As much as I would like to write about something else, it’s impossible to ignore the buzz being generated inside the Rio Convention Center by today’s $50,000 HORSE event. I caught up with Erik Seidel on his way into the tournament room twenty minutes before the event was scheduled to begin.
Last Friday, I attended a meeting of poker bloggers at Caesar’s Palace. Howard Lederer spoke to the group about anti-gaming legislation that is working its way though Congress. Yesterday, July 11, a bill that would prohibit US residents from playing poker on the Internet passed the House of Representatives.
The final table of the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event is now down to its final five players. Lee Watkinson, a friend of Full Tilt, is in excellent shape, having taken over the chip lead with $650,000. This bracelet is one of the most coveted at this year’s World Series, and yet due to its placement in the schedule it is already getting overshadowed by the hype that’s brewing in anticipation of tomorrow’s $50,000 HORSE event.
I am really looking forward to the HORSE event tomorrow. First of all, I like to play all of those games. I think a lot of people are going to be playing in it simply because it’s a marquee event, but a lot of them don’t play razz or stud very well.
I am most excited about the main event—it’s the granddaddy of all poker events—but I’m also really excited about the $50,000 HORSE event. It’s a huge event, but I think it’s kind of ridiculous to think of it as the new world championship. I don’t think anything can ever eclipse the main event of the World Series.
This is my third World Series final table. In ’96 I finished ninth in Stud which only had eight at the final table. It’s my third cash this year so I’m feeling really good.
I caught up with Perry Friedman in the Full Tilt lounge this afternoon. He seemed to be in good spirits despite having played several long days of poker without any financial rewards to show for it.
I didn’t enter the Ladies event yesterday because I wanted to focus on the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. It was a really tough day for me. The whole day was an absolute struggle.
You had to like the chances of a Full Tilter making the final table in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event with Re-Buys when there were only thirty players left. Both John Juanda and Andy Bloch had healthy stacks. The only strike against them was that they were sitting right beside each other at the same table, dramatically increasing the odds that one of them might possibly knock the other out of the tournament.
At the start of the day, just before they broke our table, I doubled a player up. I had two nines in the big blind, and he moved all in from the button with two fours. I called and lost a $45,000 pot. After that I just held on to my stack and picked up some chips until I got aces.
