WSOP
2004
T16-T24: Power Lunch
I
hate to be late for anything, especially
parties, so after waking up with the midday
sun blazing I rushed like a mad dog to
not be 'fashionably' late for the best
ticket in town, an exclusive garden party
held at the home of two of the nicest
people in, or out, of poker. Just as I
was about to go flying out of the room
the phone rang, someone who would be going
to the party too. And that was how I didn't
show up at the party today, fashionably
24 hours early.
I
don't know where the time went, eight
days since my last diary entry; you'd
think six weeks in Vegas would drive a
person insane, but actually it's been
a great time, meeting so many old friends,
meeting new friends, poker, eating out,
movies, always something interesting being
talked about, the days go by so fast.
Tomorrow I have the party then soon after
that I might play in the 3K No Limit,
and then the big dance only a week away.
I'd better start taking some dancing lessons.
Talking
of interesting, this is the year where
poker and big business collide. Harrah's
decided that there will be no more logos
at the final table on filming days, an
interesting clash of the titans considering
the online sites are supplying half the
field, TV supplying the other half, and
the established poker tournament players
supplying the other half (is it any wonder
I can never figure out pot odds). I had
lunch yesterday with Mark Napolitano and
Mike Sexton, well OK I actually had lunch
with Mark and we gate-crashed the other
table but they were too polite to call
security. But my point is that I don't
think I could have picked any other people
with more of a pulse on what's happening
in poker right now. We talked about the
big games in town, we talked about some
interesting side bets going on, and we
talked about cheating. I'll hold off on
the latter until the next report because
I want to get the full story before I
say what happened.
There
are apparently two big games in town.
One is a 20-40 game at The Golden Nugget.
I usually play up to 10-20 limit holdem
but I guess I could one day move up to
20-40, although I doubt I could move up
to this one, we're talking $20,000-$40,000.
It's a regular cash game that I guess
anyone can join if they are feeling lucky
and happen to have a couple of million
on them. The other game is a 100-200 at
Bellagio, yes folks, that's $100,000-$200,000,
they really do get to bet the farm each
and every hand. This is the game that's
been going on for a while now where a
rich Texan comes into town and plays a
team of top pros (who pool their money
to be able to compete), one at a time,
heads up. The only rule I have heard is
that if the team's player is losing that
session then they can switch to another
player. In previous trips the Texan had
some pretty bad losing sessions, this
time he is a huge winner, I heard up 21
million as of a day or two ago.
One
of the top pros at WSOP is taking side
bets, here's the proposition: You get
to pick any player you want in the final
event, and for even money you bet that
that player will have at least 20K at
the end of their first day. Any takers?
I've played in two events since my last
diary, one was the 1.5K No Limit, the
other the 2K Pot Limit. I played so badly
in the No limit, I'd doubled up after
an hour, then blew my whole stack in one
hand moving in on a draw, something I
would usually never do, but I think I
saw that move on TV last week. In the
Pot Limit I played great, with 92 players
left (81 places paid) I had a pretty large
stack and was guaranteed to get into the
money. Until the two hands came along
that sealed my fate, first when a guy
moved all in with KTo and I woke up with
KK, he caught a flush on the river, and
then when my AKs lost to TT. Oh well.
Since then I've been playing single table
satellites, one horrendous day two days
ago, but then a great day yesterday, so
I am still way ahead on satellites, which
is good because I haven't had a single
pay day in any main events. I may play
the 3K No Limit in a couple of days, I'll
decide after I play some more satellites,
and then my only other event is the big
dance, just one week away, and already
talk of Harrah's applying to the gaming
board for more tables as it looks like
it's going over 2,000 entries.
Last night I went to see a movie at Neonopolis,
that's the shopping complex downtown that
has an excellent movie theater with great
sound system and stadium seating; the
chances of hearing the people next to
you nattering, or the guy behind kicking
your seat, or the basketball player in
front blocking your view, are cut to almost
50%. We saw "Troy", a pretty good film
but almost the same formula as The Alamo,
and like all films involving bullets or
arrows the 50 bad guys can surround the
hero but rarely seem able to get off an
on target shot.
There's a famous player who shows up at
all the major events, always a young girlfriend
on his arm, older wife at home with the
kids. I saw him talking to an extremely
attractive girl (who I later found out
is the girlfriend of another top pro)
so a little later as he walked by me I
asked if that was his new girlfriend.
He looked around to see who I was talking
about, turned back to me and said "not
yet". Now that's the kind of aggressive
play that wins tournaments.
Paul Westley
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