*Post-continued*

I’m not sure how to catch up. I’ll just start by trying and hope it works out well. I should be nestling down in my little bed by now, hoping the Sand Woman will sprinkle warm, non gritty sand all over me, and getting ready to drift into dream land, free of the Card Fairy and the woes of the world. I’m NOT! I’m married to the keyboard. As a matter of fact, I may have to have the damn thing surgically removed from my hands.

Have I ever mentioned how I hate SPAM? I think they should all have their testicles and tits cut off and forced down their throats – just like they force their spam on us. I’m sick of receiving emails asking me if my girlfriend is happy. Do I give a shit if she’s happy when I don’t even own one? And how about ‘get bigger pants’, like my penis and testicles are supposed to enlarge. I’ve gained enough weight in the last year; I don’t need some butt brain telling me to get bigger pants. OK! I’m done with that subject, although it may pop up in a ‘whiner hot line’ post soon.

Back to the WSOP and my play at the Casino Employee Event. I have, so far, received news from two players that I should have followed through with a continuation bet after the flop when I held 9-9 (previous post). I’m sure they are totally right. If I hadn’t felt naked – with no chips to begin with – I would have. And of course, they are stressing the fact that that is how I ‘get’ chips. Yes, Mas-sah…yes, Mas-sah. I know the routine now.

I seriously hated my beginning table. No action unless you were beat, not me because I just didn’t pick anything up for a long, long time. The fun part of that table was that Ramze (fellow employee at Bellagio) was moved to my table, in the 9s, right next to me. We did visit. That helped ease the pain of looking at nothing playable. This is Ramze, taken later in the tournament when he had chips and I was long time out:

When the blinds went up to $25-50, I was down to about $450 in chips, UTG, Q-Q. I pushed all-in. No one called. I did pick up my round of Blinds. A few minutes later I managed to go all-in with A-J. Another A-J called, all-in, and I had him covered (believe me, he didn’t have much for me to have him covered) and K-Qo got in the mix with us. I won a small side pot and the other A-J and I split the main pot. Sit and wait, fold, fold, fold. Another time I picked up A-A UTG with $500 in front of me. By now the blinds were $50-100. I pushed all-in. No one called and I picked up another round of blinds. Crap! Our table was broken and moved…of course I had just paid the BB. Hello Card Fairy! And the worst of it was that Jennifer just came in to deal…she was by far the best dealer we’d had and did a very good job. She’s also a friend of Claudia, one of the “Pan Game Plays Vegas” posts. I hated to leave Jennifer behind:

I got moved to the 7s in another game in which the 2s must have been someone really special or thought he was a real pro. He was on the button, stood up to talk to someone, and the cards were being dealt…oh yeah, he had on headphones, dark glasses, and a baseball cap. Trying to be helpful, I loudly said, “Sit down!” meaning that his hand would be dead if his butt wasn’t in the chair when the last card was dealt. He impudently waved me off, “I can’t hear you!” as he sat down.

It’s hard to tell if people are dealers or work elsewhere in a casino and I wasn’t sure what his position was. I started to say, “I wasn’t trying to be rude…”

He must have heard me that time because he said, “It’s the dealer’s job to tell me to sit down.”

Yeah…right baby. The dealer is not obligated to tell you anything other than what the bet or raise is.

He waved me off again, “I can’t hear you.”

I laughed out loud and exclaimed (mainly to me), “WOW! He must be someone really important.”

It did bring a laugh from my end of the table. The 2s also had a lot of chips, definitely the chip leader in the game, and he punished everyone on almost every hand. I had gained very little ground in the chip stack area and when it was my BB blind, he insolently tossed out a raise to $300. I had the feeling it was mainly because it was my blind. I looked down to A-J Spades. I just pushed all-in. I had about $575 more. Of course he ‘auto called’. He turned over A-9 D, I turned up my hand and stood up. Preparing to leave, I started picking up my bags and water…hey, I didn’t give up, I just ain’t been on no heater for a long, long time.

He barked at me, “Sit down!”

The Flop brought A-9-? with one spade.

He quickly said, “No…go ahead and stand up,” he figured I was out. Hell…so did I.

The turn brought a spade, the river brought a Jack. I was in. I sat back down. I managed to win the blinds one more time. The most I ever had in front of me was about 1,650. The blinds went to $100-200. This table was broken down and we were all moving. As I passed the 2s, I said, “Hey, I wasn’t trying to be smart…”

He looked apologetic as he said, “I was.”

Well good for you Mr. Going Pro.

My buddies Greg and Chad Patterson were both in the tournament. Chad went out fairly early, Greg made it to 180th place – or somewhere in there. Amy came in to see Greg and we had a chance to visit after we all got ‘busted’. Nice. I love those boys. And Amy too.

At this table I met Bobby. He works with Wayne at the Palms. We visited briefly and this table broke down. Kee-rist! My next table had Angelito AKA Angel Baby in it. And Josh, a kid that I briefly spent some time with in ‘dealer training’ at my home before he went to work at the Gold Coast when they opened a poker room. Josh:

I came in right behind the button. I looked at 6-2, Q-3, 8-4, and all of those startlingly beautiful hands that makes one want to throw all of their chips in the pot. One time earlier, I did pick up Q-JC and wanted to call the $100 BB but I had never thrown away a winner and didn’t want to gamble on blowing off my big chip stack, $100 at a time. BTW, I wouldn’t have made anything on that hand either. So…present situation, the limits went up. We were at $25 ante, $150-300 blind. Help, Mrs. Wizard. One more time, UTG, I look down to K-Qo. Seriously, this is the biggest hand I’d seen in quite awhile. I thought about it for approximately 20 seconds and pushed all-in with $875. I got called by A-Q. We both made two pair and I was out. I came in somewhere between 450 and 500 and made it four and a half hours. I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to jump in some satellites and second chance tourneys once I get thru the rest of this week and the time clock at Bellagio.

After I dusted off my small stack of chips, I milled around, took pictures, visited with people I knew, and waited for Michael Craig to make the scene. We were going to have dinner, he would be checking into the Rio, and he already knew he was out the buy-in for this event.

Just after I ‘busted’, I was out in the kiosk area when Felicia and Glen appeared. We had a chance to visit for few minutes. I get the biggest kick out of Felicia…and Glen too for that matter. They are so opposite, yet they go together so well.

I found this guy in the Casino Employee Event. Ramze came up with the idea that we should name him the ‘poster child’ for the Casino Employee event, and when I relayed that to this kid, he thought it was a great idea. See…you thought all employees had to look like real upstanding citizens in corporate America:

While I milled around and looked at all the bodies and people, I ran in to Mark AKA Kram. He was on such a roll with life and poker. He had just taken 2nd place at the IP and had a big money cash. Good for him. He’s such a great kid. I can’t help but wish him all the best in his poker career.

Back to the Kiosk area and Jason Kirk appeared. We spent some time together, catching up. Nice.

There were quite a few Bellagio employees entered in the Casino Employee event. One of them was Doug Dalton, our poker room manager. The others that I recognized were dealers, although I didn’t capture all of them for pictures, I may try to do an article – at some point – on employees that want to make the move to players and their own struggles/rewards with the journey. And don’t look at me to be a moving force in trying to become a full time player…that is not on my agenda. But it might be on his – this is Ted:

Another little happy face that belongs to a Bellagio dealer – and believe me he was born with a smile on his face, I’ve only seen him one time when he wasn’t smiling. Meet Ben:

I tried my best to get pictures of the contestants of the Tournament of Champions – HAH! There were bodies and cameras and camera booms everywhere! This is the overall scene:

I did manage to find a spare space in the field and take this picture of Mike Sexton:

And how could I stand to bypass a chance at a ‘night shot’ picture? I couldn’t. At times when the lighting is poor, people are in the way and milling about, ‘night shot’ is the answer for the long shot/zoom. This is it – the back you see is Chris Ferguson, of course the face is Daniel Negreanu:

I’m always amazed at the number of people that crowd the rail and stand for hours, watching a poker game. Poker is so damn boring, unless of course Mike Matusow is winning a pot or Phil Hellmuth is going broke. But the crowd built a solid wall on the ropes and watched for hours…

At one point, I found an empty table, off the backside of the crowds, just out of the ring game section and tournament area, to sit and reflect my day…and wait for Michael Craig. I had my back to everyone. Amazingly, I heard a voice, “Are you Linda?”

Wow! How in the hell did this guy even begin to find me in the mass of humanity that was milling through the room? Meet Dale. And why didn’t I use my head and have his friend take a picture of us together? Too tired I guess. Dale and Greg (I believe his name is) sat down and visited with me for a bit. It was really nice. They went off to hit a satellite and check out the rest of the room and I waited to hear from Michael…by now I was s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g.

Michael Craig finally hit the parking lot of the Rio. It was still hot as hell outside and the sun was partially up. I stood, in the shadow of the building, and watched him unload everything and start towards the steps of the convention center before I moved towards him and offered to pull one of his pieces of luggage. We went to registration and then up to his room to leave his belongings, before we headed for the coffee shop and food. I got this picture from his room – he does have a room with a view. And how about ‘Wynn Las Vegas’? That building is a beauty and can be seen from every angle in the city.

Finally…food. Great company, good food, an ‘ultra’, and we were back in the middle of the poker explosion. Michael signed up for a satellite, I milled some more. Craig’s plane had landed and he was waiting for baggage claim and all that jazz.

I saw Tony G. and Chris Bigler out in the Kiosk area, said hello, got a great hug, went back to visit with Michael for a moment, and I was out the door. Damn this daylight living is hard on a girl.