Come on Talal, overcome the HU deficit!!

Good fight Talal!!

GG Rast.

Fun fact: this is Talal's best finish in a WSOP event. I was rooting for him. He's clearly very skilled.

NL cash games were extremely short this week and the games played even smaller. Played 2/5 twice and around 50% were under $500. Played 5/10 at Caesars and there was less than 15k on the table. Last time I was at the Wynn that was about an average stack. PLO stacks looked better though.

aside from stack depths, how were the actual games? terribly nitty, or semi-decent?

Now this is an observation, not a judgement . . .

After 12 days of playing cash in numerous Vegas rooms I have a Limit vs No Limit Table Theorem . . .
If you walk past a table and there are 4 or more women playing
Then it's extremely likely a limit table

Now people twist this into all kinds of different things that I didnt say
but if you read it as is, just at face value, and dont try to find some agenda in there, you'll see it's pretty accurate

To discuss any ideas on WHY this is true . . . I dont dare try that.

In the Chicago area the number of limit tables are slim and none (I think Aurora has one game that goes)
so the only time I get to see them is in Vegas

As a psychology nerd, I find this observation fascinating.

Caesar's 2/5 is meant to be short, that's why the cap is $500
Same at Bellagio
5/10 at Caesar's rarely happens except during the WSOP
I think you just went to the wrong room for bigger games

At home (Chicago) at 1-3 I'm considered a TAG, at Caesar's I'm a LAG and borderline maniac.
As an example, the past week or so when I was in Vegas, I open all my low pocket pairs for $15 at 1-3 and am lucky to get a caller or two
I cbet almost 100% of the time and take it down far more often than not.
It's just weird.
Back home that $15 raise gets you 5 way action frequently,

If you want action in Vegas you have to go to 2-5 and higher and not at those two rooms.
I dont know why, but every summer when I go to Vegas, I'm shocked at how tight the low stakes games are.
But at the same time, it's an easy way to grind out profits, ride a strong buzz all day and feel like you're some sort of poker savant
Good for the ego

Weak tight but I will say it was a very small sample size. Two of the days were after tourney knockouts and I really wasn’t in the mood to play with a bunch of short buys. Frustrating to wait for a table and that’s what you get so I didn’t play long.

There are conflicting reports between the forum and actual dealers about this. I never asked floors whether dealers are working the full 6 day weeks or not, only dealers. I would love to actually know if there is truly a dealer shortage or if they actually have a floor shortage and therefore lower the number of active dealers during any shift at series to alleviate people trying to cheat the system. As of now a simple signature on a sheet is all you need to get paid.

One dealer mentioned that they actually give out ribbons of differing colors to established who is working and who will be first to leave etc.

Here is a link to my post in Tourney Events for those interested.
Dealers at WSOP

Lots of great thoughts/analysis in your linked post. I am currently at series so most of this info is first-hand. A few quick replies:

Yes - some kind ribbon and signature system does exist and there are tracking issues. Which implies yes maybe some employees are gaming it - haven't asked about it

But for example, I did see a dealer leave his box for feeling sick at the start of his down and while a co-worker jumped in, he never came back and 2 hrs later i overheard rhe supervisors talking about not knowing where he went

From my brief but informed perspective:
Cash floor is pretty good overall. Haven't heard about any obviously botched rulings. There are still some bad and dumb rules in place, mostly from an inflexible upper management that probably doesn't actually run games / interact with players. Cash floor is aware and mostly candid speaking about which rules are bad and proactively does work on issues to improve the player QoL. For example - cash floor is very supportive of mix game community, making it possible for 20/40 games to remain popular / have regulations in place for newer games to be spread, even adjusting the rulesets of some game. They also helped lobby for the removal of Mississippi straddles in omaha game, which were obscure and problematic Honestly, think the cash floors have been pretty awesome, earnest, helpful, friendly etc. even when facing blowback from players that isn't their fault. I give them a lot of props.

This isn't to say there aren't some big issues with the way the cash room is managed - but that the frontlines employees mostly aren't directly responsible for the biggest problems/challenges

Cashiers also seem fine/good - they could be quite bad at rio.

A bit concerning, certain floor shifts directly contradict and change various policies of different shifts - causing confusion for both players and dealers - ex. Different rules about how time/bomb pots for rake are implemented in omaha games (multiple types).

Dealer quality is still poor. I'd say about half are up to a serviceable standard or better (including many top-notch dealers) - maybe 35% are below average, and 10-15% unqualified. Of the unqualified, a signifigant portion simply can't communicate well in English, making it a lot harder for them to reach minimal standards or experienced players to guide them at the table.

That being said - its clear that the exact same pool of dealers would peform better if proper/better support and communication structures were in place and the overall environment was more controlled / less chaotic.


Might follow up with a few more things later.

Anecdotal but I had a very good dealer, a full time school teacher who had worked the wsop for years for the $ during their summer break, tell me they were leaving the wsop at the end of the week because Caesars had over-hired dealers this year in order to limit individual dealers to 40 hrs / week, making it a much different economic opportunity for them.

Yeah I've heard the overhired dealers thing as well, though not sure on the reason.

Agree floors are good in cash room overall.

Still have plenty of arguments over pre flop raise sizes in plo.

This article talks about some of the WSOP Main Event odds posted on an online betting site.

Dnegs 60 to 1 to win, Ivey 60 to 1, Hellmuth 80 to 1. Try multiple by 10x or more. lol

Over/Under 9000.5 Over -135

Number of final table players wearing headgear (Sunglasses, Hat, etc.) 4-6 players -125, 1 to 3 players +165, 7-10 players +350

https://www.gamblingsites.com/blog/2...of-poker-odds/

Kornuth summer heater continues. Ships 2.2k wynn tourney for 537k

As Phil Hellmuth famously said, "If there weren't Chance involved, I would win every time."

Probably because people are always screaming for more dealers and many dealers walk out by the end of the summer

FYP

Well its pretty obvious. Women on the aggregate tend to take less risks than men.

So, record-breaking fields in the Milly Maker and Monster Stack.

High turnout all across town.

Main Event record is definitely falling this year. Gonna be insanely huge.

Someone should explain to them that official final table is 9 not 10

This surely should get love

What kind of idiot takes someone to win at 60-1 in an 8k+ field?

These vlogs showing the huge crowds on break time make me nervous. It would only take someone to say 'active shooter' to cause a stampede. Maybe I'm paranoid but I wouldnt want to be in those hallways with all the people.

https://twitter.com/FarazJaka/status...54648456953857

yeah that's exactly what happened, I don't remember what year, maybe last year, but Daniel Negreanu captured it on his vlog. If I recall, a window got broken somehow(?) and people thought it was a gun and everyone stampeded.