I wrote an article for PokerWorks’ main page last night about Dennis Klenczar.  I’ve ran the post URL through my Facebook page and PokerWorks Twitter @pokerworks, and I’m posting here now in hopes that any of you that have ever had a friend or family member stricken with cancer would take the time to say a prayer and also play a poker tournament to help his cause. Find all the information here.

I have many great memories of Dennis and not seeing him for awhile hasn’t diminished the fact that I love his heart. Of course we opened The Mirage together, along with a helluva lot of other people from around the world.

I have to tell you – straight out – that I hated the first three to four years I dealt at the Mirage.  I was one of 5,600 employees (give or take a few) that brought it out of Play Days into the direct path of all the lunatic gamblers of the world on November 22nd, 1989.  When Bellagio opened and we got our orientation/pep talk from Bobby Baldwin, he said that him and Steve Wynn had seriously wondered if they made a mistake, if they would fall flat on their face with the Mirage, and if anyone would be there when they opened the doors.  The crowd was 80 miles deep when they cut the ribbon and he said they had to outrun all the customers, and stay ahead of the stampede trying to get out of the way once the ribbon was down.

So there’s your answer.  It was a hit, it was my home from 1989 to April of 1993 when I moved to Gulfport for one year to open the Grand.  I moved back in 1994 – almost a year later to the day, and worked days at the Sahara and dealt the Gold Coast Open at the Gold Coast on swing temporarily during the tournament until there were openings in The Mirage poker room and I was back, somewhere around the end of July 1994.  I stayed until Bellagio opened in 1998.

I worked mainly with Dennis except for one stint when I worked day shift with Jimmy Knight.  I always worked the weekends (WTF? No idea now, the money was never any better, the insanity ran higher, the idiots had more idiotaroni in their weekend diets) when the room was always a sweltering (literally roasting sauna), crowded mess that you couldn’t wade through.  And once as Penny Sliman walked back into the room from a break she belted out, “Day-o, day-ay-ay-o Daylight come and he wan’ go home.  Swear to God, if I hear that song one more time…”

Harry Belafonte screamed out the banana song so many times the first 3 or 4 years that The Mirage must owe him at least $1M for overuse.

On the nights I didn’t work with Dennis and Donna, I worked with Lou Camrano (spelling is wrong I’m sure) and Bob Antonetti.  Of course that all changed, as people came and went, like Bob and Lou…here one day, gone the next.  Not Dennis though.  Dennis was, by far, my top pick of floormen to work with.

Dennis has had some tough times through the years, his wife Angela used to run the list for the high stud games when we first opened and later had major medical problems and so many surgeries I wanted to cry just thinking about it back then when I heard some of the news.

Ahhhhh…guess I got off on a ramble.  One memory always leads to another time and another memory.  This post is a request for anyone that has a Full Tilt Poker account to jump in the tournament and help Dennis out.  If you don’t have a Full Tilt account you know how easy it is to remedy so I leave it at that.

Here’s the information on how to find the tournament – taken from the article that went up yesterday: The Full Tilt Poker No Limit Holdem tournament is listed under ‘Helping Hand – Dennis Klenezar’ with a $5+$5 buy-in, kicking off on April 10th at 14:00, allowing late registration through level one.  Open the Full Tilt Poker Lobby, under ‘Browse’ > ‘Tournament’ – ‘Private’ – ‘Hold’em’ – ‘No Limit’ scroll to Apr 10 14:00 (highlighted in purple) or search for Tournament ID 228995441. The password is ‘OPEN.’

Your registering in the tournament would be great, but remember ‘well thoughts’ and prayers do work miracles.  I’m praying for one for Dennis, I hope you do too!