Q. How did the front-line employees take to this?
A. We always try to have fun at work and the staff did a wonderful job. We had weekly meetings with every department, including housekeeping, food and beverage, special events, hotel, golf, marketing, hosts, table games, slots, just about everybody, and they all bought into it a hundred percent Almost all of our employees are home grown -- and we've got 3,300 now -- and they all wanted this to be spectacular. And it was.

Q. What were your biggest mistakes?
A. We made two errors: When I went to tourneys in Vegas they all had same rules: no food, and no drinking on the tournament games. We gave everyone food and drink and served it from our traditional side-service rolling marble tables. Our mistake was, at the finals, we put out smoked scallops and, I hate to say it, but it stunk! We won't do that again. We also broadcast the tournament finals throughout the casino -- because the tourney was held in a our baccarat parlor, which was reserved for players and guests only -- and had some unexpected glitches. It was our fault, because we didn't rehearse the video and we should have. All in all, they were very minor mistakes, but at the time they were very irritating -- to us, anyway; the customers never said a word.

Q. Other than the winner-take-all, were there any other unique twists to your tourney?
A. Yes. Two people advanced from each table on the first round. Then all of the losers got to play each other in the second round to advance to the third. Plus, we had wild cards for the third and fourth rounds, so everybody had a chance. In fact, with six spots at the final tables, everyone had a one-in- seven chance of playing for the million-dollar prize. That's a lot different that getting the one-in-300 chance at the finals that you get in Vegas at the Hilton. We had nine different wild-card positions, so everyone had a real chance of getting into the finals.

Q. How good were your players in the tourney format?
A. Not so great, which made it fun for everyone. We didn't have any tourney junkies, just regular high rollers firing at each other.

Q. Did they get along?
A. Yes, a lot of them knew each other. People saw old friends they hadn't seen for a while. Our customers commented on what a nice group of people it was and we all had a good laugh when one of the guests looked around the room in the first round and bellowed, "Who the hell is playing in Vegas right now?"

Q. What was the biggest surprise?
A. When Lee Skelley -- he's our Assistant GM in charge of operations -- told everyone at the final table that they were all getting their entry fees back.