John Sigan was the bubble boy when his pocket queens were no good up against a straight. All of the players at his table received a free 15 minute massage compliments of Harrah's and Sigan received a standing ovation from the entire Amazon Room. I'm sure it wasn't much of a consolation, but at least he can say he was the bubble boy in the 2007 Main Event of the World Series of Poker.
During the last hour, play was hand for hand. I walked in amidst a flurry of excitement. After every hand was dealt and play was completed, the dealer at each table had to stand up and wait for the rest of the room to finish. When the tournament director made the announcement that the next hand was ready to begin, all dealers were allowed to sit down and continue on to the next hand. I've never seen so many cameras. ESPN had every single inch of the Amazon Room covered. If a dealer yelled "player all-in" half of the room went running over to the table to hopefully watch another player take the walk of shame thus bringing him or her closer to the money. It was a truly a sight to watch ESPN running with the cameras, fans running to the ropes, and players getting up out of their seats to watch the action. This is the stuff you just don't see on T.V.
The first face I recognized was Gavin Smith and he was at the Feature Table. Across the room I ran into my friend Steve Dannenman and he was in rare form helping security to regulate the room and of course cheering on the remaining players. Tension was high, but I saw more smiling faces than I've seen the entire time I've been at the Rio. Most of these players knew they were just a few short hands away from raking in the cash.
Surprisingly enough, only half of the poker room was filled. Obviously there were no satellites running, but I expected to see more cash games and more railbirds cluttering the aisles. I saw more media than anything else. Where were these media faces four weeks ago? There was a long line of spectators waiting outside hoping to gain entry and they were bound and determined to wait until they were allowed in. Lisa from Alabama said "I'll wait all night if I have to. I want to see Huck Seed because he's my favorite". Yeah, he's pretty easy on the eyes too. Lisa got her wish because a few minutes later I saw her standing up against the ropes, camera in hand, and I reminded her to turn off the flash.
Andy Bloch walked by me and signed a World Series of Poker hat for a fan, Scotty Nguyen was in the hallway having his picture taken with a young guy and another pro talked to us about busting out of the Bellagio Series. The thing that remains constant is that we all wanted to be there to watch the bubble break and show our support for the Main Event. Around this time another announcement was made that when players come back from break, they are going to add another hour to the $2000-$4000 blind level because of the horrendous amount of time it took to get through the last 15 hands.
Another round of applause and Harrah's scores again!