My Day as a Hold Em Dealer

Last Saturday was certainly an interesting day. I volunteered to work as a dealer for a Hold Em tournament that was part of a casino night that benefitted a local hospital's foundation. I couldn't wait to see how life was on the other side of the table.

First Step: Grab the free lunch at the country club where the tournament was being held. The sandwich buffett was no big deal, but hey, free is still free.

Second Step: Training with a poker pro from the entertainment outfit that rents out the casino tables and equipment. This two-hour training session (apparently mandidated by my state) got me used to doing things in a systematic way -- when to gather the chips, when to muck cards, the proper order in which everything should be done -- all the essentials. The training session was wild because because all the dealers were acting like complete donks and going all in virtually every hand. This resulted in great practice in making side pots and using the old noodle to figure out all the math.

Third step: Grab the free hors d' oeuvres and drinks provided before the tournament. Whoever selected the champagne should be rewarded. The food was mostly what you would expect for a charity event ... until we stumbled upon the jumbo shrimp. Yes, it was jumbo, and it was fantastic.

Fourth Step: The tourney. They were expecting around 60 entrants. They only got 24, so the dealers rotated in. I was nervous at first, but became more relaxed as I dealt a few hands. The level of concentration was great, however, since we had to keep aware of all the bets, raises, and folds. I only made one mistake, and it was no biggie. And, being a charity tournament, the atmosphere was relaxed.

The final table was dealt by the pro who did the training. It was right before the final table when the bomb was dropped. Since there were many less players than expected, the top prizes were decreased. Instead of fist prize being a $2000 prepaid Visa card, it was only ... $600. Instead of second place being a $900 prepaid Visa card, it was ... $600. Third was also decreased a little.

Now, I guess that since this was a charity event and most of the guys playing were probably loaded anyway, no one said anything. It just didn't seem right to cut the prizes like that at the final table. If I had been in, I would have been pissed.

Anyway, it was a fun night and gave me some experience dealing. I would certainly volunteer again, if asked.


Friday Night Home Game Results

We started out with two tables and combined when we got down to eight players. Had a long run of weak cards, so I kept folding, folding, folding ... and ended up outlasting everyone but three guys. Two of us were short stacked, and two had bigger ones. After about 4 1/2 hours of non-stop play, a chop was suggested and agreed upon by three of the four. One guy, Seth, said that he was greedy and wanted to play it out. He was the other short stack. Our tourney paid three places, so someone was going to be very unhappy.

It ended up that Seth and I were the final two. Seth had about a 70/30% chip lead on me, so when I was dealt Cowboys I decided to take a gamble and slow play. I wanted to bite into his stack big time, then finish him off.

Once again, no matter how unlikely it was, the slow play came back to haunt. He had Q-7 os and stayed in since I didn't raise. The flop? 7-7-rag. I will spare you the sad details.

Thanks to Josh, the host, who patiently listened to me flog myself for the next fifteen minutes. Time to finally learn my lesson about slow playing.

Second place gave me a nice profit, but I was disapointed that I wasn't able to come out with a victory. The worst part was, I did it to myself.