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WSOP 2006: An Amateur and the Shark Tank[ return to main articles page ]

By: BigHog1
Published on Jul 5th, 2006
Two years ago, I was fortunate to win an entry on Dise to the $10k buy in event played at Binion’s downtown. Since I make a living outside of poker, I decided I would combine a little vacation with the tournament. I dragged the whole family out, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t have much time to focus on poker. Every one of my family got food poisoning, including me, probably traceable to a breakfast I dragged them to at my favorite blue plate joint in Vegas, which I cannot name here because of legal reasons.

Needless to say, the whole week turned out to be a blur, consisting mostly of vomit, the runs, and 12 hours or so of play at the tournament. After losing, we all limped home a week early and tried to forget (they also tried to forgive but I still hear about it now and then). <READMORE>

This year I am separated from family most of each month, living large as a wireless consultant in Northern California near San Francisco. I’m a half hour from the Bay 101 and an hour by air from Vegas. This affords me options to play live on weekends either close to home or in Vegas.

I decided I would book all live wins for the past year in a private account and if I accumulated enough dough I would use it to play a few events in this year’s Series. The big event was not a possibility this year because of business commitments. I made the money so, with optimism riding high on my shoulder, I got on SouthWest Friday afternoon and headed immediately the Rio to register for Saturday’s $2,000 buy in NL event.

I was floored when I saw the set up. In an area the size of three airplane hangars combined, the tournament room was exploding with electricity. Two events were running at the time, one of which was the Short Handed NL. Negraneau had a stack about as tall as he. They were down to about a hundred when I arrived and Doyle was still in it which gives me a lot of hope since I am north of 60 years old myself.

I attend so few big time tournaments I have to admit to being a jock sniffer, even at my age. Celebrity just impresses me, whether it’s athletes, TV, movie or poker players. Putting me in this setting is better than putting an overeater in charge of the Bellagio buffet. Greenstein, Ivey, Brenes, Brunson and Brunson, Sammy, Eric Seidel and a host of others put up with me when I approached them “just to say hello.” All were generous with the 30 second invasion on their time.

While I was there I took in the entire lay of the land. The courtesy rooms for all the dotcom sites were enormous, lavish and full of freebies. They have a great food tent near the tourney room and the sandwiches, hot dogs and salads are more than passable. And yes, there are more than enough port o potties to cover a thousand people on break from an event. Staggered breaks are being used this year, letting half the field go for 15 minutes while the other half keeps playing. This led to an interesting happening the next day when I went on break with the first group, came back and was immediately assigned to another table which was just going on break. I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out whether this extra 15 minutes worked to my advantage or disadvantage. Thoughts anyone?

Back at the hotel after scouting out the tournament scene, I showered and went to bed about midnight. Notice I said “went to bed,” not “went to sleep.” Remember, I don’t do this for living. The word “excitement” may not be part of your poker lexicon but I admit now it must be part of my psyche. You see, I kept seeing an ugly scene, namely me at my table with Brunson, Mouth, Daniel, Phil, Phil., Sammy and Scottie. For some reason I was missing an arm and a leg together with most of my chips. Regardless, I guess I fell asleep around 4am and, forgetting where I was, I woke up at my normal time, 6:30.

Sleep being out of the question, I dressed and took the fist cab to the Rio. I highly recommend their breakfast buffet, even though I had to walk what seemed to be two miles or so to the poker pavilion when I was done. Once at the site of the tournament I found a great couch in the Full Tilt room and, between dozing off, read the most recent issues of Card Player and Bluff magazine. By the way, Card Player is producing a very snazzy Daily which includes all tourney information from the previous day. It’s great if you can’t get online to get results.

Ok, now to the tournament. I lasted all of three hours until I flopped top two pair and got crushed by a turned flush with all my money in. Such is life. No big shakers at my two tables but that didn’t stop me from losing quickly.

I hope to be less awestruck and more relaxed for my next event. I’m flying back to work Tuesday and hope to be back in stroke at the WSOP in a week or two. If you’re interested, I would be happy to continue this column of my experiences as an amateur in the shark tank. Thanks and good cards to all.

BigHog1
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