When I told my friend Mark I wanted to play in the WSOP he immediately volunteered to come with. He didn’t really know what he was getting himself into. Because the weekend before the event, the poker bloggers were hitting Las Vegas for their summer gathering.
I figured that since I occasionally posted about poker, and because their event last December looked like a hell of a lot of fun, I signed up with April who was organizing it. She did a great job.
We got in to Vegas at 9:30PM and immediately after dropping our stuff off at the Excalibur we headed off to the MGM to meet some of the other bloggers. The first thing we learned is the sportsbook bar at the MGM has a bunch of great beers on tap. Also, there weren’t any open tables and the waiting list was very long to play poker. So we decided to drink instead of playing.
I remember meeting Pauly, Change100, Falstaff & Bill Rini at the bar. I talked with a bunch of other people as well, but my memory for names is normally bad, and after 4 hours on a plane and a few beers it doesn’t get any better.
We ended up crashing at around 1 AM. I woke on Saturday at around 4AM and really didn’t get much sleep after that. Unfortunately, the inability to get enough sleep was a constant issue on the trip. It wasn’t the hotel’s fault either, the hotel is very tacky but the rooms were fine and the mattress was firm enough.
The blogger tournament was in the new Caesar’s Palace poker room. It is a huge room basically behind the sports book. The staff & dealers did a great job of running the event.
A short recap of the tournament: I played somewhat tight since I didn’t know anyone, and in the first two levels my stack didn’t change much. I did try to win a pot with the hammer, but that play went awry when someone reraised behind me. I met Bryan from Chicagopokerclub.net and a few other bloggers from Chicago which was cool.
For the next three hours I was seated at a table with a bunch of very good players. I had Bobby Bracelet to my left and Iggy was across from me. Cincinnati Sean from the Lord Admiral podcast was also at the table. Iggy put on one the best drinking exhibitions I have seen in a long time. I think he was drinking Vodka & grapefruit and every time the waitress brought him a drink he asked for another one. At one point, he had two waitresses bringing him drinks. All that time, he played great poker.
I fought my way to 14th place in the tournament, which is pretty good since we started with 118 people (or so). I won $100 on Interpoker, online poker room I hadn’t heard of before then. It seems to cater to Europeans, since there are games in Euros and in Pounds. F-Train, who eventually won the tournament, knocked me out when I went all-in with KQ and he had QQ. That’s life.
I had a great time and am going wherever the next poker blogger gathering ends up.
Tomorrow - My best day ever playing the ponies & the World Cup final in the Caesar's sports book plus my very short time in the WSOP.
One last thing - Go over to forpeyton.com and bid on something, it's for a great cause. I tried to get the Gavin Smith Jersey, but the bidding got a bit too high. I can't wait to see what's in the next batch of auctions!!
Best day ever playing the ponies?
Don't leave me hanging - I must know more---
Posted by: Rob | July 13, 2006 at 07:30 AM
Nice playing poker with you, and thanks for putting up a link to the auction!
Posted by: Bobby Bracelet | July 14, 2006 at 02:39 PM
heya matt, twas great to finally meet you, sir. hope we get some time to shoot the shit next time.
Posted by: iggy | July 15, 2006 at 05:30 PM
I was in a castle in Sweden the other day, but far from as exciting as your trip:-)
Posted by: RennyBA | July 21, 2006 at 03:24 AM