Some Interesting Wsop Railage

[psujohn 0]

I just got back from several days in Vegas where I played miserably and had bad luck to boot. While I was mostly rooted to the MGM cash game I did get over to the Rio on day 1D to watch a bit of the ME.I have to say that it was a really cool experience. I've never been in a room with that many poker tables. The sound of shuffling chips makes is like a huge swarm of bees. I got there during a break and got in the spectator line. After the crush of players returning to their tables a few spectators were allowed in and the rest of us waited some more. Saw Johnny Chan getting a massage in the hall and Barry Greenstein with his girlfriend wander by. A few minutes later we were let in with instructions to say behind the ropes and make sure the aisles were kept clear.Right inside the door was ESPNs 2nd featured table with Phil Hellmuth. I have to say he looked utterly ridiculous with his driving suit covered with his PH logo and Hellmuth down the leg. That table was pretty far from the ropes and Phil had his back to the crowd so I didn't stay there long. Apparently every time Phil raised he was getting re-raised. I missed his ranting to the cameras when he busted which I wouldn't have minded seeing. :)Over in the final table area was Jamie Gold and Steve Z. Didn't much care about either so I wandered the flooring looking for Daniel or anyone else interesting. The way the floor was setup there were two main aisles for spectator which left a good number of tables pretty much impossible to see. After wandering a bit I noticed a table with David Benyamine in the 1 seat and Antonio Esfandiari in the 3 right next to the ropes. They were both chating as you might expect and so I stayed to listen in and watch a bit.The conversation was quite interesting. One exchange went something like:Antonio: In about 10 days a new superstar will be madeDavid: Hopefully it will be Phil HellmuthA: Do you know how big his head would beD: They'll just have to make bigger doorsDavid also talked about how much luck was involved. Apparently he's never gone deep in the ME. He told a story of his deepest run on his first time playing. He went into day 2 with something like 60K and no one at his table had more than 30 and he busted in 3 hours. The numbers are probably wrong but that was the general gist of it. According to David "anyone in the room could win" but I'm not so sure about that. I'd heard that lots of inexperienced players play the event but the guy in the 4 seat didn't seem to have ever played live poker before. In one hand the 4 seat is heads-up with Antonio. Antonio leads for 4K on the river and the 4 seat says "4 thousand plus 3" and puts out 4 1K chips. Kind of arguable that it's a string bet and not a legal raise. The dealer explains that the raise has to be to 8K and the guy throws out a 5K chip and David kindly pushes him back one of his 1K chips. Antonio calls and the 4 seat wins the hand. A few hands later the 4 seat and David are heads up. The board is JJxxAd with 3 diamonds on board and a pretty healthy pot in the middle. David leads for 10K and the 4 seat puts out 10K and goes to raise. The dealer calls him on the string bet this time and David winces as he turns over AJ to the 4 seat's nut flush. It was interesting the number of notable players that were getting no attention. Perhaps I'm more of a poker geek than I though. Martin DeKnjiff and Chip Jett both had tables right on the rope and no railers. I did see one notable a few tables in after he announced "tripple quack quack" as his bet amount.They cleared the room of spectators a few minutes before the diner break and I waited in the hall to see the players exit. I noticed Ted Forrest, Chip and Karina Jett, Mimi Tran and a bunch of others I'm forgetting. DN must have gone out the other door since I didn't spot him. Overall it was definitely worth the cab ride over to the Rio to watch a bit of the big event. Maybe someday I'll get to play in it.I know. TL/DR.

[polevault007 0]

Sounds like you had a blas there man. Hoping one day i can make it down there too.