WSOP Main Event

WSOP Main Event
Sunday, July 6th 2008 12:50 pm

I flew into Vegas yesterday afternoon, checked in at the Rio, dropped my bags and headed down to watch some of the Day 1c action. First up was a walk through the Gaming Life Expo, which seems smaller this year. It wasn't that crowed yet but the guys at the twoplustwo booth said it picks up when the authors start signing books.

I found Rizen's table as well as SJMIN's seat. SJMIN was the winner of the Backed by Bax/Sheets contest after he had a monster May then won a single table deathmatch against other top PXF MTT League players. Unfortunately, SJMIN had to change course at the last second and play on 1C because they had frozen 1D (at least for a while ... the same thing happened to Rizen). So he didn't get a chance to meet with Bax/Sheets beforehand (who both play today as well).

Next up I met with a couple different folks in the Gaming Expo and got Dan Harrington's autograph on his new Cash Games book as a gift (and I got one for myself). Then I found Fox and grabbed a few beers. I began to get suspicious some hours later, after Fox had bought round after round in lightning fashion, when he suggested we play a friendly $25/$50 heads up cash game. DOH. These cash game players always looking for an edge! (Okay just kidding, but it could have happened.) Although I feel like I already know Fox well after months of phone and email exchanges, it's always good to finally meet someone in person. Fox is a great guy and I'll only add this: what a strange and interesting life ("Wait, you were backpacking through Honduras in 1993? Are you actually insane? Maybe I will take you up on that $25/$50 game.").

Then we met Rizen and SJMIN at Buzios on their dinner break and were joined by SJMIN's buddy, a full time pro in California. Did I say SJMIN had a monster May? How about a monster couple of months! This guy is a player. Fox took the opportunity to ask us about a cash game hand he played with Ace 9. After my suggestion that obviously you fold pre-flop was summarily ignored (politely), they launched into a 20 minute discussion. What was really interesting to me was that Fox had won the hand and got the guy to fold bottom two pair but he was disturbed that he didn't KNOW he was getting the guy to lay down the best hand. I would have been like: "Ship the chips, nice laydown buddy" ... but these pros like to know what is really going on in a hand. Pppfth ... poker pros. ;-)

Even though the Gaming Expo didn't seem that crowded, the Amazon room was packed. Not sure why really, because technically these multiple "Day 1's" have less players than the 2700 player prelim events ... I guess there is just huge family and friend rail for the Main Event.

I play today in the Amazon Green area, Table 5/Seat 3. Stop by and say hello if you are around. I'm just hoping for a normal table ... last year I sat down with three pros (Andrew from CR, SamENole, and Toto) and 4 incredible nits (yes, more nitty than me). The table never broke and no one busted for 6 hours. When someone finally busted, he was replaced with a guy with like 8000 chips. So the four of us just traded chips for hours. As long as I'm not the one busting, I'd liked to have a table with less pros and more activity.

Bax and Sheets are in today as well. Good luck all!

Scott
mindwise