World Series of Poker Casino Employee Championship

Andrew Cohen, the 2009 World Series of Poker Casino Employee Championship winner

The Casino Employees Championship is one of only three closed tournaments awarding WSOP bracelet's 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

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]

Since the tournament is restricted to casino employees, most of the big name poker pros 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 rivaliries 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

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 of the 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

Event The buy-in and poker variant played
Year The year of the tournament
Winner The person who won the Employee Championship Event
Prize (US$) The amount of money they won for winning the Employee Event that year
Winnings Lifetime winnings in WSOP and WSOP Circuit events
Bracelets WSOP victories are counted in terms of bracelets, this column represents the total number of bracelets the player won.
Ref. References

WSOP Casino Employee Championship Events

Event Year Winner Prize (US$) Winnings Bracelets Ref.
$500 Dealers Championship Limit Hold'em 2000 Alizadeth, Dave Dave Alizadeth $21,800 $21,800 1 [14]
$500 Employee Event - Limit Hold'em 2001 Jonas, Travis Travis Jonas $40,200 $40,200 1 [15]
$500 Employee Event - Limit Hold'em 2002 Warga, David David Warga $47,300 $57,140 2 [16]
$500 Casino Employees Limit Hold'em 2003 Lukaszewski, David David Lukaszewski $35,800 $35,800 1 [17]
$500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em 2004 Nessel, CarlCarl Nessel $40,000 $40,000 1 [18]
$500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em 2005 Nguyen, Anthony Anthony Nguyen $83,390 $83,390 1 [19]
$500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em 2006 Gros, Chris Chris Gros $127,496 $129,974 1 [20]
$500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em 2007 Narciso, Frederick Frederick Narciso $104,701 $108,305 1 [21]
$500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em 2008 Kotula, Jonathan Jonathan Kotula $87,929 $87,929 1 [22]
$500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em 2009 Cohen, Andrew Andrew Cohen $83,833 $83,833 1 [23]
$500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em 2010 Pham, HoaiHoai Pham $71,424 $71,424 1 [24]
$565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em 2016 Sand, Christopher 'C.J.'Christopher 'C.J.' Sand $75,157 $75,157 1 [25]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "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. 1 2 "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.

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