2008 WSOP, Day 31: Tell Everyone You Know and Duplicate

Another superlong shift for yr humble gumshoe last night. We started at 2 p.m. and got out of there at something like 4:30 a.m. Still beat poor Mean Gene and Change100 who were over covering the $50K H.O.R.S.E. final table when we left, though.

I actually managed to see exactly zero hands of that celebrated event, having been away from the Rio for the first two days of it, and utterly buried under the $1,500 no-limit hold’em events I’ve been covering for the last three. Was glad to see Scotty Nguyen took that one down. Hard not to like a guy who has pet monkeys (and loves to talk about ’em).

Our event, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em (Event No. 49), went fairly smoothly. We were in the Brasilia room, where I finally came up with effective signage to discourage the constant questions about satellites, registration, etc. The sign read “NO INFO ABOUT SATELLITES HERE (or much else) -- SORRY.” Several read the sign and laughed, and quite a few, including Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, stopped, read the sign, and with a smile would facetiously ask “So, do you have any info about the satellites?”

Fricke went on to suggest to me that the sign would invite even more interference, as many would stop to make that same joke. (Indeed, probably 15 people did before the night was through.) I answered that at least that was more fun than having to tell people over and over we didn’t have the info.

We played down from 215 to the final nine. Some interesting hands, and a few fun posts, but I have to admit I’m finding no-limit hold’em incredibly mundane at the moment. Was never a big fan before (it is the one game I almost never play), but writing up hundreds upon hundreds of hands is making me less and less enamored with each post.

Early in the day I was feeling particularly giddy, mainly because I had somehow rid myself of that 48-hour bug I’d picked up before. Almost got completely carried away with the puns in the post titles. Started right from the top when Young Phan had won a couple of early pots. I posted that he was getting active early, titling the post “Young and Restless.” That sent me down a dangerous road . . .

“Xiang It” -- Tingjian Xiang elimination hand.

“Merkow Not Enjoying the Vu” -- Gregg Merkow losing a big pot to Tommy Vu.

Then came the one for which I certainly secured a spot in one of the upper circles of hell:

“Nguyen-er Nguyen-er Chicken Dinner” -- Peter Nguyen wins a pot (following a post reporting Men Nguyen having won one).

Somehow no one came over to strangle me after that last one, and I managed to finish the evening/morning safely.

By the way, early on, the ever-entreprenurial Tommy Vu gave us his business card. It was for a “social networking-global commerce” website, of which he is the “founder.” By way of clarification, the card says the site is “a social site that pays you to use it and to tell others.” Sounds great, doesn’t it?

The card provides further guidance by telling the holder to follow three simple steps: (1) Call a long-distance number and listen to the message; (2) visit the website; and (3) “Tell everyone you know and Duplicate.”

I showed it to Pokerati Dan and he asked if he could have it. So if you start seeing posts over there about this neat new social site that pays you to use it and to tell others, you’ve been forewarned.