Marc F. was the lucky soul from our little home game who won his seat in our $100 entry satellite. I had dinner with him the night before at the Rio, along with his lovely wife Heather, Allen Q. and Dog D. - the latter two also being players from the garage. Unfortunately, I was unable to rail Marc at all the next day - as I was in town for work, and that day happened to be the busiest. Even more unfortunately, he busted out after a mere 4 hours. Still, Marc said he had a fantastic time. The WSOP truly is spectacular.
The sight of nearly 3000 poker players in the massive pavilion room is overwhelming enough to take one's breath away. And the sound! Unreal! Like the ever present vuvuzela's in the World Cup of soccer, but much more soothing - the cicada-like clattering of thousands upon thousands of chips. Ah-mazing.
My next horse/pony/runner was up the following day, Jake R. was the winner of my online WSOP satellite and was entered in a $1500 bracelet event. Even though I'm still a bit bitter that his queens cracked my kings on a crucial hand (and basically sent him to Vegas instead of me, while I finished a distant fourth in our group, that hand was a turning point) I was still excited for him and happily was able to sweat him for a little bit.
His table was far in from the rail, but I could make out the back of his head. Then I talked to Noah S. on the phone and he informed me that Jake had tweeted that Tom Dwan was at Jakes table!
Holy crap!
I'm not too star struck around poker pros (okay, maybe just a tad) but this Dwan fella, also better known as "durrrr" impresses the hell out of me. He really is the future of the game, a 23 year old high stakes multi-millionaire who has crushed online and is now seeking to bolster his name with bracelets and the absurd amount of money in side bets that come with them.
Sure enough, after lunch, Jake's table was moved from the smaller Amazon room to the cavernous pavilion and this time he was a lot closer to the rail.
I don't know if it's possible to overstate just how amazing it was that Jake got to play at the same table as Dwan. Jake even informed me that he played a hand with him, and won! After Dwan fired a bet on the flop, Jake called and then it was checked down to the river and Jake's hand held up. (Hmmm, that sounds familiar...)
Jake's event had close to 2000 runners, and there was Dwan, sitting right across from him. It should also be mentioned, that the WSOP Tournament of Champions was also going that day. Two tables full of poker all-stars were playing in the television section of the Amazon room.
Off of the top of my head I can recall seeing seated - Erik Seidel, Daniel Negraneau, Huck Seed, Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman, Allen Cunningham, Howard Lederer, T.J. Cloutier, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Antonio Esfandiari, Annie Duke, Joe Hachem and Dan Harrington. Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson had just busted out before I arrived. Yes, basically all of the known poker players from television were ensconced into two tables, except for durrrr. He just happened to be at Jake's table. Crazy.
The ESPN area was very cool with all the cameras running and the bleachers full of poker nerds like me. I happened to know the Technical Director for the production and was given a back stage tour of the set up on Saturday.
Pepper Street regulars might recognize my partner in crime Dan G., one of the producers on the Emmys (the real reason I was in Vegas). Don't worry, we were on on our lunch break. A two hour lunch break. Okay, three hours. Alright, we didn't even show up at the Emmys that day.
The fellow pointing is Mark M., who is just about the nicest guy I've ever met in the production business. He was very gracious and welcoming to a poker geek such as myself. I even got to come back for another visit on Monday and hang out while filming was going on for the TOC.
Maybe the coolest thing of all that I got to see was the "hole cards" room. It was inactive while we were there, but you get the idea.
Mark informed us that armed guards stood at the entrance while the room was "hot". Too cool.
As if all this wasn't enough, my good buddy Allen Q., who was also "working" on the Emmy shoot, joined me late one night to watch Gavin Smith, a well known and highly respected pro (especially among his peers) finally win his very first bracelet! Good times.
All in all, an incredible weekend and and an experience I'll never forget. And all I did was walk around! (I did sneak off one night to play in a $50 turbo tournament at T.I. - mini-brag: I was the chip leader when we chopped three ways!) I think I'm going to start saving up now, just in case I don't win a satellite, I don't see how I can not play in the next WSOP!
