As Kevin points out, today is the $500 casino employees event … and Pokerati’s got one of our guys in the seats: John Harris, whom will be making his debut as a poker twitterer here:

http://twitter.com/johnharristtu

Should be interesting. John’s a good player who has taken his game quite seriously over the past year+ … and he’s been playing on a backer’s money in his efforts to build a bankroll (while making a living as a WSOP Circuit dealer). There’ve been lots of ups and downs along the way, a few needle-moving tournament cashes, and overall he has grown his wad … but that process has been a slow grind to say the least. A big score here would go a long way toward helping him to step up to a level where he could do some real damage (or get his ass handed to him and get sent back down to the minors).

Here’s to hoping he can go deep — or at least last until after the UEFA Champions League final so we can patch him up appropriately and get a picture for the Team Pokerati photo album!

BTW: Though this will become more relevant as more events move forward, you can click here to follow all the twitterings of all Pokerati peeps together.

The data’s just starting to come in … as final WSOP dealer paychecks went out last week:

I picked up my toke check from the final table on Thursday. I got a grand total of $9.37 for my 8 main event downs so an extra $1.17 a down.

WSOP dealer tipping is always a prickly issue, you know, give or take a few million.

Hmm, OK, so if I’m doing my math right … that comes to an extra $2.34/hr (pre-tax) for WSOP main event dealers. Not sure if that’s good/bad or fair/not — but theoretically an additional $800 from the November Nine for a week’s worth of main event dealing doesn’t sound too shabby. Obviously dealers weren’t thrilled that nearly half of the remaining $32 million in main event prize pool money still to be toked out — 1st and 2nd place — went to two Euros, who come from quite the different tipping cultures. (Seriously, when Danes have to give 60 percent to their gov, can you really blame them for stiffing the pizza guy?)

But hey, the penguins dealt the turns and rivers. So clearly, it’s all in their hands: WSOP dealers reap what they sew. No?

Pauly and I have some side-action … on which dealer is going to deal the final hand.

I’ve got homegirl Linda Tran, of course (who goes on in the third down) and Lou the old white guy.

He’s got Jena Phillips (2008 WSOP Dealer of the Year, who’s on now, in the first level), and Anthony Shawn the black guy.

All bets are off if the young white guy ends up pitching the winner/loser.

We’re thinking of additional side action based on whether or not the last hand is a bad beat, bad call, or a straight-up winner with cards falling the way they’re supposed to.

UPDATE: We’ve learned only three dealers are in play — Jenna, Linda, and Lou. Advantage Michalski.

ALSO UPDATE: Pauly and Otis have way more prop bets going on the types of hands that will win and lose the money, whether or not the opening hands of levels will be walks, etc. This prop bet is merely a little extra action for Dr. Baller — but hey, I don’t mind competing on a JV level in this world! (This world of final table heads-up action prop bets; not this world Earth.)

Dallas-to-Vegas transplant Linda Tran is one of five dealers dealing the final table. While there’s a wee-bit of hubbub from the usual featured-table dealers who weren’t invited to pitch … I know Linda is one of the best dealers I’ve ever sat/worked with, whether that was at charity tourneys in Dallas, or as a player in WSOP cash games in previous years. Kinda exciting to see her throwing Kems in such a big game — she’s earned it, imho.

She was at the Rio last night working with the TV table felt — something about the grain affecting the speed of the slide … and think about it, if she messes up here, sure, flipped cards and the like are part of the game, but still … can you imagine working on stage, in the spotlight, knowing if you make one of those mistakes that is inevitable … it potentially affects a player’s personal outcome by a million dollars or more? No pressure.

NOTE: She’s on the felt now, and kept Ivan Demidov alive by not cracking his pocket kings (despite flopping a nut-flush draw for his opponent, who I believe was Scott Montgomery). Meanwhile, in the crowd, Dennis Phillips’ fans have started chanting college-hoops style: “Let’s – Go – Den – Nis – [clap] – [clap] -[clap][clap][clap]!”

UPDATE: Whoa!!!! A one outer-on the river, compliments of Linda, to knock out Scott Montgomery in 5th place. $3,096,768. (Still pretty good money — more than Moneymaker won.)

CURRENT CHIP COUNTS

Ivan Demidov — 49,100,000
Peter Eastgate – 47,635,000
Ylon Schwartz — 22,175,000
Dennis Phillips – 17,325,000

One of the guys playing The River today yesterday is/was ItsOverJonny — not sure how he’s doing or how anyone’s doing … don’t think they have phones yet in Oklahoma … but regardless, if you’re not reading IOJ, well I’m not gonna say you should be, because, hey, we’re all busy people. But think Gary Carson, only more bitter and jaded. Good stuff, as you could imagine.

Though Jonny did play in the big $2k event yesterday, he wasn’t exactly happy with the WinStar crew after playing in a $500 event — and he spells it out, plain as day, what beefs he has with their dealers. Though I suspect the WinStar may poo-poo his free-of-charge poker room consultation because who cares when you’re making so much damn money these days, I can attest that he definitely knows a thing or two about how good games are supposed to run, and just about any poker room management should wanna use his post as a litmus test for what their dealer crew should and shouldn’t do. Some highlights from his blog:

Jonny played in Winstar’s $500+50 today. 61 players. Same shitty Winstar structure. Dealers were fucking horrible, and between dealers fucking everything up, maddening noise from all directions, and idiot clowndick players, I was tilting beyond belief, even though I hadn’t hardly played a hand for a while at the time. Seriously – where do they get these retard dealers that they stick in the tournaments? It’s not like it’s a $60 nightly tournament – it was $550 – get some dealers that can run a table without making repeated stupid mistakes, and then giving me attitude when I correct them until they finally figured out that they had indeed made a mistake. Your job consists of the most basic of math, making a little change, and distribution of cards. How do you manage to fuck that up?

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Photo(s) by Danm

Now if I just had about 8 more LCD’s… this would make a hell of a multi-monitor wallpaper. Let us know if any of you guys want the 9.4mb Hi-Res version.

Playing under our little satanic-spade banner … David Pflaster. Some of you may recall … he got his start playing at the Lodge and before you knew it was getting aces tattooed on his forearms, dealing in Dallas, and about a year ago moved to Las Vegas to make it as a low-stakes pro.

He actually seems to be doing it — says he’s just slightly better than breaking even in cash games while hitting some “big” scores in tourneys. More than $20k in the past few months in Caesar’s freerolls, another $10k win online … today he’s playing in the $2,000 NLH event … and with about half the field eliminated just before dinner break, he’s a pretty-big stack with about 18,000 chips (more than double the avg.). Seen here after just having taken out a player who moved all-in on his big blind in a hand where he woke up with pocket kings.

NOTE TO SELF: Satanic Spade … good name for a new death metal band!

UPDATE: According to Pflaster: “Dude, my Aces ran into Jacks.” His opponent was apparently a relative big-stack … so he’s now down to 3600, with blinds at 300/600 … and Pflaster in the big blind on the next hand after dinner break.

Yikes. But at the same time, on the previous break he and I talked about this exact situation, and how he’s learned his way out of it. We’ll see, no?

BTW, mad props to WSOP dealer and Pokeratizen 85Nutz, who spent his day off competing in the $300+30 at Caesar’s yesterday … finished in 7th place, which paid him $8k. Nice!

Should give him plenty to dump into video poker at Ellis Island, because that’s what dealers do after a big score, no?

In today’s episode, Dr. Pauly and I witness a well-known poker author/pro checking out some hot dealer ass, as Dan struggles to come to grips with his inner Sklansky.

Episode 2: Dirty Sklanchez

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Dealers are taking their seats for the $2,000 NLH event that’s about to start — cards in the air in 20 minutes, supposedly … and suddenly, out of nowhere, we have “I Feel Good” blasting on the loudspeakers in the Amazon Room, which is semi-sealed off to keep the players from entering right now.

I wanna make fun, but I think the music thing is working. It’s hard to be grumpy with the tunes going. (I don’t know the name of the song they’re playing now, but it’s pretty uppity, too.

UPDATE: Snake and Charles have educated me … that song was “Jerk It Out” by The Caesars. Simultaneously appropriate and frightening. They also inform me that this musical start has been a daily thing ever since the marching band played.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4h9HBn8Q60

With that in mind, I have decided to open up my shared iTunes playlist for anyone who wants to pick up some Pokerati songs. Right now we’re listening to Trivium’s “The Deceived,” which is about the feeling you have after an opponent shows you a big, successful bluff:

Dr. Chris Ferguson and his support-posse rejoice behind a trophy, a watch (or is it a bracelet?), and a plateful of half-a-mil. Fabolosa on his lap.

He pushes all-in on a board of [cards]10c 3s 7s 7h[/cards]. (He’s holding [cards]js jc[/cards].) The audience — fewer than 80 people, but crammed together to make them look like more — jumps from their seats when Jordan announces the all-in and crowds around the mini-table. Andy Bloch thinks and thinks for several minutes, flips a two-headed quarter and calls with his [cards]10s 4s[/cards].

River is [cards]7c[/cards].

People are wondering about the call. I contend it woulda been the right decision had he gotten a better river.

I’ll try not to overdo this as Dan has posted much on this past weekend’s tourney; but I did want to give a quick summary of my tournament and a review of the tournament and casino at large.

First, my tournament. I made it into level 7, a little more than halfway through the day. I had a good starting table, with several players limp-calling and nittily letting there chip stacks dwindle away. The only problem was that through the first break (after level 4) we hadn’t busted a single player at my table; at the same time, almost half the starting field on our day 1 was gone. As a result, there were not as many chips for the taking. Even still, I was at 8400 (average of 6200) and feeling pretty good. I have not played a MTT since the Main Event (subject of a to-be-written post entitled “Supernova, or, how to donk away a money finish in the Big One”), and I was a little loosey-goosey early, but I managed to level it out and felt pretty good with a pretty good table image.

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THACKERVILLE, Okla.–TJ Cloutier made a raise, and Vikram Vijay folded 2-7o face-up. Greg Raymer, announcing the action, says, “Folding the Hammer.” I think I was the only one cheering on the inside … not for the fold, but for the Raymer recognition. (Otis must have taught him well.)

On the very next hand, they got it all-in … Cloutier had A-J, an Vijay called with 3-3. An ace came on the flop … no straight or flush draw on the turn … and congratulations to the New Yorker-cum-Oklahoman Vikram Vijay, who wins the 3rd annual Red River Roundup with a red 3 on the river.

Perhaps just as it should be?

For those of you who have be reading the whole tournament tipping vs not tipping controversary, let’s take a moment to check out this dealer. I call him the Elvis dealer as the Pokernews photo obviously explains.

I’m not sure if this is the same Elvis that gave me away at my wedding ten years ago but they do have the same hair. All Elvis look alike anyway.

Some of you say that you want to get a breakdown of what Harrah’s takes out of the pot and how much the dealers make. It’s none of your business. Some of you have done some horrendous math which indicates that dealers for the main event only made $10.15 per hour, hogwash. Hey, I’ve never used that word before. That was fun. How can you divide the total tip by 700 people working 11 days? I didn’t notice 700 dealers at the final table.

Do you know how much the person at the Gap makes when you go in to buy your plaid shorts? Do you know how much the guy makes that is changing the oil in your Yugo? How much does the Slot Manager at Caesar’s Palace make? Who cares about any of this, and who cares how much dealers make except for dealers and the people hiring them?

What should a dealer make? I say pay them whatever they need to be paid to attract reasonably talented people. The answer I’m guessing is probably somewhere between $20 and $35 per hour. For a full time employee, that’s an annual salary between $41,600 and $72,800.

Excepting errors, does the dealer have anything to do with me winning or losing a tournament? If you say yes, start collecting stamps not playing poker. Since the answer is no, why should I tip them? Do I want them to make a good wage? Of course I do. So here’s the plan. In this plan I will use the WSOP as the example:

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