World
Series of Poker T & T+1
'T'
day, the first tournament, was the employee
event yesterday, I played badly! Well,
not to start, I played very well, but
then I lost half my chips with my KK against
some lunatic who wouldn't lay down his
AA (don't they know who I am!), was left
with 1000 a the 100-200 blinds level,
then blew them on some very debatable
hands. Looking back definitely a case
of tilt, but at the time it didn't seem
that way, I seemed to be able to justify
each mistake, I'd better watch that. One
surprise at the final table was the dealer
Mike Majerus, he's a good player but I
haven't seen him do this well, he finished
3rd, and today with 18 left in the 2K
limit holdem he is one of the chip leaders!
The
clock ran great and they even managed
to get it set up downstairs for the big
crowd showing up today for the first official
event, it looked much better downstairs
where it was darker (no glare on the screen),
and it was at eye level instead of up
high, if we run it again next year I think
we'll reposition the ones upstairs. Razzo
did an awesome animated gif for me that
shows a photo and title of all the tournament
personnel (it displays on the banner along
the bottom of the clock), it really looks
good, thanks rrraazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
He's now working on a last year's champions
gif.
Today
was the 2K limit holdem, 615 last year,
612 this year, I requested the table with
TJ, Scotty, and Alan Cunningham and they
kindly obliged. It was actually a pretty
good table except Scotty was on my right
and kept stealing the blinds before I
could have a shot, but I got a few good
hands and managed to keep my stack intact.
Then the fateful hand that did me in came
along with TJ raising and me just calling
with AQs on the button, letting the small
blind player in. TJ bet the scary JJ8
flop and we both called, they both then
checked the turn Ten and I didn't fire
(mainly because the other guy had called
the flop so I feared that he was slow
playing, but if I had reraised pre-flop
I would have known where I was), then
TJ caught his 3 on the river for his A3o.
I made so many mistakes in this hand it's
not funny, there's no question I could
have played it correctly and won some
decent chips, instead I was short stacked.
A few hands later it was all over with
my AK vs JJ. I feel bad, but I feel good
knowing I learnt not to do that again.
At 2:30am they are down to the final 18,
it's a who's who of poker, can't remember
them all, but definitely David Chiu, TJ,
Jennifer Harmon, Syracuse Chris, Peter
Costa (a top English player) and John
Pires (the guy who came second last year
in this event). I was over by the payout
desk for a while and I know that at least
two of the players who went out around
20th or so tipped with no problems. On
another note, Daniel's seat assignment
got messed up and he didn't get to sit
down for the first 50 minutes of the first
level, I wish I had been as lucky. A guy
was running around the room with a TV
camera following Daniel, they must be
doing some sort of documentary on him.
They
have a 30 minute break each day at 2pm,
we then all run over to the buffet area
where they have a very nice spread of
ham and cheese, and roast beef sandwiches,
sodas, soup, donuts, chips, etc., free
to the players. Then at the dinner break
they have a free buffet for the players.
I
have to say the place is growing on me,
I've already mentioned that I've never
had a bad meal in the coffee shop, and
the service has always been great, but
also I've made a few requests of housekeeping
and the front desk and they've always
come through rapidly and with a friendly
attitude; it has the feel of an old style
hotel where they try to look after you.
Binion's is so the opposite of the big
resort hotels that I usually like but
I'm beginning to see it has a sort of
charm that the big resorts lack. I'm even
starting to like the room more, it has
a window that opens the whole way, perfect
for if I play any more hands badly, and
it's dead quiet at night; maybe these
days they don't make walls like they used
to, I haven't heard a peep out of the
neighbors or anyone in the hallway. One
thing I used to hate here was the thick
smoke everywhere, but of course this year
that has totally gone away with the whole
tournament area being non-smoking.
The
big news is that they will be filming
every final table (a pro outfit using
several cameras, not your usual ESPN production),
they will be broadcast on the internet
each night as soon as the final table
is over, Nevada gaming commission had
not allowed them to broadcast live, something
to do with the likelihood that people
will be betting on the players. I expect
the web sites and details will be posted
on rgp, I don't know much about that yet.
I'm
only going to be playing satellites for
a while (I played one and chopped it up
for $800 profit yesterday, helped take
the sting out of the 2K entry fee), and
I'll be playing the locals tourneys at
Mirage and Orleans. My next WSOP event
will be the 1.5K pot limit holdem in about
a week, and maybe the 1.5K limit holdem.
Due to circumstances beyond my control
(i.e. I play bad) the description of the
gold bracelet may be delayed.
Paul
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