Welcome josh. Sounds like an awesome job you got, have you any crazy bad beat stories you have seen or any from encounters with pro players we may have heard of?
Hi Malky, thanks mate!
Of course, I have all kinds of bad beat stories; players hate me sometimes with the cards I can put out! The worst thing I ever saw whilst dealing was in a £1200 buy in event; so not a cheap amateur tournament. The board ran out K,K,A,K,K so quads with an ace kicker in the middle of the table, it was heads up at the river where player 1 went all in; player 2 tank’s for 5 minutes and then folds?!?! Somehow, player 2’s thought process at the time was he didn’t understand that no matter what hole cards he held; it was impossible for this not to be a chop pot; sigh.
In regard to the pro players, I know and deal to pretty much all of them. Sometimes at events we manage to get out for drinks with them every now and again as directly tipping is forbidden in most countries outside of the UK as this opens up collusion possibilities so they show their appreciation by pretty much letting the dealing staff have a free bar! Some of the big names I can name drop are Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Igor Kurganov (that’s me and him in my profile avatar), Phil Helmuth, John Juanda, Erik Siedel, Liv Boeree, Fedor Holz, pretty much any sponsored pro that plays EPT’s and WSOP’s. The tours also attract lots of celebrities, at my table I’ve had Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, Neymar Jr, Gerard Piqué, David Haye, Rafael Nadal and Sergio Garcia to name a few.
I always lose my shit and panic when I get the big names at my table, especially if the event is televised/streamed for the world to see you mess up. I’m always sat there like ‘Josh, you got this. Do not f**k this up!’
Oh dear haha. Well he really shouldn’t have been in that tourney if he didnt know that. Heard of pretty much all of them do they act the same on the off camera tables? I learnt to play poker by watching hours on end couldnt get enough of it when i was younger. I may have even seen you on tv before lol. We had a poker tournament on pokerstars from people off here on sunday get yourself involved if your free sundays. Not sure when next one is but check out the community poker thread on here if you fancy it.
Very true! I could understand it in a low buy in however in one that costs over a grand it was a little painful to witness.. Yep you have likely seen me if you ever watch the EPT on Channel 4, at least my hands occasionally!
Ah that’s awesome! I’ll be sure to check out the thread later and get involved, cheers man.