deardealer

My favorite poker rag, “Poker Pro” printed a very interesting article this month. It told of the tax deductions of the final table of WSOP 2008 that finished in 2009. The differences in the deductions were amazing. The United States collected 56% of the American winners or 7 million dollars. The Russians have a flat rate tax of 13%, BUT GET THIS, in Denmark the tax agency called SKAT. Any casino gambling money earned can be taxed up to 75%. That would mean the winner of the WSOP, Peter Eastgate, may have to pay $6.6 million of his $9.1 million grand prize.

Oh, to have such problems! It is very important to know the guaranteed amount or number of players you are up against for the amount of money you can win. Some events add money and some don’t have enough players to make the prize money worth your while after taxes. Some tournaments have an overlay which means they are giving more prize money than they’re taking in. This happens in cases of grand openings or promotions or some failed attempts at big turnouts, but it does happen. Chose your tournaments wisely and know that you will not win every one but even if you win 1 in 15, that could be a great payday. My partner and I used to cash 1 out of 6 BUT the fields were smaller than. Doyle Brunson and all the other big names have been out there year after year but more often in the days of old. the days of smaller feilds. In the beggining there was 11… players not tables!

Gardena was known as the Los Angeles Gambling Capitol until the big clubs like The Commerce, The Bicycle and Hawaiian Gardens sprung up. There were no dealers, just the players dealing at the table and it was awful. There was plenty of cheating and rock tight games. Some players were so old they could hardly keep from exposing every card. In 1981 I was dealing Pan at The Rainbow Club in Gardena. Then jackpot hold-em came on the scene in Los Angeles County. I changed departments the first day hold-em arrived. Most of the players were not too happy about this change and the arrival of the jackpot which cost an extra $1 drop. I soon became dealer manager amongst a crew of hard nosed floormen who didn’t want to see women in management. I moved on to The Commerce Club upon its opening. You wouldn’t believe the cheating going on there the first year. I tried to enforce a uniform deal when I was promoted to manager. The big boys on top were getting their feathers ruffled with me there. Mr. Ross sent me to Dick Bisbine’s office, who was the new Casino Manager, to discuss my salary options. Instead, DICK says “Honey you’re doing a fine job but I think a man would get more respect”. I took it upstairs to Human Resources and I was asked to not repeat what the moron said because this was not the old days. You cannot discriminate in this manner. H.R. assured me that the new G.M. wasn’t to verbalize his reasons in such a blatent way. I had 4 positions in three months. The new owners were quick to see that this was nothing like the coffee business, which they knew much more about. Harvey gave me a sabbatical and said to take some time to relax with my family. After a few months managemant changed again and I was invited back. Fred, my new boss inforned me that I was to deal poker with no further chance of advancing. As herstory now shows, I did outlast Fred and did advance in management. It was just a merry-go-round that I wanted off of. When I left the floor the jackpots were hitting in record numbers. The owners, Harvey Ross and Herb Stern finally made a clean sweep of the culprits. I couldn’t wait until they opened their eyes and I moved on to The Bicycle Club working for the egomaniac George Hardy. He liked seeing his name in print so much that they named their special “The Hardy Burger”. The Commerce Club is now the biggest in L.A. It’s hard to believe that it was 25 years ago when it began. It is a factory but you will have a choice of many games. I guess with these big card rooms and the Internet gambling, poker is not the intimate game that it used to be. It has more of a circus style now! It’s no wonder that so many tournaments have been held in tents. Bring in the clowns…

Here are the November Nine from the last table for the WSOP at The Rio. One of these guys is going to be famous and a millionaire soon. This is the first year that they are waiting 4 months to finish the tournament. Reminds me of the campaign trail this year. Hope we are not bored to death watching them. I hope the media does not overdo the coverage. We will however pick one out that we can cheer for. Sorta like a beauty pagent…Pick your cutie and make a side bet on your pick.