Second Week at The Gold Strike

My second week here was a little better than the first. After a couple of days where I felt like crap with the virus that was going around (even tournament director Johnny Grooms and much of the floor staff went through it), I was able to get back in the swing of things. A lot of the swing shift dealers get assigned to the second chance tournament, a 7pm $200 buy-in cash tourney that has had big fields and runs until completion at 3 or 4am each morning. I would prefer to deal the events, where you can get more exposure to the other poker games, but we get paid the same - a down is a down, and I'm not a complainer. On most nights, I will get on a break table and end up circulating through the cash games, which usually means a lot of pot limit Omaha, which I enjoy dealing. The tokes haven't been as good as I may be accustomed to in private games, but they seem to be better than the cash games at the Rio in Vegas last summer.

Even though there are big events in Australia, The Bahamas, and down the street at The Grand, I have seen many recognizable faces. I really haven't dealt to too many of them, dumb luck and a bit of a factor on my working swing shift. After I get off, I usually log onto my computer in the food court area, and I see Chau Giang, Alan Kessler, Bret Junglbutt, Robert and Micheal Mizrachi playing online nearly everyday. I've seen Hoyt Corkins, Nam Le, JC Tran, David Pham, Gavin Griffin, Ted Lawson, Toto Leonidas, Alex Jacob and others.

I had been assigned to the satellites section a couple of times, but at 7pm the room swells up with tourney tables and cash games and there just isn't much space left for satellites for a few hours. Dealers assigned to this area end up in a queue and have to surender their table after each mini tournament, so the wait time cuts into what you can earn. The satellite players, in general, are the best tippers. They are optimistic, because they are winning a chance at a bigger payday in a bigger buy-in event, and they are awarded some cash with their tournament entry chips. Frequently at the WSOP, the winner would simply give all or most of the cash to the dealer, which can be a handsome bonus.