I’m sad to say that I never won my seat to the main event. It’s hard for me to believe. I went and dropped off my bags last Thursday when I arrived, and I went straight to the Rio and registered for the $1000 1 p.m. tournament. 500+ entrants = 50 seats to the main event. I played until I busted out 83rd or something. That lasted until at least 8 p.m.

I went over and registered for the next 8 p.m. tournament, that was fortunately starting a little late--not that it mattered too much, since you can actually register up to an hour late anyway. This one was about the same – 531 entrants = 53 seats. I played until 4:30 a.m. and lost about 59th. <READMORE> There is nothing more frustrating than playing for hours on end and walking away with nothing (for the millionth time). My table was rooting for me and everything, but I just didn't quite make it.

I took a cab back to the Venetian, realizing I had been awake for 27 hours. The main event was just not meant for me this year. Hard for me to give up, as I could have tried to raise funds until day 1d (Monday). Unless I hit a windfall, I decided to give it up until next year. Boo hoo… I should be happy with my 2006 WSOP experience, which included cashing in one of the first three wsop tournaments I’ve ever played.

I was still happy to root for AJ "RandyLerch" Kelsall during the main event. I think he got his seat in his second online tournament, making it look like a walk in the park.

For the next couple days, I went to see some exhibits and small poker ventures with AJ. He introduced me to P5s Cal and Adam. We also swung by the Sports book to say hello to Shawn (BigGunX) and other P5ers. I had met mild mannered nice guy Shawn before. Don’t want to blow his cover, but what a nice guy. I also met the frequent P5 poster, wowswift. She seemed quiet and shy to me in the short time she was around. Boy, how these on-line writers fool you.

From the Rio, we went to play a small tournament at Caesar’s Palace on Saturday night. Of course, this not being a qualifier, I got in the money. Not anything to write home about, but I was 28th out of 330 people. For some reason, this small success didn’t make me feel much better.

AJ’s main event day was the next day, so I got my usual short sleep nap and was off to the Rio again. There was fire marshall control on the number of people allowed in the Amazon (poker) Room at the Rio during the main event. I’ve been there for 3 weeks plus now and have gotten to know almost all guards and poker directors. I made my way to the front of the line on the big Main event day for AJ. The guard told people that spectators can’t come in for another 2 hours. I turned around and found a guard I knew at another door. He let me in.

I stood by AJ’s side table for hours, watching him accumulate chips. CardPlayer even had him as chip leader for the day for a short time. One of the tournament directors told me that I couldn’t stand there longer if I didn’t have a press pass. I went to sit by the Card Player guys, where they have a line of computers and do all the real time reporting. I could get live chip counts on AJ even though he was 5 tables away from me. A P5 shirt wandered by, and I introduced myself to Riley. After meeting Cal and Adam on the previous day, I felt it nice to meet the trinity behind the madness of P5s.

After sitting quietly for awhile by the CardPlayer guys, I met the original artist of all WSOP champs since 1970. He was this cool old Greek guy named Steve Venet. His wife, Pearl, was the business side of their success. I talked to them for hours.

An attempt to kick me out was made again by another guard. Venet (the artist) shoed him off and said I was with them. He then went to get his wife and me coffee. It cracked me up, thinking about the circumstances I found myself in.

When the coffee arrived, Steve Venet brought with him Norman Chad (the ESPN poker commentator). Norman pulled up a chair and began talking about doing a feature on the Venet art over the 30+ WSOP years. I hear that the ESPN guys are usually pretty snobby, but I felt like I was now an old pal of Norman's. He was very friendly and extremely funny. I exchanged info with the Venets. Steve liked my negotiating input with ESPN and wanted to hire me. Ha ha – it’s nice to know I have options. I never expected to be looking through art portfolios while hanging out during the WSOP main event.

I wandered back over to AJ’s table when I saw the crowd thicken a bit. I had to play my own game of not getting kicked out of the Amazon Room. No entry fee for this game! I was once again in territory I shouldn’t have been (no press pass), but I had some nice decoys. One of the CardPlayer guys came by to say hi to AJ. He blocked the mean director’s view of me not having a pass. "CardPlayer Matt" had several wagers on AJ last year for the side “last longer” bets. AJ smoked last year and made Matt a lot of cash.

Norman Chad strolled by eventually, and I asked him what trouble he was causing. He watched AJ with me for awhile and recognized his Eagles jersey, recalling the “Eagle Power” ESPN coverage of the 2004 US Poker Championship at the Taj Mahal.

I was standing in open territory, and tourney director Chris walked right up to me. I thought he was going to tell me to leave. He simply asked, “How’s he doing?”. "Cool," I thought, "I'm good to go with Chris." The other tournament director in that corner of the Amazon room was Steve. Steve actually used to be a dealer at AJ’s home game in Tampa. I was good with Steve to hang out there as well.

It was finally the dinner break, and AJ’s friends Paulie and Deno were still in the tournament for the day. All four of us had dinner at a café in the Rio.

After dinner, I didn’t have to play the "don’t get kicked out" game anymore. The game switched to “don’t get pummeled." I had a small back pack on with my emergency poker stuff (granola bar, book, magazine, and sweatshirt for usual 30 degree poker room weather). The small extra space on my back was causing extra bumpage, so I abandoned the back pack to the opposite side of the spectator rope.

I made friends with poker players who had previously gotten knocked out, girlfriends, wives, and relatives. I actually enjoyed chatting with the variety. The people that really made me laugh were the ones that knew nothing about poker and were merely there for support. Those folks were thrilled to have someone to talk to. “How can you stand there for so long?” some would ask. The non-poker fans would comment about the game being similar to watching paint dry or something about the mob of people.

Although completely unexpected, I really enjoyed being the fan. Standing on the side lines and feeling relatively comfortable about the action on the table and the action in the room was kind of cool. I also liked to hear what the good friends thought the person they were watching had. I found their reads were often wrong. As many times as I watched AJ, I would try to guess what he had and was amazed at how far off I was on several hands. He and some others were very tricky, which I guess is what contributes to them being the players rather than the observers. If your good friends can’t read you as a player, you’ve definitely got game (or your friends are bad players).

That’s about the end of the report. I believe that I had about as good of a time as a spectator can have. I’m sorry to say that Steve Venet won’t be creating AJ’s portrait at the final table this year. Hopefully that will be somewhere in a future report.
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