Tournament snapshot

Above: The Mississippi casinos, such as Harrah's, are supposed to be on water, the Mississippi River in Tunica's case. To get around this, there are canals from the river to technically satisfy the requirement. Can you see the water?

Handicapped players are welcome
The first day of Event No. 12, there was a deaf guy at our table. I was impressed with how well and nicely the dealers accommodated him. I was in the 10 seat, so I heard each dealer talk to the next one:

"The guy in the two seat is deaf. Spread the bets out so he can see them. If necessary, use hand signals."

His wife would come by occasionally, and they spoke using sign language. She wasn't supposed to be out among the tables, but they let her. I'd like to say he was a good player, but, in fact, he was a calling station without much of a clue. He won some lucky hands early, however, and managed to last for about four hours. I hope it doesn't sound mean to say that this was a positive outcome for someone on his skill level.

People ask me why I play tournaments when they are so hit-or-miss. Folks, there's dead money out there which makes it +EV in the long run.

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Let's thank Jimmy Sommerfeld
On the first day, I went for nearly three hours without winning a pot (other than two hands where I raised and everybody folded). Three hours! I was able to survive because the blind structure was so player-friendly. Sommerfeld is the guy behind this. It's poker's loss that he's retired now.

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Let's evaluate the staff
When I play in the WSOP in Las Vegas each summer, I see some truly awful dealers. The events are so big that I think they have to take anyone with a pulse. The dealers for this tournament were not that way -- they were mostly terrific. The same ones travel with the circuit. Sometimes they travel for eight weeks straight, before getting some time off. Nevertheless, the dealers say they love their job, even though they have long days that are brutal. Their next stop is Palm Beach FL.

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Let's talk demographics
When we were at two tables, there were four Asians and 14 caucasians. There were 16 males and two females. The males were a mixture of all ages, not just young guns like you see on TV.

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What's up with that?
When there were about 15 players left, a lady from the other table complained loud enough that we could hear: "Why do I have to color up? I want the orange chips!"

The orange chips were $1000 each. When you have so many of them, they take some out of play and give you grey ones worth $5000 or brown ones worth $25,000. Then she stomped off to find the head tournament director (missing a couple of hands in the process!). A few minutes later, she was moved to our table. the first thing she did was ask if anyone would sell her 20 orange chips for four grey ones. I was happy to get rid of some of mine and that seemed to make her happy. I'm still not sure why she wanted the orange -- maybe she thought they were prettier.

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I'm not taking any more shit
When we were four-handed, the guy behind me (Andy) was exploiting me by floating. He called all my raises, he called all my CBs, then took the pot away later. I got tired of that. I raised to 36K, he called. The flop was Q-10-2 and I bet 70K and he called again. I forget the turn, but I moved all in for another 250K. He thought and thought and finally folded. I couldn't resist showing: ♠7 ♣2.

There was a message there. I may be a nitty old man, but I'm tired of being run over. Next time I might have the nuts or I might have the hammer -- you figure it out.

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Let's brag
If there's no link, it didn't happen, right? If you want to see my first loser finish second-place finish, click here.

The Hendon Mob is still missing two of my bigger ca$hes (having a name David Smith has its problems), but you can see what they have here.

Photo taken with my P&S as I was going to play the final.