MicroBob
06-30-2005, 09:48 PM
x-posted from my blog:
(also - I have received comments and pm's from a bunch of 2+2'ers and what-not wishing me good-luck at the WSOP...I haven't responded to all of them but they are very much appreciated...nice to know I have such a cheering section and I just wanted to say 'thanks')
--------------------------------
(just stopping in at the hotel room to drop off my pokerstars stuff, etc)
Well - not quite as big a deal as one might think.
+$75 in a single-table entry-chip satellite.
woo-hoo!!!!
Went over to the playing room at the Rio and they had all kinds of single-table satellites going on for entry-chips.
I got a seat at the cheapest one...a $125 event.
Winner takes all and gets two entry-chips of $500 each plus $240 in cash (or something).
The entry-chips can be used in ANY event (part of your buy-in for the $10k main-event...or to buy-in to a $1k event...whatever).
Anyway....the blinds go up pretty fast of course (every 15 minutes) and by the 4th level our 10 players had dwindled down to just the 3 of us.
I was the short-stack and barely clinging on.
2nd place didn't have too much more than me...and 1st place had a big lead.
2nd place guy (mid-20's....long hair...ball-cap) proposes we do a $200 'save'.
1st place guy (40-ish or so....glasses...kind of cross-eyed) doesn't even know what that is.
We explain that it just insures $200 for each of us. Whoever wins the 2 entry-chips plus the $240 in cash will give the other two players $200 each.
So basically we're just playing for the final $540 since we all will already have $200 each.
To my surprise the big stack accepted the save.
Of course, I did too since I was the short-stack.
I finished 2nd....my TT all-in in the big-blind lost to his 86s when he caught 2-pair on the river.
Oh well. I would have still be out-chipped severaly even if my TT held up.
Still Got the save though.
$125 buy-in...
won $200.
Bob's total WSOP prize-winnings to date: $75
Hey....it's a start.
and not bad for my first shot at it.
we were all having a pretty good time.
2 guys from Denmark who knew each other were having a REAL tough time with typical string-bet rules.
They were sitting next to each other (completely random....you draw for your seat when you arrive to the table) and a couple times were babbling in Danish and had to be told english-only when a hand is in play.
They were very obviously not colluding.....just ignorant and oblivious.
Each guy on 2 different occasions intended to raise...but accidentally just called instead.
One guy put out a chip....then said "Raise"...and then reached back to his stack.
These weren't even that nit-picky. They were obvious string-bets and they just didn't know.
Their english was fine but it was obvious they had little idea what they were doing wrong. I helped explain it to them a little bit and they started to understand.
They were good-natured about it though. Not upset...just frustrated with their own obvious live-poker incompetence.
One guy said, "Where's the raise button on this thing?" which got a pretty good laugh from the table and the dealer. The other guy started making some booping internet-type noises.
Pretty funny.
The guy who was making more mistakes (simply because he was playing more hands) later told me that he hadn't even qualified for the main-event (although he finished 2nd out of 400 in a Full Tilt free-roll he said). They came all the way from Denmark anyway (maybe one of his friends qualified...not sure).
They have these single-table satellites from $125 to $1000 running all the time. Once they get 10 players they start playing. Winner takes all the entry-chips...but I get the impression that deals are pretty common.
Obviously one can use that to their advantage as I got to do in my situation (short-stack but I get the guaranteed $200...not bad...if I had been the big-stack I NEVER would have taken that kind of deal).
There is also a $530 NLHE event each evening at 5p.
And they have a $220 with re-buys super-satellite at 3p I believe. Main-event entry for every $10k in the prize-pool I believe.
Lots and lots and lots of sat's.
I wasn't really trying to win an entry-chip...wouldn't have complained if I did.
I was going to play 10/20 somewhere after checking out the playing room.
But then when I saw all the sat's I decided it would be a good idea to sit down and play in the main room to get comfortable and to get some tourney hands in Vegas under my belt.
Other impressions -
The walk to the Rio from the Gold Coast is a bit longer than I expected.
The walk THROUGH the Rio all the way to the tourney-room in the back is, indeed, very long as advertised.
Granny's going to have a tougher time getting across the street I suspect.
Especially since temps are around 105 in the day-time (but with less humidity it doesn't feel quite as bad 90-degrees with 90% humidity like we get in Memphis).
The Gold Coast isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.
It's not exactly the peak of luxury. But the rooms are pretty nice...and are actually pretty spacious too.
Hi-speed internet at the Gold Coast is $10/day.
Or you can pay $0.75 for a local call if you have dial-up access.
Every time I walk through the Gold Coast casino they are announcing an opening on their 2/4 hold-em table.
I'm not even sure they are spreading anything larger. Incredible but true.
They have $5 double-deck BJ and $3 shoe-BJ. Pretty cheap. Not sure if the rules are favorable though (I'm an advantage player in BJ also so might play a little bit since it's +EV for me not unlike poker).
There were several other meetings and what-not going on in the other convention rooms at the Rio.
The Smith/Jones wedding....the meeting of such-and-such group, etc.
Before I made it to the main-tourney room I walked right past a meeting with a sign on the door that said "Borderline Personality Disorders Organization"
Anyone else think it's pretty amusing that this meeting (20 or 30 people I think) just HAPPENED to be held so near the WSOP?
I thought it was pretty damn hilarious.
They should have MOVED their freaking meeting INTO the main-tourney room.
Before I signed-in (for the release and so forth) I got a phone-call so I stopped to chat. Just sat down on a bench and didn't even know I was pretty near the main-tourney room (just down the hall).
John Juanda came walking out and right after him came a couple of kids (like...13 or 14 years-old or so) who came running up for his autograph. Juanda stopped and signed for both of them and offered some quick chit-chat to them.
Juanda has always struck me as pretty classy on TV...and just witnessing him do that for these kids reinforced that notion.
shortly thereafter I had my first ever 'Hellmuth-sighting'.
he was walking very quickly back to the main room. Was wearing his head-phones but was also talking on his cell-phone.
He's pretty tall.
I registered and got my seat-assignment for both events.
I had previously dreamt that I was on Table 85, seat 8 for the main-event. I specifically remembered this part of the dream.
Well...I wasn't psychic. My seat-assignment was 48-4 or something like that.
The lady told me that they now had 3800 players or so for the main-event.
They are running a bunch of live sat's here and they said over the speakers that they had already had 200 players win main-event seats through their sat's.
They have 1 or 2 days dedicated ONLY to main-event satellites before it gets going so I imagine that number to go up significantly.
As well...I think Stars is still trying to get in a few more last-minute qualifiers.
And you have to remember that many of the players who will be buying-in directly are probably holding off just in case they can win a seat in one of the sat's here (in other words...some of those who lose the sat's will probably just fork over the $10k).
If they have 3800 or so now...then I wouldn't think it TOO unusual that they could get another 1200 or so by the time we start.
I'm not sure if they'll have over 5k or not though.
I'm not familiar with this stuff and have no idea on how many last-minute sign-ups they might expect. It just seems a bit of a stretch to think they will get another 2800 players by July 7 and sell it out. but I guess anything is possible.
The Poker Stars 'hospitality suite' is in the main part of the hotel and could not be farther from the playing area if they tried.
you go into the hotel in the Ipanema tower and go to room 489 (or whatever it is).
Smallish room where you sign-in. They are going to deliver most of the pokerstars gear to my room at the TI (I switch hotels on July 6). But they gave me one shirt already since I am supposed to wear one to the $3k event on Friday (bought in with my W$).
Before I signed-up for the $125 single-table satellite I saw a big crowd gathered at some tables in the back. Looked like the remaining tables of whatever prelim event was going on. Looked like 3 or 4 tables left...they were all 5 or 6 handed though (was there a 6-max event going on??).
Maybe they were 7-handed and just weren't able to combine yet.
I couldn't see very well...but amongst the remaining players in that small group were Men the Master, Scotty Nguyen, Doyle Brunson, Layne Flack, Jesus Ferguson and John World Hennigan.
The big-name pro's REPRESENT!!
I couldn't get very close and never bothered to find out what event I was watching.
I observed for about 2 minutes and moved on.
There's a very nice WSOP-2005 commemorative edition of Card Player that can be picked up.
I highly recommend it. Lots of good WSOP history as well as preview stuff in there.
Probably better than the 'program' they are selling.
They actually have a store in their mall-shopping area that is ALL WSOP gear. Shirts, hats, etc.
They also are selling all that stuff right outside the playing-area too I think.
Souvenir sales alone will probably be quite profitable for them.
They have signs for the 'biggest prize-pool in sports history' or something like that even at the airport.
Seems they are trying to draw spectators as well as players from what I can tell.
The Rio is a mostly non-descript casino/hotel with a vague Brazilian type theme (Sao Paulo cafe...all the convention rooms are named 'Amazon' or 'Brasilia', etc etc).
The pool looked very nice. A little water-fall...and even a sandy-beach-type area.
3 pools actually I think.
Lots and lots of kids in the pool (12 and under) which really surprised me.
I know that Vegas is more family friendly these days...and obviously some of the WSOP players brought their families...but I still didn't expect to see THAT many young ones running around the pool at a casino/hotel in Vegas.
That's about everything off the top of my head.
All is well. I'm up $75 so far.
I'm going to try to set up semi-live updates for Friday's $3k event on my blog (bobspokerblog.blogspot.com).
I'll be calling someone from my cell at the table (between hands of course) and they will be posting my updated stack-size on my blog.
The event is scheduled to start at noon (3pm eastern time).
Hopefully I last long enough to have at least a couple of updates.
(also - I have received comments and pm's from a bunch of 2+2'ers and what-not wishing me good-luck at the WSOP...I haven't responded to all of them but they are very much appreciated...nice to know I have such a cheering section and I just wanted to say 'thanks')
--------------------------------
(just stopping in at the hotel room to drop off my pokerstars stuff, etc)
Well - not quite as big a deal as one might think.
+$75 in a single-table entry-chip satellite.
woo-hoo!!!!
Went over to the playing room at the Rio and they had all kinds of single-table satellites going on for entry-chips.
I got a seat at the cheapest one...a $125 event.
Winner takes all and gets two entry-chips of $500 each plus $240 in cash (or something).
The entry-chips can be used in ANY event (part of your buy-in for the $10k main-event...or to buy-in to a $1k event...whatever).
Anyway....the blinds go up pretty fast of course (every 15 minutes) and by the 4th level our 10 players had dwindled down to just the 3 of us.
I was the short-stack and barely clinging on.
2nd place didn't have too much more than me...and 1st place had a big lead.
2nd place guy (mid-20's....long hair...ball-cap) proposes we do a $200 'save'.
1st place guy (40-ish or so....glasses...kind of cross-eyed) doesn't even know what that is.
We explain that it just insures $200 for each of us. Whoever wins the 2 entry-chips plus the $240 in cash will give the other two players $200 each.
So basically we're just playing for the final $540 since we all will already have $200 each.
To my surprise the big stack accepted the save.
Of course, I did too since I was the short-stack.
I finished 2nd....my TT all-in in the big-blind lost to his 86s when he caught 2-pair on the river.
Oh well. I would have still be out-chipped severaly even if my TT held up.
Still Got the save though.
$125 buy-in...
won $200.
Bob's total WSOP prize-winnings to date: $75
Hey....it's a start.
and not bad for my first shot at it.
we were all having a pretty good time.
2 guys from Denmark who knew each other were having a REAL tough time with typical string-bet rules.
They were sitting next to each other (completely random....you draw for your seat when you arrive to the table) and a couple times were babbling in Danish and had to be told english-only when a hand is in play.
They were very obviously not colluding.....just ignorant and oblivious.
Each guy on 2 different occasions intended to raise...but accidentally just called instead.
One guy put out a chip....then said "Raise"...and then reached back to his stack.
These weren't even that nit-picky. They were obvious string-bets and they just didn't know.
Their english was fine but it was obvious they had little idea what they were doing wrong. I helped explain it to them a little bit and they started to understand.
They were good-natured about it though. Not upset...just frustrated with their own obvious live-poker incompetence.
One guy said, "Where's the raise button on this thing?" which got a pretty good laugh from the table and the dealer. The other guy started making some booping internet-type noises.
Pretty funny.
The guy who was making more mistakes (simply because he was playing more hands) later told me that he hadn't even qualified for the main-event (although he finished 2nd out of 400 in a Full Tilt free-roll he said). They came all the way from Denmark anyway (maybe one of his friends qualified...not sure).
They have these single-table satellites from $125 to $1000 running all the time. Once they get 10 players they start playing. Winner takes all the entry-chips...but I get the impression that deals are pretty common.
Obviously one can use that to their advantage as I got to do in my situation (short-stack but I get the guaranteed $200...not bad...if I had been the big-stack I NEVER would have taken that kind of deal).
There is also a $530 NLHE event each evening at 5p.
And they have a $220 with re-buys super-satellite at 3p I believe. Main-event entry for every $10k in the prize-pool I believe.
Lots and lots and lots of sat's.
I wasn't really trying to win an entry-chip...wouldn't have complained if I did.
I was going to play 10/20 somewhere after checking out the playing room.
But then when I saw all the sat's I decided it would be a good idea to sit down and play in the main room to get comfortable and to get some tourney hands in Vegas under my belt.
Other impressions -
The walk to the Rio from the Gold Coast is a bit longer than I expected.
The walk THROUGH the Rio all the way to the tourney-room in the back is, indeed, very long as advertised.
Granny's going to have a tougher time getting across the street I suspect.
Especially since temps are around 105 in the day-time (but with less humidity it doesn't feel quite as bad 90-degrees with 90% humidity like we get in Memphis).
The Gold Coast isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.
It's not exactly the peak of luxury. But the rooms are pretty nice...and are actually pretty spacious too.
Hi-speed internet at the Gold Coast is $10/day.
Or you can pay $0.75 for a local call if you have dial-up access.
Every time I walk through the Gold Coast casino they are announcing an opening on their 2/4 hold-em table.
I'm not even sure they are spreading anything larger. Incredible but true.
They have $5 double-deck BJ and $3 shoe-BJ. Pretty cheap. Not sure if the rules are favorable though (I'm an advantage player in BJ also so might play a little bit since it's +EV for me not unlike poker).
There were several other meetings and what-not going on in the other convention rooms at the Rio.
The Smith/Jones wedding....the meeting of such-and-such group, etc.
Before I made it to the main-tourney room I walked right past a meeting with a sign on the door that said "Borderline Personality Disorders Organization"
Anyone else think it's pretty amusing that this meeting (20 or 30 people I think) just HAPPENED to be held so near the WSOP?
I thought it was pretty damn hilarious.
They should have MOVED their freaking meeting INTO the main-tourney room.
Before I signed-in (for the release and so forth) I got a phone-call so I stopped to chat. Just sat down on a bench and didn't even know I was pretty near the main-tourney room (just down the hall).
John Juanda came walking out and right after him came a couple of kids (like...13 or 14 years-old or so) who came running up for his autograph. Juanda stopped and signed for both of them and offered some quick chit-chat to them.
Juanda has always struck me as pretty classy on TV...and just witnessing him do that for these kids reinforced that notion.
shortly thereafter I had my first ever 'Hellmuth-sighting'.
he was walking very quickly back to the main room. Was wearing his head-phones but was also talking on his cell-phone.
He's pretty tall.
I registered and got my seat-assignment for both events.
I had previously dreamt that I was on Table 85, seat 8 for the main-event. I specifically remembered this part of the dream.
Well...I wasn't psychic. My seat-assignment was 48-4 or something like that.
The lady told me that they now had 3800 players or so for the main-event.
They are running a bunch of live sat's here and they said over the speakers that they had already had 200 players win main-event seats through their sat's.
They have 1 or 2 days dedicated ONLY to main-event satellites before it gets going so I imagine that number to go up significantly.
As well...I think Stars is still trying to get in a few more last-minute qualifiers.
And you have to remember that many of the players who will be buying-in directly are probably holding off just in case they can win a seat in one of the sat's here (in other words...some of those who lose the sat's will probably just fork over the $10k).
If they have 3800 or so now...then I wouldn't think it TOO unusual that they could get another 1200 or so by the time we start.
I'm not sure if they'll have over 5k or not though.
I'm not familiar with this stuff and have no idea on how many last-minute sign-ups they might expect. It just seems a bit of a stretch to think they will get another 2800 players by July 7 and sell it out. but I guess anything is possible.
The Poker Stars 'hospitality suite' is in the main part of the hotel and could not be farther from the playing area if they tried.
you go into the hotel in the Ipanema tower and go to room 489 (or whatever it is).
Smallish room where you sign-in. They are going to deliver most of the pokerstars gear to my room at the TI (I switch hotels on July 6). But they gave me one shirt already since I am supposed to wear one to the $3k event on Friday (bought in with my W$).
Before I signed-up for the $125 single-table satellite I saw a big crowd gathered at some tables in the back. Looked like the remaining tables of whatever prelim event was going on. Looked like 3 or 4 tables left...they were all 5 or 6 handed though (was there a 6-max event going on??).
Maybe they were 7-handed and just weren't able to combine yet.
I couldn't see very well...but amongst the remaining players in that small group were Men the Master, Scotty Nguyen, Doyle Brunson, Layne Flack, Jesus Ferguson and John World Hennigan.
The big-name pro's REPRESENT!!
I couldn't get very close and never bothered to find out what event I was watching.
I observed for about 2 minutes and moved on.
There's a very nice WSOP-2005 commemorative edition of Card Player that can be picked up.
I highly recommend it. Lots of good WSOP history as well as preview stuff in there.
Probably better than the 'program' they are selling.
They actually have a store in their mall-shopping area that is ALL WSOP gear. Shirts, hats, etc.
They also are selling all that stuff right outside the playing-area too I think.
Souvenir sales alone will probably be quite profitable for them.
They have signs for the 'biggest prize-pool in sports history' or something like that even at the airport.
Seems they are trying to draw spectators as well as players from what I can tell.
The Rio is a mostly non-descript casino/hotel with a vague Brazilian type theme (Sao Paulo cafe...all the convention rooms are named 'Amazon' or 'Brasilia', etc etc).
The pool looked very nice. A little water-fall...and even a sandy-beach-type area.
3 pools actually I think.
Lots and lots of kids in the pool (12 and under) which really surprised me.
I know that Vegas is more family friendly these days...and obviously some of the WSOP players brought their families...but I still didn't expect to see THAT many young ones running around the pool at a casino/hotel in Vegas.
That's about everything off the top of my head.
All is well. I'm up $75 so far.
I'm going to try to set up semi-live updates for Friday's $3k event on my blog (bobspokerblog.blogspot.com).
I'll be calling someone from my cell at the table (between hands of course) and they will be posting my updated stack-size on my blog.
The event is scheduled to start at noon (3pm eastern time).
Hopefully I last long enough to have at least a couple of updates.