Vegas Recap

Merlotgirl and I arrived home from Vegas today. It was a truly amazing experience that I'll try to recap on the blog, and then post to the AHL website.

I won't be able to tell all of the stories. People went and did their own thing a lot, and we'll just have to ask them to recount their experiences.


The Participants

Jim Coyle
Dori Coyle
Kevin Artman
Michelle Artman
Kurt Dohmann
Gail Dohmann
Doris Wagner
Mickey Preseisen
Janette Brown
Rob Watkins
Glenda Maddox
Kim Hartley
Gary Hartley

Also present were little Cade Hartley (watch out for him in the 2030 WSOP) and Kim's sister Andie, who watched Cade.

ARRIVAL DAY

Everyone arrived at different times throughout the week. When Dori and I and the Dohmann's got there Friday we decided to get our seat assignment for the tournament the next day. I'm glad we did. The scene there is Poker Disney World. There were 2 Final Tables going on, another tournament in full swing, and the restart of Day 2 for another tournament. Throw on top of that the daily 2:00 PM Bracelet ceremony. It was definitely the center of the poker universe.

To anyone playing in a future event, I highly recommend getting there a day early so you can get the star gazing out of your system early. We spot Gavin Smith immediately. Then at the table next to him is Phil Ivey, and Sean Sheikhan (Sheiky). Dori almost runs over Daniel Negreneau.

We wander around for a while and get some autographs for my hat. John Juanda, Svetlana Gromenkova are the first two we get. Plenty more to come.

The entire group went out to dinner that night at Battista's Hole in the Wall. It's a neat little Italian eatery behind Bally's. We enjoyed the great food and the free wine. Made some friends from Montana and sang along with the accordion player who played "Take me out to the Ballgame".

After that it was time to get to bed and get some rest before Day One of Event #28.


DAY ONE

Dori and I started the day with Room Service as we slowly got ready to play. Several of us then went to the Artman's room for some Yoga with Michelle. It was a great way to get ourselves ready for what hopefully will be a long day.

I get to my table about 15 minutes early and get situated. I'm at Table 158 in the Brasilia Room. Since they are expecting in the neighborhood of 2,700 players they use the Amazon, Brasilia and Miranda Rooms. The room starts to fill up with players and spectators alike. It's quite a scene. My first goal of the day is to make it out of my room. They are breaking tables into the Amazon Room.

As I sit there playing the third or fourth hand I look up to see David and Kelley from Varsity Club watching the table. They were there to see how we were doing. So a huge shout out to them for cheering us on. The first hand I win is with the 6d 7d. It's folded to me in the cutoff. I limp. SB completes and BB checks. Flop comes up 2 9 A. It checks to me. I bet 160 and they fold. Cool. I win my first hand at the WSOP and it's a bluff.

Blind levels are 60 minutes long, so there's plenty of time to just be patient and let others make mistakes. I run into a case of the second best hand syndrome, and go into the first break (every 2 blind levels) with only 1,700 in chips. At this point Doris has already doubled up and is sitting on 9,000.

We go back and blinds are 75 /150. With 11x BB's I'm pretty much in Push / Fold territory. I win a couple pots when I push with AJ, and KQ and get no callers. Now I have enough chips to go back to playing poker. Player to my right raises to 450. I reraise to 1,100 and player in the small blind pushes all in and has me covered. Player to my right folds QQ. I call, and am thrilled to see him turn over AQ. A K on the flop. And he's drawing dead. I'm doubled up.

During this blind level Dori gets moved to the table right next to mine. In fact she sits in the seat with her back to my back. It seems Bernard Grospelier "Elky" had busted out of that seat. Yes, the Elky who is leading pokerdom in POY points.

By the time we get to the second break I am no longer on life support. Doris is playing fantastic and is up to 26,000 and I'm out of the woods and well above average with 14,000.

I meet my first goal as we get our table moved in tact to the Amazon room. I'd hate to break this table up as I've got pretty good reads on some of the players, and my table image is set. When you play very few hands, you get respect when you raise. And that's what my image is.

When we get to Dinner break after 6 blind levels, there are only 3 of us left. Doris leading the way with 30,000. Me close behind with 28.000 and Mickey hanging in with 7,000. There are 846 left and average stack is 14,000. Doris and I are comfortably above average and Mickey is in push / fold mode.

By the time we go to our next break after 8 levels, it's down to Doris and I. Seconds before, Dori awarded Mickey with the $1100 "last man standing - not in the money" prize pool. Go Nannuck! So, Doris has 53,000 and I'm sitting on 26,000. We're still well above average stacks.

We're going to play 10 levels tonight, unless we can get down to the final 279 (which is the money). If it looks close we'll start another level. As luck would have it we don't get there that night. We end the night after 10 blind levels. 335 players left including Doris with 48,000 and me with 40,000.

Time for bed and to try and sleep before we kick it off again at 2:00 tomorrow.

It's one hell of a great time to make it to day 2 of a WSOP event. 2,638 players started, including some of the greatest players in the world (Ivan Demidov, David Levy, David "The Maven" Chicotsky. Brett Jungblut, Hevad Kahn, Thor Hansen, Liv Boeree, Pam Brunson, Jerry Buss, Svetlana Gromenkova, Allen Kessler, Thayer Rasmussen. Neil Channing, Humberto Brenes, Tom McEvoy, Maarco Johnson (who I predict will win a bracelet soon), JC Tran, Dennis Phillips, Ylon Scwartz, Amarillo Slim, Jason Mercier, etc...)


TO BE CONTINUED.......