2008 WSOP, Day 17: Laughs & Lightning Bolts

Am sitting here with Change100 covering Event No. 28, the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/rebuys event. It’s about midnight. We’ve been here for nine hours, and they’ve played down to the last 20.

The top 18 get paid, and after all the wildness yesterday this here bubble is super-tight. Makes sense, as the person in 18th will get $54,003 while the 19th place finisher will get a big pile of nada.

It has been a smooth day, reporting-wise. We had some good reporters today, and not too many players and tables with which to keep up. We’re playing down to the final nine, though, so this could be a long night for yr humble gumshoe.

Thought I’d share a few humorous bits as we wait out the end here.

Before the start of today’s play, Johnny Chan came over to our workstation with his iPod and asked if he could recharge it for a half-hour. Of course, we said. He then asked one of the reporters, Mickey, if he’d bring it back over to him when it had completely recharged. Glad to, said Mickey.

Then Zeke, another reporter, had an idea. “When Chan comes back,” he told Mickey, “you should hide his iPod. Then when he asks where it is, say ‘Sorry, John. I don’t remember.’”

We’re over in the Brasilia Room today, tucked away in the corner a good ways away from our tables which are in the center of the large ballroom. We’re located right by the entrance, so almost everyone who comes in seems to believe Change and I are some sort of information desk. Folks constantly stopping and asking us about satellites, cash games, the nightly tourneys, among other things. One guy even asked if we had any napkins.

Finally, Change put up a sign that read “THIS IS NOT AN INFORMATION BOOTH.” Still didn’t keep people from asking questions, though it slowed down the pace a bit.

Then one dude comes over and asks the sort of question that threatened to put us all in an existential funk from which we may never recover:

“I know you’re not the information booth, but can you tell me where the information booth is?”

Finally, let me just share a recent post I put up during this rather quiet period during which we are waiting for the bubble to burst. Phil Hellmuth had been prattling on fairly consistently for the last few hours. Then came this:

“Like a Lightning Bolt”
Few hands are going beyond the flop, and those that do make the river are generally producing smallish pots.

Meanwhile, Phil Hellmuth continues to offer critique of the play of Brian Rast and/or reminders of Hellmuth’s own greatness. A recent example of such unsolicited commentary culminated thusly:

“I kind of like you, kid. But you will understand why I’m Phil Hellmuth by the end of the night. It will be like a lightning bolt -- He's Phil Hellmuth!”

Like I say, we may well be here for a while. Chan is probably going to have to recharge his iPod again.

Follow along over at PokerNews.