Getty Image / Denise Truscello
The 2023 World Series of Poker concluded earlier this month when Paul Berger won Event #95: $1,000 Super Turbo No-Limit Hold’em and took home $212K and a gold bracelet for his win.
This year’s Main Event champion was Daniel Weinman. He took home the largest 1st prize for the Main Event ever awarded, $12.1 million, after the record-setting field of 10,043 total players that ultimately came down to 3 Americans playing for the biggest prize in poker.
The person behind the ‘LV Cabbie Chronicles’ blog and Twitter handle was a dealer at the 2023 World Series of Poker. In a very lengthy thread, they shared the poker lessons and observations they made while dealing hands to poker’s elite over the course of two months.
How Do Much Dealers Earn At The World Series Of Poker?
Interestingly, while the thread was mostly about poker lessons and observations, it began with talk of how much they earned. They shared their “total GROSS earnings were $21,891.97 but my total NET was $16,873.14. After working a total of 572hrs throughout the series.” And they later posted a final pay stub for anyone questioning the earnings.
They did claim to have ‘gamed the system’ when it came to hours worked but never clarified what that was about. It was also suggested they were unsure if they’d be able to do that again next year, however, they said the money earned was more than they’d have made driving their normal taxi in Las Vegas over that timespan and that it was infinitely more fun.
Are Poker Players All Jerks At The WSOP?
For people who haven’t competed in the World Series of Poker before, or many high stakes live events, there are a lot of urban legends. One is that the tables are full of jerks. They found this to not be the case at all.
They wrote “With regards to the players. They were great. Mostly. LOTS of people tried to prepare me for a—— poker players and I appreciated the heads up but in the end they weren’t nearly as bad as I expected them to be. There were certainly SOME a——-, but most everybody was decent.”
Adding that some players were very helpful in learning the ropes:
Even as a brand new dealer, who early on was making plenty of mistakes, most players were patient and understanding and helpful. I think the consciousness players realized that getting 1500 world class dealers isn't practical and there are going to be some growing pains.
— LV Cabbie Chronicles (@LVCabChronicles) July 29, 2023
As expected, the toughest games to deal were the Hi-Lo tournaments. Nothing about that is shocking as it’s more complicated than dealing Texas Hold’Em or Pot-Limit Omaha.
Lessons in Poker: Is Poker A Game Of Skill Or Luck?
Going into the World Series of Poker, they strongly believed poker to be a game of chance or luck. They were asked if their feelings on that changed after dealing at the WSOP and the answer is no, they seem to further believe that poker is a game of luck.
These three tweets seemed to reinforce their belief that luck overpowered skill:
Perhaps the most damning argument to the 'poker is a skill game' faction was my experience dealing the daily deepthroats. As the series dragged on it just so happened that I dealt those tournaments the most and thus became aware of the term, "donkements" bc that's what they are.
— LV Cabbie Chronicles (@LVCabChronicles) July 29, 2023
The amount of mindless shoving that went on was borderline ridiculous. People just want to double up and if they bust they're just buy in again. There is very little interest in actually building a stack and attempting to play poker. The whole thing is pretty gross imo.
— LV Cabbie Chronicles (@LVCabChronicles) July 29, 2023
As such, the sheer volume of suckouts is pretty absurd. I mean, I've got Aces you've got Kings and I catch a king on the river…there's absolutely no skill involved in that. And getting it in with kings isn't exactly a bad play to begin with.
— LV Cabbie Chronicles (@LVCabChronicles) July 29, 2023
They then went on to say that as a taxi driver in Las Vegas they pick up a ton of poker players who had bad nights. They never hear “I didn’t have my skills today” from players. It’s always about the luck not being on their side.
However, despite dealing thousands of hands over the course of hundreds of hours, I still think their experience is too limited. There’s a reason the best poker players in the world are profitable over the course of their careers and win multiple WSOP bracelets.
Poker coach Jonathan Little has a lot of good videos on understanding ‘variance’ in poker. This is where anyone should start if they truly believe luck outweighs skill.
Poker Lesson: Tactics Of The Best Players In The World
Coming as no surprise, the best poker players in the world (right now) are very, very aggressive.
Their observations and poker lessons were limited to the players they dealt for. But those players included three former world champions. They tweets about aggression at the table, however, reveal a lot.
They wrote “the biggest difference that (they) noticed was in the aggressive nature of their playing.” Noting that aggression in the Senior’s Tournament was very noticeable, and also from ladies competitors.
Saying they “joked before that the Senior event should change it’s name to the, “Fold To Any Post Flop Aggression Classic,” as that was something I noticed a lot of. And frankly, I noticed this a lot from female players as well. Or generally folding to any aggression period.”
The raise-fold aggression was NOT seen at the highest level, according to this dealer:
But you don't see that from the big boys. They're aggressive to begin with and they don't back down from any aggression from anyone else. I noticed this a lot from Dan Smith when I dealt for him. He'd raise and if someone re-raised he'd just come right back over top of you…
— LV Cabbie Chronicles (@LVCabChronicles) July 29, 2023
On a couple occasions he got caught doing this with absolutely nothing. But there was multiple periods where he would drag 3 or 4 pots in a row. It just seems like the best players simply have bigger balls. They're not afraid to risk it all at any point. Maybe that's the skill.
— LV Cabbie Chronicles (@LVCabChronicles) July 29, 2023
They then point to how professional chess players like Magnus Carlsen don’t ‘sell pieces of themselves’ or ‘action’ to other players in tournaments. This is because chess is significantly less dictated by chance than poker.
Overcoming variance is a challenge every poker player faces. But minimizing mistakes at the table and optimizing one’s game to win is how a player becomes successful over the course of a career.
To read through the full thread of poker lessons from a World Series of Poker (novice) dealer, click through on any of those tweets above.