Thanks for the memories…

I worked right up until the dinner break of the final day which was an honour and a thrill to be part of the WSOP right up until its final moments. The final day was a little anti-climactic, especially after Tiffany Michelle busted out in 17th place. We were all sad to see Tiffany fall short of a final table berth, but obviously the big dogs were relieved that the stresses of the whole saga were finally over. PN released a press statement to get their feelings out in the open, to the raised eyebrows of many, so I’m sure it’s not the last we’ve heard of this situation.That night, Tim and I headed over to South Point to donk around in a low limit cash game. It was good fun as we were playing 80% of pots and splashing around. I raised every time I was on the button, much to the amusement of Tim who was always two seats to my left in the big blind. Tim fluked a $100 bonus when he hit a one-outer to make a straight-flush to put him back in the black, while I was pretty much square. Then a hand came up where I held 78o on the button and after some overly aggressive betting I found myself with the nut straight on the turn. The action was frantic as a third spade fell on the river. Tim donked out into me and I exclaimed “If you’ve got the flush I’m leaving!” and made a crying call. Tim showed a junky suited connector for the running flush against my nuts on the turn. Joke. Luckbox. Things then got pretty ugly as I couldn’t connect with any flops to cash in on my crazy, aggro image. One guy at the end of the table kept hitting all of his draws, and on one occasion made a running straight on the river, bet out into me and turned over his cards before I’d even acted. I’d flopped two pair and been run down. Standard. At least his stupidity saved me another crying call.Finally it was 4am and we were ready to call it a night. I said to Tim “I’m going to get aces this time” and I look down at two black kings from under-the-gun. I raised, Tim re-raises, I 4-bet and he calls. The flop is K-Q-T. I have top set, and the action is capped once again. “You don’t really have A-J do you?” I say and I feel sick when a jack hits the turn. I check and Tim quickly checks behind. A brick hits the river and again we both check. I flip over top set expecting to be good, and Tim shows a horrendous J-9. The guy caps it preflop and flops the second nut straight. Unbelievable! I grab my chips and walk out the door in disgust. Live poker is so rigged.That night I pick up some sort of bug as I’m feeling pretty average the next day. We head over to Garry’s where all of the PokerNews guys are hanging out for the day, with two tables of poker going as well as some action on the Nintendo Wii. Plenty of beers, laughs and fun were had by all. I played in the HORSE game and was in front early but then ran like a retard once again. I had to fold sets three times in Omaha. I flopped a full house with 33XX on a 3TT and Anthony check-raises me twice with T3XX. Eventually when I found myself re-re-straddling, I realised I needed a break.Later that night we went to karaoke. Highlights were Aussie boys doing “Land Down Under”, Leon’s “Hey Mickey”, Melissa’s “It’s Raining Men” and Zeke’s “Safety Dance”. Garry and Shane win the boy band award for their “Bye Bye Bye”. By this stage my fever had set in and I was struggling to get through the evening, and not just because of the bad singing. Once I got home I found myself shaking cold in bed, which was a little bizarre in the Vegas heat.The next day I drugged myself up and went for a quick trip up to the strip to do some shopping with Tom and Craig. We said hi/bye to Amanda and I got to see ten minutes of my first ever live WPT event at the Bellagio. Tom then picked up a new Mac laptop before we headed back home. We were going to catch up with the others at a poolside BBQ, but I started to crash again. I wanted to say goodbye to everyone, but I also wanted to try and get myself better for the 20+ hour flight back home the next morning. In the end I just wasn’t up to going out and rested up. My final night in Vegas was an early one!It was a memorable 7 weeks or so, full of hard work and long hours, but plenty of fun, excitement and laughs in between. The PokerNews guys are a fantastic group of people which made the whole experience so much more enjoyable. I’m sure we’ll catch up again on the circuit….somewhere!

Lack of updates…time running out…tired…busy, busy, busy…etc

I’ll update the past week’s happenings ASAP, but we only have one more day of work to go….tomorrow is the FINAL DAY OF THE WSOP!!!  WOW!!  I’m sure all PokerNews workers will be able to roll out of bed and do it all one more time when they watch the following video.

Enjoy.  Be inspired.

After 2 months of scorching desert heat, we were amazed to see it pour with rain today. We were like kids again enjoying the thunderstorm!

“Great for the farmers!” said Tom.

Riiight, not many farmers out here, but we found a stray child loitering in the carpark and took a photo to post up on the Internet in case his parents are looking for him:

Do you know this child?

We’re nearing the end of the Main Event and things are getting exciting with Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth and PokerNews’ own Tiffany Michelle still in contention as we head into Day 6. If any of those three can make it until the end then it will be huge.

After the Main Event has been a little dull so far, finally some controversy has emerged. Firstly Tiffany Michelle is wearing Ultimate Bet logos, much to the disgust of the hierachy at PokerNews. Expect more to emerge from this story once she is eliminated and the PN bigwigs can move in for the kill.

The other controversy was something I was fortunate enough to witness first hand, blogging the feature table on Day 5. Phil Hellmuth was moved to the direct left of Mike Matusow for the final two hours of play as I sharpened my virtual pencil for plenty of fireworks between these two. Generally things were pretty quiet until the final hand of the day. Here how I saw it go down in the live reporting blog on PokerNews.com:

Sat Jul 12 2008, 23:39 PST | Posted by TassieDevil

Hellmuth Ends the Day With a Blow-up

Cristian Dragomir opened with a raise to 80,000 before Hellmuth made it 255,000 to go from the small blind.

“I hope he doesn’t have aces,” said Hellmuth as Dragomir asked for a count. After a few moments, Dragomir made the call.

They saw a flop of and Hellmuth checked to Dragomir, who thought for a moment before firing a healthy bet of 300,000. Hellmuth sighed in disgust before folding face-up on the table.

Matusow laughed and said to Dragomir to show the bluff, and Dragomir flipped ! Matusow and the crowd roared in hysterics as Hellmuth jumped out of his seat and stormed around the room berating his opponent for calling his reraise with ten high.

“Listen buddy, you’re an idiot!” screamed Hellmuth. “This is the Main Event and you are the worst player in history!” he continued as the crowd was loving every moment of the blow-up.

Dragomir’s entourage continued to cheer as Hellmuth continued the barrage. The TD stepped in and issued a warning to Hellmuth to settle down before Dragomir stood up out of his chair to put Hellmuth back in his place with a cry of, “Enough is enough!”

Fortunately for both players the clock ticked over to the end of the level, and the end of the day’s play to settle both players down. They eventually shook hands and began to bag up their chips as Mike Matusow summed up the situation best as he shouted, “Thank God for Phil Hellmuth! Thank God for Chris Moneymaker!”

What a way to end the day!

Further to this Hellmuth was awarded a one-orbit penalty which he will serve at the start of the day tomorrow! They say you always remember your first Hellmuth blow-up, and it was definitely a thrill. A highlight of an otherwise dull Main Event. Let’s hope he can go deep.

Tim, Tom and I were given an early night and decided to take advantage by heading over to the bright lights for some fun. We wandered up and down the strip, visiting Caesars, Bellagio, Venetian and Planet Hollywood just to name a few. We played a little Pai Gow Poker, which I hadn’t played much live before. It’s a popular game due to the large number of “pushes” resulting in your bet being returned which extends your game time. It gets better because if you’re not sure how to play you can just turn your cards face up and have the dealer tell you the correct way to play them!

Of course I luckbox my way to a few full houses to get in front early, as Tim the degen got stuck and started chasing his losses. He found my poker quips, about him playing too loose and that he was a fish, simply hilarious. I cashed out a small profit and we headed over to the Roulette wheel. Tim placed bets on 35 out of 36 numbers, while Tom tells me a story from school where he correctly predicted the colour of 15 consecutive chocolate clinkers. “A mathematical freak of nature!” I shouted as I demanded he choose between red or black. After five correct spins I wished we’d parlayed our winnings each time instead of running away with the profit, but the sixth spin would’ve ended it all anyway. We celebrated our Roulette genius, as Tom says “I think it’s time for a green” moments before the 00 is spun ending the nightmare for young Tim. He scraped together his last coinage for a bus fare home as we headed to the cashier.