WSOP Wrap-up!
Sunday, July 12, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Weeeeeellllll…..that’s it for me, peeps. 2 long months of grinding in the desert and here’s looking at some unavoidable final stats:
Played about 8 bracelet events, no cashes! Although on the positive side, i went sooooper deep in almost every event I played, bubblling several (including going out 94th when 90 paid the world’s largest 900+ person Omaha 8 or better event) so I am gonna take this as a sign that I am playing well. I never felt like I ‘accidentally’ went deep or had to suck out to make it…in fact, the story of almost every event for me was that I was practically a chip leader early, went cards dead for hours, managed to pick spots and leverage some hands to make it deep, then got horribly sucked out on in a key hand or 2 to cripple or eliminate me. So I actually get to walk away from the WSOP feeling good despite the less than stellar results!
As far as other events — made 13th in a Golden Nugget Stud 8 event…unfortunately the tourney was sooooo top heavy I only walked with $100 more than my buy in! I made up for it last week, however, going deep in a 400-person field at the Bellagio Cup to take 6th and $7k. And believe it or not I actually played a little blackjack this summer around town, picking up a few grand for my troubles along the way. Amazing — i’ve been playing so much poker, I almost forgot I still have a big edge in blackjack lol
One of the most exciting parts of my summer is my TV show ‘Grifting’ that I shot the pilot for, and as we speak am packing to go back to LA to finish shooting some pickups & do the voiceover for. The shoot went great — we put together a lot of footage of me playing a ton of different games (since the show is about me trying to beat a different game each episode). So for the pilot I ended up playing German skat at a real German community center, English draughts (basically checkers) in an authentic English pub, Magic: the Gathering at a comic book shop against some hardened little dudes (read: my brothers!), backgammon against a master of the game, & mah jongg and Go against some serious Asian grinders in a secret Koreatown club. Totally awesome!
I also got to have some fun this summer, especially last week at a few of the WSOP parties. Of course Ultimatebet threw an awesome event at the MGM’s Studio 54, complete with Hellmuth descending from a lier. I also went to Annie Duke’s private dinner at Lavo over at the Palazzo and got to spend some time with some good poker peeps. And along the way we worked in a pool party BBQ at my sis Erica Schoenberg’s place out in Henderson. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!
The other nite my hottie girlfriend MB and I went over to the Orleans to see Bill Maher perform, only to find Gus Hansen sitting right next to us. We had a good chat about backgammon before the show started…and it rocked. I’ve seen Bill perform before but he is definitely only getting better with time.
And with that, I gotta get back to the Left Coast for the weekend… rock on & good luck to my friends who are still fighting the good fight in the Main Event, I will be back to sweat you Day 6! Unfortunately SOME of us got locked out of Day 1D as they decided to shut down registration an hour before the event started for the day & then not allow any alternates. I’ve heard the arguments from Harrah’s perspective, but at the end of the day, the one rule should be this: no one should EVER be turned away from the Main Event. EVER. I understand several other bracelet events fill to capacity; that shouldn’t be an issue at the ME. I understand having so many more people on the last day creates an imbalance in the Day 2’s and creates challenges to playing down in 7 days; that still shouldn’t be an issue for the ME. If on Day 5 or 6 you realize you haven’t built in enough time, oh well. Adjust. Add a level to a day of play. Lord knows we’ve seen plenty of final tables go until the next morning after ridiculous heads-up matches this year (50k HORSE went until 10 am or so!). Let the people play. Make adjustments. NO ONE should ever be turned away from the ME. Period.
Alrighty then, rockstars, I’m out!
-hd.
Related posts:
- Week 3 @ the WSOP Hey All, Boy doesn’t time fly here in Vegas? It...
- WSOP Update The WSOP is past the halfway point, and at this...
- WSOP Time Tomorrow I will be heading to Vegas for the World...
- Rollercoaster Ridin’ When I was a kid growing up in Cleveland, Ohio,...
- Summer, WSOP and Aruba I can’t believe summer is over. Granted, I live in...
Tags: Annie Duke, Bellagio, Bill Maher, Golden Nugget, Grifting, harrah's, Hollywood Dave, MGM, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, Studio 54, tv, ub, WSOP
