1. Casino World Championship Zinny Studio

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The Casino Employees Championship is one of only three closed tournaments awarding WSOP bracelets at the World Series of Poker gathering. While most of the events are open to the general public, participants in the Ladies Championship, Seniors Championship, and the Casino Employees Championship must meet certain eligibility requirements. While these events are closed, the winner of these events is 'afforded the same distinction as all gold bracelet tournaments.'^[1] The WSOP bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win.^[2]

History[edit]

The World Series of Poker (WSOP), held annually in Las Vegas, is 'the oldest, largest, most prestigious, and most media-hyped gaming competition in the world'.^[3] In 2000, the WSOP started to honor Casino Employees by offering a bracelet event that only they could enter. The first tournament was called the 'Dealers World Poker Championship' because it was limited to poker dealers. The following year the field was open to all casino employees.^[1]

Casino World Championship Zinny Studio

Since the tournament is restricted to casino employees, most of the big name poker professionals and previous bracelet winners are not allowed to participate. Therefore, even though the Casino Employee Championship is a World Series of Poker bracelet event, it has typically received relatively little coverage.^[4] Despite this perception, the Casino Employee Championship event does involve numerous recognized names in the poker world. The 2009 tournament included two time bracelet winner Pat Poels, WSOP vice president Ty Stewart, Bellagio Tournament Director/Former WSOP Director Jack McClelland, and Woman Poker Hall of Famer Marsha Waggoner.^[5]

Prior to 2003, the tournament format was a Limit Hold'em tournament, but in 2004, No-Limit Hold'em became the standard.^[1] The 2006 tournament, with 1,232 entrants, was the largest field ever for the event. Since its inception, with the exception of 2008, the Casino Employees event has started on the first day of the WSOP.^[1] Much of the drama encountered at the Casino Championship often involves informal rivalries between dealers and proposition players.^[6] Proposition players are people hired to play poker, with their own money, at casinos to get games started or to ensure that they do not die out. Thus, while both the prop and dealer are casino employees, they sit on opposite sides of the table.^[6]

Highlights[edit]

In 2000, Dave Alizadeth from Las Vegas outlasted a field of 109 participants to become the first 'Dealers World Poker Championship'.^[1] While other Dealer Tournaments had a reputation for sloppy play, the first Dealer Championship was noted for the seriousness with which the players approached the game.^[1] In the end, however, the winner was not determined by the deal of the cards, but by a deal at the table. According to initial reports, the deal was only achieved because 'a World Series bracelet was not available for negotiation, the players decided to take their money and go home.'^[7] Other sources, however, indicate that the event was always intended to be a bracelet event.^[1] Either way, the official WSOP standings, credits Alizadeth with winning a WSOP bracelet at this event.^[8] By contrast the final three contestants at the 2003 Championship were doing Kamikaze shots. 'We were all having such a great time,' the winner David Lukaszewski said, 'sitting around playing poker that I think we may have forgotten about the prize money and the bracelet.'^[9]

The 2002 Casino Employee Championship almost mirrored Treetop Straus's amazing comeback in the 1982 WSOP Main Event. At the 1982 Main Event, Treetop was down to one $500 chip and came back to win the tournament. At the Casino Employee Championship, Dave Crunkleton, who has made 11 final WSOP tables but never won a bracelet, was down to one $500 chip with only four players left in the tournament. Crunkleton went all in with pocket eights and then succeeded in rebuilding his stack to $26,000 before being busted in third place.^[10] The 2002 winner, David Warga went on to become the first Casino Employee Champion to win a WSOP open event in 2010.

Many top professional poker players got their start working in casinos. 1998 WSOP Main Event Champion and five time bracelet winner, Scotty Nguyen's first job was as a dealer.^[11]Ted Forrest, another five time bracelet winner, credits his ability to read players because of his experience as a dealer.^[12] One-time bracelet winner Erick Lindgren also boasts a pedigree of starting out as a dealer.^[13]

Key[edit]

WSOP Casino Employee Championship Events[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdefg'Bartender wins first WSOP event'. Gaming News. Casino City Times. 2009-05-29. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
2. ^'Poker's glory is about the bracelet, not the money'. Albuquerque Tribune. Associated Press. July 28, 2006. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
3. ^'World Series of Poker History'. ESPN.com. ESPN. July 28, 2006. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
4. ^Newell, Jennifer (2008-07-18). 'Employees, Charity and Media Event Results'. PokerWorks. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
5. ^Holloway, Chad (2009-05-28). 'WSOP: Casino Employees Event Kicks Off 2009 World Series of Poker'. Bluff Magazine. Bluff Media. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
6. ^ ^ab'Tournament Report'. Poker Tournament Results 33rd Annual World Series of Poker. Poker Pages. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
7. ^Paulle, Mike. 'Poker Tournament Results'. PokerPages. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
8. ^'Dave Alizadeth'. Player Profiles. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
9. ^Dalla, Nolan (2003-04-15). 'Tournament Report'. Poker Tournament results 34 Annual World Series of Poker. PokerPages. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
10. ^Shapiro, Max (2001-04-20). 'Tournament Report'. Poker Tournament Results. Poker Pages. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
11. ^Laurrell, Nick (2008-10-09). 'Scotty Nguyen'. Poker Player Profile. Poker News Daily. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
12. ^Craig, Michael (2005-10-04). 'Everything But the River - Ted Forrest: One of the World's Best'. Card Player Magazine. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
13. ^'Erick Lindgren'. Player Profiles. Poker Listing. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
14. ^'Employee Event - Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
15. ^'Employee Event - Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
16. ^'Employee Event - Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
17. ^'Casino Employees Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
18. ^'Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
19. ^'Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
20. ^'Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
21. ^'Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (Event 2)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
22. ^'Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (Event 55)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
23. ^'Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
24. ^'Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. 2010 41st Annual World Series of Poker. Harrah's Entertainment. 2010-05-29. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
25. ^'Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (Event 1)'. 2016 47th Annual World Series of Poker. Caesars Entertainment. 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

The first weekend of action is underway at the 2017 World Series of Poker, but action from earlier in the week has already handed out two bracelets. On Thursday night, Bryan Hollis emerged as the champion of the Casino Employees’ Event, while action on Friday saw Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov defeat a difficult field of opponents to take the $10,000 Tag Team Championship.

Event #1 – $500 Casino Employees’ Event

11 players came back to the tables on Thursday afternoon to take care of the unfinished business of crowning a champion. Starting the day, Chris Gallagher (519K in chips) held an ever so slight lead over Chris Solomon (513K) in the pursuit of the $68,817 first place bounty. The players just needed to eliminate one player to get to the unofficial final table, which happened rather quickly when Nathan Bolinger was eliminated by Alex Cordova after only a couple of hands of action.

Hollis didn’t get off to the best start once the unofficial final table was seated. He would double up Josh Clanton to fall to the bottom of the leaderboard and barely kept his head above water as Haviv Bahar (eliminated 10th place, no official WSOP final table appearance), Victor Kim and Vincent Russell left the festivities. Hollis, who kept shoving but couldn’t find a dance partner, finally got a big double up when Solomon looked him up with an inferior A-3 against Hollis’ A-9. Hollis would use those chips to get healthier in knocking out Gallagher (who bled chips all afternoon) in seventh place, with Hollis cracking the 500K mark.

Solomon led the pack at this point, the only player over the one million mark in chips (1.36 million, to be exact), and his mountain of chips only grew from there. After Solomon knocked off Adem Arbuckle in sixth to pass the 1.5 million mark and then Cordova in fifth to pass 2.2 million, he held nearly two-thirds the chips in play. Solomon was living right because, after he eliminated Jermel Stephens in fourth place (and running down a set of jacks from Josh Clanton) after turning a straight with a 7-3, Solomon sat at 2.5 million and seemed to be in command.

That would be the apex of the day for Solomon, however. Within ten hands of knocking off Stephens, Solomon would double up both Clanton and Hollis, with Hollis taking over the lead with his double. Hollis used those chips from the double up to knock off Clanton in third place, sending him to heads up action against Solomon with Hollis holding a nearly 700K chip lead. Instead of a quick fight for the championship, however, the duo decided to make it a lengthy showdown.

Solomon doubled out of the gate, putting Hollis in more than a 3:1 hole, but Hollis would work his way back to the lead with his own double after a dozen hands of action. It would be a lead that Hollis would never relinquish as, on the penultimate hand, Hollis three-bet a Solomon raise pre-flop to see a K-9-3 flop. Hollis made a continuation bet and, after Solomon chose that moment to make his stand with an all-in, immediately made the call and turned up K-J for top pair. Solomon had been caught; his 10-5 was a complete whiff and, after an eight came on the turn, that whiff turned into the end of his tournament life in crowning Bryan Hollis the champion of the Casino Employees’ Event.

1. Bryan Hollis, $68,817
2. Chris Solomon, $42,508
3. Josh Clanton, $29,372
4. Jermel Stephens, $20,629
5. Alex Cordova, $14,731
6. Adem Arbuckle, $10,698
7. Chris Gallagher, $7903
8. Vincent Russell, $5941
9. Victor Kim, $4547

Event #2 – $10,000 Tag Team No Limit Hold’em World Championship

On Friday, the final six teams in the Tag Team event came back to decide who would reign supreme. Would it be the chip leaders, Team Negreanu (Daniel Negreanu, Eric Wasserson, David Benyamine and Mark Gregorich) who would ride their 1.498 million chips to the title? Or would it be Team McClain (Mike McClain, Anthony Ajlouny, and David Fong, 932K) or Team Boeree (Liv Boeree and paramour Igor Kurganov, 900K) who would take the championship? Then there were the “shorties,” Team Mandavia (Ankush Mandavia and Joe Kuether, 800K), Team Jacobson (former World Champion Martin Jacobson and Mark Radoja, 632K) and Team Gomez (Javier Gomez and Lander Lijo, 287K), who all had enough chips to still pose a threat to the upper echelons.

The players were content to shuffle chips around for the first hour of the final table, but something had to give at some point. That would happen in a clash between Kurganov and Radoja when, after Kurganov raised and Radoja defended his big blind, the two saw a seemingly innocent 6-5-3 flop. Radoja checked his option, then came to life with an all-in after Kurganov put a bet out. Kurganov wasn’t going anywhere, making the call and turning up his leading pocket eights against Radoja’s 10-6. That lead didn’t change after the trey on the turn or the deuce on the river, knocking out Team Jacobson in sixth place and pushing Boeree and Kurganov into contention.

Now with a threat to their position, Team Negreanu would get into action in taking out Team Gomez when the namesake of Team Negreanu won the race with his pocket nines over Gomez’s A-10. With that knockout, Team Negreanu moved past the two million mark, but Team Boeree kept on their heels with their own knockout of Team McClain to also pass the two million point as the tournament worked into the late afternoon hours.

Team Mandavia, working with a short stack against the two power stacks, began to make some moves at this point. They would work their way past Team Negreanu to take over second place but, after Kurganov eliminated Negreanu to send his squad home in third place, Team Mandavia was facing more than a 2:1 deficit against Team Boeree as heads up play began.

Mandavia put on an outstanding display of poker, eventually working back to even against Kurganov and even eking out a lead at a couple of points over the span of 50 hands. Kurganov would eventually reestablish Team Boeree’s lead, however, and on Hand 268 the end would come. On a Q-9-8-J-K board that both players checked to the river, Mandavia would put out a bet on the river to light the afterburners. After Kurganov moved all in, Mandavia agonized over the decision but eventually made the call. Kurganov unveiled his A-10 for the turned straight and the rivered Broadway straight while Mandavia’s Q-10 (turned second nut straight) came up short, dramatically earning the championship for Team Boeree and the second and third bracelets of the 2017 WSOP.

1. Team Boeree (Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov), $273,964
2. Team Mandavia (Ankush Mandavia and Joe Kuether), $169,323
3. Team Negreanu (Daniel Negreanu, Eric Wasserson, David Benyamine and Mark Gregorich), $119,753
4. Team McClain (Mike McClain, Anthony Ajlouny and David Fong), $86,237
5. Team Gomez (Javier Gomez and Lander Lijo), $63,253
6. Team Jacobson (Martin Jacobson and Mark Radoja), $47,271