In an event that lets casino employees enter the World Series of Poker with tips earned by bringing you your fifth Corona and a nice shot of cleavage or dealing you your third flopped flush of the day, poker dealer Eric Narsico won the WSOP $500 Casino Employees World Poker Championship.
Narsico, 24, deals at the Orleans Casino and won a $90 satellite held by employees of Boyd Gaming to gain entry into the NLH event. His relatively meager investment won him $104,701 after he outlasted the second-largest field in this event, with 1,039 participants. Maybe Narsico should consider a new career: He also cashed in last year's event in 27th. He played nearly 14 hours on Day Two before finally winning at 6 a.m.
At the end of Day One, Narsico was fifth with 32k in chips. The Final Table players were:
Seat 1 - Kevin Kalthoff
Seat 2 - Mike Anderson
Seat 3 - Charles Fisher
Seat 4 - Chris Chau
Seat 5 - Eric Schutzberg
Seat 6 - Meaghan Larivee
Seat 7 - Eric Narciso
Seat 8 - David Dietrich
Seat 9 - Eugene Lang
Seat 10 - John Konich
Anderson was eliminated first. Schutzberg (9th $5,844) was eliminated in a brutal hand when he had a set of sixes only to see Fisher flip over a set of sevens. Konich was the next to go, finishing 8th for a $8,182 paycheck. With seven to go, Fisher was the chip leader, followed by Narciso, Lang and Kalthoff. Chau found himself the chip leader for a while but lost a race to Narciso, which cripped him and doubled up Narciso. Chau pushed with 8-6o and Narciso called with Q-Js. Narciso flopped a jack, and Chau finished 4th ($28,053).
Narsico had more than half of the chips in play with three left. Once Eugene Lang was eliminated (3rd $42,547), it was heads-up for Fisher and Narciso. On the final hand, Narciso raised and Fisher called. Both players checked a flop of 
. The turn brought a 
, and Narciso bet. Fisher moved all-in and Narciso called. Fisher had J-8 for two pair, but Narciso had T-4os for the straight. The river brought a harmless 
and Narsico was the champion.
The final payouts:
Eric Narciso - $104,701
Charles Fisher - $66,392
Eugene Lang - $42,547
Chris Chau - $28,053
Kevin Kalthoff - $19,637
David Dietrich - $14,962
Meaghan Larivee - $11,221
John Konich - $8,182
Eric Schutzberg - $5,844
Mike Anderson - $4,301
Eric Narsico may be the first rapper to be a WSOP champion. He calls himself "QuietLike, and you can find tracks from his album on his MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/quietlike. Even if he is a rapper, Narciso is surely singing a happy tune today. He's certain he's a better rapper than Prahlad "Mahatma" Friedman, and now he has a WSOP bracelet, something that Friedman can't diss.