WSOP
2003 Day Not Quite 1
Clocking In, Cashing Out
Today
we set up the room for the WSOP, it looks
great! This year the ring games are all
downstairs as are the single table satellites
and the double-shootout tournaments (pay
$125 to enter a single table, win it and
play in another single later in the day
against 9 other winners, win that and
you have a 10K seat, piece of cake!).
Upstairs they have put down a new carpet
and repainted, there is no walkway down
the middle any more, it's all tables,
the final table is now in the center of
the room surrounded by bleachers on 3
sides, with it's own clock and two screens
that will have camera views of the cards
and the table, this looks like it's going
to be a much better deal for spectators.
There are clocks everywhere, there's one
in each corner and one in the middle,
during the day they will all be showing
the main event, at night two of them will
convert into a clock for the super satellites
($225 + multiple $200 rebuys and a double
add-on), and one for the No Limit $225
at 11pm every night until 5/15 (I think).
I
spent all day getting my clocks sorted
out, then we went to the Chinese restaurant
'Gee Joon', newly reopened in the hotel.
This is a great restaurant, the service
is great and the food is excellent (walnut
prawns in a cream sauce was heaven, Peking
Duck was great, orange chicken very good),
fairly expensive, most main courses about
$16.
After
dinner I went downstairs and played a
$65 satellite as I am going to be playing
in the $500 employee limit holdem tomorrow
(Tuesday). We got 600 chips, 10-15 blinds.
Twice I was all in, the first time in
a desperation move calling a raise with
KJs (after losing most of my chips the
previous hand when I flopped a set of
9s, was raised on the flop by a flush
draw that got there on the turn). One
more caller, flop was AKJ, I bet out,
two callers, went all in on the turn,
a 4, then a dreaded T on the river and
the first guy bet out. I was getting up
to leave when he announced he couldn't
beat my two pair (geez, am I THAT transparent).
He had AT. The next time I raised with
KTs, got reraised and called. Flop was
TQx with two of my suit, on the river
the A of my suit came, I had the nuts,
we had all the money in, him with AQ,
me with the flush which he hadn't seen.
After that it was all good and down to
3 I had 80% of the chips. Heads up I offered
the other guy $100 because I am the anti-Daniel
and make deals for absolutely no reason,
luckily he declined and went out the next
hand. So I won $550, tipped $20, and have
my buy-in for tomorrow, it was a good
day.
Quite
a few big names showed up tonight (TJ,
Chris Bigler, Kathy, John Duthie to name
but four), no doubt after having been
at Bellagio all day, I didn't look at
the side action but it looked pretty full,
and the single tables and double shootouts
were all very busy, so so far it's all
looking very good. I'm expecting 312 for
tomorrow's event, and a big turnout (maybe
200) for the nighttime $225 because most
people are shut out of tomorrow's (employee)
event. I think the first supersat will
also be kicking off tomorrow at 4PM, there
are two daily, 4PM and 8:45PM.
So,
so far it's all rose colored glasses for
me, the only downer for me being that
a lot of my favorite dealers won't be
here this year. They've offered to take
back the dealers who went on strike last
year, but I spoke to one of them today,
a good friend and a great dealer, from
what he said I don't think many of them
will be returning, which is a shame because
they were the best in the business.
Bed
time, for tomorrow is gold bracelet day...
Paul Westley
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