2010 WSOP, Day 34: Hard to Deny, Must Be July

July? Really? Well, hello there.

For the duration of the WSOP, most of us here working tend to lose track of much going on outside of the Rio. You know, the headlines of the day, what is going on in politics, sports, entertainment, and so forth.

There was an ongoing conversation yesterday among some of the media who were half-jokingly asking each other what the hell this “Eclipse” thing was people seemed to be talking about. Some thought maybe they should head out to the parking lot, as there might be something to see. Everyone was too busy, though, to take the time to head out there to find out.

Even the day of the week becomes hard to call up sometimes, never mind the date. We operate without the weekday-weekend distinction, instead organizing our lives in terms of “Day Ones,” “Day Twos,” “Day Threes,” and the like. We think in terms of three- or four- or five-day periods (associated with particular events), with those periods constantly overlapping as we march through the calendar.

“Is it really Sunday?” is not an uncommon question to hear. “I have no idea” is a standard reply. A couple of weeks ago some of us were genuinely debating the topic of whether or not it was, in fact, as had been rumored, Sunday.

Some were quite insistent about it. But I refused to believe it, needing more tangible proof than was being provided.

But now it is July and, well, that’s hard to deny. A month has passed, and clearly there is now less of the WSOP to go than has already been played out. For those who live elsewhere -- that is, for most of us -- July is when we leave the WSOP and Las Vegas. We forgot about that or at least weren’t terribly conscious of it for much of the last few weeks, but today we’re reminded.

I helped cover the final table of Event No. 47 ($1,000 No-Limit Hold’em) last night, and in fact we ended a little before midnight, just as June was coming to a close. Was an exciting, up-and-down final table in which the two chip leaders to start the day went out eighth and ninth, and the eventual winner had a large, loud crowd of supporters there to share in his victory -- something that is always nice to see (in my opinion).

Event No. 52 -- the $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event -- got started yesterday, and most eyes will remain on that one for the next couple of days given the fact that most of the “name” pros are playing in that event, and a good number of them survived the first day of play with above-average stacks.

I’ll move over to Event No. 54 today, the last of those $1,000 buy-in NLHE events, which I’ll be sticking with right through to its final table, currently scheduled for next Monday (i.e., the first day of the Main Event). It could happen, I think, that they try to play this one out on Sunday, although most are anticipating an especially large field for this last of the “Grand Games,” meaning it may well require that extra day of play.

We’ll see what happens there. Meanwhile... hello, July. Glad you made it. I’ve heard nothing but good things and am really looking forward to our working together. And maybe at some point later on we can take some time off and relax.