When I first started working at the Deerfoot casino, players unknown to me at the time would comment on the familiarity of my face. I would look at them with the same stare that raised me until they recognized me as my father’s daughter.
My parents met many years ago on the sleek green felt of a poker table. I learnt to play the game at 11 years old in the backseat of my father’s minivan, heading down to our annual trip to Las Vegas around the time of the World Series of Poker. As most children had bedtime stories of princesses and toads, I only had Queens and Aces.
Now, I study the game over servings of dark rum and domestic beer, always carrying a little pink notebook in my apron to write down questions and find answers later on. I observe my players every chance I get. By doing so I have come to know the players in the room quite well. Pete—who drinks a Greyhound with soda—tracks every minute, every dime, he has ever spent on the game. Joey—Old Fashioned—plays purely for fun and can be found buying the table a round after a good hand.
Yet the Spring Super Stack, an 11-day poker series with buy-ins ranging from $200-$2,000, brought a new energy to the casino. An energy of excitement, reminiscent of my childhood. The Chrome room which could often be found covered with sticky beer bottles after concerts was now filled wall to wall with bright red poker tables. Players traveled hours from all over the country just for the shot of the jackpot prize.
These players presented themselves much differently than the ones I have come to know so well. Thick, dark sunglasses covered most of their face, large headphones plugged into their ears. No one drunkenly yelled at House for Bomb-pots or ordered round after round of Patron tequila for the table. These players took the game seriously, they moved differently than the normal 2AM cash games I was used to.
As the first day of the tournament started, sounds of chips being counted and cards being shuffled filled the room. I started to slowly notice some of the players. Phil, who ordered Belvedere vodka, water, 10 ice cubes, and two limes, was an aggressive player who told me he never bluffs. Elliot, his friend who simply drank a Budweiser, was a cold, quiet player who was harder to read. Both of them came down to play from Nanaimo, BC, where Phil was a business owner and Elliot was a chef.
I met Hoshang who ordered sparkling water with lemons, he came down from Montreal and was exceptionally kind. I watched as he slowly continued on for the rest of the tournament, he made a point of always thanking me for my service before I went home for the night. Secretly, I was rooting for him.
I bussed dirty plates and empty glasses as more and more players bussed out of the game as the tournament continued. In between running back and forth from the kitchen, I kept my eye on Alex Liu as the Housemen told me about his win at last August’s WSOP Circuit Main Event. As girls called in sick for work, I happily volunteered my days off, working almost every day of the 13-day-long tournament. In the brief moments that there were no drinks to run, I would quickly run over to the housemen and ask as many questions as I possibly could in the span of 3 minutes, and with a quick eye-roll, he would answer them.
- Read more: Alex Liu Brings Main Event Back Home
When we got down to the final table, the room was silent with the odd conversation between the remaining players. I watched quietly, thinking about my poker notebook hidden deep in the pockets of my apron. I knew the second I pulled it out my manager would appear out of nowhere and sentence me to rolling silverware for the rest of the night in the pub.
Being a cocktail server during the Super Spring Stack showed me poker in a new light, I had never actually been in the room of a tournament that size before. Before I started at the casino, I had no idea how much I still had to learn about the game. I went from sitting at my kitchen table playing hold’em with my father, to learning about position strategies and pot odds in hopes of one day being more than just the girl who puts your lime in your beer.
