FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#207 – WSOP #56 – Return to the Amazon Room

Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized

I returned to Las Vegas at 3 AM on Thursday. Professionally, I understand why I am here. It’s the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. I’m writing The Full Tilt Poker blog. This is a big thing and I should be writing about it. But mentally, even though I THOUGHT I was past the hurt of busitng out, something is still gnawing at me.

I was eased back into my writing responsibilities by dinner with several writer friends. Talking about poker, poker history, poker gossip, and writing problems should have eased me back to my work. Accepting kudos on my play at this year’s Series, I was nonetheless reminded that that’s what happenED. In the here and now, I am a writer, lucky to be among other excellent writers.

I followed them after the meal back to the convention center, unsure really what I was doing. Anthony Holden walked into the Amazon Room, so without thinking much about it, I followed. Since my jacks ran into aces, it’s been 70 hours, 640 miles, and 2 Kevin Smith movies.

The first familiar face I spotted at the 50 or so remaining tables was Todd Brunson. He didn’t have too many chips, about 60,000.

60,000? I had more than that at this time Monday night.

Quit living in the past, Craig. Among the many differences between you and Todd Brunson is the fact that he STILL has them.

OK, the wound still hasn’t healed, even though I thought I had moved on.

Tony Holden came to my rescue. Wandering the room like me, he found David Flusfedder, a friend and English poker columnist, at Table 77. To David’s right, all-in at 9:40 PM, is Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 World Champion.

I watch as his opponent contemplates whether to call.

“It’s a big pot,” Tony mentions. “About a half million chips if he calls Robert’s last 142,000.”

But I’m a world away. I met Varkonyi twice at the 2006 World Series, on consecutive days. The door to the warehouse snaps open.

* Robert told me about the remarkable life his father led and asked me about helping him develop a book about it.

* Robert’s amazing courtship with Olga is probably a book-worthy project, too. I think they dated exactly once before she found out that her visa wasn’t being renewed and she was forced to return to Russia. “I love you but I’m never going to see you again.” Robert made the focus of his life getting Olga back and, of course, he succeeded.

* The story BEHIND his 2002 World Championship, likewise, is fascinating: a wedding, an idyllic married life, a reluctant realization that Robert would have to go to work, a financial services job secured and then eliminated by the tragedy of September 11, another job acquired but with time to play the 2002 World Series of Poker, a shadowy figure who was one of the great brains behind the MIT Blackjack Team tutoring Varkonyi (but neglecting to take a piece of his action in the Main Event).

Robert Varkonyi CAN’T bust. At least not now, here, with me standing behind him, next to Olga. I have INFORMATION and a burning desire to COMMUNICATE it.

Let the gamblers shuffle their chips back and forth. I have a higher calling.

Not that the two are mutually exclusive. I discussed with Brad Willis the possibility of playing a Binions tournament that starts at 2 or 3 AM. When I left the Amazon Room at 11:30 PM, I wasn’t feeling it from him, though, so we resolved to do it some other night.

I left to return to my room to write this blog (and a couple others) and maybe play the Hundo Turbo, which starts at midnight PDT. On the way up, however, I was derailed by the video poker machine that took several hundred of my dollars after I busted out on Monday night.

Near the bottom of my $300 on the 5-play Deuces Wild machine, I hit 4 deuces off the deck, which pays $1000. And because it’s 5-play and this was pre-draw, I hit it on all 5 plays.

Suddenly, the $1000 per hour I spent on the Main Event didn’t hurt so bad. I didn’t even mind that, between the payout and the tax forms, I missed by exactly 1 second the Turbo Hundo.

I got writing to do.

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