My First Day at the Gold Strike

After spending the last couple of months limited to holiday parties and occasional home games, I am pretty excited about dealing full time again. Things started a little slowly, as I drew a break to start off with, and then the players were on dinner break during most of my first down. During player breaks, dealers clean-up and bus the area around their table, setup their decks, and then sit patiently ensuring that nothing happens to the players chips. Sometimes you have to sort of be a policeman and keep players and spectators out of the area. It felt good to actually get started after the players returned, but I only got a couple of hands in during that first down. On the last hand, I actually had to call the floor, and I am a bit embarrassed that I was largely responsible for the mess up. I have been trained to "dummy up and deal", keeping a tight lip at the table. Players in these level of events generally know when it is there turn and action progresses rather quickly without the sort of assistance that is needed in the games I generally deal in Houston. Dealer banter is almost always annoying, so most of my communication is non-verbal. My attention is almost always on the player whose turn it is to act. However, I let myself get a bit distracted by the dealer who tapped me for the push and asked for the down card to sign. After getting the cards out, I handed the card and pen over my shoulder, but instead of looking at the player under the gun, I glanced up directly at the player that should follow him. He took that to mean that it was his turn to act and bet out with a standard raise. The two players following him immediately mucked their hands before I was able to recognize that the under the gun player had yet to act, and was indicating that he wanted to. I got control of the table and indicated that the action was still on the player left of the big blind. He asked if the money from the raising player was committed to the pot, and I explained that if the action did not change, then the out of turn player's raise would be binding. There was some disagreement at the table, so I called the floor over for some backup. After some discussion, the player left of the button actually raised, so the next player's bet was returned and he went into the tank a bit deciding what to do. He asked me to count down the other player's chips, but the floorperson intervened and said that was not my responsibility. Under Tournament Director's Association (TDA) rules, the other player has to make his chips visible to everyone at the table, but they are not required to count them at the request of another player and the dealer can only offer an estimate, if requested. Players are required to keep the larger denominations in front or on top, and must stack or arrange them in some regular fashion (20-chip stacks are common) and the dealer may direct them to do this, but counting them down just slows things down and is often used as a delay tactic. Everyone is on a clock, and blinds increase regularly, so this rule helps keep players from trying to manipulate things.

After that, everything went pretty smoothly today. There are a ton of players here already, but there are also plenty of dealers, so we are getting more breaks than I prefer. I wasn't required to work any overtime (which I anticipated, being that it was a Friday night) and I only was able to accumulate six tourney downs. I went the entire day without exposing a card, which is a goal that I strive for, but seldom achieve. My pitch is improving, but it is still on the flat side, with minimal spin, which tends to catch air currents from ventilation. I think I am quicker than most dealers, without seeming rushed, and I can tell that the players appreciate my pace. On average, the dealers here are much better than at the WSOP. This event attracts the best of the tourney circuit I think.

I got to deal four cash downs, two in the back of the tournament area and two in the main poker room. My first cash table was a mixed lowball game, $100 to 300 spread limit A-5 and 2-7 triple draw. The game changed on each dealer, and my entire down was 2-7, in which straights and flushes kill your hand. The procedure for draw games at the WSOP involved a "flower" arrangement of the discards around the pot, and since this was how I was trained, I set out in this manner, but the players told me to relax and that it wasn't necessary here. It was a very casual, friendly game, despite the elevated stakes. When a seventh player joined the game, I started dealing out the player behind the button to keep it six-handed, which is the convention in triple draw. My other cash game in the tourney area was $2-5 NL Holdem, a breeze, and both of my downs in the main poker room were $1-2 NL Holdem. The lowball game was a time charged game, with $5 for each player taken out of the first pot over $300 (all pots were over this threshold). The rake for the holdem games in the tournament area is 5% to $4 and in the main poker room it is %10 to $4, plus a jackpot $1 after the pot reaches $20. These are generous, in my opinion, a great deal for the players.