Gauging Player Reception to Dealer's Choice Event
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With two levels in the books at the first ever World Series of Poker Dealer's Choice event, PokerNews decided to ask a few pros about their experience with the novel addition to this year's schedule. Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, David "Bakes" Baker, Justin Young, and John Holley were kind enough to take a few minutes out of their break to share their thoughts. Topics of note included the competency of the dealers �� who will need to know the rules and intricacies of no less than 16 poker variants �� as well as the strategy involved during the early levels of play, and the pro community's desire to see dealer's choice added to the schedule on a permanent basis.
PokerNews: Has the event met your standards thus far, in terms of dealer competency and flow of the game?
Allen Kessler: Yeah, I mean, I thought it was going to be this crazy thing, and the dealers are actually pretty good. We��ve had a few mistakes by one dealer, but that��s understandable.
David "Bakes" Baker: The dealers are fine, we��ve had good dealers so far, very good actually. A lot better than some other ones I��ve had, so they seem to know what they��re about.
John Holley: I think it��s great, actually, we��ve had very good dealers, every dealer��s been knowledgeable on all the games. It��s been an interesting choice of game selection. I��m a little bit on tilt because somebody showed up to the table with really bad body odor (laughing).
Justin Young: The dealers honestly have been awesome, and the ones that aren��t super confident, are very receptive to, I wouldn��t say criticism, but at least instruction.
PokerNews: What has your personal strategy been thus far?
Allen Kessler: I just picked badacy randomly out of the pack, and all of a sudden three more people in a row picked badacy because they liked the game, which was kind of weird. But my whole strategy is, I��m keeping notes on my iPad on what games people pick, and I��m picking against those games. So if people keep picking like, Omaha hi-low, I won��t pick that. That��s why I picked badacy, because nobody had picked that yet, but once I picked it, it got picked three or four times.
It��s fun, what I do is just go randomly through the pile and pick games that I like. I��m stuck about 300 chips so far, but it��s been interesting. For example, the five-card draw, it doesn��t work in this game because�� we tried it one round, and the pots were getting to be like 300 chip pots and that��s it. So I don��t think anybody��s going to pick that again, but the triple-draw games, they play really huge, and the stud games, with the antes, they��re also playing pretty big. No-limit played pretty small, and like I said, five-card draw was actually playing very small. I��m definitely never picking like PLO or no-limit hold��em, because I think my edge is in these draw games, and Omaha hi-low, stud eight-or-better, or even razz or something.
David "Bakes" Baker: We��ve been playing a lot of draw games and that��s been kind of fun. Personally, not much of a strategy going in, but if somebody��s playing a game very poorly, I would definitely look towards picking that. I guess one of my strategies would be to play a lot of draw games, that��s where a lot of the field has just never played before, especially baducy. The game��s that have never been offered at the World Series before, people are just naturally going to be a lot weaker in, so picking those games is definitely good. That��s just where I��m starting, and then feel out the table from there.
John Holley: I��ve just had some ugly spots, I lost two decent pots in PLO where I had aces double-suited, and had to give up after the flop. One of them with a set of aces, I had to give up on the river with a flush and a straight out there. Allen Cunningham picked five-card draw played pot-limit with his two choices, and both times I won in that game. I picked razz once and Omaha eight-or-better. I��ve just tried to pick against the European guy, I didn��t think he would like razz (laughing).
Justin Young: I think we��re all still just having fun right now, but once we get into the middle stages we��ll probably have a little more strategy when it comes down to it. I��m a little short right now, so I��m trying to pick the bigger bet games, no-limits, PLOs, single draws, stuff of that nature. I think with everyone being so deep, everyone��s just going to try and go with their best game.
PokerNews: What has been the reception to this event among the professional community, and would you like to see Dealer's Choice become a mainstay on the WSOP schedule?
Allen Kessler: Yeah, I think it��s a great idea. I wish it was $2,500 though, instead of $1,500. I think you��d basically get the same players but at least you��d have a little more leeway on the chips, and more play. I think if they do it again it should definitely be a $2,500 buy-in.
David "Bakes" Baker: It��s definitely reminiscent of home games that pros play together, or high-stakes cash games. So it��s kind of cool that everyone has a say, and that every table��s going to be different. I��m interested to see some of the dynamics that happen when the tournament gets a lot deeper.
John Holley: I��d love to, yeah... I love it. I played most of these games growing up, you know, and they only game I don��t have much experience in is 2-7 single draw no-limit, but I��ve played a lot of 2-7 triple draw. I play mixed-game cash, that��s what I normally do aside from tournaments.
Justin Young: It��s been pretty flawless up until now, I��m very impressed, and I really hope this event comes back next year.