The WSOP officially started yesterday with a cacophony of noise and a $10k event, the Pot-Limit Hold'em, with it's doubled buy-in compared to last year, which was won by Allen Cunningham. There was much anticipation and excitement in the air as kick-off commenced. And what was I doing whilst everything was being set in motion as the Series kicked off its first of 55 events? Erm, I was having the day off.
On reflection, this wasn't a bad thing, for Harrah's had decided to only give Pokerlistings three press passes. There are eight of us, all of whom were originally accepted. Cardplayer, who are probably Pokernews' biggest rival were given ELEVEN. Add to this, the fact that PL are one of the very few sites that actually cover the WSOP circuit events ($5k buy-in around the US) giving them publicity and you'll understand why I'm a little peeved. It's as though Harrah's gave us a pair of nice shiny shoes, but then shat in them and said, “You have to wear those for the whole Series... and I've just had a curry.”
Owen, Matt and Art have taken the three press badges for the moment, meaning the rest of us are simply confined to the rail next to the peons, who come and constantly ask, “Is Barry Negragnu or Todd Bunson playing?” On the plus side, I found out that Benjo, everyone's favourite malcontent Frenchman, managed to at least get his pass after speaking to a friend at Everest Poker (who are one of the big sponsors this year in the main room), an instant response confirming his credentials was soon in his lap, having previously been summarily ignored.
It's Rod's first time in Vegas, he did his first shift yesterday, and seemingly hasn't been overwhelmed by everything so far, he's just finished his first official blog piece, so to read that, head over to PL and search for 'Viewpoint of a Vegas Virgin', it's pretty cool.
Snoops and Dana are in a much better position, Pokernews have an excellent set-up with around sixty reporters, and they are two of the few reporters who get to simply sit at a table around the edge of the room whilst lackeys bring them hands which they then simply have to write up. None of this running around, doing-everything-at-once shenanigans. The three of us went to the Rio buffet (like everything in the Rio food-wise, average) for lunch, Dana's eyes sparkling with glee, “We have minions who we can tell when they can go home! I feel like I'm going to be abusing my power...”
They have the next three days off, before between six to nine days of non-stop work, I hope Snoopy will do a sequel to the story of Jamie Gold's kebab from the WSOP-E.
Whilst they headed off to the Bellagio to look around, I went over to the fashion mall opposite the Wynn with my team-mate Art. Art is a pretty laid back kinda guy, whose Canadian parents moved to Hawaii (where he was brought up) but he's since moved back to Vancouver. He became distinctly amused by some of the phrases I was using. I was describing how much iPods were costing in the UK:
“I think a 32GB Touch iPod is only about $500 here but back home, it's 330 quid!”
“Wow, man, that's a lot of quid.”
We had to pick up a few crappy US phones for each 2-man team, but on the way down the strip we were harassed every few seconds by the literally hundreds of guys handing out fliers for clubs, casinos or hookers. To try and get your attention, all of them to a man will bang their bunch of fliers on to their hand making an odd drumbeat sound. At least they don't ever bother to chase you though, it seems like an incredibly frustrating job.
We ended up going to the Rainforest Cafe in the MGM Grand, a bizarre little place with flashing lights, electronic gorillas and screeching elephants (African, if you were wondering). Honestly, though, not a place to go if you are tripping on mushrooms.
After this, we had a quick blast on Art's Wii which he'd brought with him, bowling quickly became a firm favourite, so I'm thinking of getting one when I get back to the UK. Sigh, another leak into my poker bankroll, thanks a lot Art.
Song of the day – 'Alan is Cowboy Killer' by McLusky. McLusky were an awesome three-piece rock band from Wales. They always had great names for songs like 'Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues' and 'The World Loves Us And Is Our Bitch', though 'Alan' is my favourite song on the album.