Wow! It’s brutal to go from being Ms. Dracula-ette and sleeping during the day (hold the coffin and dirt from my native country please – I have a bed and love it), to trying to sleep ONE night so I can jump up and spend the daylight hours in a teaming mass of humanity all focused on one thing – POKER!

I received several emails of good luck wishes and a phone call from Jim AKA The Monkey before I headed out. I had to laugh when I explained to Jim that I had really shied away from Casino Employee and Women’s Events because I felt that it was a form of branding, of being put in a category in order to compete in a tournament. His words, “Yeah, like the Special Olympics. You aren’t good enough to play in regular events with real players!” *LMAO*

I had preregistered the night before and while I was waiting in the Q to pay the entry fee, Eskimo Clark appeared behind me. I’m surprised he even recognized me without a dealer shirt on. I found it rather humorous when he asked me what I was there for, if I was registering to deal. I’m not sure how or why I would be at the Cashier’s Cage if I was going to register to deal but it was worth an inward chuckle as I replied that I was registering for the Casino Employee Event.

But that was yesterday, this is today. Upon arriving at the Rio, parking in the ‘North 40’, I went directly to the media registration area to pick up my press pass and info package. And hey…look at this – in the ‘booth’ section outside the tournament area – bigger than real life and a lot bigger than me:

On to the heat of the Casino Employee Event: 1,232 entrants, prize pool of $554,400 – of which yours truly got NONE! But damn it, I tried and I had a good time too. So this is how it unfolded.

I saw MissT74 and we exchanged hellos and good luck wishes before finding my seat in this sea of tables and people:

I want to die laughing at people that are control freaks. I got settled at my table and while standing up with my camera, I had just snapped a picture when a floor person informed me that I couldn’t use a flash in that area. No Chit? I glibly asked, “Did the flash go off?”

Of course it didn’t. He walked off without replying. But what else would one expect? I used to deal to a gent named Desert Don, in Montana, years ago. One of Don’s favorite sayings was, “If you’re going to be a sucker, be a quite sucker.” That about says it all.

I hated the fact that we started with 1,000 in tournament chips and a $25-25 blind structure. The only good news is that the blind levels only moved up every hour. There is no play at that level with that amount in starting chips. Make one mistake and you’re crippled or out, and I only question my play in one hand. It was in the first hour, I picked up 9-9 UTG and raised to $150. I got a call from the 1s (I was in the 7s) and I’ve played with her before. She’s capable of showing down a variety of hands from any position, not necessarily loose but makes some calls that I wouldn’t make. Of course, if I ever ran good, I might make a few more calls than I do. 🙂 The Flop brought Q-8-3, I checked, she bet $250, I folded. She also had made quads about 20 minutes before and busted out one player and had picked up several pots along the way, she was the chip leader at that point, and I was in the ‘dead zone’ with cards. I’m positive she didn’t have A-K or a big pair or she would have put me all-in preflop. But that’s all history now anyway.

So put this in your trivia stack. In the middle of each table in the tournament is this logo:

The player on my right works at the Rio and he told us that Party paid 25M for two years to have the logo displayed at the WSOP. And this is one is worth 20M for two years – it sits on the right hand side of the table:

And don’t think Harrahs isn’t doing everything they can to wring the last $$ out of every opportunity to add to their chip stacks in the world of industry and competition, they are. Let’s get into beverages. As long as you are seated at a table, you may order a drink and pay nothing other than a tip. But don’t walk around the room or even act like you are dying of thirst if you aren’t seated at a table. They furnish a bar at the back of the tournament area, by the satellite area. A beer costs only $6.50. I didn’t buy one but the guy at my table did on a break.

As I walked around the room, visiting with people, after I got knocked out of the tourney, I asked a cocktail server (BTW – both genders are serving beverages) for two of the bottles of water on his tray, already holding out two $1 bills, he told me couldn’t serve me unless I was in a game. WTF???? He did say I could get water from the bartender. I approached the bartender, asking for water, he said he couldn’t wait on me, I would have to ask a cocktail server. Boy…they are pissing me off here. I told him I’d asked the server, the server sent me to him, he was still adamant that he couldn’t serve me.

I caught another server walking by and asked them, nope, they could be fired if they did. As luck would have it, a beverage manager was walking by. I caught him long enough to explain that I couldn’t seem to get a bottle of water, and that I’d been denied by the servers and the bartender. He approached the bartender, spoke to him in Spanish, and then informed me that it would cost $4 a bottle. I said, “NO!”

I did catch the manager again to explain the whole retarded situation and if the bartender had bothered to even act like he wanted to SELL me a bottle of water, I might have paid for it, but the bartender flat refused to give me service. The manager apologized for all the problems. But that didn’t resolve shit as far as I was concerned. I still wanted water.

I did hear that David Levi had gone through the same thing the night before after just getting knocked out of a satellite, and he was extremely vocal about it, screaming and having a fit. Notice how much clout he has because they haven’t changed their rule yet.

So a few minutes later, I found ‘Angel Baby’ still in the Employee Casino Event and handed him two bucks, asking him to pick up two waters for me from the server. He did. I seriously thought about walking by the bartender, waving my full bottles in the air and yelling, “Nah-nah-nah-nahah.” But I refrained; it wouldn’t do to get kicked out on the first day.

And this is Angel Baby, one of our Bellagio dealers:

There’s a lot more but my brain won’t get there until I sleep. *Post-poned*