Restart: 2010 WSOP Begins Today

I am living in a hotel room. I usually live in a house. But right now -- and for the next seven weeks or so -- I am living in a hotel room.

One of the things that happens in a hotel room is that other people come into it on a regular basis to tidy up. Every day, in fact.

For many, this phenomenon is most welcomed. Most of us don’t enjoy cleaning and maintenance, and to have someone else take care of those tasks for you is quite the luxury. I’m basically in that camp, too. That is, while I don’t think I’m an excessively sloppy guy, I don’t mind at all having someone else take care of the tidying.

There’s a weird side effect, though, to this daily visit by others. Just about all the disorder I’ve created over the previous 24 hours -- all the rearranging of stuff that might be regarded as a kind of “personalizing” of the space I’m inhabiting -- gets erased, so to speak.

And so at some point each day, I return to my home-away-from-home, slip in the card key, open the door, and experience the room again as if it were the first time I’d stepped inside. Kind of a minor déjà vu that even after just a few days I’ve come to anticipate feeling.

For example, there are six large pillows on my bed. When I sleep, I need just one. So I stack five over in the corner. Then, when I’m away and the bedmaking happens, all six return to their previously prescribed positions. I come back, and eventually I remove five pillows again once again. And stack them up in the corner again. And so forth.

Speaking of starting over, in a few hours, the first event of this year’s World Series of Poker will be kicking off with Event No. 1, the $500 buy-in Casino Employees Event. Later on, that $50,000 buy-in “Player’s Championship” will get going (Event No. 2). Then tomorrow comes the first of the $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em events (Event No. 3).

Hundreds will be there today playing in these first events -- probably about 900 in the Casino Employees one, and maybe 140 or so in the Player’s Championship. (What is your guess?) Tomorrow, however, we’ll be talking about thousands.

I’d mentioned before that I wouldn’t be on this weekend, but I actually will be helping cover Event No. 3 both Saturday and Sunday for PokerNews, and so very soon will be back in the thick of things.

We had some pregame stuff yesterday at the Rio -- a meeting of the PN team to go over some basics. Checked out the Amazon and the new (enormous) Grand Pavilion Room, where just about all of the poker will be played this summer.

Looks like all of the preparations have been made. The banners have been hung. The tables have all been set up, surrounded by empty chairs. Still working a bit on getting the main stage together, it appeared, but most everything looks ready to go.

Indeed, the effect wasn’t unlike walking back into the hotel room. All the order has been restored, soon to be disrupted mightily. Then restored. Then disrupted again. And so forth.

I’m planning to head back over to the Rio for a while today to witness the first bit of things getting cluttered. Might even post another little something later. Then, like I say, tomorrow I’ll be back in the thick of it for the first of the many 12-plus hour days of reporting.

Now that I think about it, I might end up needing those extra pillows after all.