Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
I finally have a couple of days off. They’re come at just the right time, since I’ve spent so much time at the Rio and away from Celina she’s starting to wonder if I’ve turned gay and use the poker as an excuse to avoid her presence all day. Sure I could go play the $1,000 tournaments over at the Bellagio, but to be honest, I’m very, very tired at this point and the break is absolutely welcome.
The majority of poker players in Vegas for the summer use off days toward one of two things; either going out and getting very drunk or staying home and putting in online volume. I’ll be doing neither. First of all, I have a ton of writing to catch up on. During the European portion of my trip, I had enough free time that I was able to write nearly every night and when I didn’t, I had enough time the next day to catch up. During the Vegas portion I’ve had so many 13 hour days at the Rio that not only am I stressed for time, but I’m mentally exhausted and not feeling particularly creative when I get home. That’s not to say this time in Vegas has been particularly stressful. I’ve been running pretty well in the tournaments, have a great house of guys to hang out with, and Celina is absorbed enough with working on her EBay business that she doesn’t give me too much trouble about being so absent.
Between the writing I mostly spend my time hanging at the pool trying to reduce the incredible whiteness of my skin and sleeping. Catching up on my sleep feels amazing and for the first time in a month, I feel fully functional during my day.
So far during the series, Internet players - and my house especially – have done quite well. Three members of our house have made a final table (Grafyx, LearnedfromTV, myself) and online players are winning and final tabling at a pretty substantial rate in the NLH tournaments. Meanwhile, famous live players are winning just about every mixed game tournament, making the 2008 WSOP truly the year of the pro. I can’t imagine it’ll be very long until many more of the online players start learning the mixed games as No-Limit cash gets tougher and mixed games remain softer.
It’d be great to see some major name online players and live players go deep in the Main Event year. Since this is the first year Harrah’s is trying their final table in November, having a compelling story carry over through the delay will help achieve the hype they’re looking to create with this change. The last few years we’ve mostly seen a list of no names and the pros who do make the final are the lesser known or more low key types, like Allen Cunningham and Lee Watkinson (though judging from the Hard Core Elegance posters of Lee lying with a tiger and groping two different women’s breasts, I can’t imagine he’s hoping to be low key.)
Also, the last two champions have been fairly useless toward the game. Jerry Yang was weird and god fearing enough to turn most poker players off, and he hasn’t even been playing tournaments during the year outside a few exceptions. He seems like a nice and very charitable man, but he’s not exactly a marketing department’s dream. Meanwhile, Jamie Gold managed to be such an intolerable dick that Bodog dropped him about six months into his sponsorship. Understand that Bodog hit any minor site’s dream by having a player they sponsored win the main while wearing their gear, and Gold getting thrown out the door was a nearly impossible feat by him. Luckily for poker, Hachem has been more than happy to be everyone’s most recognizable and favorite WSOP ME winner for three years.
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