Main Event News

Yesterday was the first day of the Main Event.

Nutty stuff, but not as nutty as I would have anticipated. Last time I was here, when I played in 2006, you could barely move it was so crowded... not so much this time.

We had 1100+ players the first day, and that was not far from last year at 1300+. But for whatever reason they decided that it would be a smart idea to have day 1b on the 4th of July... of course they got just around 900 players, the lowest total for any day one since 2003. I still say we will have about 5500, but that is not good news for me as I have a bet with a co-worker where I took over 6200 and he took the under...

I made this bet at the start of the series when every tournament was exceeding expected turnout... but come to find out it was because the Online sites were not giving entries to the WSOP Main Event like usual, but rather 10k and you can buy-in to whatever tournament. So, of course tons of people opted to play multiple smaller events than take one shot at the 10k Main Event.

Dealing Day 1a was fun though. We had media all over the place, taking pictures, filming, or even standing there taking notes on what happened during some of the bigger hands dealt.

We also were told any time we had an all-in and a call we were to yell this out, so if the ESPN crew cameras were around they could film it. I had this happen my very first table of the night...

Blinds 150-300

UTG, a older gentlemen with around 8k behind, raises to 800.

MP, a European PokerStars sponsored player who cameras were taking a lot of photos of, re-raises to 2200.

Folds around to UTG who makes the call

FLOP: Qd-Js-X

UTG goes all-in

MP player insta-calls

Hand is flipped over

UTG ( Kd-Qc )

MP ( Ks-Kh )

"ALL-IN CALL ON TABLE 71"

ESPN Crews come, Pokernews comes, and like 3 other media writers stand there with notepads...

TURN: 10s

River: 9d

Chop-Chop

So nothing too exciting, but I did get my ten seconds of fame... well, at least my arm did.

Unfortunately today I got stuck dealing Satellites, as there are still a ton of people hoping to find a way to play this event for cheap. But, I do hope to deal the Main Event tomorrow, as it should be the busiest of all the days and a mad house.

On an unrelated note, I have been playing Chinese Poker and Rummy at the Employee Break Room non-stop. We have been playing Chinese a dollar a point with just random employees... 2-7 in the middle and +1 on scoops, nothing fancy. As for Rummy it is usually just for fun, though I would like to throw around some action on that... but we have been playing 4 card runs only and you must have a set and a run to laydown; which makes the game insanely more complex and more strategical.

Almost time to pack and leave this place, and to be honest I don't want to. I have a handful of options, none of them concrete... some involve me staying out here, and that will be my first choice.