2009 WSOP, Day 14: Insert Clever Post Title Here (Wordplay Optional)

As planned, I yesterday worked that Day 2 of Event No. 19, the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event. We were down one field reporter, making it a bit strenuous early on when the field was 135. But once we got down under 50 we had a fighting chance to identify everyone, follow their rapidly changing chip stacks, and report most of the important hands.

Ended up with just 11 when the night concluded, a little shy of 3 a.m. And cards go back in the air at noon today, which means I barely managed to score about five hours of sleep before getting up again to down some java, shower, shave, and get my weary carcass back over to the Rio to cover this final day. Oh, and write a little something here.

Apparently once this one gets down to the six-handed final table we will be on the feature table where ESPN360.com will be streaming it live. I still don’t personally know anybody who actually has access to ESPN360, but I know there must be a few out there who do.

Was writing alongside Homer last night, a good guy whose predilection for puns probably exceeds my own. Perhaps feeling vaguely threatened, I found myself titling a post describing a big Men Nguyen double up hand last night as “It’s Reigning Men.” (Groan!) I think I might say a little something tomorrow -- when I have more time and a clearer head -- about the relative worth of puns, that form of humor about which Edgar Allan Poe once noted “those most dislike who are least able to utter them.”

Not much time for anything this morning, so let me quickly point you to three other places to go to try to satisfy yr WSOP cravings.

Ran into Homer’s fellow countryman Snoopy (also an Englander) the other day. Snoopy was a live blogger for PokerNews last summer, and while we never worked the same tourney together I always enjoyed reading his posts (many of which also included some wordplay to go along with the reporting). And I’d been a close follower of his blog, too, Snoopy System, where he also wrote almost every day last summer. Once the WSOP ended last year, Snoopy decided he’d had enough of the blogging thing for a while and stopped cold turkey writing the Snoopy System. In his final post over there last July, he noted how time-consuming the blog had become and how he needed a rest, and so he took one.

Good news. Not only is Snoopy back in Vegas, but back writing about poker again, keeping a daily blog over at Black Belt Poker. See if you can’t fit Snoopy back into your regular reading this summer, as I’m sure you’ll enjoy his take on poker’s annual circus.

Secondly, I think everyone reading Hard-Boiled Poker probably already reads Pokerati, but if somehow you don’t, then you should get over there PDQ. Or at least ASAP.

When you do get over there, you will find lots of posts every day covering all things WSOP, including a good deal of behind-the-scenes stuff that some us aren’t as able (or willing) to share.

Finally, let me join the chorus of others praising this excellent video history of the World Series of Poker produced for PokerNews by a coupla cool cats, Tom Kinsman and Gloria Balding. Its called 40 Years of WSOP and this is the first of three planned parts, focusing on the early years. Good stuff.



See you over at the PokerNews’ live reporting page today, and back here tomorrow perhaps to deal with that issue of whether there’s a place for puns in poker tourney reporting. The fact of the matter is, I do understand -- and even agree with -- the point of view that puns can be over the top sometimes.

That being said, we all know it doesn’t matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationery.