During the first day of the $40,000 NLHE, I was introduced to what I can only describe as the Undisclosed Location. I had heard rumors that there was such a place on site but, even though I was told I could work there, no one would give me more information. Especially elusive was the important question of WHERE?
Today is a big day, with final tables in the $40K NLHE and the $1,500 OEOB, plus the start of the Champions Invitational and Day 2-A of the economic stimulus $1,000 NLHE.
Game on! The gianormous economic stimulus event, $1,000 NLHE starts today. With a cap of 6,000 within sight and two Day 1s, 3,000 players should be swarming the Convention Center. They played down to XX in the $40K NLHE yesterday, and Event #3, $1,500 OEOB, drew a record 918 players, of which 197 survived to Day 2.
The World Series of Poker takes place at the Rio in Las Vegas. Unless you are staying at the hotel, however, you don’t want to come in through the Main Entrance. It’s almost a half mile (or so it seems) from the Casino Valet to the Amazon Room at the back of the Convention Center, the hub of World Series activity.
[Daily Tilt will be an update of how Full Tilt's pros are doing at the Series, including chip counts from the previous evening's close of play, a running money list, and summary highlights from the day before.]
It’s starting to feel like the World Series of Poker! Event #1, the $500 Casino Employee’s NLHE concluded. Event #2, the 40th Anniversary $40,000 NLHE commenced, and everyone is getting into place for Friday’s Event #3, $1,500 OEOB (the first full-field/non-millionaire event) and bracing for Event #4 over the weekend, the $1,000 Economic Stimulus NLHE.
[Seen & Heard is a series of features on Full Tilt's pros - interviews, profiles, anecdotes, and anything else that helps you understand that most elusive of species, The Full Tilt Pro.]
Yesterday (Wednesday), when I came to the Media Center to get my credentials for the World Series of Poker, Seth Palansky, Harrah’s Communications Director for the WSOP, greeted me like an old friend. That’s the nature of poker friendships – you work intensely together, then break off contact for an extended period, then start back up again.
["Vegas on $2,000 a Day" is be a series of features on personal experiences at the World Series of Poker, offering (a) information and insight to those traveling to Vegas during the Series; (b) a "virtual experience" for those who won't be able to make it; and (c) entertainment at my expense, because it appears I have hooked up with, for the second year running, a landlady who wants to kill me. Read on!]
Tuesday, May 26, 10:40 AM
BOULDER CITY, NEVADA – The World Series hasn’t started yet. I haven’t even made it inside the Las Vegas city limits. Nevertheless, I am physically and mentally wiped out. It’s appropriate that my audio companion, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, is about the world’s most gruelling footrace. (Excellent audiobook, by the way; probably the only thing to keep me from completely chucking my sanity and pitching my Mercedes over a guardrail into the Hoover Dam.) I’ve been awake for 26 hours, driven 400 miles, and am about to arrive at a destination that I currently have no means to enter.
Or, Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning’s End
The fortieth World Series of Poker starts in less than two weeks. I will be covering the Series for Full Tilt for the third time, and let me say, with no bragging involved, you could not be luckier. The WSOP is a magical event and no one can cover it like me. I have written daily about the World Series for three years and, before that, worked on two books and numerous articles during the World Series. I have been everywhere and seen everything. In addition, between my relationships with winners of more than 200 bracelets and authors of almost every good book ever written about the World Series, I have a huge mental and physical archive of World Series history.
Let me share how I plan to put all that to work for you:
Isn’t 50 too old to be a Comeback “Kid”?
I must have the all-time worst record in the history of the Bracelet Race. I’ve never won one and I’ve played at least twenty and probably more. Last night, I finally won one. It involved a big comeback, not as big as my world record comeback in the Midnight Madness in February but it was nearly as satisfying. Because this time, it was personal.
After six hands, I was down to 295 chips.
We are at the halfway point in FTOPS XII. I have several interesting items to report, both generally and personally.
