, but you start with the same number of chips and for a $10 staff bonus you can add another 2,000 starting chips to any of these events.  Event winners all get their photograph on a special display near Binion's famous Wall of Champions and Hall of Fame.  Somehow, they still manage to run almost all of their very popular daily tournaments as well.

Joining the fray this year, will be the inaugural Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget.  This recently revamped property is pulling out all the stops to create its very own event of stature.  A recently released film, titled "The Grand" portrays a fictional world championship of poker theme.  It was created in a semi documentary fashion, with much of the interaction between top professional cameos and very good celebrity players being improvised, and I am told this gives it more of a live tourney feel than a Hollywood production.  A brand new convention space, named "The Grand" provides home to more than 50 additional tables.  Most of the events are No-Limit Texas Holdem, but there are a couple variations of Omaha and H.O.R.S.E. events thrown in, with a ladies-only, a seniors, and a charity event as well.  All of the buy-ins are in the very affordable $225 to $550 range except for the charity event, where half of the $1080 buy-in goes towards Multiple Sclerosis research, and the The Grand Finale, a $1080 by-in main event.  Starting chips are comparable to the Venetian and Binions tourneys and they also have a $10 staff bonus that can add a couple thousand more tournament chips.  I haven't seen any structure sheets for these tournaments yet, but based on the promotional emphasis, I would expect them to be competitive with the other poker series in town.  They are also holding nightly $125 (midweek) and $225 (weekend) second chance cash tournaments.

Even though its sister property across the freeway is host to the biggest show in all of tournament poker, Caesars Palace isn't laying down to the competition.  They have one of the nicest run poker rooms in town, and a large separate tournament section that need not lay fallow during this busiest of poker seasons.  After all, the entire world will be in town playing poker, how can one not offer up a another option?  Deep just isn't a sufficient enough adjective to describe their starting chip stacks.  The first Caesars Palace Mega Stack features No-Limit Texas Holdem events at noon every day, with buy-ins ranging from $225 to $540 up until the $1080 Mega Championship final event.  There is also a seniors event, a pot-limit Omaha event, and Omaha 8 or better, and a limit holdem event, each of these varieties start at 3pm on a Tuesday.  Starting chip stacks are pretty impressive.  The $225 event starts with 5,000 tourney chips, the $330 events start with 10,000 tourney chips, the $540 events start with 12,500 tourney chips and the Mega Championship starts with 25,000 tourney chips - and, a $10 staff bonus adds another 2,500 chips to any of these events.  Blind levels are 50 minutes long for all but the Mega Championship, which has 60 minute levels.

So, how will the venerable Bellagio respond to all this tournament poker pressure?  Well, they slid their start date back just a little bit in the schedule, but they aren't rolling over.  Just the day before the World Series of Poker blows up the poker world with a deluge of press releases and media coverage, The Bellagio announces that it will give its players what they want - event deeper starting stacks.  Their famous daily tournaments ($540 buy-in on weekdays with 3,000 starting tourney chips, and $1080 buy-in on weekends with 5,000 starting tourney chips) have been revamped for the summer.  Weekday daily tournaments will now have a $1080 buy-in and start with 10,000 tourney chips and weekend daily tournaments will now have a $2100 buy-in and start with 20,000 tourney chips.  Blind levels are 40 minutes long.  These daily tournaments will be suspended during the Bellagio Cup IV, which starts on July 11th, but will resume after completion of the WPT event.  Further, all of the events for the Bellagio Cup IV will feature "Triple Stacks".  The preliminary events will feature 60 minute levels and three times the buy-in in starting tournament chips.  The $15,000 buy-in championship event will have 90 minute levels and 45,000 starting chips.

And the value doesn't stop there.  Last year the World Series of Poker doubled its tournament starting chip stacks for all events and the players advisory council also reworked the blinds structures.  Still, some of the limit events were a bit fast towards the later stages, so the players advisory council had lots of input and added/modified the levels to create even more value to players at the WSOP.   There are no staff bonus add-on options at the WSOP, but the tournament management team in charge there has utilized this sort of promotion at WSOP circuit events recently, so don't be surprised if this isn't used down the road (I hope so!).  But the schedule and player value at the WSOP has been improved in other ways as well, with expanded mega-satellite schedules and daily evening $340 second chance cash tournaments.

Then as these big events wind down, the great locals-friendly poker room at The Orleans is holding its annual Orleans Open.  This event has always been quite popular for the hard core tournament poker players that don't get enough from the WSOP.  Buy-ins range from $200 to $1000, with a $2000 championship event, respectable starting chips and blind structure.  It is one of the best run smaller events on the poker tournament calendar, with a variety of different format events over the last two weeks of July.

Also, every one of these major events is promoting a full satellite schedule and other daily or second chance cash tournaments for more modest buy-ins.  If you can't find a decent poker tournament in this town this summer, you simply aren't looking.

Lots of Improvements for 2008 WSOP

I have to give Harrah's some credit. They listen to the players. They listen to the bad press. They appear to take complaints and suggestions very seriously and then work hard to make corrections.

Yesterday was orientation day for the 2008 World Series of Poker, and it is evident that al lot of improvements have been made for this year. From this dealer's perspective, everything just seemed to be going a whole lot more smoothly and the professionalism and hard work by the staff planning this year's event was clearly demonstrated.

First thing I noticed was that Sue Phillips took to heart many of the comments about last year's dealer scheduling and devoted her staff towards correcting several of the issues.  Just after I picked up my badge, I was able to see my schedule for the first nine days of the tournament.  Each day, your initial assignment is already specified, so you know before you arrive whether you will be going into one of the tournament areas, live action, or satellites.  Pre-planning these assignments would seem to ensure a more equitable distribution.  Perhaps it will cut down on the cherry-picking many of the dealers were angling for specific assignments.  It also seemed to me that this allowed them to rate dealers somewhat and consider specific event assignments, rather than near-random placement.  I still think that ALL WSOP dealers need to be competent dealing any and all events, as I will strive to be, but with a staff this large, perhaps it behooves the leadership to consider placing their strongest dealers in the latter stages of the higher buy-in events, for instance.  Sue mentioned that she should have a couple more weeks of the schedule up very soon, so that we will be able to do some longer range planning.

I was happy to be assigned to day shift, but I did seem to get short shrift on the first week with too many off days.  The new dealers hired this year were all assigned to evening shifts, and they will presumably be used more for mega satellites, the nightly second chance cash tournament, and live action games.  So, I felt really good about being able to work the day shift where I should get more opportunities to deal the different tournament events.  Satellites are fun, the high limit cash games are certainly an interesting challenge that I won't ever see anywhere in Houston, but I came to the WSOP for the experience of dealing the bracelet events, which is my preference.

This year, they also held a two-hour dealer training session that was mandatory and very well organized by Kim Smith.  We received a concise dealing manual and a great effort of getting everyone on the same page with respect to procedures was made.  Players should see a much more consistent dealer presence this year.  Last year, I managed to get a copy of a draft manual from one of the Harrah's dealer managers, but it was never completed in time for the series, so 95% of the dealers never even got to see it.  They did have some informal, unpaid, ad hoc, voluntary training sessions, which I took advantage of, but the trainers were not consistent and were over-booked with many, many questions.  I did not feel that it was as effective as should have been for an event of this stature and blogged about my disappointment.  I still think more could be done, and clearly Kim's effort is still in progress as there were a few updates to manage, but the information was very effectively communicated, evidenced by the relatively low number of pertinent questions (there are always some kooky comments).  We each got a copy of an instructional DVD as well, which shows the Harrah's way with regard to poker dealing procedures.  Its about 40 minutes long, well produced, and should help dealers from all over the country conform to a reasonable standard.

The dealer break room is gone, but it has been moved to a slightly larger space and will be used by all WSOP event employees, as it should be.  The need for the break room is simply to give a place for dealers and other WSOP staff like chip runners, cashiers, registrars, floor people, even supervisors to retreat to on the convention side of the property.  The casino break rooms are nearly a mile away and the catacomb walks required to reach them would surely consume any reasonable break time.  They can also bring out light meals to this break room and avoid having the surplus event staff overpopulate the employee dining room.

After our orientation, we were required to do a few simple things like clock in/out to make sure our badging worked.  This preparation wasn't done last year, and while it seems simple enough, the day of event hiccups can really amount to quite an ordeal, so checking things out early is well worth the time and effort.  We all had to register for an event, which gives the dealers first hand experience and the ability to answer many of the players questions.  We are the front line of customer service, and anyone in a vest gets frequent stops and queries - I found out real quickly last year that I was not prepared to provide much more than a smile.   It didn't take long for me to get the info necessary for the standard questions, but there was so much initial confusion, I know that I wasn't initially very helpful last year.  That won't be the case this year.  Just moving the registration to its own separate convention space near, but outside of the Amazon room, will be a huge improvement for the players this year and help with overall congestion.

No poker will be played in the player's pavilion this year!  This was a huge improvement, as last year the air conditioning just wasn't adequate and the comfort level out there simply did not meet the standards of such a prestigious event.  This year the pavilion is split into a couple of purposes, a V.I.P. lounge area and a commissary for all players, spectators, media, etc.  It is an appropriate use of the temporary structure and seems to be better designed for comfort as well.

The quadrants in the main tournament area of the Amazon room are now color-coded, and each region has its own table numbering, so customers and staff will be able to navigate and find table assignments much more easily.  Registration cards have been redesigned to take advantage of this.  There appears to be more room between the tables as well, and even though the room was not completely setup, I imagine that should help with spectator control and traffic corridors.  The satellites are all being held in its own convention space across from the Amazon room, and they have their own registration/cashier's cage.  Another improvement that should help with congestion and navigation of the Amazon room.  

There is also a dedicated cashier's cage for the live action tables, and this year players will get their seat cards for live action games from the board manager podium.  Floor will circulate through this section and pick up seat cards when they open, rather than requiring dealers to scream over the top of the public address system just to get the attention of those working the waiting list board.  We will still hold some live action cash games in the Amazon room, but there is another convention space that will be made available to WSOP on June 6th that I think I heard will be used for the high limit cash games.  Most of the low limit cash games will be spread on tables in the regular poker room near the bowling alley.  All of this means that many more tournament tables are being effectively used for events in the Amazon room.  There is still overflow available for the biggest events, plans have been made to utilize these other areas as well as the space outside of Buzio's seafood restaurant.

Food service for the players and spectators has been expanded and improved.  There is an Asian cafe with sushi and a noodle bar, Pizza Hut, Krispy Kreme, premium coffee kiosks as well as the standard cafeteria fare previously provided.

It's really pretty amazing how many changes and improvements have been made.  I purposely left off the delay for the final table of the main event, because so much has already been said.  I'm not yet convinced that change will turn out to be widely received as positive.  More on that later.  Oh, and yes, I know the badge lanyard in the picture says "2007".  I'll manage to get another picture up in its place soon enough.