Gene Bromberg
Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
So last night I wrote a post about how poker players have to grind and grit it out if they want the glory. How that blue-collar, lunch-pail work ethic is what really separates the champs from the chumps. So what did I do after posting that paean to the unglamorous side of poker? That’s right–I went to a wild party at a glizty Vegas nightclub!
In my defense, as I staggered from the Amazon Room last night I had no intention of going out. But when someone asks if you’d like a VIP pass to the official World Series of Poker launch party, the proper way to answer that question is, “Yes please!”. So I lugged my 30 pounds of gear up to ND’s Fuego in the Rio and fell in with a gaggle of poker media types at the bar. Technically this was a work event (and will be described as such when I write my bar tab off on my taxes) but my guilty conscience required that I perform some minor labor to justify my presence. The giant LED displays ringing the club were projecting the WSOP logo along with some wild swirly lights and I said, hey, if I’m gonna lug my camera around, I might as well use it:
They were also scrolling the names of every WSOP World Champion along the walls, waited a bit before shooting this pic:
I hope you’ll forgive the sketchy quality of these photos, it was dark in there (though the darkness was periodically erased by pulsating strobe lights) and I didn’t have my flash with me. Plus it can be hard to take tack-sharp photos when you’ve got a beer in one hand. Though I did put my beer down and put the camera to my eye when the singer and dancers took to the floor:
And…
That’s a beautiful, beautiful…dress. Wow. What stitchwork.
A bit later Jeffrey Pollack took to the stage to officially welcome everyone to the 2009 World Series of Poker, and also to introduce a new rap video starring Lacey Jones (who was the hostess of the party). After the video Lacey took the stage and, thank God, I got one salvageable shot of her speaking to the captivated crowd:
It was about that time that I learned via Twitter than Annie Duke had been knocked out of the $1,500 Omaha/8 event in 30th place. She tagged her tweet “#iamtheworst”, no doubt her frustration was at its peak after coming up short after such a deep run. And that’s when I decided to call it a night and head for home. The hour wasn’t too late, but I knew tomorrow (today) would be a busy day. The final table of the $40,000 Anniversary No-Limit tournament, the start of the Champions Invitational, Day 1b of the $1,000 Stimulus event, and the finale of the $1,500 Omaha/8 tournament. Plus whatever weirdness happens to go down at the Rio on this last Sunday in May. It’s gonna be a long day–back to the grind.
Tags: Annie Duke, annie duke omaha/8, jeffrey pollack, jeffrey pollack wsop launch party, Lacey Jones, lacey jones wsop launch party, world series of poker launch party, wsop launch party
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Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
To my mind, the two most overlooked attributes of successful poker players are patience and endurance. Everyone swoons over the super-aggro maniac who four-bets with air and the borderline-telepaths who make hero calls for all their chips with Queen-high. Or course the space aliens walking among us who make those stupefying plays (and pull them off) deserve their props. But there’s also something to be said for those who plant their backside on the chair and grind it out deep into the night, without tilting, without giving in to boredom, exasperation, or exhaustion.
Annie Duke has had a long day. At noon today she was outside the Amazon Room having her lemonade-stand competition with Norman Chad. After that she had lunch and raced back to the tournament area to take her seat for Day 2 of the $1,500 Omaha/8 event. This after she played until just short of 2am last night. The money bubble burst about two hours ago, and there are currently 77 players left. The idea is to play down until the final table is set. Getting from 77 players to nine, in a split pot game, can be a long, drawn-out, frustrating process.
But that’s what you have to deal with if you want to go really deep and have a chance to win the tournament (and make the serious money). Sometimes you simply can’t make things happen on your own. You have to wait. You have to be more patient and more determined than your opponents. You have to grind it out, use time as a weapon to wear the other players out, give them the rope to hang themselves. This isn’t the glamorous side of poker, but it’s how the sausage is made. You don’t see a lot of poker tournaments ending 12 hours earlier than expected because one player ran rings ’round the rest of the field. To win, you gotta do the time. And if you can do it better than the others in the field, you have a far better chance for success.
It’s about a quarter after nine. Not late at all, and only six hours into today’s session. But when there’s the very real possibilty that you’ll be playing till dawn, the weight of those hours can be oppressive. Unless you know how to deal with the time, unless you’re in touch with your inner grinder. I should say that both chips and coffee can act as a potent stimulant. At times, anyway:
I get tired just looking at that picture. 74 players left in the field. Here’s hoping Annie has a long, long, long night.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, annie duke world series of poker, annie duke wsop
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Saturday, May 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
I never quite understood the saying I used as the title of my post–what else do you do with lemons aside from making lemonade? Squirt some on a piece of fish, use the juice to keep apples from browning…I dunno. Maybe I should take cooking lessons.
Know who got taught a lesson this afternoon? ESPN’s Norman Chad, who was schooled and ruled by Annie Duke in a little contest held outside the Amazon Room earlier today. The two squared off in a competition to see who could sell the most cups of lemonade to the thirsty masses crowding the Rio. With cameras and boom mikes swarming and curious interlopers pressing close, Annie and Norman chatted a bit before getting down to the serious business of cut-throat capitalism. First they had to make signs for their stands…
…and I think Annie won the artistic portion of the competion
And yes, you read that right–in addition to a refreshing glass of lemonade you’d also get a kiss from Annie. Already on the defensive Chad had to make up ground by developing a better product, but come now–who do you think is getting the most juice out of those lemons, Norm with his half-hearted one-handed technique or Annie with her double-fisted smush:
Desperate times call for desperate measures. First Chad went for simple character assassination:
But that didn’t work, as the first customer went right up to Annie, got her lemonade, and got a hug to boot:
People bee-lined to Annie, many of them with copies of this month’s Bluff magazine (with Annie on the cover) to be autographed. The situation spiraling out of control, Norm moved to childish defacement of Annie’s picture in hopes of swaying the crowd:
The crowd was decided unswayed, with Annie saying to Norm, “I’m running out of lemonade, can I have some of yours?” He was spared that humiliation when Annie’s pitchers were replenished, and a struggling Chad announced to the crowd that anyone who bought a glass from him would receive an autographed photo of Lon McEachern. Let’s just say the masses were unmoved. And that’s when the desperate Chad had a moment of inspiration:
Norman lassoed the Milwaukee’s Best Light girls, and for a moment I thought this masterstroke would turn the tide. Especially as the next customer in line was WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack–a sale to the World Series’ head honcho would at the very least help Chad save some face. But after shaking hands with Norm and his lovely assistants, Pollack said that he’d be taking his business three feet to his right. Which made someone very happy:
Norman accepted Pollack’s decision with a quiet dignity. Well, no, that’s a total lie–I think the expression of Chad’s face could be used in the dictionary as the definition of “sneer”:
In the end Annie raised $327 for her charity, Refugees International. A modest sum, but hopefully the ESPN segment showing Annie squeezing the life out of Norm will bring Refugees International to the attention of even more people. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m suddenly very thirsty. Lemonade…that sounds good…
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, annie duke espn lemonade, annie duke lemonade, annie duke vs norman chad, jeffrey pollack, norman chad, refugees international, world series of poker, world series of poker lemonade, WSOP, wsop lemonade
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Saturday, May 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Today is the $1,000 Stimulus No-Limit event, which blew past the original 5,600 cap and will now host a whopping 6,000 players over two days. Inside the Amazon Room things are rather relaxed and subdued, as the dealers get set up and count out the chips and wait for play to begin:
Outside, however, it’s a different story, as over 3,000 players and spectators and innocent victims caught up in the wash wait for the doors to open:
It’s about 20 degrees warmer out in the hallway than it is here in the Amazon Room. Actually the throngs aren’t as bad as last year, it looks like players who are assigned to the Brasilia Room are being shunted that way, preventing a massive logjam at the Amazon Room entrance.
Uh-oh, looks like they’re about to open the doors and allow the mob within. This is probably going to be the biggest non-Main Event tournament in poker history. 6,000 players paying a dime apiece. Looks stimulating to me.
Tags: 2009 stimulus tournament, 2009 wsop, stimulus tournament, WSOP
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Saturday, May 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
It looked as if Michael Binger’s run in today’s $1,500 Omaha/8 event had been brought to a swift, cruel end. Down to his last handful of chips (literally) Binger was all-in after a flop that brought three diamonds. His opponent turned over the Ad-4d for the nut flush and also a draw to a better low. The turn brought a blank and Michael rapped the table and stood to leave.
And that’s when the Ac fell on the river, which meant the other player didn’t have a qualifying low and Michael got half the pot. “Oh my God,” he said, sitting down and shaking his head as half the pot was pushed his way. That ace on the river provided a slender lifeline, but Michael has a lot of work to do just to pull his head above water.
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Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Well, almost. I was sifting through photos I shot earlier in the day when Annie Duke tweeted that Phil Hellmuth had just been moved to her $1,500 Omaha/8 table. “Yum yum” was what Annie had to say about that, and I couldn’t disagree. Two UB pros sitting at the same table? Seemed like a slam-dunk pic and post to me. So I grabbed the camera, squeezed past the railbirds leaning against the ropes and fired off a few shots. Of which this is one:
The tournament staff might’ve done Phil and Annie a favor by sitting them together, as the two were chatting back and forth when they were sitting several tables apart. Phil’s new book being one of the subjects, and he duly brought over a copy for Annie to peruse between hands:
There are other UB pros in the field today. Michael Binger picked himself up after getting knocked out of the $40,000 Anniversary Hold-Em event yesterday and picked up some early pots in today’s Omaha/8 tournament:
And Hollywood Dave Stann is also playing in the Omaha/8 event, going with an unusual choice in eyewear. “Who’s the only other player who would wear goggles at the poker table?” he asked. “Michael Phelps?” Let’s see if the gogs start a trend.
And the newest member of the the UltimateBet team, Brandon Cantu, picked up where he left off last year–driving Phil Hellmuth crazy. You may remember a testy Cantu-Hellmuth confrontation during last year’s Main Event coverage and Brandon just tweeted that he’d just shown nut-nut to Phil (yes, in the time I wrote my post Phil was moved from Annie’s table, great for the ‘ol continuity) and that Phil started the talking of the trash. I raced over there to see another hand where Brandon chopped the low and Phil got left out in the cold. These intramural squabbles are gonna tear us apart…
About an hour ’till the dinner break in the $1,500 Omaha/8 event, and the $40,000 Hold-Em event is down to 52 (they’ll either play 8 levels or stop if they get down to 18 players). I’ll tell you one big story so far at the World Series–the cash game action in the Amazon Room is HUGE this year. The entire front-right quadrant of the room (as you enter the main entrance) is 100% cash games, maybe 45 tables in total. I saw lots and lots of red- and green-chip NL games going on, far more than there were last year. Something to keep an eye on, something to avoid in the name of bankroll maintenance.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, Hollywood Dave, hollywood dave stann, Michael Binger, Phil Hellmuth, ultimatebet world series of poker, ultimatebet wsop, WSOP
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Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
When folks ask me what the World Series of Poker is like, the thing I struggle with is describing the sheer size of it. A lot of people think that the World Series = the Main Event, and when I tell them I’m going to be in Vegas for seven weeks they gawk and say “The tournament takes SEVEN WEEKS?” No no, there are 57 different tournaments during those seven weeks. Even Dick Cheney would consider a single seven-week long poker tournament inhumane.
Then there are those who think that the WSOP conducts one tournament at a time, that the Amazon Room empties and grows quiet as the final table plays out. Uh, no, as one tournament field is thinned a brand-new event is shoehorned into the abandoned space. Once the WSOP spools up there are always multiple events going on at the same time, and at times this year there will be seven different tournaments simultaneously at play. The logistical challenge of keeping all these balls in the air is a daunting one, and Harrah’s has done a very good job of making sure dealers rotate through the room, chips are properly colored up, tables break according to schedule, etc. Add the fact that poker players aren’t known for their even-keeled acceptance of unforeseen changes and it’s a miracle things run as smoothly as they do.
And helping to smooth things along even more is the expanded room the WSOP has this year. First and foremost there’s the Amazon Room, the biggest of the tournament areas and where the final tables are held and bracelets awarded. It’s a big, big place, too big to wrap my camera around in a single shot. This is long-wise:
And this is, uh, width-wise:
Damn, those overhead lights are bright. Anyway, these two shots don’t even give you a proper perspective on how big the Amazon Room is. Nor, alas, does this photo of the Brasilia Room, which was used during last year’s Series and is back in heavy duty this year:
This pic also doesn’t show the scale of the space–across that wide aisle to the right is another cluster of tables just as big. Between Amazon and Brasilia that’s a great whopping bunch of tables in use…and that doesn’t even include the Miranda Room, just across the hall from Brasilia and in use at the WSOP for the first time. No more will poker players be exiled to the Rio poker room or the empty space outside Buzio’s restaurant. Instead players will have the wide open spaces of the Miranda Room to do battle:
There are two tournaments going on right now–the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 event and the restart of the $40,000 No-Limit event. Piece of cake. Tomorrow is the $1,000 Stimulus No-Limit event, and they’re expecting a field perhaps in excess of 5,000 for that one. Tomorrow is when we’ll really start to feel the pressure of the poker masses pressing at the Rio’s seams.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, brasilia room, miranda room, Rio, rio world series of poker, world series of poker, WSOP
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Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Walk into the Amazon Room and you’re confronted with hundreds of poker tables and ten-foot-tall portraits and criss-crossing metal latticework and huge advertising banners and scores of famous people sauntering by. It can be a bit of a sensory overload. And then you turn your head and see something that would stop any show, no matter how gaudy and surreal:
That is a 1970 Corvette Stingray, and she’s beautiful. This gorgeous piece of American engineering will be awarded to the winner of the Champions Invitational, the tournament restricted to previous winners of the WSOP Main Event. That means Phil Hellmuth might end up driving off into the sunset in this lovely, lovely machine. So this is what envy feels like…
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, champions invitiational, champions invitiational world series of poker, corvette stingray, world series of poker, world series of poker corvette, WSOP, wsop champions invitational, wsop corvette, wsop corvette prize
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Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
So after a good night’s sleep and a long hot shower I loaded up my gear and headed to the Rio around 10am. I like getting to the Amazon Room early and easing into the day, plus I wanted to grab my seat on Media Row and demonstrate to the other poker scribes that this is MY SPOT. MINE. Marking my territory, if you will.
So I hop in the cab and announce the Rio as my destination. Looking at my ginormous shoulder bag the driver asked “Are you here for business or pleasure?” and I said, ‘Business, but I figure I’ll find time to have some fun, heh heh heh”. She asked what I was doing and I said covering the World Series of Poker for UB.
Turns out she’s a big fan of the ESPN coverage of the Main Event, she’s watched it over and over…but she’s never seen the final table. A purist perhaps, she didn’t like delaying the Final Table till November, though I did point out that the ratings were way up for the November Nine. She said, “I just wish they’d shown the end instead of Phil Hellmuth yelling at that guy over and over again!” I smiled and said, well, yes, Phil was a bit exercised that night, but the rules had been changed to prevent similar outbursts. We pulled up to the Rio and she said, “I just thought that he was acting like a brat, and you can tell him I said so!” I gave her a generous tip (even for me) and said, “Well, maybe I’ll do just that.”
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, phil hellmuth world series of poker, phil hellmuth wsop, world series of poker, WSOP
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Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
You see some strange juxtopositions at World Series of Poker tables. People of different ages, nationalities, races, sexes, and personal style. And then sometimes you see two people sitting side-by-side who just seem to go together. Like Jeff Lisandro and David “Devilfish’ Ulliott.
Not much else to say other than I thought this was kind of a cool picture. These two gentlemen have played a lot of hands here at the World Series over the years.
Tags: david "devilfish" ulliott, Devilfish, devilfish ulliott, jeff lisandro
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