Casino Championship

In the World Series of Poker, the Casino Employees' Championship is one of the three tournaments which are closed to the general public. Other than that the Seniors championship and the Ladies championship are not open to general public and the participants must meet several eligibility requirements in order to be a part of the event. The winner of the Casino Employees' Championship receives the same honor as the rest of the events including the gold bracelet. In poker, the gold bracelet of WSOP is considered to be one of the most prestigious prizes.

History of the championship

The WSOP is held every year in Las Vegas. It is the oldest, the most media covered, largest and the most prestigious events in the world. In the year 2000, World Series of Poker decided to honor the casino employees and began to offer a bracelet for the winner of the new event. The first ever tournament had been named Dealers World Poker Championship. This event had only been open for poker dealers. However, later the rules were changed and all casino employees had been eligible for entering the event.

The tournament is only open to the casino employees so the big names of the poker champions are not allowed to participate in the championship. Even though the championship is a part of the WSOP bracelet event, it is not very widely covered when compared to the other events. Even though, the event does attract quite a lot of big names in the poker industry. In the year 2009, Pat Poels and Marsha Waggoner had been in the tournament.

Till 2003, the event had been limited to Limit Hold'em but from 2004, No Limit Texas Hold'em became the standard game. In the year 2006, there had been 1232 participants in the tournament, which had been the highest ever for this tournament.

The event is quite exciting and is witness to several rivalries between various dealers from different casinos. The proposition players are hired to play the tournament for the event with their own funds to get the game started and to ensure that it remains exciting. There is also European Dealer Championship that gives dealers a lot of benefits.

The winners

In the year 2000, the event had been won by Dave Alizadeth from among 109 participants. Dave Alizadeth had been from Las Vegas and the 2000 tournament had been considered to be one of the most serious championships in the WSOP history. The year 2002 had been a very interesting tournament. Dave Crunkleton had been to the finals WSOP table a total of 11 times but had never won the bracelet. in the 2002 event he had been down to his last $500 chip and there had been only four players in the tournament at that point of time. Dave Crunkleton put it all in with his pocket eights and from there on he managed to rebuild his stack before he got busted at the third place.

Several professional poker players that we know of today started their career as a dealer or casino employee. In the year 1998, Scotty Nguyen, five time bracelet event had won the main event. Scotty Nguyen's first job ever had been as a casino dealer. Ted Forrest too had been a dealer before he won the bracelet five times. Eric Lindgren, who won one bracelet too started out as a dealer.