I wish I could imagine just how Otis, Bobby Bracelet, Wes, Joe Speaker, Easycure and others were feeling on Friday morning. In just hours that would be slinging chips with the most itimidating pros in the world and about 2000 examples of dead money. Our hope, as a blogging community, was that our heroes would not fall into that second group.
My heart was racing. Catching my breath was hard. My eyes didn't want to focus. And I was only there to watch.
Amazingly, I looked into the eyes of our blogger heroes, and I saw no fear. I saw awe. I saw amazement. But these bloggers did not fear the cards. They were poker players. They would not be afraid.
I was scared.
I was scared for them. I know I shouldn't have been. We sent a strong crew after the prize. As thousands of people crushed their way into the ballroom, it became clear that this would be a WSOP like none other. In the end, more than 2300 people entered event #2. That's a record number for any event, exceeding last year's 2200 for the main event.
Finishing in the money would be remarkably difficult. I'll let them tell their tales, but in the end, our heroes were knocked out one by one. I know Otis made it to the top 500. I hope their all proud, because they played smart, strong poker and got their money into the pot in a good spot. If the cards fall a different way, who knows.
I played the role of spectator with Otis' brother, Little Willie. After a great meal at the Sao Paulo (we avoided the buffet), we headed over to the Excalibur, our second home. Little Willie had to work off his poker rate time and in a few hours, bloggers would be storming the castle. I suppose we were the advanced scouts.
Amazingly, seated next to me at the $2-$6 spread game was Vince, the unwitting non-blogger in the H.O.R.S.E. game the night before. It didn't take long for him to fit right in.
I guess I wasn't really playing poker, because I was throwing money away. We were straddling, playing blind and dropping hammers. At least once, we live straddled and blind capped a bet pre-flop. Now that's action!
I gave my money away at a record pace. I wasn't exactly seeing great cards, but that didn't matter. I was playing poorly. One time I laid down top pair and Heather scolded me. So the next hand, I played my top pair against her to the river and she took more of my money with her two pair. Yep, that's the way I was playing.
Eventually, a $4/$8 1/2 Kill game opened up and I had to move. As much as I enjoyed my 6 hours at this crazy table (and it was a blast!!!!), I couldn't keep bleeding money that way, and the answer in my mixed up mind was to move up levels. Right??
And it didn't take long for my to drop the biggest HAMMER ever seen. Or at least I think so... but that will have to wait for another day.
Coming soon...
"Quads"