2008 WSOP, Day 41: Chuck Norris Doesn’t Dodge Bullets; Bullets Dodge Chuck Norris

I did end up volunteering to stay beyond the dinner break yesterday. Lots of reasons why I’m glad I did.

First off, covering the first three levels of Day 2b of the World Series of Poker Main Event was about as frustrating an experience as I’ve had this summer. Nobody’s fault in particular. It’s just that the logistics of the thing meant our jobs were really more like air traffic controllers than journalists. And to be honest it felt like we were crashing more often than landing safely.

Day 2b started with 2,378 players, and before the dinner break came we were already under 1,000. That meant that something like 230 players were busting out of the tournament every hour, or close to four per minute.

Now we had the full contingent out in force to try and chronicle this chaos. We knew we couldn’t possibly write blog posts about all of the bustouts, so that wasn’t a high-level concern. Wanted definitely to get hands involving big stacks and/or familiar names, but we didn’t need fret over posting every instance of a small-stack pushing all in with ace-rag, getting called by pocket tens, and being bounced from the proceedings.

The real problem was keeping track of the survivors. Tables were breaking at a ridiculously fast clip. I was in the Brasilia room, where we began the day with 65 full tables. All were gone within five hours or so, meaning we had tables full of players exiting and relocating every 4-5 minutes. And we had to communicate to our colleagues in the Amazon Room where they were headed. Sometimes the little game of telephone we were playing worked out just fine; other times, less so.

In any event, we were all feeling pretty damned harried by the time dinner rolled around. But we knew coming back from the break that there’d be no more such shenanigans, as all of the remaining players were now seated in the Amazon Room proper. I grabbed a spot at the end of the table on the front row of the Media Press Box and helped F-Train and FerricRamsium cover the Orange section of the Amazon Room.

Compared to the craziness of the afternoon, those last two levels went especially well, with most of my energies focused on writing posts, updating chip counts, and enjoying the whole scene.

Got to meet Iggy (finally), and was sincerely thrilled to see him make it through to Day 3. And when I say “see” I mean it literally -- Ignatius was seated at the table just below our spot for most of those two levels. We kept wanting to write up a hand in which he was involved, but there weren’t too many opportunities. The best shot would’ve been a hand in which Iggy had aces and the woman to his left made a heroic laydown of her pocket kings, but we’d missed most of the action on that one.

Also got to write up a ton of hands and other color-type posts. Among those playing last night were a fellow named Chuck Norris (not the Chuck Norris), another named Steve Austin (not the Steve Austin), and the Ultimate Fighting Championship announcer Bruce Buffer (yes, the Bruce Buffer). When all three were seated in the same section, I had my chance:

Power Poker
Check out this lineup . . .

Over in the Red section, Chuck Norris is sitting at Table #1. Our understanding is that Chuck Norris doesn't dodge bullets. Bullets dodge Chuck Norris.

Nearby at Table #13 is Steve Austin. When he pushes all in, we expect he'll have the stone cold nuts.

And just in case anything breaks out, UFC announcer Bruce Buffer is close by at Table #25.

Later in the evening we were being encouraged to include a post about Kara Scott, a very photogenic female player who looked as though she was going to make it through to Day 3.

I went down and watched several hands, and it was clear she was sitting tight, not wanting to get too involved before day’s end. Finally picked up a bit of table talk and came up with a post, then discovered we had no picture in our gallery to accompany it.

FerricRamsium, who besides blogging is also a terrific photographer, came to the rescue. That’s the picture he took to the left there. And here is the post that went along with it.

Anyhow, by night’s end I had gotten over my frustrations from earlier in the day and was back to feeling that camaraderie I spoke a bit about last post. I’ve said it before in different ways, but these are some cool cats I’ve been privileged to be hooked up with here this summer. We’re all on for Day 3 tomorrow, and it looks like I’m on for Day 4 as well. Hard to believe it’s gonna end here soon.

But I’m sure those 1,300 or so players who’ll be coming back tomorrow feel the same way, too. Just want to keep it going. Keep living the dream.

2008 WSOP, Day 40: “Seat Open!”

The first Day Two definitely had a different feel to it that did the four Day Ones, especially as the night wore on. I could sense excitement building among the players as they began to notice more and more of their opponents had fallen by the wayside. Had several come up to me at my station, point at the plasma screen indicating how many were left from those who began play yesterday, and ask me some variation of the question “Is that really the number left from today?”

We started with 1,251 yesterday and ended with just 466, so those guys had reason to feel special. Players dropped out at a clip of about 78 or so per hour, meaning everyone was hearing the “Seat Open!” cry from a dealer more than once per minute.

Also sensed a growing camaraderie starting to develop in the room. Bustouts occurring after the dinner break (during Levels 9 and 10) seemed frequently to be punctuated by lengthy handshakes or even hugs before the loser departed. A kind of bonding clearly occurs among some of these guys as they together go through the mental and emotional challenge of the Main Event. Imagine that “band of brothers” (and a few sisters)-type effect will only intensify as we go further.

Also had several players -- more than in the preliminary events -- come over to ask about whether or not they appeared in the coverage and/or chip counts, or to request to be included. We were tracking a lot of players yesterday, but it wasn’t too burdensome to include a few more here and there. It is physically not possible for our staff to track over a 1,000 players’ chip counts, so on these Day Ones and Twos, and perhaps even on Day Three, we have to make some choices, covering all the big and medium stacks and as many smaller stacks as we can.

Even so, whenever someone asked to be included in the chip counts, I was always more than glad to do so. Granted one such request to a fellow, and he then came back to me at the next break to say how his family had text-messaged him excitedly about having seen his name appear in the counts. He clearly got a huge kick out of that. (I did, too.) I eventually slipped him into a couple of posts as well, as he got involved in some blog-worthy hands.

Had another guy who asked to be included in the counts (which we did), then subsequently start to lose hands. Figuring he’d jinxed himself, he came back and asked to be taken out. We did that, too.

Also had a handful of people come over and ask where a relative was seated. I had a master list of the start-of-day seat assignments, and so actually could help these people. Was greeted with a lot of sincere, heartfelt appreciation from these, as I’d helped them finally find a father or brother in the room.

Am also sensing (and enjoying) a similar kind of camaraderie having developed among most of the PokerNews staff over the six weeks or so. We’ve all gone through significant mental and emotional challenges, too. And now we’re also all sensing the end coming pretty quickly.

A lot of us are in a similar position as are the players in that we don’t know when our last day of the World Series of Poker will be. Everyone is working through Day 3, for certain, but beyond that we just have to wait and see. So, as is the case with the players, the end could come unexpectedly. In other words, it won’t be that long until our seats are open, too. I think most of us are ready for that moment, but the uncertainty does add to the challenge of it all.

Gonna be a tough one today. I believe 2,378 will be there today, nearly twice the number that played yesterday. I’m only scheduled to work through dinner break, although I wouldn’t be at all surprised if those in my situation are asked to stay on afterwards.

If asked, I’ll probably do so. Wouldn’t seem right to let those guys push on alone.

As always, follow along at PokerNews.

2008 WSOP, Day 39: Taking Shots

The day off began with me trucking over to the Las Vegas Indoor Soccer Park in Summerlin for the “first Annual PokerNews.com International Friendly Soccer and Basketball matches.” Good thing we were indoors, as it was over 110⁰ outside.

I’m no soccer player, and so stuck to the sidelines as the team of Americans took on the international squad. A good match, and I was definitely impressed with how well the guys on both sides worked together. They ended in a tie, so went to penalty kicks, with the internationals winning at the end.

I do play basketball, and so jumped in when we moved it over to the b-ball court for some hoops. I actually hadn’t really played in quite a while, but it all came back pretty quickly. Made a few threes and several lay-ins, helping the Americans cruise to an easy victory.

Before we left, Garry Gates came up with a prop bet. Five bucks a man, each taking a full-court shot, first to make it wins the lot. Full court was actually only fifty feet or so. Most had taken their turn when I stepped up and drilled the sucker. Not quite one of those halftime deals where someone shoots from half-court for a million clams, but still, making a sixty-dollar shot ain’t an everyday thing, either.

Went back to the home-away-from-home with a big ol’ grin on my face, cleaned up, then headed over for the PokerNews freeroll tourney. About fifty played, and despite my low expectations for myself I somehow weasled my way to the final table. We ran out of time and so ended up ten-way chopping it, so tenth was as good as first in this one.

Caught cards now and then, which helped. I played somewhat tight, but not overly so (I thought), and was proud of the way I avoided getting too short (for most of the tourney) and was able to apply pressure at seemingly opportune moments. Won most of my hands without showing down, which gave me confidence and made me feel like I was holding my own, despite my uncertanties going in.

Kind of like with the soccer and basketball earlier in the day, experience goes a long way in a poker tournament. I didn’t grow up playing soccer, and so would be totally lost trying to play now. I did play hoops, though -- both as a kid and as an adult -- and so it makes sense I’m a lot more comfortable on the court than I would be out on the soccer field. As far as live poker tourney experience goes, I have practically none, which is why I had such low expectations going in last night. But I do think I might’ve picked up a little something from these many weeks of watching others play.

Couple of hairy moments toward the end. With about 13 left I was starting to get low, with my 5,000 or so putting me well below average. I was sitting UTG+1 and was dealt pocket treys. By this time the blinds were getting big (like 400/800, I think), plus we had antes, so there were a lot of chips in the middle before action began. Thinking the under the gun player had already limped into the pot, I shrugged and corralled my chips with both hands, saying something like “Oh, well” -- clearly I was about to push ’em in -- when the UTG player surprised me by tossing out a 2,400 or so bet. Whoops! I’d nearly acted out of turn. Got a laugh from the table and those railing as I quickly mucked my cards. Was a good thing, too, as two players ended up getting to the turn, one of whom surely would’ve crushed my baby pair.

Then we got down to 11 left -- the final table bubble. I had about 3,900 when the same player to my right pushed all in with his 9,000-plus chips. I looked down and saw pocket kings.

Now there were a couple of guys on the other table with even fewer chips than I had, so theoretically I probably could have folded my way into the top ten. In fact, talking to some later they claimed they would have folded kings here. Never dawned on me to do so, though. This was a day for taking shots. I mean I’d made that fifty-footer earlier in the day on the first try, right?

So I pushed, and my opponent turned over A-K. As the dealer dealt the community cards, I didn’t even look, rather just waited for the outburst that would surely come from the 15-20 people watching if an ace hit. No outburst, and I had survived.

All in all it turned out to be a very fun (and profitable) day for yr humble gumshoe. Ended with a trip over to the Palms for that PokerStars party at the Rain nightclub. I hadn’t been to any of these things this summer, and so went to check it out. A lot of media were invited, as were all of those who qualified for the Main Event via Stars satellites.

Moneymaker and Hachem were there, of course. Also saw Robert Williamson III and Scotty Nguyen, among other familiar pros. And the other stuff one might expect: ice sculptures, moody lighting, loud music all pumping along at a danceable beats-per-minute. A half-dozen or so scantily-clad dancers gyrating non-stop on stages around the club, occasionally punctuating their performance with various set pieces (e.g., an eye-popping gymnastic routine on a raised ring above the main floor; a burlesque romp on the far stage, etc.). As I remarked to a colleague, all that plus the open bar probably equalled a hell of a time for the 21- and 22-year old field reporters who’d come with us. Still fun for us less young, less impressionable types, too, though.

I got out of there not too long after midnight and got myself a decent night’s rest for today’s Day 2a. Should be a doozy, although Day 2b will probably be even more intense. Looks like 1,250 players are playing today, with something like 2,378 coming back for the second Day Two.

Follow it all on PokerNews, natch.

2008 WSOP, Day 38: Living the Dream

Woke up this morning and it took me at least ten minutes to realize I was off today. Was just laying there, trying (with considerable difficulty) to calculate precisely how much longer I had available to me for snoozing before I absolutely had to get out of bed and get going. It wouldn’t add up.

Finally I realized why. I’m not working. No one is. The World Series of Poker takes its first day off since it began on May 30, giving everyone a chance to regroup before we get back to it with Tuesday’s Day 2a. Gonna be a lot to deal with when we come back. Unlike was the case on the Day Ones, we will know everyone going in on the Day Twos, and so will potentially have a ton to cover as we move forward.

I’ve worked the last five days in a row, the longest streak of the Series for me. The last of the Day Ones went fairly smoothly. Over 2,400 runners came out for this one, pushing the overall total past 2007’s and up to 6,844. A few more than expected, I think. I’d spoken with Nolan Dalla, WSOP Media Director, during the dinner break on Day 1c, and he’d thought then it would be a tight race versus last year’s 6,358. So I’m sure the WSOP brass are all happy how things turned out registration-wise.

It was also announced yesterday how the total prize pool exceeded $64 million and how the winner would be taking home something in the neighborhood of $9.1 million. Of course, the winner should be getting more than that as they’re putting the moneys in an interest-bearing account between now and November. (I would think the WSOP would do a little math and spin that prize number upwards a bit right now.)

I was in the Brasilia room this time, where I was responsible for reporting on the back half of the room, about 30-some tables. We had some name pros in our section, including Layne Flack and Antonio Esfandiari who drew seats right next to one another. Those two provided a lot of color, including a renewal of the “how best to kill a bear” debate Flack had begun in an earlier tourney (and which I had reported on then, too, both at PokerNews and here). Flack never did seem to be able to build too much of a stack, and late in the day, after he was moved from our section, he busted. Esfandiari, on the other hand, added to his stack at every level. He ended up near 100,000 by day’s end.

Tom Schneider was in my section as well, and I got to talk to him briefly and watch a few hands. I wrote up one I saw, kind of a minor one from early on that made it to showdown. Then I ended up reporting on two more of his hands that my reporters brought me, neither of which went well for Tom. In both cases he’d gotten his money in good, then his opponent hit a draw to take the hand. The first depleted his stack and the other knocked him out.

Had Shane “Shaniac” Schleger and Joe Pelton in my section, too. After the first 2 p.m. break, Schleger had rushed back in just in time for the first hand dealt, and told the table about Phil Hellmuth’s ridiculous arrival at the Rio dressed as General Patton. Trapped in the Brasilia as I was, I hadn’t seen any of that, so I was as interested as the table was in hearing Schleger explain how the vehicles and whatnot had the “US Army” logo changed to read “UB Army.” “Kind of clever, actually” said Schleger, “but must have cost a lot.” Then, after pausing a beat, he added “I wonder if they had enough left after paying people back for the super-users?” (Good question.)

Schleger had Joe Pelton two seats to his left, and he eventually busted Pelton when he flopped a nut flush. Schleger appeared to be holding steady throughout the day, and when he finally was moved he still had 33,000. But it looks like he didn’t make it through the end of the day, either.

Also covered Allen Cunningham, whom I witnessed (and reported on) dealing with some drunk railbirds very graciously. Cunningham is one cool cat. He made it through Day 1 with about 50,000.

I stayed on after the dinner break yesterday even though I wasn’t scheduled to stay, mainly because I wanted to be there to help the others cover the massive field. Most of our tables ended up breaking by the end of the night, so Matt (my reporter) and I were helping out here and there to try and get chip counts and other occasional hands. So kind of a low stress day for me, overall.

Being in the Brasilia, I missed the whole Phil Laak spectacle over in the Amazon room, too. Although it sounds like everyone did. If you haven’t heard, Laak apparently played yesterday wearing some sort of latex mask and fake mustache, and somehow managed to play the tourney without anyone realizing who he was. Might have been the result of some sort of prop bet, I don’t know. Garry Gates wrote up the story over on Poker News at the end of the night in a post titled “The Amazing Phil Laak,” if yr curious.

Figured out at the dinner break yesterday I’d completely missed the damned Gaming Life Expo. The thing ran all four Day Ones, I believe, and I never did get a chance to hop over there to see what was what. Missed out on all of the freebies, too.

That post title is from something my brother keeps telling me when we have chatted this summer. Kind of an inside joke, with him repeatedly referring -- with some sincerity, actually -- to what I am doing here with that phrase. Am still enjoying the whole deal, but I am definitely looking forward to a couple of weeks from now when I won’t be so busy that days pass without my realizing it.

Various activities on the schedule today, including a get together with PN staff this afternoon (in which soccer is the focus, although I’m hoping to shoot a few hoops), a freeroll tournament for us all at dinner time (where I’ll be dead money, no doubt), and a PokerStars party over at the Palms later tonight.

Don’t plan on too late of an evening. Am sincerely aiming for a shorter response time when I wake tomorrow.

2008 WSOP, Day 37: Pop Stars, Sexual Puns, and Magic Swords

“I have a bone to pick with you.”

Said Michele Lewis to yr humble gumshoe, sometime late in Day 1c at the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Michele is a poker player and writer whose entertaining and informative blog I regularly follow. She contributed a chapter to Women’s Poker Night (a book I’ve recommended to you before), and is also writing for Wicked Chops Poker some this Series. One of many folks whom I had gotten to know a bit via the intertubes and finally had the pleasure of meeting in person this summer.

I knew Michele had played yesterday in the Main Event. She’s an accomplished player who has had a few WSOP cashes, including a fourth-place finish in a $1,500 hold’em event in 2006. So my initial thought was there might have been some misreported hand or something in PokerNews’ coverage. I didn’t think I’d reported on any of her hands, though, so I wasn’t sure what was wrong.

“You’ve got that entire section of press row mad at you,” she added. Oh, man. Yesterday I was stationed in the Media Press Box so as to cover tables in the Orange section. The press box has a couple of levels and winds around the front left corner of the Amazon Room. Michele usually sits and writes on the other wall, so she was referring to the half-dozen or so folks who were stationed over there. All mad at me, apparently.

“No! What is it?” I asked earnestly.

“You’ve got that Phil Collins song stuck in all of our heads now. We can’t get it out.”

Ah. Earlier in the evening, a player named Phil Collins (not the Phil Collins, of course) had busted out of the Main Event and I had written up the hand. It was one of several hands I wrote about last night that I had watched myself. Sometimes it is easier (or preferable) to go out “into the field” and gather one’s own bits instead of waiting for the field reporters to bring them over.

I knew Collins was down to about 11,000 or so, and so took a walk over and just happened to catch his last hand. Eric Baldwin, a player we’d been tracking earlier, had raised to 800 from early position, and Collins reraised to 2,300 from a few seats over. It folded around and the big blind, whom I didn’t know, made the call, as did Baldwin. The flop was nine-high. Baldwin checked, and Collins brooded a good while before pushing all in. The BB then tanked for a bit before finally calling. Baldwin folded.

Collins showed A-Q, while the big blind had pocket jacks. It was a good call. The board didn’t help Collins and he was out. As the BB scooped his chips I asked him his name. He spelled it for me: Kurt Gronbech. Players generally don’t seem to mind telling you their names when they’re stacking up heaps of chips they’ve just won.

I went back and wrote up the hand, and since the description included reference to Gronbech “having sensed something that encouraged him to make the call,” the post title practically wrote itself:

“I Can Feel It Coming in the Air Tonight.”

As those of you who are following the coverage on PokerNews already know, there are a few creative types among the group of bloggers who will occasionally mix some allusions, puns, or other semi-literary cheekiness in the post titles or in the posts themselves. Not always easy (or even appropriate) to pull off, but doing so adds something to the coverage, I think, making the reading of hand after hand a bit more compelling or even, at times, entertaining.

For example, in my very first post yesterday (not counting the “Shuffle Up and Deal” intro post), I reported on an early bustout that had occurred within the first ten minutes of play. We didn’t get the name of the player for this one. Probably better that we didn’t, actually.

Premature Climax
After months and months of anticipation, there are always some who come to the Main Event who just can't wait to push their chips in the middle.

A player with an eight-high flush draw got it all in versus a flopped set of fives. His draw didn't come, and we have another early elimination.

That post title got a few laughs. When someone said something to me about it later, I said I thought perhaps I’d overdone it right off the top -- shot my wad, so to speak. (Rim shot.)

A couple of hours after that a few of us in the press box were discussing this very subject of negotiating between creative license and the obligation to report with accuracy. One of our crew had just posted a hand in which a player had doubled up, and he’d gone with the generic “Player Doubles Up” post title rather than engage in any wordplay. Another ribbed him for it, and his response had us cracking up for several minutes.

He explained his background was in technical writing (e.g., writing manuals, etc.), and thus his instinct usually wasn’t to gussy up a post with various linguistic ornaments. (Actually, he didn’t put it that way. I’m gussying it up a bit.)

“I’m not like you guys,” he went on. “I can’t just say ‘and then he REACHED UP into the CLOUDS and grabbed a MAGIC SWORD with which he SPEARED the ACE on the RIVER!'”

By which point we were all doubled over in near hysterics. As I say, that was still early in the day, so for the rest of the day, perhaps once per hour, as I was in the middle of another frantic round of chip count updating or post-writing, his words would pop into my head, causing me to laugh all over again.

Which is a very good thing. The laughter, I mean.

The WSOP had a country singer perform a tune called “It’s All About the Money” before the start of play yesterday. The song basically had nothing to do with poker, and frankly I didn’t like the message one bit. Sure, it’s about the money. But it’s also about competition and having fun. In fact, I’d argue that the reason why we enjoy competition so greatly is because of the various pleasures it affords. Same goes for winning money, yes?

So, really, it’s all about the fun. Ain’t it?

Going back over to the Rio today for the last of the Day Ones. We’ve heard that over 2,000 are coming for this last day, and that the overall total will exceed that of 2007. Late last night, they once again momentarily took down that little green box that has been covering the total entrants figure on the plasma screens, and I caught a quick glimpse of the number underneath -- 6,395. Meaning that was the total number of folks who had registered by whatever time it was then (around midnight, I think).

So you guys who took the over on the 2007 figure (6,358) are going to win yr bets, I would think.

I’ll be there all day again today. Follow the fun over at PokerNews.

2008 WSOP, Day 36: Starting Again

A good day yesterday. Another Day One. Two down, two to go.

Turned out to be a short shift for yr humble gumshoe, just three two-hour levels’ worth of live blogging. While most of us are working every day through this first stretch of the Main Event, some are getting some extra hours off here and there to decompress. Was my turn to leave early last night, and so I got to head back to the home-away-from-home at the dinner break.

Forgot to mention how on Thursday (Day 1a) I had finally gotten the chance to meet Otis (of Up for Poker). Sort of funny. We kind of get to know each other a bit via the blogs, then spend about eight hours working almost side by side in the Media Press Box before finally figuring out who the other is. Finally got to chat a bit during the dinner break. Nice dude, and he contributes to an excellent poker blog, as I’m sure most of youse already know.

Yesterday (Day 1b) started with another fun visit as I got a chance to meet up with Scott Long, co-host of Ante Up! As those of you who’ve listened to show would imagine -- and really, if you haven’t heard the show, go check it out already -- Scott is a friendly, quick-witted, funny guy with whom it’s a lot of fun to hang out. Sincerely wished I’d had more than the half-hour to shoot the breeze.

Scott and I talked for a while about my crazy summer and his fun week of playing and checking out the happenings at the Gambling Expo. We also discussed his new venture with his co-host, Chris Cosenza, the Ante Up! Magazine. Pretty exciting stuff. After three years-plus of uninterrupted podcasting, the duo is striking out on their own, leaving the auspices of the St. Petersburg Times to produce their own magazine and podcast independently.

I’ve repeatedly spoken favorably of Ante Up! here at Hard-Boiled Poker, and allow me once more point you, dear reader, to Ante Up! Still pretty much the only poker podcast out there that primarily focuses on the amateur player. Definitely worth finding an hour or so each week to enjoy these guys.

As far as the rest of the day went yesterday, I spent all of my time over in the corner of the Amazon Room, just behind Blue Table #1 where Jamie Gold had been assigned Seat 1. As you might imagine, ESPN had its cameras over there pretty much without interruption throughout the day.

F-Train and I noticed how Gold had gradually accumulated extra patches on his shirt throughout the afternoon, obviously taking pecuniary advantage of the extra attention. Since F-Train and I were apparently being included in so many shots (the camera was pointing right in our direction for most of the day), I joked with him that we should have gotten some patches, too, given how much camera time we were getting.

The dealer who began the day on Table #1 screwed up and put out blinds of 25/50 rather than 50/100 (as the schedule of play dictated). We noticed the mistake right away, but no one at the table did. (I think they were all too mesmerized by Gold.) We didn’t say anything, of course, since we have all been instructed not to do or say anything whatsoever that might affect play. Finally, when a new dealer came in after 30 minutes of play, the error was corrected. No one at the table seemed all that concerned about the mistake.

We overheard a lot of tabletalk at Gold’s table today, much more than we could reasonably report in the blog. At one point, one player told him how 2006 was the best year to win the Main Event, since we aren’t likely to see that big of a prize pool for the Main Event again anytime soon. Indeed, pointed out another player, Gold still holds the record for having won the biggest ever cash prize ($12 million) in the history of the WSOP.

“I don’t want to have that record,” answered Gold. “I want poker to become bigger and bigger and bigger.” He could just be talking, but I’m inclined to believe him.

The one woman who was seated at the table busted out first, and Gold was especially patient and gracious with her as she shook his hand afterwards and told him what a privilege it was for her to play at his table.

We all know how Gold hasn’t seen a lot of tourney success since winning the Main Event in 2006. And his not-so-great reputation wasn’t helped much today, as he managed to bust out before the end of Level 3. Still, even though I’m as cynical as anyone about Gold’s poker-playing prowess, I’m gonna give the man some credit for his apparently being so ready and willing to play the role into which he was cast with his ME victory. Everyone at his table wanted to shake his hand when he finally busted, and he did so without hesitation, despite the obvious ignominy associated with his early exit. It was a truly a friggin’ circus for him from start to finish today, but he seemed (to me) to have endured it with a certain dignity.

Back this afternoon for Day 1c -- I’ll be there for all five levels. The numbers were down yesterday, though the talk in the Rio was that the Fourth of July holiday kept some runners away, and that we’ll likely see much bigger fields on Days 1c and 1d.

Remember to follow along over at PokerNews.

2008 WSOP, Day 35: The Big One

The World Series of Poker. Am still a little in awe of the fact that I’m here in Vegas writing about this sucker, helping to try to tell its story to the outside world.

At a moment when it is probably safe to say more people are interested in hearing that story than ever before.

And now we’re talking Main Event. The end has finally begun. The Main Event may not have the biggest buy-in of all of the events. But the stakes are definitely higher.

Way higher.

While poker players and enthusiasts will debate endlessly over whether the Main Event’s nominal claim to crown a “world champion” really signifies much at all, the Main Event is always going to be the one poker tournament that attracts the most scrutiny of any other. Period. And that goes for the play and the coverage.

Yesterday -- “Day 1a” of the Main Event -- felt similar in some ways to all of the other days I’ve spent covering the WSOP thus far. But there were some big differences as well.

I think it might have taken all of us a few moments to get the hang of working with 40-plus colleagues at once rather than just a handful. But these are all smart, quick-witted folks I’m working with at PokerNews, and it didn’t take long before we were all playing along together like the UNLV marching band who kicked off the day with an encore of “Viva Las Vegas,” the same song with which they ushered in the WSOP over a month ago.

But I’ll admit to having constantly felt this nagging worry, pretty much all day, that we were in the midst of something too, too huge to share properly with those not there to see it.

That’s not to say that when covering one of those 2,700-player “donkaments” one ever gets the feeling that the event is containable -- that it is ever possible to tell the “whole story” of what is happening. But the fact is those preliminary events all ultimately produce, in one way or another, stories of narrow scope, with few meaningful subplots and only a couple or more characters who emerge as essential to the narrative.

No, this is too friggin’ big. So much so I got the sense that even the “usual suspects” -- i.e., the name pros whom we tend to latch onto early because they are familiar and make for easy, relatable posts -- were really and truly just minor players here.

Almost felt sorry for them, sitting there helplessly amid the sea of unknowns. Maybe if they get to Day 3 or 4, when the money bubble bursts and the final table starts to become a more concrete possibility, that’s when yr David Benyamine or Josh Arieh or Dan Harrington or Freddy Deeb could theoretically emerge as an important figure in this here epic tale. But not before.

Of course, all of those guys I just named got bounced yesterday, as did numerous other “name” pros. But some advanced, like Kido Pham, a guy I’d like to think might have a real shot at going deep in this one. I spent a bit of time near the end of the day watching him work his table of less experienced players. Ended up writing a longer-than-usual post about what I saw, trying to convey what I sensed to be a seasoned pro in complete, awe-inspiring control of a potentially-chaotic situation, surrounded by amateurs yet having tamed them utterly into doing his bidding.

The hands I reported were fairly mundane, and I don’t know if the whole idea of Pham’s dominance really came across or not. (Go read the post and you tell me.) In fact, the post is kind of a weird one, I think, with me just describing three almost-random hands that seemed to illustrate something about what was happening there at that particular table, and perhaps elsewhere in the Amazon Room on Day 1a of the WSOP Main Event.

Like I say, dunno if any of that landed or not. But like all those amateurs at the table, I took my shot. I mean, hell, what is this life about if not for that?

There were some other good moments yesterday, such as another post near day’s end when I told about an eighth-grade school teacher having made it to the end of Day One. (Titled that one “What I Did On My Summer Vacation.”) And some not-so-good moments, too. I’d left out a key step in a Barry Greenstein hand early in the day, and it took a short while before I’d finally realized my snafu and fixed it. Not a huge deal, but mildly embarrassing, and it kind of put me in a funk for an hour or so there. As anybody who reads this blog probably has figured out long ago, I’m not one to just write any ol’ error-filled, half-assed thing and hope it flies. So I hate, hate, hate to put something out there that reveals in unambiguous, full-blown glory my own fallibility.

But, of course, as any reader has surely also picked up on, I ain’t so deluded as to think I’m without flaw. Am gonna screw up, and so will deal with it and move on. And I think most folks reading along -- both here and over on PokerNews -- understand that, too.

Will be back at the Rio at noon for more Day One craziness. They have us working every day, though tomorrow I’ll get to leave at the dinner break so as not to expend every little bit of creative fuel I might have left here at the end of this marathon. Am also looking forward to a brief meet-up with Scott Long, co-host of one of my all-time favorite poker podcasts, Ante Up!, this morning before getting back to work.

Follow along as always over on PokerNews, y’all, to see how well me and my colleagues over there are able to get this sucker across.

2008 WSOP, Day 34: The Last Final Table

Yesterday’s final table for Event No. 52, the last of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em events, took about ten hours, ending about midnight. Was a fairly smooth ride, all told, and I enjoyed doing the hand-for-hand coverage with TassieDevil.

That made my ninth final table of the series. And the last. Indeed, no one will be seeing anymore final tables this summer once that one for Event No. 53, the Shootout event, finally concludes tonight. Or tomorrow morning. (PokerNews won’t be covering the Casino Employees event, Event No. 55.)

Seven of those nine final tables took place over in the Milwaukee’s Best Light No Limit Lounge -- that little arena-like structure surrounding the ESPN main stage, although only the first of those, Event No. 4 (the one Erick Lindgren won), will be televised on ESPN proper (on August 4th). The others were all streamed live on ESPN360.com. I never saw any of those broadcasts; indeed, my sense is not many people were able to. But I heard good things, and it appeared to be a nifty way to follow the action for true poker fans.

While I am certainly a poker fan, I’ll admit there was nothing particularly compelling about last night’s final table. I hadn’t worked the first two days of this one, so I hadn’t had the chance to follow the storylines of any of the final nine. As a result, reporting all the hands didn’t carry a heckuva lot of drama for yr humble gumshoe. So all in all, it was mostly business for me last night. Given I was a newbie four weeks ago, I suppose it’s a sign I’ve learned a little something if certain aspects of the job have already become old hat.

A one-hour dinner break came up when they got down to three-handed, at the end of which one of the remaining players came over to ask me what the chip counts were. I jotted them down and handed the slip of paper to him. Then another came over to ask about the payouts. Did the same for him. Then sat and watched the two of them discussing a possible chop. Didn’t sound as though they were able to come to any terms, though.

A couple of hours later we were done, and everyone immediately started looking forward to the Big One. Even the winner, David Daneshgar, said in the post-tourney interview that he was hoping to score a second bracelet “in two weeks . . . plus three months.” He also said he didn’t enter the final table with any particular plan. Worked for him.

For most of those seven final tables on the main stage (and one of the ones that wasn’t on the main stage, too) I had the pleasure of working with tournament director Robbie Thompson, who did all of the announcing at the televised tables. (That’s him standing behind the table in the picture above.) Robbie was incredibly helpful and a pleasure to work with throughout, almost always announcing all of the pertinent info clearly and quickly, and also coming over and offering additional info or aiding us in other ways. The other guys who did the job were good also, but I didn’t get to know them as well. As I won’t imagine I’ll be working with Robbie again here this summer, I just wanted to acknowledge him here as a terrific representative of the WSOP staff.

They also held that “Ante Up for Africa” charity tournament down in the Brasilia Room yesterday. I wandered down there during a break to see what was up. They’d been playing a few hours by then, and were down to two tables. Phil Hellmuth had the microphone and was yammering on about the play. Found the whole scene a bit claustrophobic, I’m afraid, and left within a couple of minutes. Don’t believe I missed too much. Have a feeling I’ll be seeing more than enough celebrities and other assorted oddities over the next few days.

PokerNews will have the entire crew out for these four Day Ones of the Main Event, so I imagine the “Live Reporting” blog should be pretty well packed with posts as the days go by. Have heard various things from the ones who’ve been here before, but I’m mainly going in without too many expectations.

Worked pretty well for that dude last night.

2008 WSOP, Day 34: Three Tales

I woke up this morning recalling certain events from the past few days of work that I hadn’t written about here. So much happens each day, it is easy to forget happenings that might’ve been worth passing along.

In a little while I’m heading back in to help cover the final table of Event No. 52, the very last of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em “donkaments.” (Follow at PokerNews here.) Meanwhile, here are three additional memories from the last few days with which I awoke this morning:

Hellmuth Is In the House

About 4 a.m. on Saturday, there were two tables left in Event No. 46, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event. We’d been there about 14 hours by then, and were still a few eliminations -- and another hour and a half -- away from getting to the final nine. Phil Hellmuth, who I am not sure even entered the event, had shown up every couple of hours apparently to sweat one of the remaining players (I’m not sure who). So when he turned up again there as we were nearing the end of play for the night, we weren’t too surprised to see him.

This time, though, he accosted one of our reporters and began telling him about how he’d just heard the news that John Bonetti had died. Hellmuth wanted to be interviewed about Bonetti. “I’ve been avoiding you guys all Series and now I’m here and ready to be interviewed and no one is here,” he said to us. He ended up giving some quotes to one of our field guys, and I believe a couple might have found their way into the PokerNews article about Bonetti that appeared later that day.

Hellmuth was sincere and obviously somewhat shaken by the news of Bonetti’s death. Still, I couldn’t help feeling a little cynical about his “I’ve been avoiding you guys” comment. (When has Hellmuth ever avoided publicity?) He’d appeared on a couple of PN videos already, I knew, including one in which he does a miserable job shotgunning a can of Milwaukee’s Beast with his picture on the side. And, of course, I am a lot more cynical about all the UltimateBet gear Hellmuth gets paid to sport at all times when seen in the Rio, including when he comes down to report on a friend’s death.

Actually the faux racing outfit is starting to make more sense to me, as it could be said to go along with Hellmuth running away from questions about UltimateBet’s “super-user” scandal, the current management situation at UB, his deal with the company, etc. Perhaps that is what he meant by “I’ve been avoiding you guys,” actually. I don’t know for certain, but it’s probably the case that PokerNews asked to interview him about the issues at UB just as they did Annie Duke, but he declined.

(Incidentally, I was glad to see that Eric “Rizen” Lynch has now decided not to join the UB team as a paid representative of the site. Last month I wrote about his initial decision to join UB. He explains some of his thinking regarding his change of mind here.)

”I Played Pretty Good, Didn’t I?”

Two days later I was back in the Brasilia covering Day 2 of Event No. 49, another $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event. This would’ve been Sunday night/Monday morning.

When there were 20-25 or so left, one of the remaining players, an older gentleman named Parviz Razavian, came over to our workstation to get a look at how the chip counts stood. He wore eyeglasses, but even with those his eyesight wasn’t good enough to read the tiny numbers on the laptop screen. So we read for him, letting him know he was right in the middle of the pack with an average stack. He told us he had family following him back home, and was genuinely excited to learn that they were able to keep up with his progress on the site.

Later on, Razavian busted on a particularly unfortunate hand. Here’s how I reported it:

Parviz Razavian Eliminated in 14th Place ($29,309)
We picked this one up on the flop. With the board showing , Parviz Razavian checked from the small blind, and Robert Kalb bet 160,000 from the big blind. Jason Moungey then pushed all in for 450,000 from the cutoff.

Razavian -- whom Moungey had covered -- called. Kalb, seeing two players all in, folded, showing Q-Q as he did.

Razavian
Moungey

Tough spot for Razavian there. He'd flopped top two, but Moungey had a set of deuces. The turn was the and the river the , and Razavian is out in 14th. Moungey is now up to 1.3 million.

About ten minutes after I’d posted that, he came over to tell us about the hand. He then asked if we had reported it, and my partner Pojo read aloud to him the post.

“I think I played pretty good, though? Didn’t I?” asked Razavian, not just referring to this hand but the tourney as a whole. Yes, sir, we replied. “Perfect flop for the deuces,” I added, referring to Moungey’s good fortune. He agreed. He explained how he had been ready to pounce with a check-raise when Kalb put in that flop bet, and hadn’t expected Moungey to wake up with a set from late position like that.

We congratulated him heartily for his achievement. Like everyone else at these last two tables, he’d outlasted 2,700-plus runners to have gotten that far. You could sense his genuine excitement at having made such a deep run, and having come so close to the final table.

I don’t know Razavian’s story, but he strikes me as a retiree who has perhaps found a second career of sorts here with poker. I also got the sense he was on his own at the WSOP, and so enjoyed interacting with us afterwards as his people were all elsewhere, following his progress online. Neat stuff.

From Calm to Chaos

One last little anecdote. At the very end of that night’s play, about 4:30 a.m. or so, they had formed the ten-handed table and were playing until one more was eliminated. The action had slowed considerably, and they’d been at it for a half-hour when I walked over to try to get some sort of “color” to post in the blog. The field reporter asked me if I would mind if he went for a quick three-minute break to smoke half a cigarette. Of course, I replied.

As soon as he exits, a huge KK-vs.-AA hand occurred and we had our elimination. Pojo had come over as well, and while I had gotten down most of the details, he helped me considerably to ensure my post on the hand was accurate.

Pretty disorienting, actually, how a serene sequence of preflop raises and folds can suddenly erupt into chaos with an all in shove and a surprising call. The players all stand, everyone left in the room crazily rushes the table, all talking at once as they do. Definitely can be a challenge to get it all down and translate it into language those who aren’t there can understand and follow.

Was kind of a funny scene when our reporter came back in. “What happened?” he asked somewhat sheepishly. We ribbed him a little for his badly-timed smoke break, but we were all in a good mood. Another exciting day at the WSOP had come to a close.

And we’d been there.

2008 WSOP, Days 32-33: The Beginning of the End

July? Really? What just happened? Anybody see where June went?

What a month. And now I notice we’ve somehow slipped into what Haley affectionately refers to as “silly season,” that latter stage of the WSOP when the Main Event (which starts Thursday) and other associated phenomena bring out the celebs and additional media, transforming our meticulously ordered, carefully regimented sequence of competitions into some sort of Cirque du Soleil-styled spectacle where, suddenly, anything seems possible. Even a friggin’ poker musical.

Yesterday’s final table of Event No. 49, the next-to-last of those $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em events (a.k.a., the “donkaments”), went smoothly. I enjoyed working with Pojo on that one, and didn’t mind at all seeing J.C. Tran claim another one for the pros. If you go back through our hand-for-hand coverage -- especially the heads up portion -- I think you’ll see chronicled fairly substantial evidence of how solid a player Tran really is. Not that we didn’t know that already.

All told, that makes eight final tables I have covered this summer for PokerNews (Events No. 4, 11, 19, 28, 34, 40, 46, and 49). The winners in those events were Erick Lindgren, Phil Tom, Vanessa Selbst, Phil Galfond, Layne Flack, John Phan, Joe Commisso, and J.C. Tran. Tran’s performance was definitely one of the better ones I was privileged to follow, although the PLO aggression of both Selbst and Flack was both impressive and fun to watch as well.

Get to do one last final table tomorrow, for Event No. 52, the last of the “donkaments.” Then we’re all moving on to the big one.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow, but I can’t imagine it eclipsing the memory of Event No. 19’s final table, the one with the crazy-ass heads up between Selbst and Jamie Pickering (discussed here and here). People continue to marvel about that one, with those who saw it still breathlessly recounting what happened to those who did not.

That’s the one, you’ll recall, where Pickering, who had played a tight, controlled, and smart game until heads up began, suddenly started raising pot again and again -- before and after the flop -- without looking at his cards. I’ve since seen Pickering playing in other events, including a deep run (finishing 13th) in another PLO event I covered, and whenever I have seen him he has without exception kept to the careful, decidedly inconspicuous style that got him to heads up in Event No. 19. All of which confirms my belief that he was mindfully employing a strategy there with Selbst -- one which included ordering round upon round of drinks for himself and others -- and damned if it didn’t almost work.

Getting down to the end. We desire it. We dread it. Faced with such a prospect, ordering drinks seems an appropriate response, really.

As we approach the Main Event and suddenly become conscious of the idea of “the end” (previously only a pipe-dreamy theory from which we’ve been too damned distracted really to pursue), it’s hard not to start the business of reflecting back on the meaning of it all.

Speaking of, I see Snoopy made it back to the U.K. safely, where he has written a terrific, lyrical conclusion to his WSOP adventure in which he suggests he might be taking a break from -- or maybe even breaking off entirely -- outlining for us all the ins and outs of the Snoopy System. (Here’s hoping Snoop don’t give it up entirely.)

There Snoopy points out how even though “we embrace the poker boom, we also need to keep a hold of the reality… It’s just a game of cards.” Good advice for those of us he’s left behind, anxiously eyeing that Main Event Monster creeping closer. Wondering how exactly we’re gonna tame that sucker enough to “keep it real.”

It is just a game of cards. I mentioned before how I haven’t played all that much poker this summer -- how writing about poker nonstop has significantly tempered the urge to play. Just five live sessions the whole trip, most of them quite brief, plus one very enjoyable home game last night over at Pojo and Mean Gene’s. And looking back through my record book for online play, I see I only played online 13 of the 30 days in June, by far my lightest month of play since making my first deposit back in ’04.

Even so, my time at the WSOP has not, in fact, changed the way I feel about poker. At least I don’t think it has. But it has certainly clarified those feelings for me in some important ways.

Not gonna try to spell that out today, though.

There’ll be time later for that. After the end.