FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#906 – Silly Sunday, Part I – Eaten Alive

Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized

At first, I thought the schedule for the WSOP Final Table included a ridiculous amount of dead time. As long as it took to get heads-up – and it took longer than anyone imagined – that still left forty hours with nothing to do.

Thank goodness I didn’t write what I had planned: a scathing criticism of Harrah’s ridiculous and inconsiderate scheduling.

Why on earth have the off-day? And why, after a day off, do we not start heads-up play until 10pm? Is it because the Final Showdown seems more dramatic at night? I sure hope not. Casinos have no windows. It can ALWAYS be night. ESPN films final tables as though they are taking place in the dead of night, or at least at the Copa circa 1955.

But I am here to praise Harrah’s, not criticize it.

I needed that day off. We all did. The process was so draining and so much happening that it took all of Sunday (and probably longer) to process it properly – if that is indeed possible. And after fifteen hours, the Penn and Teller Theater, as nice as it was and despite all the pains to make us comfortable, seemed like a gulag.

So I should be happy to report that I spent Sunday gaining perspective and organizing the myriad thoughts about the final table into something I could communicate to you. I SHOULD be happy to report that – as in, “I SHOULD have spent Sunday that way.” But no, I played FTOPS #10 for 6 ½ hours then payed off my bet to AlCantHang by playing the 1am Golden Nugget tournament. After that fiasco I didn’t get to sleep until nearly 6am.

This is where the top guys at Harrah’s are unrecognized geniuses. Why take a day off AND not start until 10pm? To give the smart people enough time to process all the information and the rest of us time to recover from our day “off”.

The Sunday 1pm Heads-Up Press Conference was postponed to Monday because they played until past 6am. But the Official WSOP Schedule was not kept entirely clear on Sunday. The email I read after I woke up, ostensibly to announce the rescheduled press conference, concluded as follows: “On a related note, there is NO CHANGE to the event today at noon at Martorano’s. That event will be held as originally planned.” (emphasis in original)

What event? At first I couldn’t remember there being anything else scheduled on Sunday. I dug through my press kit and found the answer, as well as why the WSOP folks seemed ambivalent about reminding us of some unreferenced event.

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

JOEY CHESTNUT AND TOP RANKED MAJOR LEAGUE EATERS TO FACE-OFF AT MARTORANO’S MASTERS MEATBALL EATING CHAMPIONSHIP

A host of top-ranked Major League Eaters, including #1-ranked Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, will meet at Martorano’s inside Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for the first-ever Martorano’s Masters Meatball Eating Championship. The winner will be distinguished as a world meatball-eating champion and take home the lion’s share of a $3,000 total cash purse.

Rich “The Locust” LeFevre, the 65-year old MLE legend and Henderson resident, will be coming out of retirement in hopes of claiming the inaugural Martorano’s Masters title.

Playboy cover model and new starlet of FANTASY at Luxor, Angelica Bridges, will also be representing Las Vegas in her competitive eating debut. Maxim recently named Bridges one of the “50 Sexiest Women in the World.”

Rounding out the field of eaters is poker legend Phil Hellmuth. His 2007 World Series of Poker win was his 11th career WSOP title. Having amassed an unsurpassed record 11 World Series of Poker championships, he will try his hand at becoming the Martorano’s Masters Meatball Eating Champion.

Other top contenders include #3-ranked Chicago-native Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti and the #5-ranked 105-pound Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas. Thomas and Bertoletti hold a combined 45 world records through Major League Eating.

The 10-minute contest will feature Martorano’s world famous meatballs prepared by chef/owner Steve Martorano. In an effort to fully honor and respect Martorano’s meatballs, competitors must use utensils during the contest, a stipulation that will further test the skill of the eating professionals.

At some point after I saw the media advisory, I asked Shauna, mostly in jest, if she wanted to watch Phil Hellmuth compete in a meatball-eating contest at noon on Sunday. She said, “Why would I want o do that? I don’t even like watching him play poker.”

I can’t blame her, and she would have been bitterly disappointed if she WANTED to see a meatball-engorged Hellmuth.

But I’m not going to lie to you. I regret missing this event. I shouldn’t have asked Shauna, knowing what she would say and using that as my rationalization for sleeping late on Sunday.

This MLE is supercool stuff, right down to its logo, which is a beefy fist shoving a fork into the air. I have read two books on competitive eating and it is a fascinating world. Joey Chestnut, who won by eating fifty meatballs in ten minutes (more than six pound of meat), could literally eat you for lunch. The contest included a number of other legendary eaters, such as Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti and 105-pound Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, the Tom Dwan of competitive eating.

I particularly enjoyed the stipulation that the competitors had to use utensils. This is actually a big controversy in competitive eating. For instance, the top hot dog eaters, like Chestnut and the indestructible Takeru Kobayashi, do things like separate the buns from the dogs, shoveling in the hot dog whole while soaking the bun in water. Its “competitive,” but it’s not really “eating” as we understand it. So forks are a major innovation.

In a novelty appearance, PLAYBOY cover model and Luxor star Angelica Bridges ate ten meatballs, or more than a pound of meat. That’s ten meatballs more than Phil Hellmuth, who was a no-show. Kudos to Dan Cypra of POKER NEWS DAILY, who sat next to me on Saturday, for his excellent report. (He was also the one who informed me that two of Joe Cada’s supporters had been kicked out of the room for fighting with each other.) At the risk of making a bad pun, I’m eaten up with jealousy that I didn’t attend and write about it myself.

But I had to rest up for the poker equivalent of a meatball-eating contest.

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