World
Series of Poker T-1A
They
are all here, big names are everywhere!
Today I spotted TJ, Men, Dan Heimiller
(chatted to him for a while even though
he is only 240-1, a very nice guy), Mike
Sexton and Tom McEvoy, I'd already seen
Philip Ivey and John Bonetti. The satellites
are going strong, still all downstairs,
but they did start a 5-10 pot limit game
upstairs.
I
played another satellite today. First
I sat down at a $225, saw the lineup and
got the hell out of there mumbling something
about I thought my house might be on fire.
Then I was about to sit in a $70 (employee
entry for tomorrow) tourney, but with
one prize of $550 and start with only
300 in chips with the same 15-30 blinds,
this didn't look like a very good deal
to me. So I waited and got into the next
$225. These are a much better deal with
a $2100 prize and 800 chips. I got down
to 3, then got involved with my AK vs
AT, a river 8 for the straight and ighn.
The poker room is extremely busy, as is
the satellite area.
Today
we got the final table clock running too,
so we are all set with clocks now, which
is good because tomorrow is the first
event, the $500 employee event, and I
get to play!!! The TVs for the clocks
are both up high at one side of the room,
not easily visible to players near the
windows, we'll have to see how that works
out. While I was messing with the clocks
they were having the big dealers' meeting
where they introduced all the TDs and
other tourney staff and went over the
rules. I wasn't paying too much attention
but it all seemed very calm, I didn't
hear any grumbling about anything. One
interesting rule I did hear was that in
the no-limit events there's no going back
for chips, so you either declare the amount,
or you say raise then shove out whatever
you're betting in one go. That sounds
good to me, stops the angle of gauging
the response to the first set of chips,
for instance waiting to see if a call
is coming, then shoving out some more.
Matt Savage has it all under control,
he's determined to make this a good tournament
and said he'll be very tough on abuse
the first week to get the message across.
One thing I've noticed from being able
to see behind the scenes is that the different
departments (MIS, engineering, tournament
staff, etc.) all seem to work very well
together and are very supportive of getting
things done right. The only fly I see
in the WSOP ointment, and it's a big fly
for us in rgp but maybe only a gnat if
you're not, is the tipping issue, we'll
just have to see how that one plays out.
Tonight
I got the prime rib in the coffee shop,
$11, excellent (as is the service, it
runs like a nice restaurant). The only
downside was that I was reading Card Player
and happened to be on the Badger page
so had his face staring at me for most
of the meal, and he was telling some weird
story about a movie with a man stuck in
a tree, I don't know which film that was
(Tarzan?), I know I don't remember seeing
it. I don't think I'm giving anything
away when I tell you that he ends up getting
out of the tree.
Tomorrow
night I will describe my gold bracelet
in great detail.
Paul
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