The tournament player mentality??

Sure, I've dealt a few tournaments. Previously, most of them have been "special events". Maybe it was Rock Star Poker and maybe it was a bunch of contractors who purchased DeWalt tools and won a trip to Las Vegas. In general, these have been fun to deal and the players were having fun.

My wish that our daily tournaments would be over by the time I get to work at 1PM proved fruitless. My first down today was a tournament down. There were 47 entrants (It's capped at 40 with alternates for the first hour). The blinds were 1000/2000 and were raised to 2000/4000 shortly after I plopped my ass in the dealers chair. To say that it was a tedious 30 minutes would be an understatement. During my down there was a short 5-10 minute break. In the 20-25 other minutes my actions were questioned no less than 5 times. In every instance, I was correct. (Thank you poker gods) I tried to just grin and bear it but......
The one time I did become visibly annoyed was during a hand with an all in. After I pushed the side pot to one player and the main pot to another player, a player who was not even involved in the hand had a stroke. He said I was totally wrong. I explained to him that the 9s had won the main pot and the 6s had won the side pot. Oh, he says, I didn't see you make a side pot. Sir, OF COURSE I MADE A SIDE POT! was my only comment.
Actually, I even set it up long hand by taking the all-in amount from each player while announcing/walking everyone through what I was doing. It's easier just to announce $XXX in the side pot, but I've found that some people need to visualize it by seeing the side pot built.

If you are going to be the table captian, the least you could do would be PAY ATTENTION.

With 47 entries first place paid $1120 and second place paid $600+ (I don't remember exactly) 4 places cashed.

My first down wasn't an aberration. The whole day was filled with table captians. If I'm a mistake in progress I appreciate the help. If not, I've got it under control. Just be quiet and play.


One new promotion that began today was the Aces Cracked promotion. Since you win a $55 seat in our daily tournament if your aces are cracked, it is required that surveillance be called. They review the tape and approve the "pay out". If anyone doubts the frequency of aces being cracked, come spend a few hours in our room. Aces Cracked table #2. Aces Cracked table #6 etc. It happens a lot.

The other promotion that started today is the Splash the Pot promotion. Every two hours Monday through Friday a table is chosen at random and $50 is dumped on the table before the start of the next hand. I happened to be on the lucky table twice today. The first time I was dealing a short (4) handed NL game. One guy made a large preflop raise, so only two people took a flop. This I understand since $50 is not a huge sum of money in a $2-5 NL game. The second time, however, I was dealing a $2-4 limit game. I dumped $50 on the table prior to the start of the hand and explained why. The game was full. 9 players called the $2 and saw a flop. The 1s folded. Why, I have no idea. When the light went on in his head, he claimed to have folded a winner. I don't know what else I could have done because I made a big deal about the $50 pot sweetener. Yet another case of a player not paying attention.

Our $2-5 no limit buy in has changed from min $100/max $500 to min $200/max $1000. Make a note.

Tuesday is my Friday. The blessed end to another week spent dishing out the cards. Just get me through a few more hours.............