Short Trip Report

I was in Maryland last week helping cover a World Poker Tour event, the WPT Maryland Live! one in Hanover (near Baltimore).

In contrast to most trips I only had to take a short flight up from Charlotte for this one. Indeed, the flight took less time than did my drive from the farm to the airport. Was great fun reuniting with some of the WPT crew with whom I’ve worked in the past, and I very much enjoyed making some new friends in Brittany Paige and Matt Clark alongside whom I worked and reported.

Also got to reunite with and meet several players, too, as will happen. Andrew Brokos (of the Thinking Poker Podcast) went out just shy of the final 30, and Ari Engel a little after that, and it was nice to chat with each of them again. The friendly and gregarious Kenny Nguyen made it to eighth and kept us all entertained the entire way.

I additionally got a chance to meet the winner Art Papazyan, who in fact was claiming his second WPT title in about five weeks after having won the WPT Legends of Poker in late August where he outlasted Phil Hellmuth heads-up. (The photo above is from the last stages of the tournament, just before Papazyan won.)

Papazyan had some funny stories about playing against Hellmuth, and while he insisted he isn’t a “tournament pro” (being more of a cash game guy), the two victories in close succession probably ensures the California player will be participating in a few more tournaments going forward. They definitely ensure he has a lock on the WPT Player of the Year for this, the tour’s 16th season.

There were five days of poker, all but the last one quite long. Following the second one I was up into the wee hours handling some administrative stuff when I saw the first tweets regarding the shooting in Las Vegas. I clicked through a link one on of them to hear the chatter on the police scanner sharing reports of multiple shooters at several different casinos.

By the time I went to sleep a couple of hours later, there was still a lot of confusion on the scanner, on Twitter, and on cable news (which I’d turned on) about what had happened. Or was still happening (no one was sure). The toll of the violence perpetrated by what turned out to be a single individual wasn’t known yet, either. That didn’t come until Monday.

I got back to Las Vegas last summer for the WSOP Main Event, my first visit there in four years.

I’d never want to live in Vegas permanently. In fact, the 16 consecutive nights I spent at the Rio in July probably represents a maximum possible stay for me at this point in my life. That says more about me than about Vegas. I’m always going to be more small town (or small farm) than big city, regardless of local legislative predilections regarding card games and such.

But I’ve spent enough time in Las Vegas over the years to have developed a meaningful connection to the place and to many people who do live there, a connection that compounded the heartache caused by yet another senseless act of violence.

Can’t say I have anything especially profound to add right now to the discussion about what happened or even to larger conversations regarding gun violence in the United States. Some (not all) lawmakers are saying the usual things about future action, but none of it is very assuring. Nor does it seem likely that even this horror will move those who can perhaps do something to help lessen the likelihood of future acts of violence to do so. Like some others I’ve been thinking a little about the shooter’s background as a gambler and as a result unavoidably considering connections as part of an impracticable attempt at explaining something that resists rational explanation.

But that’s mostly just the intellect vainly trying to distract the emotions.

Back home now for a while until the next trip. Glad to be here helping take care of everybody.

Back to Vegas

This morning I was trying to calculate just how many days I’ve been in Las Vegas before. It’s probably the one place where I’ve lived the most without having actually moved there.

Going off to college or grad school doesn’t count, as those were genuine “moves” wherein I was more or less living full-time somewhere new. Nor does that year Vera and I spent living in France, even though we knew all along that was a temporary thing.

I spent six summers total reporting on the World Series of Poker (from 2008-2013). The first three I was there the entire way, meaning stays of about seven-and-a-half weeks. The latter three times I only went for four weeks. Add to that other visits here and there, and it probably adds up to 10 months or so living in hotel rooms and apartments in Sin City.

Feels like a lot, although I have friends and colleagues who have spent a lot more of their lives in Vegas while actually living elsewhere. And some who started out going there for a few weeks at at time, then moved there permanently.

In any case, the time I’ve spent in Vegas has been more than enough to make coming back here today seem a bit like some kind of faux homecoming.

So many familiar sights and sounds. I’m staying in the Rio this time, too, and already I’m realizing I long ago memorized many of the details of the place. Have already made that long walk through the casino, down the halls and past the Penn & Teller, down to the ballrooms where everything is still full blast as the last prelims play out and they ready for the Main to start tomorrow.

I’ll be here 16 nights altogether to help report on this year’s WSOP Main Event. More features and interviews and “color” this time than in the past when it was mostly all about hand reports and chip counts for your humble scribbler.

A couple more differences from past summers -- I won’t be updating here everyday along the way, although I will try to check in occasionally. And with the November Nine having been jettisoned (finally), I’ll finally see the sucker through to the end.

Best part of this whole trip is getting to reunite with many friends, a lot of whom I’ve worked with or alongside before, and most of whom I’ve only been interacting online since my last Vegas trip. A lot of been-there-done-that feel, then, but a lot to look forward to as well.

Image: “Las Vegas: Welcome to Vegas” (adapted), WriterGal39. CC BY-ND 2.0.

The Sun in June

Vera Valmore and I watched the Late Show with David Letterman last night (which I saw last week). She’d missed it the first time around and so I DVR’d it, and I have to say I laughed just as much the second time through watching it again with her.

There’s a joke Letterman makes at one point regarding future plans for himself and his longtime partner and musical director Paul Shaffer. He cracks how they’re going to soon “debut our new act at Caesars Palace with our white tigers.”

I’d missed it the first time around, but when setting up that line Letterman had one that was even funnier, especially to some of us.

“Next month... it’ll be June in Las Vegas. Which, by the way, is the time to go to Las Vegas.”

Had to grin at that one, thinking about how many Junes I spent in Vegas. It’s heating up here, too, on the farm, though there’s something a little more pleasant about being here than there.

Hoping all my friends out there are able to beat the heat well enough this summer.

Recent Reads

Thought I’d take a post today to pass along some interesting poker-related reads from the last few days.

Last week over on BLUFF there appeared a lengthy, entertaining feature by Will O’Connor describing “The Last Hours of the Taj Mahal Poker Room” that’s worth a look.

Late last year it appeared as though the Trump Taj Mahal would become the fifth Atlantic City casino to close in 2014, though it managed to remain open after declaring bankruptcy in September, then settling a major dispute with employees over the paying of benefits, then getting a $20 million loan from a creditor in late December to help keep the doors open.

The poker room -- the one Mike and Worm take a trip to in Rounders and a one-time focal point of east coast poker -- closed down just before midnight on February 15th, and the feature describes in detail the scene during those final hours. Word is there are intentions to reopen the room this summer, although that plan (like the future of the Trump Taj Mahal) is uncertain.

Late last week another longish -- not entirely unrelated -- piece went up over on Rob’s Vegas and Poker Blog titled “Dominick Muzio and the State of Poker Today.”

Readers of this blog have likely found Rob’s blog over the last three-plus years since he started it to share interesting stories of his own low-limit adventures among many other items of poker-related interest. In this post he speaks at length with Muzio, a dealer in LV since 2009 who also works as a floor/shift supervisor at Treasure Island.

The theme of the conversation concerns why live poker has become less fun (and less popular) of late, and Muzio shares a number of thoughts to help explain that trend while also proposing ideas for reversing it. Some topics covered include math-versus-feel players, the dominance of no-limit hold’em, payout schedules for tournaments, the (relative) lack of online poker, and the social aspect of the game.

Check it out, and for an addendum adding other thoughts on the same issue see Grange95’s post “Making Poker Fun Again.”

Finally, you probably heard about the Bitcoin-based Seals With Clubs site going down a couple of weeks ago, and now apparently for good. You might also have heard how Bryan Micon, the best-known face of the site, had his Las Vegas home raided by gun-toting agents serving a warrant from the Nevada Gaming Commission.

Giovanni Angioni spoke with Micon for PokerNews and the interview appears amid a feature explaining what happened with the site and the raid titled “Seals With Clubs Chairman Bryan Micon: ‘The Police Raid Was Completely Unnecessary.’”

Micon talks about the history and final demise of Seals With Clubs, his hasty move to Antigua, and plans for the impending launch of SwC 2.0. Kind of a wild, confusing story, and thus another intriguing read.

Phil Ivey Pot Committed

There were a couple of items in the poker news this week involving Phil Ivey.

One was an announcement by Ivey Poker that they were suspending their free-money poker app on Facebook for the time being. The press release announcing the decision noted that while shutting down the app “may sound ominous” as far as the fate of Ivey Poker was concerned, “it’s actually just the first step in our evolution as we prepare to launch an even bigger and better gaming experience for you all in 2015.”

The Ivey Poker training site remains up and running. I’m not sure about the fate of its roster of pros, not mentioned in the presser. I thought I saw one of them tweet some kind of parting message wishing the company the best (or something), but I can’t track that down at the moment.

I’m not on Facebook, and so I never tried the app over there. I believe there was a version launched for the smart phone a little over a year ago, but I didn’t look into it. The site has been around for some time, seemingly poised initially to jump into some sort of regulated U.S. online cash play when it came to be although that hasn’t come to pass.

On the heels of that news was another item that Ivey was one of 26 applicants obtaining approval from Las Vegas City Council this week for a city permit to grow and sell medical marijuana. While the news about Ivey Poker’s app being shut down was hardly unexpected, I don’t think anyone saw this story coming.

The article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal is kind of funny to read insofar as it details all of the specifics of the hearings and approvals then at the very end of the article includes a short list of some of the applicants, with “professional poker player Phil Ivey” being the last one mentioned.

As the whole Ivey Poker experiment suggests (as does his significant involvement with Full Tilt Poker 1.0 before that), Ivey has long had an entrepreneurial urge, so I suppose the latter news isn’t completely without some context. Still kind of odd to encounter Ivey’s name in the list.

Those getting the approvals from the city could still be prevented from starting their medical marijuana businesses should the state health department decide against allowing them to do so. I guess Ivey and the others figured it’s a chance worth trying, with the reward outweighing what appears a not-so-huge risk.

I mean Ivey for one certainly knows all about pot odds. (Rim shot.)

Wrap Your Head Around This

For pretty much all of my life I have lived on relatively small plots of land.

My childhood home had modest-sized front and back yards. In college I lived in a dorm for a couple of years, then shared apartments for a while. Had one interesting year in grad school living in the “groom’s quarters” with Vera, actually just another apartment attached to a barn. We lived in what was basically an oversized closet when spending a year abroad in France. Got to house sit after that in what seemed a palace at the time owned by a long-time prof, a fairly big two-story house with a decent sized yard and garden. But even that place wasn’t too big to wrap one’s head around.

From there we were in another apartment, then a house in one of those “cookie cutter” neighborhoods where you could just about reach your neighbor through an open window. And now finally we’re on the farm. With 15 acres. Some trees around the edges, but most of it is cleared.

It’s a big space. Challenges comprehension, almost.

The house we’re in isn’t especially big -- in fact it is about the same as the one we left, square-feet-wise. But it has been interesting to watch our now 12-year-old cat Sweetie tentatively explore the new space.

Sweetie’s an indoor cat, her somewhat skittish ways providing a fairly stark contrast to the three rambunctious and social “barn cats” we’ve inherited. She remained under the bed almost exclusively for the first couple of days, then ventured out little by little to get to know the kitchen, living room, and (thankfully) the litter box.

She tiptoes cautiously, keeping very low to the floor as she moves in a manner that recalls the origin of the phrase “cat burglar.” I suppose she’s slowly performing a kind of “cognitive mapping” of the space, gradually taking it in and rebuilding it piece by piece in her mind’s eye.

By the way, that picture up above is a cartoon I clipped and kept near my desk for many years some time back. I only just came across it again during the packing and unpacking. That’s how I imagine Sweetie working out all the new angles she’s been encountering this week.

As someone with a terrible sense of direction, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of cognitive mapping. As I’ve told colleagues many times before, it’s kind of an irony that I found a profession that lands me in casinos so often, places the design of which can challenge even the most able-minded cognitive mappers.

I am notoriously lacking when it comes to processing directions for getting from one place to another. Having been to a place before -- even multiple times -- doesn’t ensure I’ll be able to get back. In fact, I’ll admit that in this new house I’ve found myself walking to the bedroom and missing the entrance about a half-dozen times as my brain stubbornly keeps providing me incorrect information about its location.

I remember a chapter in a book by Fredric Jameson called Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, one of many “theory” books I read in grad school, in which he spoke of cognitive mapping. If I remember it correctly, he used the concept as a kind of emblem for postmodernism and individuals living in confusing worlds in which it was difficult to orient oneself. (I could have that wrong -- the memory is dim.) I recall there also being a section in there somewhere about Las Vegas and its disorienting architecture, too.

Anyhow, those who build houses and buildings or plan towns and cities don’t really need to work that hard to confuse your humble scribbler. Who becomes ever more humbled whenever he’s forced to remember his way back somewhere following any journey requiring more than two turns.

I feel like Sweetie’s doing an okay job working out her new space, but I still feel more than a little disoriented in mine. Part of me wants to walk the entire 15 acres every day, just to reinforce the idea that I am actually “living” on it all.

But another part of me knows I might get lost!

The Absent-Minded Poker Player

By now the story of the poker player who left a brown paper bag containing $300,000 in cash in a Las Vegas cab has no doubt made it to your usual news feed, whatever that may be. This is one of those that quickly spilled out from under the usual “poker news” heading and into mainstream reporting, in fact.

I imagine I wasn’t the only one having conversations with family members about it during the Christmas visits. The story was one of those “page two” items in our local papers around here where all of the “weird but true”-type stuff usually lands. I was asked if I knew who the player was -- “a famous 28-year-old professional poker player, whom officials weren't publicly identifying” -- and I said no but I imagined the answer to that question would be coming sooner than later.

The angle highlighted most prominently, of course, was the cab driver’s decision to return the money to the office of his cab company and their ultimately successful effort to get the cash back in the owner’s hands. The company then rewarded the driver $1,000 for his action. Not a bad fit at all for the “’tis-the-reason-for-the-season” narrative.

Meanwhile, within the poker community it sounds like a couple of less crucial subplots are occupying the thoughts of those responding to the story.

There’s the “how much did he tip?” question which makes the story into a version of the tourney-tipping debates that come up now and again regarding the relative generosity or stinginess of those earning big tournament paydays. The lucky player apparently tipped the cabbie $5 for a relatively short trip, but there’s no postscript as of yet noting whether there was any additional tipping after getting his cash returned.

Then there’s the question of who exactly the “famous 28-year-old professional poker player” actually is. I was amused yesterday by some of the guesses as well as 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up Jay Farber’s impatient denials after several seemed sure he must’ve been the one.

Sort of interesting to follow the latter discussion, in particular the sleuthing some are employing when narrowing down possible candidates. On one level it’s just another bit of problem-solving, not unlike that which poker itself provides for us in the form of considering available (and incomplete) evidence in an attempt to guess opponents’ possible holdings.

But there’s also that sense of schadenfreude that characterizes a lot of railbirding happening here, too, I think, wherein people want to know where to direct their derision. After all, if one of the great pleasures of watching poker is to witness players make especially clever strategic decisions, a close second has to be watching them mistakes, too, right?

“May All of Your Cards Be Live...”

I mentioned how this most recent trip of mine culminated with that WPT final table at the Bellagio which was a “TV” one. Not all WPT events are shot for later broadcast (on Fox Sports), but quite a few are. Since this was the first time I’d actually been present at one of these, I thought I’d share a few quick impressions.

Anyone who has attended a WPT final table that was scheduled to be televised probably will be familiar with everything I’m sharing here. That is to say, it isn’t as though anything I noticed as someone there reporting on the event is that different from what anyone else in attendance gets to see, too.

In fact, for poker fans who happen to be where a WPT televised final table is taking place, I recommend checking it out. The entire day I was thinking of a good friend of mine who loves to watch poker on TV -- still (!) -- and who is always asking me about players he sees. I realized how much of a kick he’d get out of seeing one of these shows being created.

I knew before that Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten were present at these final tables, but I hadn’t necessarily realized how they actually are commentating quite a bit as the hands go by. I know they’ll go back and do more in post-production, but I hadn’t necessarily appreciated from watching the WPT on television that some or even most of what we hear from those two comes during the actual playing of the final table.

The desk at which they sat was far enough away from the table -- and from the crowd and those of us reporting -- that you couldn’t hear every word they said. But you could definitely pick up on the excited responses as Sexton and Van Patten both reacted to a big river card or other crucial moments at the final table (of which there were several), which added an extra bit of fun to the proceedings.

Meanwhile, Lynn Gilmartin is now doing the anchoring for the WPT shows, and she, too, was shooting a lot of her segments as the final table was being played.

I’ve known Lynn for a while now thanks to her long association with PokerNews and PokerStars, and so am well familiar with how great she is in front of the camera. In fact, I’ve joined her a few times for brief vids from the LAPT -- here’s one from last year -- on which the contrast between our relative levels of ease only further underscores her skills.

Lynn was positioned at an elevated table over to the side where she could be heard introducing returns to action or taking us to commercial breaks, interspersing questions of Mike and Vince. Then we also saw WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage interviewing players to the side of the stage, too, both before play began and after bustouts.

Watching both reminded me of sitting in the press box at the WSOP while Kara Scott would shoot segments and marveling at how cool they all are, often able to move through the segments in one take and sound great doing it.

As someone who has spent a lot of time standing in front of classrooms full of students, I’m not necessarily shy about talking to groups. But the challenges faced and conquered by these folks whose jobs put them in front of the camera still impresses me, and I can’t imagine how much work it would take to get to the point they seem to be.

The play moved rather quickly without a lot of delays for setting up for certain shots or for other production-related reasons. I suppose that defied my expectations a little, too, after having worked a lot of events on other tours where there would be frequent stoppages of play related to the broadcasts being shot or streamed. By contrast, they kept things moving pretty quickly throughout yesterday, no doubt in part because of a desire not to keep the extensive crew working longer than necessary.

All of the other elements of the TV show were there, too -- the Royal Flush girls and their “bar,” the trophy presentation, and so on. There were nice recognitions of Jack McClelland made both before and after the final table as well, as this was the last event for the Bellagio’s retiring tournament director.

All of it kind of took me back to the days of being a big “poker fan” -- i.e., a decade ago when I was right there with everyone else discovering the WPT on television for the first time and becoming instantly fascinated with the show, the game, and the people who were part of it.

I know the WPT doesn’t quite occupy the central place in poker’s subculture today as it did back then. But it is still an important part of the overall scene and I think still brings a lot that’s good for the game as a whole when it comes to promoting the game to a wider audience. And they continue to put on a good show that ultimately seems more than anything to underscore that sense that poker really can be a fun time.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Day 6 -- Keeping the Beat

For the final table of the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, the action moved out of the poker room and into one of the ballrooms on the other side of the Bellagio. As usual, the WPT had a huge set constructed for the big finale, and unlike the previous WPT events I’ve worked this one was shot for TV broadcast (sometime in the spring, I think).

The playing down from six players to a winner in Dan Smith -- a.k.a. “King Dan” -- took around seven hours or so with only a few short breaks along the way. Smith, who I mentioned yesterday on Day 5 had enjoyed some good fortune to avoid going out with 16 players left, began the day with the chip lead. He kept the lead for the first part of Day 6, but at three-handed Eddy Sabat was in the top spot and appeared in good position to win.

Smith had some more run good, though, after doubling his short stack through Sabat with versus the latter’s , then winning another big pot two hands later against Sabat when he flopped a flush. That one saw Smith getting Sabat to call on all three post-flop streets including the last all-in push, and so Smith doubled again to take a commanding lead before winning the event a couple of dozen hands later.

The last day saw me tracking chip counts after every hand while the posts were handled by my blogging partners B.J. Nemeth (who did hand reports) and Ryan Luchessi (who posted lots of cool features along the way). Was a little like moving over from playing lead guitar to sitting behind the drums in this power trio, and while I’ll admit it took me a little while in the early going to get the beat right I got acclimated before too long and ended up enjoying the night’s work.

Was also fun to see the shooting of the WPT program, something I’d never actually witnessed before. I want to write a little more about what that was like and so am going to save discussing that until tomorrow, but I will say it’s an impressive, finely-tuned production they have in place -- not that surprising considering they’ve been at it for over a decade now.

Flights back from Las Vegas were relatively smooth though I was pretty beat once I finally got home. Will be taking a little bit of a break from the traveling at the moment, but there will be more globetrotting to come.

Getting some rest now. More tomorrow about the final day at the WPT Five Diamond.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Day 5 -- King Dan’s Two-Outer

Was a full day yesterday for Day 5 of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic as they played down from 21 to the final six.

The tourney was relocated to the “high-limit” area of the Bellagio poker room, an elevated section in the far right corner, which took the players out of the center of the very active cash games happening at the mostly filled tables in the rest of the room.

Once the three tables played down to a final ten-handed table, the final table of that $100K high roller event the Bellagio was putting on was moved over into the same area as well, and in fact would play out long after we finished with Brian Rast winning more than $1 million for topping a small field.

Rast was one of the couple of players who had actually entered the $10K WPT event seven times (thanks to the unlimited re-entry format), and so despite finishing in 32nd and in the money, he’d lost more than $40K in that one as his cash was only for a little over $26K.

Not sure if Rast re-entered the $100K or not, but you can check out reports on the event by Eric of Poker Telegraph who was on hand to file updates on that one from start-to-finish.

The big news entering Day 5, of course, was the prospect of start-of-day chip leader Jean-Robert Bellande perhaps making the televised final table and thus adding a bit of entertainment to the proceedings later today. JRB was still leading at mid-afternoon yesterday, but had one calamitous level that took him from the top of the counts to the bottom, and it wasn’t long after they’d gone to the ten-handed final table that he busted in 10th.

It took a good while, but finally they reached the final six with Dan Smith the chip leader. Smith had narrowly avoided finishing 16th in the tournament when he’d been all in with 10-10 versus the K-K of Steven Silverman and no help had come on either the flop or turn. But a 10 fell on fifth street to save Smith, and he’d go on to carry the lead to today while Silverman would be the one to finish 16th.

“King Dan” will be joined by Eddy Sabat and Joe Serock at this final table, as well as a player named Shaun Suller whom I met a few times covering WSOP Circuit stops. Suller is a friendly guy and I overheard him telling the WPT TV crew in an interview how he planned to donate a percentage of his winnings to the Jimmy V Foundation, which gave me another reason to be glad he’d made the final table.

Meanwhile others coming up short along with Bellande and Silverman were Christian Harder, Dan O’Brien, and Will Failla.

Have a hectic day ahead and so am cutting things short again. Check over at the WPT site for updates later on from tonight’s final table. Should be interesting to see the staging and presentation for the TV show, as Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten, Lynn Gilmartin will all be there to do their commentary as it goes.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Day 4 -- Fantasyland & BrokeLivingJRB

Not a ton of time for scribbling today, so I’ll move through this update quickly. One reason why my time is short is because after play was done yesterday I joined B.J. and our friend Shancy for a couple of hours’ worth of open-face Chinese, during which many grins were had while I also made it to Fantasyland a couple of times.

Speaking of fantasies, the 59 who returned for yesterday’s Day 4 still entertaining dreams of winning this year’s World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic and realizing a seven-figure score battled down to just 21, with Jean-Robert Bellande building a big stack to carry the lead into today’s penultimate day of play.

I’m remembering Bellande being especially short in the middle of Day 2 of the event, right around the time the re-entry period ended. He was definitely in shove-or-fold mode there for a while, but when they came back for the last level of that night he went on a rush, knocking out both Phil Hellmuth and Jen Tilly sitting next to him, to finish the day in good shape chip-wise. Then for the last two days he’s just kept on adding to his stack.

I agree with those who are entertained by Bellande and find him “good for poker” (as they say). I also dig his self-deprecating persona, especially when he retweets others’ digs at him (both seriously delivered and otherwise).

Jeremy Ausmus had an especially funny tweet yesterday (which @BrokeLivingJRB of course retweeted), in which he suggested there might be something wrong with the reporting regarding Bellande’s first-position status.

Lots of big names left among the final 21 in addition to Bellande, with Joe Serock, Dan O’Brien, Christian Harder, Will Failla, Dan Smith, Barry Hutter, and Steven Silverman among them. It’s been that kind of tourney. In fact, yesterday I went through and saw I knew by sight 40 of the 59 remaining at the start of the day, a very high percentage relatively speaking.

Also happening in the Bellagio poker room yesterday was the start of a non-WPT $100,000 event which quietly began playing out on a couple of tables in the center of the room. Ben Lamb, Joseph Cheong, Erik Seidel, Jason Koon, Ben Tollerene, Anthony Gregg, and Justin Bonomo were among the dozen or so entrants in that one.

At one point I overheard staff referring to one of the high rollers (one not listed above) and saying how he’d seen him play in a $100 tourney just a day or so ago. Reminded me a little of the story OhCaptain told me about a guy who’d busted from our $10K event showing up to play that night in an $80 tourney in which he took part. Those anecdotes illustrate how the game paradoxically is both all about money and has nothing to do with money (for some).

We’re thinking it might well be a long one today. Again, head over to the WPT site to see if JRB can maintain his frontrunner status today and perhaps make tomorrow’s six-handed final table.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Day 3 -- Tight Fit

Down to 59 now in the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, just 14 eliminations away from the money. There are three more days to go the six-day event, so today will probably see the field carved down to the low 20s or so, then on Tuesday they’ll play down to six and finish up on Wednesday.

I was talking yesterday about how the re-entry format and lengthy period for buying back in made the first day and much of the second kind of anticlimactic, likening it to a “regular season” and calling the period after re-entries end the “playoffs.”

I might have called that re-entry period the “preseason,” actually, with this interim between the re-entry period ending and the money bubble bursting being the regular season and play following the cashes starting being the playoffs. However we want to draw our analogies, things are getting increasingly more interesting with much more to report as the significance of individual hands grows incrementally as they go.

Nearly all 40 or so tables in the Bellagio poker room have been constantly filled for the past three days, initially with tourney players, then as the field finally got smaller (especially yesterday) with cash games filling in once the tourney no longer needed tables. Bobby’s Room -- the walled in inner room inside the poker room -- has had two or three tables going constantly, too, with Doyle Brunson (who didn’t play the tournament bearing his name), Eli Elezra, David Oppenheim, Kenny Tran, Huck Seed, and several other familiar folks among those who have been sitting at the tables in there.

All of which means the poker room has been constantly packed with people, including players, media and the TV crew, poker room staff and Bellagio servers, and others filling every inch. Interestingly, though, I’m not really sensing anyone being that bothered by the crowded quarters, and I, too, have realized ideas of “personal space” kind of automatically adjust in such situations.

It’s like we’re all at a sold out, standing room only show or something, and while there isn’t much room to move around, all seem pretty glad to be there. The fact that everyone has been especially helpful and all seem to be working together well to keep things running smoothly has gone a long way in this regard, making it a fun tourney thus far to cover. Kind of an emblem of multi-table tournament poker, I guess, a huge field all doing what they can to try to fit into just a few seats at the end.

Non-tourney news from yesterday included me winning one NFL bet (the Bengals) and correctly resisting making a second one (on the Panthers). Also I’d had ideas during the day of perhaps joining B.J. Nemeth and Jess Welman to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey (which Jess had never seen) once the day was done, but decided to go for the extra couple of hours of sleep instead. (Here is an old post in which I wrote a bit about 2001: “My Mind Is Going... I Can Feel It....”)

Sounds like from the tweets B.J.’s attempts at making Jess appreciate the film’s achievement didn’t quite land, given Jess’ tweet afterwards (“Worst. Movie. Ever.”). I imagined a scene of conflict between the two resulting in the remote control being thrown up in the air, rotating end over end in slow motion like a bone or a space station. I also thought of B.J. responding to Jess’ dislike of the film in HAL’s voice…

“Look Jess, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.”

I think Jess will soon be explaining her response to 2001 on her blog, for which we can stay tuned. Meanwhile, as always, check back over at the WPT site for updates today from Day 4 of the WPT Five Diamond.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Day 2 -- The Playoffs Begin

Another busy one at the Bellagio yesterday for Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. They played five more 90-minute levels, with the field ultimately getting whittled down to 140 players by night’s end with Jeff Madsen leading everyone at the moment.

I’ve been mentioning how this $10,300 buy-in event features a “re-entry” format. That re-entry period lasted all of the way to the end of Level 8 yesterday, with no limits on the number of times players could enter.

Once we got into Level 9, B.J. Nemeth did some number crunching. Ultimately there were 449 total entries in the event, with 309 unique players. A little over two-thirds who participated bought in just once (216), while the rest entered anywhere from two times all of the way up to a couple buying in seven times.

At one point during the day I told B.J. and Ryan Luchessi (my blogging partners here) that until the re-entry period ended, the tourney felt a little like the regular season, with players jockeying for position but no one really being out of it quite yet, even if they bust. But once we got into Level 9 and players could no longer buy back in, it was as though the “playoffs” had begun.

Having re-entries and lots of players taking the option definitely affects the flow of a tournament from a reporting perspective, with lots of bustouts-that-are-not-really-bustouts creating a kind of ongoing sense of anticlimax. Thus it was almost relieving once players really were eliminated for good during the last two levels of the night yesterday, if only to provide a sense that we were finally moving forward with the tournament.

Of course, there are many other more relevant issues regarding re-entry tournaments and how they affect players that are being debated at present. WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage shared some thoughts about the re-entry tourneys not too long ago in an op-ed for PokerNews that begins with the question of whether or not it might be time to rethink having them.

Meanwhile, all this talk about entries makes me think of “entrees,” a word that for some reason I always want to type when I mean the former. And speaking of entrees, I am definitely eating well here.

Yesterday began with a big (and enjoyable) breakfast at the Cafe Bellagio with Jen Newell, Drizzdtj, and OhCaptain. Then it was back to the buffet once again following the end of play along with many of the remaining players. I think many tend to like these days of reasonable length (lasting around eight-and-a-half hours with breaks) with dinner coming at the end rather than in the middle.

Ended up making a quick trek via the tram over to Monte Carlo after dinner to visit a short while with Absinthetics and OhCaptain who were playing in a tourney there. Handy getting from here to there on the free tram. I took that pic up above on the way over during the brief period of being exposed to the windy, cold conditions here in Vegas at present.

Should be another interesting day, tourney-wise, as the “playoffs” are now in full swing with every elimination bringing us closer to a champion. Meanwhile I am gonna enjoy a little morning football right now before play begins. Check over at the WPT site for updates to see how things progress.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Day 1 -- Crab Legs and Christmas Trees

Kind of a whirlwind day yesterday for the kickoff of the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. They played through five 90-minute levels with short breaks between each and no stopping for dinner, which made the day go by quickly.

We got our dinner, though, hitting the Bellagio buffet afterwards where my blogging partner B.J. Nemeth loaded up on crab legs as he said he would be doing all day.

“Why should I get anything else?” asked Nemeth.

We were packed fairly tightly there in the Bellagio poker room, our workstation positioned right next to Bobby’s Room with nearly all of the 36 or so tables being filled at some point with tourney players. We were almost as crowded as those crab legs on B.J.’s plate!

With players busting and re-entering throughout the day there ended up being more than 320 entries all told, although I don’t know how many individual players were actually participating. Chances are we’ll see the total entries go up significantly today through the first three levels when re-entering remains an option. There will be some new faces, too, showing up to start their tourneys today. I know, for instance, that is Phil Hellmuth’s plan.

Found myself throughout the day having flashbacks to earlier visits to the Bellagio and its poker room, including some that came early on when I was just getting started with the blog. Among those visits was one instance when I interviewed Barry Greenstein, and we actually conducted the interview in Bobby’s Room while Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, and others played at the neighboring table.

Was a little starstruck then, I’ll admit, although having been around it all for so long now that feeling has gone away. I did recall it yesterday, though, especially when occasionally peering into Bobby’s Room where Doyle was there again all day along with a few more familiar faces.

Also was reminded of those days thanks to the visit of OhCaptain who got himself a media badge and shot some pictures. Was nice finally to meet him after all of these years blogging alongside one another, and I know he got a kick out of doing the photographer thing.

I’m not even sure Brunson plans to play in the tourney at all, as the games in Bobby’s Room have to be more attractive to him. He did take a break at one point yesterday, though, to go help light the Bellagio’s Christmas tree.

Meanwhile the field was full of familiar folks yesterday, with several well known (and accomplished) players seated around just about every table. The tourney should produce a talented final table, I imagine, and as we move into the next couple of days the play will become more interesting, too, especially after the re-entry period ends.

Gonna break it off here for now as I’m running to meet Jen Newell and Drizztdj, the latter another one of those whom I’ve known for years but never actually met face-to-face. Am grateful for the chance to connect with these folks thanks to the World Poker Blogger Tour having their big get together this weekend (with the WPBT tourney happening today).

Meanwhile you can check over at the WPT site later today to see how Day 2 plays out and who emerges as contenders in this week-long $10K event.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Arrival -- Chilly Vegas

Hello Las Vegas. Again.

Arrived safely last night, kind of surprised at the chilly conditions in LV, being so used to spending many weeks here in the middle of summer when the temps are routinely triple digits. Coldest stretch in four years here currently, I read somewhere, which would matter more if it weren’t for the fact that I’ll mostly be indoors from here to next Thursday. Got down into the 20s overnight and they’re talking snow, which seems wrong here in the desert.

By the time I got to my new home-away-from-home for the next week it was past 9 p.m. here last night -- midnight my time -- and so I was already pretty tuckered. I was also in need of nourishment thanks to the fact that the nearly five-hour second leg of my trip didn’t provide a meal. Managed to feed myself and get a good night’s sleep, and after securing some caffeine this morning am excited for today’s Day 1 of the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio where the holiday decorations are up (see above).

The tourney sports a $10,000+$300 buy-in (with re-entries available through the first eight levels). Means a somewhat different crowd will be involved with this one than was the case at the WPT bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble a couple of weeks ago which had a $3,500 price tag. Will also be a slower event throughout with 90-minute levels from the start.

Ravi Raghavan won this event last year, topping a big field of 503 entries including a final table featuring Shawn Buchanan, Andrew Lichtenberger, and Antonio Esfandiari (who won the Five Diamond in 2010 and also final tabled in 2011). Raghavan picked up $1,268,571 for the win, the biggest chunk of a $4,879,100 prize pool.

I believe these first few starting days will feature just five levels and thus end mid-evening, which might give me a chance to do a little visiting and other extra-curriculars while here. Meanwhile, I have to take care of some last business before heading over for Day 1. Check the WPT site to follow the live updates and see who else comes in out of the cold to play today.

West No Longer Best for WPT World Championship

Last month I was making reference to all of the new tours getting cranked up once again, with the World Poker Tour -- now in its 12th season -- among them. Only the first half of this year’s WPT schedule (which will ultimately run from August 2012 through May 2013) has been announced as yet, although I imagine the second half is more or less fully in place already.

Already announced for the final months of 2013 are events in Paris, South Africa, South Korea, Prague, and a few in the U.S. including in Jacksonville and Las Vegas. The WPT will be going back to the Playground Poker club in Kahnawake, Quebec, too, in a few months, one of the Canadian poker sites that has now found its way into the regular tourney tour schedule along with other tours’ stops.

There was some news yesterday, though, regarding the season-ending WPT World Championship which has traditionally taken place at the Bellagio ever since the tour debuted. This year that event will instead take place at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, which is where the WPT not coincidentally happens to be at the moment for the WPT Borgata Open.

The move made me think of a post I wrote last May about the WPT World Championship, “The Shifting Place of the WPT World Championship,” the title of which today sounds like it has a different meaning than the one I had intended.

I was speaking figuratively, of course, referring to how the once prestigious tournament had receded in significance over recent years. In that post I noted in particular how the turnouts had declined dramatically since peaking in 2007 with 639 entries. Last year there were just 146 entries in the event, with 26 of those coming from players re-entering, thus meaning there were only 120 players involved. Meanwhile, the fields for many other big buy-in events have been growing over that same period.

Those shrinking numbers were no doubt a big part of the reason for the WPT making this move. In the announcement yesterday, WPT President Adam Pliska referred to the Borgata having been “home to four of the five biggest tournaments in WPT history,” and indeed it does seem relatively certain the event will have a better chance of thriving in its new location.

Initial response to the decision to move the season-ending eastward was met with what sounded like a lot of positive buzz from players over Twitter. Part of that positivity being expressed the Borgata was inspired by criticisms of the Bellagio, which has certainly fallen from favor over the last several years as a destination for both tourney types and cash game players.

Thinking beyond the relative merits of particular casinos and poker rooms, though, I wonder if the WPT moving its championship might prove a significant moment in the larger Nevada-versus-New Jersey discussion already ongoing thanks to online poker legislation and the concomitant launching of casino-affiliated sites. In other words, will there be more “shifting” to talk about occurring in the poker landscape, perhaps sooner than later?

2013 WSOP, Day 29: Zombies, Bodies Sawed in Half, and Other Hallucinations

Vera is here, and I’m very grateful to be getting a bit of a mini-vacation for a couple of days while she is so we can spend time together. I’ll be back on the reporting beat on Friday, and she’ll be departing on Saturday, but in the meanwhile we’re getting to do a few things in and around Vegas together.

As I mentioned I might do yesterday, I took her over to Red Rock Canyon, the National Conservation Area located about a half-hour west of Las Vegas. We drove the 13-mile loop that goes counterclockwise around and through the site, stopping frequently to look at the various red rock formations, stone walls, desert flora (not so much fauna), and other amazing things to look at along the way.

That photo above is of the stumps sticking up out of the sand that dot the landscape throughout the site. Perhaps it is due to having watched too many horror movies as an adolescent, but to me they resemble hands reaching up out of the earth, a prelude to a zombie-led apocalypse.

We snapped a bunch more pics, of course, and I took a few tries at using that panorama function on the iPhone. Here’s one (click to enlarge):

Last summer F-Train and I hiked the Calico Tanks route which took a couple of hours to complete. But Vera and I mostly stayed in the air conditioned vehicle, the triple-digit temps making it less than desirable to be outside of it for very long.

Had a classic rock station on the radio which at times provided a kind of uncanny soundtrack for our journey, especially when “Stairway to Heaven” and “Us and Them” were playing. Could imagine Pink Floyd having set up and playing “Live at Pompeii”-style out in the middle of it, the “black... black... black... black... and blue... blue... blue... blue...” echoing all around us.

Then last night we took in the Penn & Teller show at the Rio, something we’d always sorta kinda intended to do but never had. Was entertaining and unsurprisingly full of “How did they do that?” moments, with their characteristic method of both performing so-called “magic” while denying magic actually exists providing both grins and some food for thought along the way.

They mentioned at one point how the show compiled bits performed over their entire career which by now must span three decades at least, and I realized I had seen at least couple of them before somewhere along the way, including the gory, seemingly botched sawing of a woman in half bit.

I guess between Red Rock Canyon and the show, the day’s theme was to challenge the senses, especially sight, with the uncommon or hard-to-comprehend.

Today the schedule includes seeing some more sights (and sites), including a trip downtown to Fremont Street where Vera has never been. We had thoughts of checking out the Librace Museum -- a site much recommended to us -- though have discovered it closed a while back.

I’m sure we’ll find plenty to see and do, however, including more visions that challenge the idea that seeing is believing.

Hello, Vegas

Have arrived at the home-away-from-home here in Las Vegas, having mostly unpacked and more or less gotten settled already. Was in a kind of serene state of mind flying out, with an hour-long delay, a super-sized neighbor sitting next to me, and a mother traveling with four children one row up all failing to cause any undue stress along the way.

The delay didn’t matter so much as I wasn’t needing to arrive at any particular time, the fellow in the next seat was amiable enough, and the kids (aged one to eight) did remarkably well keeping busy with coloring books and making faces throughout the five hours or so we were in the air.

Landed around seven-thirty local time and immediately noticed the Ultimate Poker and WSOP.com online poker advertising in McCarran. Got bag, car, and within an hour had reached my destination. Then I ran over for a quick visit to the Amazon Room in the Rio last night to pick up my credentials and see who was there.

Everything was pretty much where I’d left it a year ago.

Reunited with several folks including a lot of the PokerNews guys, some of whom were working and some of whom were not. I arrive during what is in fact a relative lull in the WSOP schedule with just four events running yesterday, two of which had shrunk down to a final table and the final three tables.

Those two were all that was playing out in the Amazon, which meant most of the spacious ballroom was empty last night. One was Event No. 29, the $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. at which Tom Schneider was sitting and in fact would end play late in the night with a big chip lead with four remaining. Going for a second bracelet of the summer after winning the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event just last week, is the Donkey Bomber, and a fourth in his career.

I shook Tom’s hand at the break, then also shook another 2013 WSOP bracelet winner’s hand soon after, my colleague Chad Holloway. I had grabbed a copy of Poker Player Newspaper from the hallway with Chad grinning on the cover and before saying anything to him asked him if he could sign it which got a laugh from the others.

Chad missed an opportunity, as he pointed out afterwards, as he might have grabbed the pen, scribbled his name quickly, and moved on as though he had more important things to do. In any case, he made the most of an opportunity a couple of weeks ago when he won Event No. 1, that’s for sure.

Ended up grabbing a late dinner with BLUFF writer and Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games Season 3 winner Tim and had fun getting caught up with him and with how the WSOP has been going thus far. Tim is playing the $2,500 razz event later today, for which I am sure the HBP Home Games have served him well as a valuable tune-up.

After that I headed back to get some rest, leaving the unpacking until this morning, in fact. Still need to make a grocery run and get settled for real, although today I think I’ve already got a full schedule as I’ll meet Jen Newell for breakfast, then run over with a bunch of others to the Golden Nugget to play the noon $125 NLHE tourney.

Hoping also to be able to get together with folks for Game 6 of the Heat-Spurs series tonight, on which I might just have to find a reasonable bet to make. (Can the Spurs do it? Can they?)

I expect I’ll soon settle into making some daily WSOP reports here as I’ve done in the past. More to come!

Wake Up

After a day’s worth of flying -- had a lengthy layover at Dallas/FTW (FTW!) -- I landed at McCarran International Airport in Vegas at about 10 p.m. last evening. Garry from PokerNews met me at the baggage carousel, and when my overstuffed bag finally turned up it felt a little like I’d won at roulette. Felt like I’d won again once we made it to my digs for the summer, a sweet suite not far from the strip.

Gonna be meeting up with the Poker Grump for lunch today where I expect to offer him expert advice regarding his upcoming WSOP bracelet chase (on June 11). Will probably go ahead and get me a rental car today and take care of some of the setting-up-shop stuff here this afternoon. Even though public transportation is cheap and not too hard to negotiate, I think I want to have the car at least for the first part of the summer for the sake of convenience. Easier for grocery runs, meeting people in Henderson, etc.

Otherwise, today is somewhat free for me, agenda-wise. Probably will meet up with some PokerNews folks later in the afternoon for an informal reunion. Tomorrow is another, similar get-together, then on Wednesday we’ll be having several meetings of the photographers, the field reporters, and the live bloggers. Despite the last-minute nature of things, it looks like we’ll have a nice-sized crew here, with a lot of folks back from the last year (or two).

Actually didn’t sleep that well last night at all, though I’m not really fatigued this morning. (As my horoscope said yesterday, I project magnetism and energy, and the only thing that can stop me is fatigue.) Must be enjoying some of that travel-induced adrenaline that clearly helped fuel our friend B.J. Nemeth in his mad dash across the country with his dog, Rhapsody (followed by hundreds on Twitter). He made it an hour or two after I did.

Hit the hay around midnight, had three hours of dreamless bliss, then three more hours of tossin’ and turnin’ as thoughts of the many tasks that lay ahead came to me one after another. When I finally woke up for real about six this morning, I had a moment where I hadn’t quite realized I wasn’t home, but some two thousand-plus miles away.

In a strange-but-not-so-strange place. The home away from home.

How does it feel?

Feels like there’s lots of good reasons for getting up. Getting to it.

Feels good.

“Use today’s New Moon as a new beginning”

Finished ninth (out of 25) in that there Run Good Challenge 3: WSOP Edition yesterday afternoon.

I played fairly well, I think, though probably missed a couple of opportunities along the way. Ran fairly good, too, winning a coin flip versus Michele Lewis and being lucky enough to draw A-K versus Iggy’s A-Q (and having it hold up) in another all-in.

Got to the final table short-stacked, though, and when Dan Skolovy of Poker Listings put in a small raise from middle position I decided to shove my miserable little pile of chips (about seven BBs worth, I think) from the button with pocket treys. Alas, Dr. Pauly was waiting in the big blind with cowboys, and so dutifully reshoved, pushing Dan S. out. No trey came, and I was on the rail. Big congrats to TripJax and Matt Showell (of PL) for winning the WSOP seats! (And thanks again, PokerListings, for setting it all up.) Looking forward to covering you guys, as well as the Poker Grump.

My flight leaves this afternoon, and with just hours to go, I still have the majority of my packing to do. Last summer I took about three times too much of everything, so I’m gonna try to be more selective this time around. Might send along a few tweets today @hardboiledpoker chronicling my progress across the continent, if anybody is innersted.

I am confident, however, that I will not come close to matching the 124 highly entertaining tweets B.J. Nemeth sent over the last 31 straight hours as he drove 1,630 miles from Atlanta to Arizona. One highlight from B.J.: “I’m in Albuquerque! If there's anything I learned from Bugs Bunny, it’s that one wrong turn here can lead to disastrous/hilarious results.”

Time is short, then. Allow me to conclude this here WSOP prelude by sharing with you my horoscope for today, as read to me by the lovely Vera Valmore (who will be coming to see me soon for a week-long visit in June).

I’m a Gemini, of course. Had to be, right? What with my double life and all, as “Shamus” and as “not-Shamus.” Apparently we Geminis are looking at a five-star day here (out of five). To be more specific...

“You project magnetism and energy. Use today’s New Moon as a new beginning, making a resolution in any area you feel necessary. The only thing that can stop you is fatigue.”

Good enough. Will try to remember to get some rest. See y’all on the other side!