WSOP - My Day 1c Recap...

[Talking Poker]

I got a late start today, as two friends arrived in town, so I changed accommodations. I was staying with other friends who live in Henderson, but now I'm staying at the Gold Coast Casino (next to the Rio) with these guys...

Here are some notes from today, in no particular order. Out of respect for the old married boring folks reading this, today's update will be less hot girl orientated and more poker orientated that yesterday's was =)

-There were less pros playing today than the previous two days.... at least it seemed that way to me. By the time I got there, T.J. Cloutier had already been busted.

-Some of the "fans" keep saying Matt Damon and/or Ben Affleck are playing. They are not. Yes, I'm sure.

-The poker room is massive, with 200ish active tables. It's very odd though, as for the most part, it's extremely quiet. There is a constant sound of shuffling chips, but you can talk in a very quiet voice (barely more than a whisper) and be heard just fine. As the day goes on, the players seems to loosen up a bit, and you'll hear more "Yee-haws" and that sort of thing. There is some cowboy dude that ESPN seems to have a thing for, so I suspect he'll be getting some airtime.

-You can't smoke in the poker room, but you can in the hallway outside of it. 10 minutes before the breaks, the room is cleared of spectators, so the players will be able to get out easier. During the breaks, the hallways are filled with people, and I can not even express to you how much smoke there is. I seriously think I second hand smoke about 2 packs a day during those breaks.

-During one of the breaks, I went into the trade show thingee, and bumped into Phil Gordan. He is one tall man. I'm 6'5" and he's taller than me. We took a back to back photo Phil is selling a DVD that looks pretty interesting, just released this week. It's basically a final table type thing where we see ONLY Phil's hole cards and he talks us through his thought process. He said it's 180 minutes long (I think), and goes over 30 poker concepts. He also said if it doesn't improve your game, he will give you your money back. e autographed a copy for me... I think I will make it a prize next month if we do that Heads Up competition.

I saw a number of interesting hands today. Here are a few:

-Howard Lederer is on the BB (200). The player 2 seats to his left very adamantly states "Raise" and throws a yellow chip (1000) into the middle. Howard says, "Oh sure, you get it right on my big blind." I'm assuming he threw in an overchip earlier in the day without saying "Raise." It folds around to Howard who looks at his cards, eyes up his opponent's stack, and goes into the tank. He takes a look at this opponent and then goes back to his chips and tosses two 5000 chips in from of him, which would put the other player all in. The original raiser mucks his hand immediately. I figured Howard for a pretty big hand, but I thought it would be really cool if he made that play with garbage because of something he had seen. On a break hours later, I asked Howard about the hand, and he told me he had AK. He said he though it was the best hand.

-Mike Matusow has really been something else today. First, the floor is called over because the dealer said Mike was throwing cards. The floor gives him a 10 minute penalty, but then the rest of the table sticks up for him and he gets off with a warning. As the floorperson is leaving, Mike drops the f bomb. The floor hears is and tells him that is a mandatory 10 minute penalty. "Oh, that's fucking great." 20 minutes. "Fuck that." 30 minutes. As Mike is walkign out, he lets another one fly, making it a nice 40 minute penalty. The crowd cheers.

-I saw a crazy hand with Mike tonight. Mike raises to 800 (double the BB, I think) from the CO. The BB calls. The flop comes 977. The BB checks, Mike bets 1200, and the BB raises to 3000. Mike calls instantly. The turn is a blank, and the BB checks. Mike bets 3000 and the BB calls. The river is a King, and the BB pushes in. ESPN finally notices what's going on and starts filming. I've watched this entire hand develop and I put the BB on a busted flush draw... that or an absolute monster that he played very well. Mike goes into the tank and talks for a couple of minutes, at least. He says if the guy had checked, he would have gotten all of his chips. 12,000+ more chips. Finally Mike folds, and the BB sighs with relief, saying he was afraid he was going to get a call. Mike says he had had Q high and was actually thinking about calling because he knows he was on a busted flush draw. The BB says he was, and he had just Ace high. No cards were shown, but I actually believe both of them. Later on, I talked to Mike about the hand during a break and he swears he has Qc8c. After the hand, Mike went on and on, ribbing the guy, calling him a donkey, saying he would have called him with any pair, etc. He says "I play poker up here" (holds hands over head). You donkeys play down here (hands down on table). After a few minutes of this, I was literally LOLing and had to walk away.

-Card Player is a bunch of filthy stinkin' liars. I'm kidding, of course, as I like the guys I've met, but they did blow one of their hand recaps. I watched the entire hand, and they didn't have anyone show up at the table until after the showdown. ESPN missed it too, so this one was a TalkingPoker.com exclusive. Seconds before this hand had started, Sharpe was doing a not so good John Malcovich impression, saying "I can *spray* the pot in my hose any time I want to" and "Bring the man his money" (not "Pay this man his money," if memory serves). At least he had the accent down. Anyway, the blinds were 200-400. Shannon raised to 1400 from UTG. The button reraised to 3000ish and he quickly called. The flop was three rags (9 high) and he checked. The button pushed in. I would have bet money Sharpe was on overcards, and I thought he was beat (by a hand like TT). He must have though the button was stealing though, and he called his last *12,000ish* chips all in with his AQ. The button turned over Aces, and that was the end of the big Tight End. No way would I ever make that call, even if I thought the guy was stealing. It's just too likely that you're on a 6 out draw or worse.

-Matthew Hilger, who I met at the WSOP last year, has been tearing it up. Last time I checked, he was around 90k chips. I talked to him and a couple of guys that run his site during one of the breaks.... sounds like he's been getting great cards all day. He's flopped a number of sets, and from what I've seen, he's been playing his big stack very well. I didn't see it, but I know he knocked out Doyle earlier today.

-Andy Bloch busted out earlier today. I saw him tonight (he has a press pass from his WPTFan.com site), and we talked for a good 15 minutes. We talked about the hand that crippled him - he had 99, all the money went in on the turn with a 678T board. The river was a 7, filling up his opponent. We also talked about Black Jack (Andy was on that MIT Black Jack team that I'm sure you've all heard of), our forums, Full Tilt, the relatively small percentage of pros still in the Main Event, and so on. He's a nice guy...

-Tomorrow is, finally, Day 2. It will be nice to have everyone who is still left playing under the same roof. Crazy though that that massive room is going to be full of tournament players once again though.

Ok, that's all I can think to write about right now. I hope you guys have been enjoying my updates.

[2Tone]

Absolutely. Thanks for the on-the-spot reportage. It's been great to be able to stay on top of all the action from yours and the other coverage out there. Almost as good as being there, which I will be in ... 94 hours and counting.

[Quint]

"Out of respect for the old married boring folks reading this, today's update will be less hot girl orientated and more poker orientated that yesterday's was =)"


As a member of the old married boring folks I'd like to respectfully request that you paint the whole picture. For God's sake man, you're a member of the press. Don't be censored.

[ChipFish]

As a member of the old married boring folks, I also would like to respectfully request that we are allowed to live vicariously through you.
Bring on the pictures of the HOTTIES!

[kkirk1329]

TP your girlfriend is out.

[Talking Poker]

Yes, I am aware. And she got knocked out before I got there today so I didn't even get to give her a hug goodbye. *sniff sniff*