2012 WSOP, Day 48: Atmospheric Disturbances

Kind of a weird one yesterday at the WSOP Main Event.

First off, it was overcast and raining in the morning, which alone can add a hazy layer of oddness to a July day in the Nevada desert. Also, it was Friday the 13th, and within the first level they’d reach the final 666 and the money bubble burst. In a place as superstitious as Las Vegas, all of that was enough to make even the most level-headed raise an eyebrow.

In fact, the bubble bursting was a bit odd in the way it played out. It didn’t take long for the field to be trimmed from 720 to 669, at which point the tourney staff quickly applied the brakes and began hand-for-hand play across the 75 remaining tables.

Surprisingly there were five “all-in-and-a-call” situations during the very next hand dealt, and all five were made to sit and wait for all of the other tables to play out before they each were instructed to complete their hands one by one. My buddy Remko Rinkema snapped that photo below of the dealers standing and waiting.

I was waiting by one of the tables where a player was all in, and I know it was at least 10 minutes between the preflop action and the dealing of the community cards. In fact, the entire hand probably took close to 20 minutes.

As it happened, four of the five hands resulted in eliminations, so it was a good thing they started hand-for-hand when they did. Normally in such a situation the finishes of those eliminated would be determined by comparing their starting stacks to begin the hand, with the player having the least chips of the four going out first and so on.

But the WSOP announced all four would finish tied for 666th, meaning they’d get to split the $19,227 due that spot. The WSOP also traditionally rewards the last player out before the cash a seat in the following year’s Main Event, so in this case they announced they’d have the four play a sit-n-go to determine who won the seat. One of them, David Kelley, offered to give the other three $2,500 each for the seat, and the others agreed, so no sit-n-go was played.

Incidentally, another of the four was a player named Steve Rosen who just happened to have narrowly avoided going out on the bubble in 2011. I wrote a bit about Rosen here at the time in a post titled “A Short-Stacked Story,” and reported on him on the PokerNews blog, too.

Like I say, all of that took a while, stretching out the moment of the bubble bursting so long that there really wasn’t any cheer or celebration to mark the occasion.

Immediately afterwards another bit of weirdness came up. Apparently a player sitting over in the Orange section had taken out a fountain pen and opened it, but in fact it was a pepper spray pen and he had unwittingly set it off. About four tables’ worth of players immediately left their seats, people began coughing all over that side of the Amazon room, and even over in the Purple section (where I was stationed) we could feel a tickle in our throats. Play was stopped for just a short while -- perhaps a minute -- but it was still somewhat unsettling.

Then after a couple of two-hour levels there was a long, unexplained delay before the start of the third. We watched the staff huddling and discussing something, and it appeared for a while that there might be some kind of major screw-up involving how the first couple of hundred payouts had gone.

The delay stretched on and on, then finally players were sent on their dinner break early so whatever the problem was could be sorted out. As it turned out, nothing had gone wrong, but it had just taken a while to ensure that was the case. In any event, once everyone returned from dinner, the last couple of levels went relatively smoothly as the field shrunk down to the 282 who’ll return for today’s Day 5.

On the reporting side of things, the day was already challenging. In the Main Event, the day the money bubble bursts is always the most difficult because the field is still very big to start the day, yet there’s a need to try to keep track of all of the players. Things get more manageable today, and even more so going forward.

But the interruptions and delays and rescheduling yesterday all affected the usual rhythm of the day, making it all seem even more rough-going. Ended well enough, though, and there’s definitely a lot to look forward to over the next three days. Still some big names left, although all who make it deep in the Main Event become compelling enough whether or not they were familiar before.

I imagine they’ll play down to around 80 players or so today. The schedule calls for five levels, although they’ll end early, I think, to keep from having too short a Day 6 (when they’ll go to 27) and/or Day 7 (when they play down to nine). Follow along over at PokerNews.

I see rain is in the forecast, but it is clear and sunny at the moment, with the temperature already starting to rise. It’s a more familiar scene through which to take that trip over to the Rio today. We’ll see what awaits us there.

2011 WSOP, Day 46: A Short-Stacked Story

It was mid-afternoon yesterday when they reached the money in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. A memorable moment for all involved, especially the players. A moment that one in particular, Steve Rosen, will likely be recounting again and again to others for the rest of his life.

The top 693 finishers got paid, and so when the total number left had fallen under 700 tourney staff began to make preparations for hand-for-hand play. Usually they try to stop play once they get within four spots of the bubble. I believe yesterday they had actually gotten down to 695 by the time they were able to start hand-for-hand.

Dealers stood at their tables, signaling to staff that they had completed their hands, and when all were standing they were instructed to deal one hand and stand again. We reporters sought out the short stacks, and I ended up near Rosen, down to just 12,000 when hand-for-hand play began.

The blinds were 2,500/5,000 (with a 500 ante) and the button had just passed Rosen, so he was still good for nearly an entire orbit of hands. But you could tell he wasn’t at all content with the situation. He sat shaking his head and showing all sorts of expressions that wordlessly communicated his disbelief at the very real possibility that it all might end with his narrowly missing the cash.

It took at least 10 minutes to complete the first hand, during which time Rosen stood up and paced around a little. He’d already had his picture taken several times, including by the excellent Joe Giron (these pics, incidentally, are ones Joe took of Rosen for PokerNews). Seeing me standing there with pad and pen in hand, he came over and asked me if it were true that the player finishing 694th would be receiving a free entry to next year’s Main Event. “That’s what I’ve heard,” I said, not wanting to usurp the WSOP’s authority even though I was reasonably certain it was in fact true. Rosen returned to his seat, which I judged wasn’t feeling much more comfortable to him than when he’d left it.

Meanwhile, an all-in and a call erupted on a nearby table, though it turned out both players had pocket kings and they ended up chopping. I’d scampered over, then returned to Rosen’s table where the players asked me if someone had been eliminated. I could see Rosen’s exasperated, this-cannot-be-happening look out of the corner of my eye as I explained what had happened.

After all of the big decisions he’d made, the 30-plus hours of poker, spread out over more than a week, was it really going to happen to him? Was he really going to bubble the World Series of Poker Main Event?

Another couple of hands passed, including a big, potential-elimination hand right at Rosen’s table. But no one was knocked out, and still he was in danger. Finally an elimination occurred on the other side of the Amazon. One to go.

Things were looking slightly better for Rosen, and I’ll admit that after standing there for a while I was starting to hope he’d make it. Interestingly, a player at Rosen’s table started a conversation with the dealer in which he asked her if she ever became emotionally invested in the fortunes of the players. Did she ever feel bad, for example, when a player suffered a bad beat to lose a big pot and “crumbled” at the table in response? She said she did when she first started dealing, but had learned over time not to be affected.

Meanwhile Rosen sat there, saying nothing. I wrote a quick post describing his plight.

After a couple more hands -- just one before the big blind had reached Rosen -- another elimination occurred, again on the other side of the room. The bubble had burst. Rosen was elated, his joy increasing after he managed to double up on each of the next two hands and make it to the next break. (I wrote another update on Rosen, post-bubble.) He’d run over to the rail a couple of times to share in the excitement with supporters, and called someone as well to report the good news.

He’d eventually be eliminated in 586th, actually sneaking up an extra payout level to make $21,295. And the tourney marched on, with a couple hundred more hitting the cashier’s cage before we were done for the night.

It was a memorable day for Rosen. He’d won some money playing poker, and that’s always a fun thing to do. But he’d won a great story, too, and that’s going to last a lot longer than the money will.