Today was a very big day at the WSOP. The buzz had been building for several days about the $50,000.00 H.O.R.S.E. event and you could almost feel the tension in the air. All of the top professionals enter this event, because they feel that the true poker champion can excel in many different games, not just no-limit holdem. Also, the higher buy-in eliminates most of the amateur players. H.O.R.S.E. is an acronym for a mixed game tournament that changes to a different poker game every level (in this case, 60 minutes). The first level is Texas Holdem, the second is Omaha Hi/Lo 8, the third is Razz (which is 7 Stud lowball without a qualifier), the fourth is Seven Card Stud (high only), and the last is Seven Card Stud Eight or Better. All of the games are played with a limit betting structure.
The lead dealer coordinator opened up the daily dealer meeting with a pep talk about this event. The high buy-in and the density of top players were motivating factors for raising the bar for the dealers as well. We were advised to remain quiet and strive to deal with the utmost professional demeanor. She asked for volunteers for the event, and I eagerly raised my hand and moved forward in the room, hoping to garner her attention, but with only a few hundred players, she hand selected about 25 dealers that she had experience with and knew well. I wasn’t in that group, of course, so I started out on a break. We weren’t supposed to loiter in the tournament area, but I couldn’t help myself and made a couple of rounds past those tables after the event started to watch some of the action. One thing that I found amusing was that several players showed up late. They started with a ton of chips, but the blind levels started at 100-200 and seemed to progress fairly rapidly such that the stacks weren’t really all that deep. At least not enough to justify missing complete levels of the tournament, in my opinion. Doyle Brunson started at a table with an empty seat directly across from him (Phil Laak, Tony G, and Justin Bonomo were also at this table) and near the end of the second level, his son Todd moseyed into the tournament area and found that his assigned seat was directly across from his dad. They were genuinely shocked and didn’t know prior to Todd’s arrival that they were at the same seat. Before a single card was dealt to Todd, Doyle had the floor persons’ attention, stating that husband/wife pairs would not be initially seated at the same table during a tournament and that he and his son should be afforded similar respect and one of them moved. At this level the appearance of impropriety is often just as bad as the actual act and soft play is considered a tournament violation that is subject to penalties, possibly exposing them to a sticky situation if someone missed a bet or didn’t act as aggressively on one hand as they appeared to on another against a different opponent. The floor personnel weren’t prepared to handle the situation and tournament director Jimmy Sommerfield was called in to make a quick decision and Todd was relocated to a different table, swapping him with a different player. It was a very unusual procedure.
Since I wasn’t selected for the $50K H.O.R.S.E. tourney, I started the day in the restart for event #38, the second day of the no-limit holdem tournament that I was dealing the day before. But my first table was broken up and I was quickly re-routed to the single table satellites area. At 2pm, I received my first table and players started accumulating before I even had examined the decks and divided up the tournament chips into ten equal stacks. The first tournament lasted 65 minutes and I got a $40 toke from the winner. The buy-ins for WSOP satellites are handled at a separate cashier cage and the players bring you their receipts. All of the satellites pay out tournament entry chips, plus a modest amount of cash. The tournament entry chips can be used for any event or other satellites, but the cashiers will not give you cash for them. Most often, you can sell them at or near face value to other players who are standing in line to register for an event. Sometimes the last couple of players in a satellite will work out a deal where one of them buys the chips with cash from the other. The extra cash in the payout is critical to the dealers, it is conveniently available for tokes and the floor person handling the payout always encourages the winner to show a little gratitude for the dealer’s effort. I quickly learned that this was the most lucrative area at the WSOP to deal. It’s fun as well, because the players are optimistic and generally friendly. After completing the first single table satellite tournament, I quickly setup for another without a break. On this one, I dealt to King Kelly, a player who I would run into a few more times during the series. He was quite successful in the satellite area and stated that he had already won four of them on this particular day. My second satellite only lasted 50 minutes and true to form, King Kelly took it down and then toked me $50. My third satellite lasted about 75 minutes and I learned that the winner was Men “The Master” Nguyen’s cousin, Ma Nguyen. His toke was quite a bit lighter than the previous two, but appreciated just the same. I managed to knock out two more satellites, five in all, before my shift ended and a swing shift dealer was assigned to my table. The last one was a little higher buy-in than the others and with a few more chips and slightly longer blind levels, it lasted about 90 minutes. The winner of this satellite toked me $100, bringing my total for the day to $250. Not bad at all.
The lead dealer coordinator opened up the daily dealer meeting with a pep talk about this event. The high buy-in and the density of top players were motivating factors for raising the bar for the dealers as well. We were advised to remain quiet and strive to deal with the utmost professional demeanor. She asked for volunteers for the event, and I eagerly raised my hand and moved forward in the room, hoping to garner her attention, but with only a few hundred players, she hand selected about 25 dealers that she had experience with and knew well. I wasn’t in that group, of course, so I started out on a break. We weren’t supposed to loiter in the tournament area, but I couldn’t help myself and made a couple of rounds past those tables after the event started to watch some of the action. One thing that I found amusing was that several players showed up late. They started with a ton of chips, but the blind levels started at 100-200 and seemed to progress fairly rapidly such that the stacks weren’t really all that deep. At least not enough to justify missing complete levels of the tournament, in my opinion. Doyle Brunson started at a table with an empty seat directly across from him (Phil Laak, Tony G, and Justin Bonomo were also at this table) and near the end of the second level, his son Todd moseyed into the tournament area and found that his assigned seat was directly across from his dad. They were genuinely shocked and didn’t know prior to Todd’s arrival that they were at the same seat. Before a single card was dealt to Todd, Doyle had the floor persons’ attention, stating that husband/wife pairs would not be initially seated at the same table during a tournament and that he and his son should be afforded similar respect and one of them moved. At this level the appearance of impropriety is often just as bad as the actual act and soft play is considered a tournament violation that is subject to penalties, possibly exposing them to a sticky situation if someone missed a bet or didn’t act as aggressively on one hand as they appeared to on another against a different opponent. The floor personnel weren’t prepared to handle the situation and tournament director Jimmy Sommerfield was called in to make a quick decision and Todd was relocated to a different table, swapping him with a different player. It was a very unusual procedure.
Since I wasn’t selected for the $50K H.O.R.S.E. tourney, I started the day in the restart for event #38, the second day of the no-limit holdem tournament that I was dealing the day before. But my first table was broken up and I was quickly re-routed to the single table satellites area. At 2pm, I received my first table and players started accumulating before I even had examined the decks and divided up the tournament chips into ten equal stacks. The first tournament lasted 65 minutes and I got a $40 toke from the winner. The buy-ins for WSOP satellites are handled at a separate cashier cage and the players bring you their receipts. All of the satellites pay out tournament entry chips, plus a modest amount of cash. The tournament entry chips can be used for any event or other satellites, but the cashiers will not give you cash for them. Most often, you can sell them at or near face value to other players who are standing in line to register for an event. Sometimes the last couple of players in a satellite will work out a deal where one of them buys the chips with cash from the other. The extra cash in the payout is critical to the dealers, it is conveniently available for tokes and the floor person handling the payout always encourages the winner to show a little gratitude for the dealer’s effort. I quickly learned that this was the most lucrative area at the WSOP to deal. It’s fun as well, because the players are optimistic and generally friendly. After completing the first single table satellite tournament, I quickly setup for another without a break. On this one, I dealt to King Kelly, a player who I would run into a few more times during the series. He was quite successful in the satellite area and stated that he had already won four of them on this particular day. My second satellite only lasted 50 minutes and true to form, King Kelly took it down and then toked me $50. My third satellite lasted about 75 minutes and I learned that the winner was Men “The Master” Nguyen’s cousin, Ma Nguyen. His toke was quite a bit lighter than the previous two, but appreciated just the same. I managed to knock out two more satellites, five in all, before my shift ended and a swing shift dealer was assigned to my table. The last one was a little higher buy-in than the others and with a few more chips and slightly longer blind levels, it lasted about 90 minutes. The winner of this satellite toked me $100, bringing my total for the day to $250. Not bad at all.
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