Change100 at PokerWorks

I sat down. I stood up. I paced. I went to the Poker Kitchen for some cookies and Red Bull. And then I paced some more. I half-heartedly read an abandoned copy of Bluff Magazine. And then I gave it away to some other guy who seemed to be in the same mindframe as I was.

Sit down. Stand up. Pace. Look over at the table. Breathe when he finally folds his hand/drags the pot/ stacks his chips. Give encouragement with a reassuring smile. (more…)

“Oh my God, she’s so serious!” cried the woman with cropped gray hair who sat on my right in the 1 seat.

Just minutes ago she had given me her business card. She worked at the Ocean’s 11 Casino in San Diego County. We had chatted for a few minutes before the cards went in the air. And now, maybe four orbits into the tournament, I thought she was typical dead money like the rest of my table.

“This is serious.” I shot back. “This is the World Series of Poker. I don’t see how it gets more serious than this.” (more…)

There it is, kids. A cool grand. $500 in benjamins and my precious lammer. It’s all been traded in for a seating card at the WSOP Ladies Event, which will kick off Sunday at noon.

I have what I believe will be a late-break table as well as a $50 last-longer with PokerNews’ on-air hostess Tiffany Michelle. I got some decent sleep last night and I’m on the early shift today, so hopefully it won’t be too late a night at the Rio for me.  I’m already running through potential outfits in my head.

I’m ready to kick ass and take names. Wish me luck.

I see a lot of strange shit at the Rio every day– freaky hairdos, outlandish and/or offensive fashion choices, grown men rolling around on the floor like toddlers after a bad beat, and the hookers that slink out of the shadows and into the Amazon Room after midnight to pick up cash-flush final tablers looking to celebrate– but how about a guy who ends Day 1 of the $1,000 NLHE with rebuys event as the second-largest stack and then doesn’t show up to play Day 2? That’s what happened to Vinny Vinh. (more…)

I got the equivalent of an E/O on my first day at the WSOP. Pokernews was in “all hands on deck” mode for the first day of play, and by 9 PM, the field of Event #1– the new $5K Mixed Hold’em event– was more than halved and after spending the day on the floor troubleshooting and helping out some of our new junior reporters, I got to pack it in at a relatively early hour. Pauly had to stay on for a few hours more, so I decided to stick around and play a satellite, not knowing when I’d get the chance again, at least in the next week or two.

There’s already been a lot of ink on the Day 1 chaos, some of it my own. Lines thousands deep, pre-registration fuck-ups, and those god-awful “PokerPeek” decks where the sixes and nines are visually interchangeable. When I decided to hit up the satellites that night, I got to experience it all first-hand. (more…)

Oh my God, it’s already here.

Wasn’t it like, 10 minutes ago that Jamie Gold lucksacked his way to the WSOP final table and got slapped with a lawsuit by Crispin Leyser over half his winnings?

Man, those were the days. Back when the UIGEA was just that little legislative thingamajig everyone was sorta ignoring and the halls of the Rio Convention Center were painted in online poker advertisments. There was a Poker Stars suite and a Full Tilt Suite and an Ultimate Bet Suite and a Bodog suite where the free booze flowed and scantily clad models hocked iPod giveaways and signup bonuses. I blogged the WSOP for Party Poker, got paid through Neteller and played on that site during my off-hours. None of those things could happen this year. Not at the first post-UIGEA World Series of Poker.

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