2008 WSOP, Day 27: Cheers

Finished up last night’s final table for Event No. 40, the $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) event, around 11:30 p.m. A long day (ten hours), but I ain’t complaining. The table was fairly riveting from beginning to end, what with the constant confrontations between eventual champ John Phan and Gioi Luong. Definitely enjoyed covering the event with F-Train.

Aside from the bickering between Phan and Luong, the play didn’t become all that compelling until Phan ordered ten cups of Corona, each with a lime wedge bobbing near the surface. The waiter carefully lined them up on the table next to the one on which they were playing, creating a kind of weird symmetry with the long, gaudy row of yellow chips Phan had lined up in front of him. One was the cause of the other, I think, as it was precisely when Phan had assumed over half of the chips in play (with three players left) when he ordered the beers.

He gave a couple away to friends on the rail, but appeared to suck down several on his own. Right as he took the first sip, he lost a decent-sized pot to Shun Uchida. Then he lost another one to Luong. Within twenty minutes, he was the short stack. Phan’s buzz was getting killed as quickly as he’d established it. I thought I was about to witness some sort of tragic play unfolding, but he pulled it together enough to get to the dinner break. After that, he played the best poker, I thought, and deserved the bracelet -- his second this summer.

After wrapping things up at the Rio, Vera and I ran over to the Gold Coast for a couple of hours to cheer on the large crowd of folks bowling in the latest installment of the Pokerati Bowling Series, including CK, F-train, Dr. Pauly, Change100, Haley, Spaceman, Tuscaloosa John, Cali Jen and Dan, Benjo, and several other cool cats. And to enjoy a couple of beers, though nothing close to what Phan had (and probably was having).

The big $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship cranks up today (Event No. 45). That one and the Main Event will get a lot more attention than these prelims we’ve been covering.

As I’ve mentioned, I’m off both today and tomorrow, and will be spending most of the time away from poker, doing some sight-seeing and running around LV with Vera. So you go follow the H.O.R.S.E. over at PokerNews and I’ll hook up with ya later.