2012 WSOP, Day 39: The Big Picture

With the Big One for One Drop having completed and all of the associated hype surrounding it starting to fade, we’ve entered that weird little pre-Main-Event-interim period at the World Series of Poker where everyone is presently distracted from what is happening now by what is to come.

It’s two days until the ME begins (on Saturday), which is kind of hard to believe. Meanwhile, there are still a handful of bracelets to be won between now and then. In fact, the last of the prelims carry over into the Main Event, including Event No. 59, the $1,000 buy-in tourney on which I’m currently reporting and which I’ll be seeing through until it concludes on Sunday.

Like last year, I came in a little before the halfway mark of the Series this time, as opposed to being here the entire seven-and-a-half weeks like I did from 2008-2010. For whatever reason, it feels like these last two-plus weeks have simply flown by this time.

Could be I’m working more often this year, which tends to make the time seem to pass more quickly. Or perhaps the Big One for One Drop coming along and eclipsing everything the way it did sort of skewed the whole WSOP in a weird way, making it harder to pay as much attention to the smaller events and thus recognize all of the other stories that are playing out.

I mentioned yesterday how I’d done an interview in which I was asked questions about WSOP history. One of the last questions concerned where the WSOP was heading. You know, something along the lines of what should we expect over the next decade for the WSOP.

Ten years from now the WSOP will have been going on for more than a half-century. It has had such a crazy, unpredictable narrative already, and I imagine ten years from now the story will become even wilder.

I answered the question by saying there were probably a couple of primary trends or defining characteristics we might be talking about when we look back on the 2010s.

One I was more sure about than the other, namely, the further expansion of the WSOP brand to places other than Las Vegas, something that began with WSOP Europe, will continue in 2013 with WSOP Asia Pacific, and I imagine proceed even further from there.

The other I couched inside of lots of qualifiers when answering. Basically I suggested that should online poker get licensed and regulated in the U.S., the WSOP will no doubt get in on that, too, and thus make the online game an even more integral part of the Series. I talked about online satellites as well as the possibility of an online bracelet event being part of that possible future.

A hard question to answer, though. A real challenge to one’s ability to think “big picture.”

I’ve discussed this topic before in past years, but coming out and reporting on the WSOP for PokerNews the way I have done makes it difficult at times to have any sort of larger perspective on what is happening here. I lock in on a single event, and a lot of times (say on a Day 1) am only really tracking small bits and pieces of that tournament. Focusing on details -- e.g., particular hands -- obviously makes it challenging to see how those details fit within larger narratives, say, of the event as a whole, or of the Series, or of WSOP history, broadly speaking.

That said, I find a lot of value in spending time focusing so closely on the specifics. I feel a lot more qualified to answer questions about the history of the World Series of Poker from having had the experience of covering particular events in this way via a series of “close-ups” in which I watch particular hands, observe individual player’s fortunes rise and fall, and see how a starting field gets smaller and smaller to become a final table and then produce a winner.

The tunnel-vision thing can be disorienting, for sure. Makes it hard to know what the hell is going on elsewhere at the WSOP, let alone in the world at large. For example, I’m aware Ray Bitar has been arrested, and that Full Tilt Poker is being characterized as a “Ponzi scheme” all over again. But it probably won’t be until after the Series that I’ll be able to see beyond the hands and specifics of the present to consider that or anything else.

But that’s okay. I like focusing on these details. The concrete. And from them building larger ideas about the WSOP. Or poker in general. Or, you know, the real “big picture” (in which poker is just a part).

2012 WSOP, Day 38: $18,346,673

“Who’s ahead?”

I looked back over my left shoulder. Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker, was asking about the hand in progress, what would turn out to be the decisive hand of the biggest poker tournament ever held.

“Esfandiari,” I answered. He leaned forward to see the cards on the screen above the table below a little better.

Timmy, the dealer, had spread the flop . I had only just arrived a couple of minutes before Stewart, having been back in my room watching the “almost live” (or “moments ago”) coverage on ESPN of the final table of Event No. 55, the $1,000,000 buy-in “Big One for One Drop.”

Finally enjoying a day off, I had spent some of it away from the Rio relaxing a little and getting other work done, then had been in earlier in the afternoon to do an interview about WSOP history (and other topics) with Tatjana Pasalic. (I believe some videos including segments with me and Nolan Dalla will be appearing over on the Calvin Ayre site shortly, if you’re curious to see those.)

I’d briefly been in the Amazon before and after the interview to watch some of the final table at that time, then had gone back to the room and watched until Esfandiari and Sam Trickett had reached heads-up.

The stacks were fairly deep at that point. Esfandiari had a more than 2-to-1 chip lead to start heads-up play with better than 102 million to Trickett’s 41.5 million. The blinds were 400k/800k, though, meaning Trickett still had more than 50 big blinds. The sucker could end at any moment, of course, but I figured there was a chance it might go on a while, and so decided to drive back over to the Rio and see if perhaps I could get there to witness the end in person.

My timing turned out perfectly. What ESPN was showing was on a 15-minute delay, and I left right as the first hand between Esfandiari and Trickett was being dealt.

About 15 minutes later I was standing there in the media tower, watching Trickett check-raising that flop and Esfandiari coming back over the top. Trickett was in the tank for a short while before announcing that he was reraising again to 15 million. That’s when Esfandiari quickly pushed all in and Trickett called.

We were already standing in the media tower, watching as everyone else sitting in the “mothership” suddenly rose to their feet at Trickett’s call. The cards were turned over and pushed forward near the flop so they could be seen on the screens up above. Esfandiari held -- he’d flopped trip fives. Meanwhile Trickett had for a flush draw. That’s when Stewart asked who was leading.

“This could be it,” said Stewart, and we all leaned forward to watch Timmy deal the turn and river.

Timmy is one of the better dealers at the WSOP, a guy I’ve seen and talked to for several summers. He’s dealt lots of big hands at the WSOP, although none with so much on the line in terms of prize money before. No one had.

I had stopped in on the Big One on Day 2 during a break when they were down to two tables. Timmy was practicing dealing flops (see pic). He was joking about how he was so “OCD” that he couldn’t resist nudging the community cards to make them perfectly even after spreading a flop.

“I’ll bet out of 100,000 flops I’ve only left one alone,” he said. The dealer at the other table joked that Timmy even turns the aces around so they appear right side up when he deals. He doesn’t do that, but he is obviously a bit of a perfectionist, a trait that no doubt helped make him one of those chosen to deal at this prestigious final table.

I squinted to see the flop again, noting how the cards were perfectly even. Then I watched as Timmy rapped the table, burned a card, and carefully slid the turn card into place beside the first three.

A slow rumble began to build during the several seconds that passed before Timmy again hit the table, burned a card, and turned over fifth street... the .

Esfandiari began to run around in a circle, hands on his head, and about two dozen friends and family rushed forward to surround him. The arena lights began flashing on and off, and soon Esfandiari was up on the group’s shoulders.

As the scene settled, the CEO of Caesars Interactive Entertainment Mitch Garber came out to award Esfandiari the bracelet and first prize, which he noted was the “greatest... in all of sports.” Esfandiari immediately motioned for his father to come forward, saying how he was giving the bracelet to him.

I remembered Esfandiari’s Dad from last summer when I’d covered an event in which Antonio had final tabled and he had been there. He had a big grin on his face then, and it was even bigger now.

Kara Scott then briefly interviewed Esfandiari as we all stood in silence. Their words weren’t broadcast over the public address, and so we couldn’t hear them. I noticed Esfandiari was barefoot as he responded to Scott’s questions. A little later he’d slip back on the flip flops he’d been wearing, which along with his green hoody contrasted severely with the setting and situation.

Soon pictures were being taken of Esfandiari hugging the mountain of cash sitting before the table, such as that one to the left snapped by Joe Giron (WSOP). Earlier in the afternoon, Jess Welman had characterized the stacks of cash bricks as looking like a fireplace, which it did, and I’d said they couldn’t possibly have put it on the table as it would collapse under its weight.

As those pictures were being snapped, we speculated in the media tower about how it was not really $18,346,673 sitting there on the stage. Nor was Esfandiari really winning that amount, either. Someone sounding as though he was in the know suggested Esfandiari had only 17% of himself, and we all nodded.

More interviews followed, but I noted Esfandiari taking a moment to shake hands with the dealers -- Timmy and Shaun -- standing off to the side. I’d joke with Rich afterwards that Esfandiari was right to shake their hands, since besides playing well, he’d been dealt some nice cards, too, at that final table.

I then saw Timmy with his phone out snapping photos just like all the rest of us were. Was a special moment, one that seemed worth chronicling. Indeed, I think those of us snapping photos weren’t so much doing it to have our own pictures. Other, better photos were being taken all around by Joe and others.

Rather, I think some of us were taking them just to prove we were there, too.

I left soon thereafter, thinking of that “All-Time Money List,” a list that had already been thrown all out of whack some time ago when all of those “super high roller” events began to happen.

And how when someone now asks “Who’s ahead?” there the answer is also “Esfandiari.”

At least until the next million-dollar tournament.

2012 WSOP, Day 37: Wake Up

“You look tired.”

So said a smiling Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh to me as I made yet another circuit around the Brasilia room last night, passing in and out of tables in search of hands, stories, big chip stacks, and so on.

“No, no... I’m wide awake!” I replied, eyes wide and grinning back. She laughed and suggested one of those 5-hour energy drinks, and I nodded and continued with my rounds.

Leigh was playing in Event No. 56, the $1,500 no-limit hold’em event, a tourney I was essentially reporting on by myself yesterday. Again, Brett came around for a few hours in the middle, but it was basically up to me for most of the day to figure out how to report on the nearly 2,800 players spread out all over the Brasilia, Amazon, and Pavilion rooms.

The day began at noon and went until about 1:30 a.m. It was sometime after midnight Leigh correctly pegged me as starting to run low, energy-wise. It was my sixth straight day of working, and 11th out of 12. The shortest day has been about 11 hours, and the longest 15 or 16.

So yeah, I’m tired. But I survived. So did Leigh in the tourney, as did my buddies Rich and Ducky, which I was glad to see.

Things look different today, though, with a day off (at last) and a chance to recharge. I will be heading into the Rio later in the day to check out the finale of Event No. 55, the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop, the eight-handed final table for which is kicking off right about now.

It was during a break last night that I happened to have walked over to see the Russian businessman Ilya Bulychev eliminated in 10th place to go out on the biggest friggin' bubble ever. Zero for 10th, and $1,109,333 for ninth (where Mike Sexton would finish shortly after).

In fact, I’m sitting in my room right now watching the “almost live” coverage of the final table (with hole cards at showdown) kicking off on ESPN2. Kind of uncanny to watch, after just being there... and planning to go back over later. And to think... $18,346,673 for the winner.

Sort of thing wakes a person up.

2012 WSOP, Day 36: Same But Different

Experienced kind of an interesting contrast yesterday, my day at the WSOP being evenly divided between finishing up reporting on Event No. 51, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship, then moving over to help the guys with Event No. 55, the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop. Both events featured the same game, of course. But they couldn’t have been more different.

The final table of the ladies event began with a big crowd, but when four of the final nine players busted within the first couple of hours, their supporters left with them, necessarily affecting the ambience. Each of the remaining players had a few people there to cheer her on, but the scene was mostly quite serene and low key.

The woman who won, a former law student named Yen Dang, had distinguished herself yesterday as one of the better players, and she probably was the one of the best two or three at the final table, so her winning wasn’t too surprising.

As things concluded relatively early (I was essentially finished by about 7 p.m.), Donnie asked if I could come over and help with the Big One for One Drop for a few hours, and even though I could’ve used a few extra hours of rest, I went on over. Too curious not to, I’ll admit.

Incidentally, as I was packing up to move from my perch on the Pavilion stage, another group of players were being seated there for a different final table, the one for Event No. 52, the $2,500 short-handed 10-game mix event.

I spied Vanessa Selbst among those assembling to finish out that one, and knew she had a chip lead with seven left. Found out later she’d won the sucker, ending that streak of women not winning “open” events that extended back to her own win in 2008.

Two bracelets also puts her in rare company among female players, too, although again, like with Dang among her opponents in the ladies event, it’s never surprising to me to see Selbst win. When I was on the Keep Flopping Aces podcast a few weeks ago and Lou Krieger asked me about players to watch this summer, I’d mentioned her as one who always seems capable of winning any event she enters.

But like I say, I was out of there before they’d started up the 10-game, having moved over to join the group covering the Big One. I’d seen the main stage earlier in the day (pictured above) while also having toured the set they’d constructed for the five secondary tables, too. Rows of bleachers has been put in along with extra lighting and all the means for ESPN to shoot the event for later broadcast.

There was even a small buffet of finger foods, drinks, fruits, teas, and so forth set up for the players, the sort of amenities that seemed appropriate for an event with such an outrageous buy-in. WSOP staff and others associated with the television production and live stream had dressed up, although the players were all essentially wearing the same varied garb they always do, as did we reporters.

That said, the overall vibe wasn’t super intense, I suppose because it was still Day 1 and most players still had comfortably deep chip stacks. I happened to see and report on several interesting hands, including arriving just in time to catch Jonathan Duhamel’s bustout.

Witnessed another interesting hand involving Chamath Palihapitiya, the venture capitalist and former Facebook VP, and Phil Hellmuth which concluded with some semi-serious back-and-forthing between the two, with Palihapitiya firing back with the trash talking. Palihapitiya made a deep run in the Main Event last year, I remembered, finishing 101st.

Also saw Tom Dwan nearly eliminated by John Morgan, the Winmark CEO, after getting his chips in ahead, suffering an unlucky turn, then spiking a lucky river. By the way, you might have heard about a hand earlier in the day (before I got there) in which Morgan was involved in which the player to his left, Mikhail Smirnov, actually folded quads after Morgan shoved the river and a straight flush was possible.

Anyhow, I will say the poker was mighty intriguing to watch, with the various non-pros or amateurs or “businessmen” or “whales” or whatever you want to call them frequently giving away their relative lack of savvy or experience compared to the pros, although in many cases holding their own. In fact, of the 11 who busted yesterday, nine were pros -- although it’ll be much more meaningful to see who busts at the end, not the beginning.

Gus Hansen had a brick of $50,000 in cash (I think) sitting by his side throughout the night. Also saw Tom Marchese pitch to Ben Lamb what I believe was a banded-together, thick wad of hundreds adding up $10K when a prop bet between them had been settled. As I was joking with someone earlier in the day, in some ways these guys are about seven or eight levels removed from where most of us can even pretend to relate to them.

Will be moving back over to a much different event today, the last of the $1,500 buy-in NLHE tourneys on the schedule (Event No. 56), before finally getting a day off on Tuesday. Expect I might be back over at the Rio then, though, to see the end of this Big One and the sheer spectacle of someone winning over $18 million in a poker tournament. Kind of feels like the poker world can’t possibly be the same after something like that happens.

Again, I know full well there will be no relating to that. But I am curious to experience watching it. And then I’ll try to relate that here.

2012 WSOP, Day 35: Waiting for the Big One to Drop

Day 2 of the ladies event moved quickly yesterday, with the field shrinking from 117 down to the final nine even before they reached the end of the scheduled 10 one-hour levels. There is a picture of the tourney clock from just before the start of play yesterday, in pink.

Sarah Grant of PokerNews made the money -- kind of neat as it was her first ever WSOP tournament. There were a few other notables who lasted longer but not quite to the final table, including last year’s winner Marsha Wolak, Lisa Parsons, J.J. Liu, Erica Schoenberg, Stacey Lynn Nutini, Leo Margets, and Jamie Kerstetter.

The two men who made the money each busted relatively early on Saturday, earning close-to-minimum cashes. In other words, not nearly enough to buy a condo. There was a little bit of applause when the first one busted (the one referred to in yesterday’s post), and no reaction at all when the second one did. As I suggested yesterday, I was glad neither became a bigger part of the story of the tournament.

Was again kind of a skeleton crew working on the event, although I think we came a little closer to “covering” it. I was the only writer, although I did have my buddy Matt there to field report and he was incredibly helpful. The photographers were excellent as usual, too.

I’ll be back on that one today to see it through, although am well aware I’ll be writing for a very small audience today as most eyes will understandably be on Event No. 55, the $1 million buy-in “Big One for One Drop” that finally kicks off at 1:11 p.m. Vegas time.

They ended up reaching the 48-player cap for the sucker. That means with $111,111 taken out of each entry to be donated to the One Drop charity, the total prize pool will be $42,666,672. By comparison, the $10,000 buy-in Main Event in which 6,000 or more will play will probably have a prize pool of about $65 million. Also, that ME prize pool will be divided among 600-700 players, while this one will be split by just nine.

The top nine finishers will divide the cash according to the following schedule:

1st: $18,346,673
2nd: $10,112,001
3rd: $4,352,000
4th: $2,645,333
5th: $1,834,666
6th: $1,621,333
7th: $1,408,000
8th: $1,237,333
9th: $1,109,333

The final list of players who are participating has been released. Looks like 26 of the 48 are described as “professional poker players,” with a few others (Bobby Baldwin, Dan Shak, Haralabos Voulgaris) who could be thrown into the group, too. In other words, it looks like about two-thirds of the field come from the poker world, while the other third are comprised of those first identified as “businessmen,” “CEOs,” “owners,” and so forth. Comparing how the pros ultimately do versus the amateurs will make for some interesting skill-vs.-luck fodder, I imagine.

It’s a three-day event. I haven’t really studied the structure sheet too much, although it appears to be set up to run more or less at the same speed as any other three-day event, with the average stack probably being around 40 big blinds or so once they make the final table.

Of course, all sense of proportion is being obliterated here, and I’m not just referring to the 3 million chips with which players will start.

I have written before about how hard it is for most of us to relate to so-called “high roller” tourneys. The buzz surrounding them is mostly made of wonder and awe at all the zeroes in the figures representing the buy-ins and prizes. That is to say, there is usually not too much focus on the actual poker being played, although there is a lot of curiosity about who will emerge as the big winner.

Heck, the buzz yesterday surrounding the $25K satellite that saw Gus Hansen win a seat, Shaun Deeb winning $1 million for second, and Jason Somerville $400,000 for third was enough to overwhelm the Rio, and I imagine that’ll only be more evident today, Monday, and Tuesday.

As I say, I’ll be on the ladies event again today. I’ve also been assigned to cover a different event tomorrow. Despite doing the reporting thing for a while, I’m basically second-string or a “sixth man” on the team here, and I’m fine with that role. And since I am on other events, I won’t be able to follow much of what’s happening with the Big One for the next couple of days. The nature of the assignments necessarily forces a kind of tunnel vision, the concentration on the tourney at hand making it hard to give much attention to anything else.

But I do finally get a day off on Tuesday, and so might just have to head over to the Amazon, if only to check out the fancy stage they’ve been building behind the curtains for the last few days. And perhaps to find out what it looks like when someone wins $18 million-plus in a poker tournament.

I’m guessing it’ll probably look the same as most tourneys. But it won’t be. It can’t be.

The winner of the ladies event today will earn $170,587 -- a smaller first-place prize than most events, although larger than some. Compared to the $18,346,673 going to the winner of Event No. 55, well, that’s just a drop in the bucket.

2012 WSOP, Day 34: That’s a Bummer, Man (Men in the Ladies Event)

Yesterday I reported on the first day of Event No. 51, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship for PokerNews. For the most part I was going at it alone, save a few hours in the middle when Brett came over to help with some posts. So I say “I reported on it” rather than “I covered it,” because circumstances demanded a lot necessarily had to be left uncovered.

I’ve written here in the past about the huge challenge of trying to report on a large field tournament with few resources, and so am not going to go over all that again today. Was a little disheartening, I’ll admit, to pretend to do justice to the sucker with no one else around to help fill the huge gaps.

One aspect of this particular event I had hoped to give attention to were some of the stories players brought to it. The ladies event brings out interesting people, people who come to the tournament via many different paths. And their stories are often less common and thus more interesting than what one normally encounters at most poker tournaments.

But there just wasn’t enough me to do much of that. I was really only able to share a couple of those kinds of stories, the best being the one about the 94-year-old retired NYPD deputy inspector coming back to play the ladies event after having played at the WSOP a lot in the past, including making a final table in the ladies event at what had to have been around age 80.

Another aspect of the event I didn’t really care much about focusing on at all yesterday was the participation of men in the tournament. That story was big in 2010, the first time it happened. It was kind of big again last year, when a man made it all of the way to the final table before busting in ninth.

Not this time, though. Is already part of the deal. Doesn’t take long in poker or at the WSOP for the creating of “traditions.” And I suppose we can say a few men playing in the women’s event has by now become one.

Sure, when I first passed through the field searching for familiar faces and perking my ears up to catch table talk and perhaps find items of interest to share, I noticed the dudes. Couldn’t help it.

Each time I saw one, I was seized with a small pang of disappointment. And I guess a kind of pity, too -- for the guys for having somehow convinced themselves that playing in the ladies event was a sensible thing to do, and for the women, too, if any were at all bothered by the men playing.

I mean it was just a bummer, and that was it. And I didn’t want to write about it, because doing that would have been a bummer, too.

I found the topic so uninspiring I couldn’t even bring myself to mention the men in the live blog at all yesterday. The fact was, there were hundreds and hundreds of women playing in the event about whom I also was unable to write. So it didn’t make much sense to me to give any of the very limited time and energy I had to writing about the men.

In some cases the men were friendly and chatty, and I didn’t see women appearing especially bothered about their presence at the tables. Even by the couple who were wearing dresses hardy har.

It wasn’t all hunky dory, though. It may be a tradition, now, that a handful of men play in the ladies event. But not everyone is ready to accept that without asking some questions about how this new tradition came to be. And continues.

It was late in the day when Victoria Coren decided to ask the man sitting at her table why he had decided to enter the event. I’d passed by Coren’s table a time or two before, even reporting on a hand. By then the field had shrunk down to 25 tables or so, and thus I was able to make another circuit back when I heard her asking the man her question.

I lingered and listened. I was curious. Being a fan of Coren’s writing I wanted to be an audience to how she might choose to interrogate the man. I suppose in the back of my mind I thought I might share something of what I heard here, too.

Rather than retell it all, I can point you to Coren’s own account which she’s already published on her blog. There she describes the entire episode in detail, explaining what she and the young man said to each other, and then delivering a judgment upon him.

In asking her questions of the man she was not rude. Despite what some on Twitter who were not there might be inferring from Coren’s post or elsewhere, it wasn’t even close to verbal harassment. She was asking questions. As another player characterized Coren's questions when the floor came over, “It’s banter. It's part of the game.” She used wit which he didn’t seem to follow. And when he became uncomfortable he called the floor to request they make her stop saying things to him that made him feel uncomfortable.

Having heard most of it, I can say Coren’s account is accurate. I only recall hearing one thing that was said that she doesn’t mention. It was something the man said early on during her questioning, when she was still trying to get at the reason why he had decided to play.

Among his initial responses, I remember him saying “I want to buy a condo.” That was why he was playing, he explained. To try to make enough money from it to buy a condo.

Suddenly that feeling of disappointment I mentioned before multiplied tenfold. He either didn’t understand the purpose of the question, or didn’t care. What I was hearing was too dumb for words. Which again, was the real reason why I didn’t choose to put it into words last night.

If one of the two dudes who made it to Day 2 makes it further -- if he ends up becoming part of the tourney’s narrative in a way that demands his being included in the “coverage” -- I’ll write about him. If he emerges as a chip leader, or makes it to the last few tables, I’ll write about him. If he wins, I’ll write about him.

But let me tell you, if any of that happens, that would be a bummer. As would writing about it.

2012 WSOP, Day 33: Cruising Along

For me Day 33 of the 2012 World Series of Poker began a lot like the previous ten days with me rising early, doing some scribbling, then heading over to the Rio for another lengthy stay. Have worked seven of the last eight days, and am looking at another four days on before my next day of rest arrives.

Later in the morning I met up with my buddies Chris Cosenza and Scott Long of Ante Up (the magazine and podcast). I’ve met each of those guys more than once before at previous WSOPs, but I think this was the first time we were able to sit down for more than a few minutes to chat.

Long time readers know that when I first started writing the blog I would often talk about poker podcasts to which I was listening, with the weekly Ante Up show being one of only a few regular ones to discuss.

Since those early days, Chris and Scott launched a monthly magazine to go along with the podcast, and if you visit their website you’ll discover they have a lot more going on, too, including frequently hosting Ante Up cruises where folks can play poker and visit various destinations.

Speaking of the Ante Up cruises, I told them how yesterday I was helping cover the final table of Event No. 47, the $1,500 PLO8 event, and Scott mentioned how one of the players, Steven Loube (last name rhymes with “robe”), had been on a few with his wife. Loube was second in chips to start the day, having enjoyed a serious rush near the end of Day 2 to catapult to the top of the counts.

As it happened, Loube would win the event yesterday, a turn of events I think even he would admit was a bit improbable. After all, as he let us know during the course of the day, this was his first ever WSOP event! He also mentioned how the most he’d ever won before in a poker tournament was a $50 gift certificate (“good for food, but not for liquor”).

Loube mostly sat tight during the early going as the short stacks fell. He did get involved in a big three-way hand at one point in which he made a big fold on the flop in what was really a tricky spot. As it happened, if he’d stayed in he would have won the hand and a lot of chips, but it probably was prudent not to have taken the risk at that point.

Loube also had a hand in which he made a somewhat serious blunder, calling a big bet on the river thinking he had a flush when in fact he did not (he had misread the board). His reaction was great, though -- suitably self-effacing, maybe a little embarrassed, but you could tell it probably wasn’t going to send him spiraling into tilt mode.

There was other evidence along the way that Loube was the least experienced at the table, especially once it got to four-handed (which lasted an especially long time, about five hours). He more than once noted how tired he was, suggesting he’d never played so much poker in three days before. He had Advil with him, too, and I believe popped a couple along the way to help ease the pain caused by having to concentrate so long and so intensely.

If I were to have bet on who would win with four left, I would’ve picked either of the other three players -- Timothy Finne, Roch Cousineau, or Cam McKinley -- over Loube. But the amateur hung in there, and once McKinley was eliminated and the blinds jumped up, the gambling began in earnest.

Three-handed didn’t last very long, not enough time for your humble scribbler to toss out a line about Loube being caught between a “Roch” and a hard place (as he most definitely was). Cousineau was soon ousted, and it was down to just Loube and Finne.

I wasn’t pulling for anyone in particular as I watched -- I really never do with these things -- and in fact like Finne a lot both as a player (this was his fifth WSOP final table) and a personality (lots of grinning, humorous and friendly comments). But it was kind of cool to witness the excitement of Loube and his supporters after he’d won.

The 34-year-old personal injury attorney was pretty humble about it all afterwards, too. When one of his buddies said something about him playing all of the rest of the events now, he immediately shook his head. “No way, this is way too tough,” he said, obviously worn out by the long tourney journey, an adventure as exotic as any cruise or other vacation he has ever taken, I’m sure.

When watching and reporting on these suckers, it is definitely a lot easier to identify with guys like Loube than, say, those high rollers at the final table of Event No. 45, the $50,000 Poker Players Championship won by Michael Mizrachi yesterday. Just easier to relate to someone for whom the money is that much more meaningful, and the experience perhaps that much more special, too.

I like that picture Joe Giron took yesterday (see left) of Loube under the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign that hangs above the stage in the Pavilion room, one of many cool ones Joe snapped. Kind of underscored the excitement of the day for Loube, as does that kind of anxious-seeming smile on his face.

I can relate to that fatigue Loube felt yesterday, too. “Every time I meet you, you always seem exhausted,” said Chris to me yesterday morning early on during our visit. Indeed, we’ve only ever met at the WSOP -- when I am in the middle of working these lengthy, uninterrupted stretches -- and so I understood what he was saying. It is a long, long journey.

Today it continues for me with Event No. 51, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship, which I’ll be covering from start-to-finish. Am looking forward to doing so. Two years ago I helped cover the second and third days of this event. I was not on it last year when once again more men played and one even made the final table.

I’m curious to experience the first-day vibe of this tourney, and perhaps enjoy some more of that feeling of poker being special and fun. Kind of thing keeps you cruising along, you know? Even if you’re a little tired, and the waters a little rough.

2012 WSOP, Day 32: In Which My Shoes Give Away Where I Have Been

Was another packed day yesterday at the WSOP. Spent most of it helping cover Event No. 47, the $1,500 PLO8 event.

I covered this same event as well last year, and while jotting down all of those cards and keeping track of the highs and lows can be a bit headachy, it’s actually a very fun event to watch. Lots of action, of course, plus the players who have made it deep this year seem more inclined than most to engage in table talk -- often humorous -- which makes watching the action and reporting on it all the more entertaining.

Before the day began I met up with Tommy Angelo. It’s become kind of an annual date for us to have breakfast at least once during the Series.

Tommy impressed me with a Sherlock Holmes-like bit of deduction when we first met yesterday. As I was walking to our meeting, I’d noticed my black shoes looking especially dusty, almost like I had spilled a cup of flour on them. Feeling a little conspicuous, I pointed them out to him as soon as we met, planning to explain why they looked the way they did. But Tommy did so before I could.

“Did you go hiking?” he asked. Yes, I nodded. Then, before I could explain, he continued. “Red Rock Canyon?”

He’d nailed it, of course. Like a real shamus.

Was great fun catching up with him and hearing about his work on his next book project, Painless Poker.

Angelo has a couple of other excellent titles out already, both of which combine his talents for storytelling and poker instruction. His Elements of Poker (2007) remains a highly worthwhile book that I continue to recommend to those who haven’t read it before. (See a full review here.)

And his 2011 title A Rubber Band Story and Other Poker Tales also includes much that is both entertaining and edifying. I reviewed that one as well for the Betfair Poker blog, if you’re curious. (By the way, don’t ask me who that picture is next to my byline on those older Betfair pieces -- some glitch has caused a person other than myself appear there, not that the “Shamus” pic is me, either.)

It sounds like the new book will include even more excursions into fiction, with Angelo creating characters and plots that allow him to tell some fun and interesting poker stories while also delivering advice about how to deal with tilt and other poker-related challenges.

I told Tommy a bit about the novel I have now finished and am currently having people read in order to get feedback about revising. We also discussed and compared our writing processes as well as ideas about marketing and promoting our work.

After an hour we parted, as Tommy had plans to engage in some more detective work at the cash tables in the Pavilion room.

Meanwhile I trudged back through the halls of the Rio to the Amazon room where I’d spend the rest of the day and night doing a lot more walking back and forth between my laptop and the tables, still carrying the dust of Red Rock Canyon to and fro.

2012 WSOP, Day 31: Hot Rocks

After five straight 12-14 hour days at the Rio helping cover WSOP events, I finally had a day off on Tuesday and so took the opportunity to steer clear of it all and try to recharge the mental batteries a little.

My buddy F-Train is in town this week, and he suggested taking a quick trip up to Red Rock Canyon to walk around and see the sights. Besides getting an opportunity to visit with him, I was also keen both to get out of the city (and off the grid) as well as to see Red Rock, which I’d never visited before.

Red Rock is about 15 miles west of Vegas, a large national conservation area taken up by huge rock formations. It is surrounded by a 13-mile loop that you drive around counterclockwise, with lots of stops along the way to see sights and/or get out and do some hiking on the various trails.

As we drove the rocks stood out majestically, of course, although the sandy landscape was striking as well with the many tree stumps sticking up and looking not a little like hands reaching up out of the ground.

We ended up stopping at one of the first trails along the way, the one that takes you up to see the Calico Tanks, a natural tank which was dry this time of year.

The hike up was described in the visitor guide as "moderate" (not "strenuous"), a characterization F-Train echoed as he's been to Red Rock many times before. We're talking about 2.5 miles or so round trip (perhaps more), taking about an hour to climb up and a bit less than than to get back down.

It was hot, and much of the walk found us in direct sunlight. I was definitely winded by the time we made it to the top, realizing that despite all the hours on my feet and running around the Rio I could probably be in better shape for such excursions. The hike wasn't exactly treacherous, although it was necessary to pay attention when seeking stable footing.

Was well worth it, though, to enjoy the many striking sights along the way as well as the view of Vegas from the top.

Among the topics we discussed while up there was the obvious one -- just how weird a place Las Vegas really is, and the utter discontinuity between where we sat and what lay below.


Will be moving back out of the warm, bright sun and into the cold, relatively dark Rio once again today to help cover Day 2 of Event No. 47, the $1,500 PLO/8 event where I imagine I’ll see lots of heaping pots, split down the middle. Kind of like those rocks we were climbing over yesterday.

Take a trip over today when you’re not seeing how Viktor “Isildur1” Blom is doing in the Poker Players Championship (currently leading with 26 left).

And please, watch your footing.

2012 WSOP, Day 30: Attempts at Time Travel at the WSOP

I’m not a huge science fiction fan, although I have a few favorite authors and novels. In grad school once I had the opportunity to help teach a history of SF class, and so became acquainted with some of the periods and subgenres like the early adventure/pulp stuff and the “space westerns,” “hard” and “soft” SF, alternate history SF, the variety focusing on satire/social commentary, cyberpunk, and so on.

Time travel stories represent another category of SF that always intrigued me, especially those stories that used the conceit of traveling through time to explore ideas about what might be natural to us as humans and what is learned behavior or thinking. You know, stories that use time travel to show how particular cultures shape us into being and acting a certain way, with the move to the past or future forcing characters to question assumptions about themselves or each other. (See Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.)

You could say any attempt to write factually about something that has happened in the past is a little like traveling through time. Even writing up a hand report at a poker tournament involves imagining for a moment what you experienced a few minutes before.

In that case there are usually certain tangible facts that overwhelm the story and its significance, namely, the cards that were dealt, the bets that were made, and the ultimate impact of the hand on the tournament as a whole. Other elements might be worth including, too, as part of the effort to give a reader a sense of what it was like to have been there, standing nearby, watching what happened. But at the heart of it is an attempt to go back, to relive.

Last night I was helping cover Event No. 44, a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event in one corner of the Amazon. Meanwhile, across the spacious ballroom on the other side of the science-fiction-y “mothership,” there arose a complicated situation in Event No. 45, the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, surrounding a controversial pot-limit Omaha hand primarily involving Nikolai Yakovenko, Shaun Deeb, and Abe Mosseri. You’ve probably already heard something about this one, which came up last night right at the end of Day 2 of that five-day event.

Donnie Peters wrote up a detailed report of what happened (in two parts) for the PokerNews blog. In the first part, Donnie explains the complicated preflop betting that saw four players limp in, the small blind complete, then the big blind raise and the first three limpers call. Deeb then reraised with the rest of his chips from the button -- he had less than the amount needed to make a pot-sized raise, so he was all in. It folded to Yakovenko in the big blind who reraised over the top of Deeb’s raise, and only Mosseri called (after an especially long time in the tank).

The hands were tabled and the community cards dealt with Deeb winning the main pot and Mosseri the side pot. Then arose the real controversy over Yakovenko’s reraise over Deeb’s raise. According to Donnie, he’d said he was “all in” although he could only reraise the size of the pot. Which suggests he wasn’t really all in. And which also suggests Mosseri’s call wasn’t for all of his chips either (Yakovenko had Mosseri covered by a little), but for just whatever amounted to a pot-sized reraise. This despite the fact the players had played the hand as if it were an all-in shove and call.

At issue, then, was the side pot and how much Yakovenko really owed Mosseri after the hand. But the floor came over and apparently initially ruled that since Mosseri had only technically called a pot-sized reraise preflop, there should have been a betting round after the flop (there hadn’t been -- the five community cards were dealt out without any chances for post-flop betting), and thus “the turn and river would have to be rerun as the flop action hadn't been complete,” as Donnie reports.

In other words, it appeared as though they were going to try to go back in time (so to speak) to deal the turn and river anew, this time giving Yakovenko and Mosseri an opportunity to bet, raise, or fold. Such a ruling also meant Deeb was no longer safe. He’d survived the hand by flopping a set of jacks, then rivering a flush to beat Mosseri’s A-A-x-x and Yakovenko’s K-K-x-x. (I like how PN photographer Joe Giron used the fish-eye on that pic, adding a bit further to the weirdness of it all.)

See Donnie’s post for all of the specifics. He uses that initial ruling -- and Deeb’s understandably incredulous response -- as a cliffhanger moment, then comes back with the second part of the story in which the ruling gets overturned. There would be no redealing of the turn and river, after all. Also, Yakovenko was made to pay off Mosseri as though it had been an all-in situation even though Yakovenko couldn’t have raised all in, because that was essentially how the players had played the hand. (Sounds like a correct ruling.)

By the way, B.J. Nemeth additionally reported the hand for PokerListings. And both Donnie and B.J. did especially well, I thought, relating what happened clearly and thoroughly.

The controversy then continued when Yakovenko (crippled in the big hand) busted shortly thereafter and Phil Ivey was moved to the table to fill the empty seat. Because Mosseri had tanked for so long (possibly as much as 15 minutes, according to Donnie) and the subsequent efforts to get a ruling on the hand took a lot more time, players were unhappy they’d missed most of the last level of the night while other tables played on.

They’d already reached the point where it had been announced the clock would be stopped and only four more hands would be played. That’s when the table apparently proposed playing the last four hands of the night with Ivey, then have Ivey leave the table and allow them to play 15-20 more minutes to make up for hands lost before.

Ali Eslami explained it all to Donnie, using what I consider the line of the night to explain the players’ thinking. It would be like "going back in time to fill the space," Eslami told Donnie. The floor wasn’t going for that, though, and after four hands with Ivey the day was done.

Love that line. Probably a very good thing they weren’t allowed to go back in time to fill the space. All of us in the Amazon Room might have gotten swept up into a black hole or something, jettisoned out into a different dimension entirely.

Man, it would’ve taken forever to get a decent ruling if something like that had happened.

In the end, then, there were a couple of moments in the story where people had seriously entertained the idea of “going back in time” to redo things. In the first, the floor actually ruled they’d be redealing a turn and river in the big hand, then changed their minds. In the second, it was the players coming up with the idea of going back and reliving a section of Level 10, but that plan didn’t materialize either.

Not that you really can go back in time. Not really. Still, the desire to do so more or less possesses us so frequently. Happens constantly in poker tournaments. And in poker tournament reporting, too.

Probably says something about human nature, this desire we have always to go back and “get it right” or at least do things differently.

But no, the present is where we must remain, spending much of our time thinking about what has happened. And what might have been.