FULL TILT POKER BLOG

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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.

Entering from Flamingo, steer right around the front of the casino, past the Palazzo Suites on the left and the Masquerade Tower parking garage on the right. The Convention Center is behind the hotel-casino and it has a gigantic parking lot.

PARK TO LIVE, DON’T LIVE TO PARK

I arrived at the Rio at 3:03 PM on Wednesday and found a parking space very close to the entrance of the Convention Center, a good omen. Parking stretches almost to the crack of doom – an expression for which I thank Anthony Holden, even though I learned he took it from Shakespeare, and, as “light years” denotes distance and not time, “to the crack of doom” denotes a time (the end of the world) and not distance. I remember in 2006 seriously contemplating walking back to my rented room rather than give up a particularly juicy parking space.

On a later trip, I made use of the valet, which is complimentary-plus-tip. (Give ‘em five bucks, okay? It’s broiling hot out there and some high-roller posing could lead to positive mojo later on.)

I’M TOO STUPID TO BE EDUCATED BY CARDRUNNERS.COM

Walking the familiar steps to the Convention Center entrance, I was immediately and effusively greeted by Cardrunners.com. In every direction, on every surface, that excellent educational site trumpeted its existencce (and, implicitly, its success). So, for the record, “CARDRUNNERS.COM WELCOMES YOU TO THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER.” ‘Preciate it, guys, and right back atcha.

The CardRunners.com gang is cool, and I’m not saying that because of their affiliation with Full Tilt. They provide great educational material and their principals strike me without exception as smart, responsible, serious professionals who are very successful as both teachers and players.

Quick story about Cardrunners.com and my unceasing stupidity.

My friend from high school, Julie, is a regular reader of the blog and told me a couple years back that her son was in college with a “professional poker player.” I said something like, “Every kid with a computer, no expenses, and money in an online account says that. I actually MAKE money playing poker Jules. Probably from kids like your son’s friend.”

She persisted, later telling me how he had recently purchased a BMW. “Well, I hope he paid cash, because one big score, one big week, doesn’t make you a success. Kid’ll probably be selling the car in three months because his account is tapped out.”

I’m pretty sure I was wrong there, because that kid was Cole South, one of CardRunners.com’s principals and instructors, and one of the world’s most successful and respected online poker pros. While I was pontificating to Julie, my online earnings were probably a rounding error to Cole.

But I stand by my record for putting my foot in my mouth. When I resumed playing poker in 2003, a friend’s cousin named Elana mentioned to me at a barbecue that her friend and former high school classmate was a professional poker player. “Puh-leeze,” I told her. “I play $30-$60 at the Bellagio. I made $3,000 in one night. I don’t need to hear about some dude you went to high school with in the early seventies struggling to scratch out a living.”

I changed my tune when I needed Elana to introduce me to her friend … Barry Greenstein, who had just won $1.5 million at a WPT event and donated it all to charity, because his six- and seven-figure wins in the biggest poker games in the world allowed him an opportunity to give something back.

I am, if nothing else, consistent.

POKER FACES

As I walked the long hallway toward the Amazon Room, the first familiar face I saw was that of Doug Dalton, Director of Poker Operations for MGM-Mirage. We made plans to catch up during the Series. I told him I wanted to play a tournament or some cash games at the Bellagio as one of my “Las Vegas on $2,000 a Day” experiences. Doug promised to brief me on how the poker business is faring in this challenging environment and to update me on what’s going on at Project City Center.

Because the Casino Employee event was running, I interrupted our good-byes to ask, “Hey, are you playing in the event today?”

Long awkward pause.

Doug (quietly): I was.

My record remains intact. I must be the all-time leader in inadvertently asking people how they are doing right after they bust out.

MIRANDA Y BRASILIA

The World Series of Poker is continuing its practice of annexing ever larger portions of the Convention Center. Apparently, I’ll never again have the pleasure of sneaking into professional seminars like “Kessler’s Center for Creative Real Estate” and “Let’s Talk Synthetic Roof Products.” I’ll never be treated to the sight of a pre-teen girl in a leotard crying as she exits the convention center carrying a four-foot-tall trophy and tries to squeeze past Men the Master barking into his cell phone.

Two huge ballrooms on the right side of the convention center, Miranda and Brasilia, have been pressed into service for the entire WSOP. Miranda was empty when I walked in. With just the Casino Employee event running, there was no need for its overflow services. But come June 3, this room ought to be packed. That should be one of the busiest days of the Series, with seven events in progress, along with two mega-satellites and two second-chance tournaments. I expect Miranda will also get a workout during the $1,000 and $1,500 events.

No more will players in huge-field events be banished to tables in front of Buzio’s, the seafood restaurant I’ve come to dislike so much that friends constantly offer to buy me dinner there, because they know I’ll decline. Or, for a social occasion, I’ll prove a cheap date, ordering nothing more than crackers and tap water.

Brasilia, the other cavernous ballroom, was also filled with poker tables, housing single-table and mega-satellites. It being early in the afternoon on Day 1 of the Series, the first $330 mega drew just three tables of players. The other half of the room, running single-table satellites with buy-ins from $65 to $1,000, was already buzzing with activity. Walking among the familiar sights and sounds of the single-table satellite crowd, I had just one thought: I gotta get in on this.

AMAZON ROOM

The Amazon Room itself brought a rush of memories and emotions too numerous to document here. Of course, it physically dwarfs any property given over to poker. It generally looks similar to last year, with its final table area in one corner, sponsor banners hanging from the ceiling and, most impressive to me, banners dedicated to the champions of the first 39 Main Events. (The last five WSOP Players of the Year have their banners, no less impressive, hung in the Miranda Ballroom, as a reminder perhaps that a poker player’s reach should exceed his or her grasp.) And it’s freezing as always, so pack a sweatshirt.

But there are some differences. Jack Links, the purveyor of dried meat products, is now a presenting sponsor. In tandem with Planters, the official nut of the World Series of Poker, these two have cornered the market on the salty food group and their presence should have a synergistic effect on the movement of All-In water and energy drinks and Milwaukee’s Best Beer. The final table area looks larger, more attractive, and even, for some reason, more comfortable. The arrangement of tournament tables, though still in different-color-denoted quarters of the room, is slightly different, providing more space between tables. The addition of Miranda has given Jeffrey Pollack & Co. the opportunity to remove some tables and make walking among them faster and more comfortable. That’s important not just to employees and media but also, at some time or another, for some reason or another, to just about every player. On the other hand, I’m now robbed of the experience of leaning back in my seat and smelling what the guy behind me ate during the dinner break.

Speaking of Jeffrey Pollack, I saw the commissioner twice today, both times giving interviews. He said hello and we made tentative plans to talk over the weekend. I mentioned, in particular, my interest in his decision to NOT scale back the Series in 2009 due to likely declines in attendance. I’ll get the full story later (which means you’ll get it too) but he did tell me, as he was walking to another interview, “We have a responsibility to run this event in a certain way. There was a discussion about cutting back to forty events this year. Fortieth anniversary, forty events? But we didn’t do that.”

I started as a critic of Pollack and his regime in 2006. I’ve long since come to respect, admire, and trust Jeffrey and his team, seeing that they listen, they learn, and they sincerely try to simultaneously serve the corporate bosses that demand profits (and ever-more sources of profits) and the poker players who are both customers and part of the product served up to some of their other profit centers. I still find things to criticize about the operation of the Series – there’s so much going on that it will never be perfect. But looking behind the beer and water and peanuts and jerky and Corum watches and ESPN cameras, I see innumerable roads not taken to cut costs in what’s bound to be a declining market of player attendance.
I was worried the Series might be a little sad this year, due to hits in the size of fields due to the economy. But I can tell that it’s going to be sad only when we reflect on what those absent are missing. Harrah’s has not put on the brakes in any way and, on the contrary, is going to run this party at full throttle from now until July 16.

Price of Experience: $1,000 (buy-in for Event #4A on Saturday), plus $5 (when I tipped the valet on my next trip to the Convention center).

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One Response to “#746 – WSOP 2009 #4 – Vegas on $2,000 a Day #2 – First Time at the 2009 Series”

1. Mr. Barbegris Says:
   May 29th, 2009 at 3:41 pm

   Doug promised to brief me on how the poker business is fairing in this challenging environment and to update me on what’s going on at Project City Center.

   You mean “faring,” of course, from “to fare,” but I’m sure it’s your editor’s fault.

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