WSOP
2004
T-1 Clocking In
Well
it's that time again, my annual pilgrimage
to WSOP, staying here at the new improved
Horseshoe for the whole six weeks, running
my tournament clock, and in my spare time
standing close to superstars pretending
I actually hang out with them. My planned
itinerary is to play a few events, play
some supers hoping to get into the big
one, hang out with friends, score free
meals whenever possible, pick up some
decent gossip from behind the scenes,
a trip to Valley of Fire or Red Rock Canyon
when it all gets to be too much, plus
I may initiate a hands on investigation
to finally find out why Vegas is called
Sin City.
I
drove the 650 miles here at night again,
it just seemed so easy this time, my trusty
GPS (Dell Axim, PocketMap Navigator software,
Globalsat GPs) only attempting to send
me the wrong way twice, and two other
times telling me to take the next exit,
except I'd just gone past the exit. Well
it's not perfect, but it is nice to know
how many miles before the next maneuver,
and your ETA. Katie Melua, Norah Jones,
Cat Stevens and ELO came along for the
ride, 8.25 hours later and I was checking
in at the quite different Horseshoe.
My
room is great, high floor with nice views,
new carpet, newly decorated, new bathroom
fixtures, it's not your father's Binion's.
Downstairs the poker room is now a pleasure,
well lit, ceilings apparently raised a
little, NO SMOKE, it's actually turned
into a nice room. Gone is the deli (deli
sandwiches are available at the snack
bar but no idea if they match the awesome
sandwiches from the old deli) and gone
is Gee Joons, however the coffee shop
(which is a VERY nice coffee shop, nice
ambiance, great food) has some amazing
Chinese specials, using the Gee Joon menu.
Lunch is $5.95 including soup, spring
roll, rice, dinner is $6.95, and from
11pm to 2am it's $3.95! There are plenty
of other specials too (up to steak and
lobster tail, $8.95), making the coffee
shop once again a great option downtown.
They have an excellent new computer system
for checking in (just outside the bullpen
on the Mezzanine level), you need to first
sign an ESPN release form, more on that
in my next report, then you take it to
registration and get a bar coded LARGE
name badge. Without that you can't sign
up for any events. You can sign up ahead
for events, it's supposed to be for all
of them but they are not all in the system
just yet, although I know you can already
sign up for the 10K whenever you want.
I fear that registration is going to be
a zoo on Friday, so sign up today (Thursday)
if you can.
Today
is the Employee event, I have to get up
early because we still haven't hooked
the clocks up to the TV system, this is
mainly because the engineering department
has been severely overworked as they couldn't
do anything before the April reopening,
so have been in a frenzy ever since, especially
with the huge volume we are expecting.
I think the first open event, the 2K No
Limit on Friday, will be a sell out at
1,000, Matt (Matt Savage, the awesome
tournament director) thinks closer to
750. Either way, if you can sign ahead
of time, do it!
So
because I've been so busy getting the
PCs set up I haven't had time to get to
the bank (I didn't bring much cash with
me), and only found out tonight that Harrah's
doesn't accept the bank linked card I
had signed up for last year at Binions
(which lets you withdraw up to 3K every
10 days with no service charge). So rather
than go to the bank today I though I might
as well play a $225 satellite and save
the trip Remarkably that plan actually
worked, I can now claim (for a day at
least) that I have never lost a satellite
at the 2004 WSOP, and I have my entry
for the Friday 2K No Limit, life is sweet.
Next
report I'll tell you about the low carb
carrots.
Paul Westley
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