email transmission commence!
ok so we went to the rio yesterday to check out the WSOP
poker HEAVEN, i shit you not. tournaments f'n everywhere. you're going to trip over major pros, i can't even begin to list them, but i did almost run in to (literally, almost wiped out) doyle brunson and johnny chan. lederer was playing the $3000. saw the raymer, moneymaker (VERY VERY SHORT MAN), humberto brenes, matusow, unabomber, dave williams, jesus, the grinder (and his big brother), a bunch of people trilling recognized but i didn't, more people that i just can't remember now, and so on
saw phil ivey playing 5k horse final 2 tables. went on a sick run to take the chip lead. amazing-ist part - we were standing there, with these clear poker fans, mere feet from the best poker player in the world playing one of the most difficult tourneys in the world, and EVERYONE was watching tiger on the plasmas that were scattered around the room. tiger woods = bigger than jesus.
so a few people get knocked down and they are ready for the final table. final table was going to happen at the fancy table that is on tv, a picture of which i cannot find now but i'm sure you can imagine if you think about the WSOP final table. of course, i did not have my camera. i suck.
trilling and i figure out how to get into the stands at the final table so we get over there. while they are on break, one of the participants (tom schultz) comes over to us and starts chatting us up. he's a twins fan, so he talks some shit about CC (says he's going to get a coronary in september), then says we're his cheering section and that he's coming to us if he wants to high-five anyone. he didn't high-five anyone, but he did look at me and yell "NEVER SAY DIE" (or something like that) when he rivered 2 pair in a stud game while being all in. anyway, he was talking to us, and then 2 other guys (alex something and yoobin something, i can't find poker sites while i'm at work because of firewall, trilling help me out when you wake up) came down near us and started talking to us. they played 33 hours of horse in the last 2 days + whatever they had played to get to the final table. this was to narrow 192->8. that is a shitload of poker.
so final table starts, and phil ivey is the chip leader and bill gazes (?) is there too and his cheering section is sitting right behind us (this is not important). we watched a few hands of razz and then hellmuth walks in on our right and looks at trilling and i and says "what event is this". trilling answers 'horse'. hellmuth says "where's the NL table"
NL $1500 had started the day before and was down to 60 people around now.
i said "it's not at a final table yet"
trilling says "you mean the featured table"
hellmuth sneers at me, waves a hand, and says "it must be in another room" and walks away
so that's why he thinks i'm an idiot
when the final table went on break a little later (between stud high and stud HL) we walked around to see who else we could see. at some point we were watching some table (matusow yelling at that guy he got all heated with in the 2006 WSOP, chacon or whatever) and ivey and two guys come towards us. they walk right at us, i get out of the way, they turn the corner and head on to the final table area, as break was almost over. "didn't even say excuse me. what a dick"
so trilling thinks phil ivey is a dick
watching good poker players play poker without seeing their hands is pretty sweet, just because you can tell that you can't tell anything at all.
TO SUM UP THE REST OF THE GAMBLING EXPERIENCES
planet hollywood is FANTASTIC and everyone should go there if/when they go to vegas in 2008
both trilling and i cashed in their $60 tourney, but neither of us profited. trilling scored $97 but he spent $120 (one rebuy!) and i scored $55 after tipping the dealer. we both played very good tournament poker against some very bad players.
cash games ran really well for me, not as well for trilling. i'm a 4-outer away from being up on the trip, but had fun overall. when board says AKQ7A, JT just got rivered.
caribbean stud is THE WORST GAME IN THE FUCKING WORLD OH MY GOD
blackjack is a very close second
DICE RAN HOT and i am in love all over again. had the best roll of my life while no one was around and trilling was busy winning -$23 dollars.
UPDATE: also the spurs won. hooray spurs!