AKEN FOR A JOSTLE

Days 7 & 8...

Yesterday was gruelling, so much in fact that I just didn’t have the energy to pen my blog, and decided that a good eight hours sleep was too important to miss. The update itself was 13 and a half hours in total, but we checked in early to meet up with the field reporters, and checked out late after completing my blonde work. This led to a 17 hour day, and one which suddenly formed the realisation that this could be a very long week indeed.

When you’ve covered an event throughout the day, you just want to fall onto your bed the moment the final whistle blows, but I’m juggling two jobs this month and remain obligated to fulfilling my daily chores with blonde, even if my brain is only working at a third of the pace. It’s surprising how quickly the tasks build up, however small. No major work, just niggly issues like having to publish a sponsor’s news item, upload the day’s results, make a change to a cardroom schedule, edit the WSOP page, etc, etc. Before I know it, it’s 4am and my hope of watching a Sopranos episode before bed has turned to dust.

My opening day’s work with PokerNews was almost hitchless, apart from a mad spurt at the end where we missed a few exits. If the field reporters aren’t up to scratch, then there’s nothing Dana and I can do, as we simply translate the information they supply us onto the PokerNews blog – we barely even move from our seat. If they get it wrong, we get it wrong, which consequently looks bad on us rather than them. On the whole though, they were pretty good, two in particular as keen as mustard and more than worthy of their spot.

This morning saw the introduction of the now legendary Raab ID system, where players have a unique ID number and a card that they carry around with them so that they can be identified at all times. This was only introduced a week prior to the event, and Harrah’s have a reputation of resisting change, but the early signs are that it is working well. It helps that the players are told about the system prior to kick off, although I doubt Jonathan Raab will be happy when they announced it as “brand new” and “revolutionary”. Ah well, I guess that Tetris guy didn’t get any credit either.

I did notice that a few players felt they were ‘above’ the ID system. Tom McEvoy’s ID was found in the eliminations box at one point, so it was assumed that he’d been eliminated. I duly reported his exit on the blog, but later spotted him again in the tournament, and quickly learned that he’d dumped it. Great, I look like an idiot because Thomas can’t be arsed to keep his card with him.

Similarly, Dave Singer refused to take his card with him when he moved table one time, simply saying, “I don’t need it, you know who I am.” In fact, I’m not sure I’m Singer’s biggest fan, especially since the phone incident from last year when he was clearly angle-shooting. This year, he was the only one who wouldn’t play to the final with ten players remaining and the dinner break just moments away. After dinner they returned to play for around ten minutes - didn’t seem worth it to me, plus it meant I missed the Rio buffet and had to pay over the odds at the deli. In fact, I guess I could say that Dave Singer stole food from my mouth.

I try my best to add a little humour and colour to the blog, but I can’t deny to being a little disappointed when someone complained about me in the PokerNews’ shoutbox, suggesting that I was “trying to hard” and demanding that I “just report the action.” There were complimentary comments too, but this did upset me because the last thing I want to do is just report hands without adding any flavour to the reports. I’m not the most skilled of writers around, so I depend on these added quips to get by, but I guess you can’t please everyone all the time. Some people like bad puns, MC Hammer references and subtle mockery, others don’t.

One thing that did amuse me was when I made a post complaining about the automatic flushes here in Vegas, that I genuinely still can’t fathom. It was very tongue in cheek in truth, but one viewer sent me a private message supplying me with a walkthrough guide to using the Vegas toilets. She even linked me to a picture of the device explaining where the sensor was located. Muchos thankos to that kind person, I shall be giving the toilets a full investigation next time I feel a rumble in the jungle and will let you know how I get on.

All the big names seem to be elsewhere, many migrating from my tournament after elimination, and I’d certainly rather be watching James Akenhead battling Chris Ferguson and co at the $1,500 NL final table. Naturally, James has his crew with him, a suitless Reservoir Dogs of sorts, with Karl, Sunny, Chaz, Praz and newcomer Tony Phillips all in tow. The latter of those had to be escorted out of the room the other day before he was banned, after one of James’ opponents called for a “spade” even though he wasn’t in the hand. That flush did indeed come and James went mad, asking Ngo why the fuck he was calling out cards.

Whilst James steamed off, Tony confronted Ngo, “jostled” according to the reports, to give him what for, but it soon fizzled out. Sunny quickly led Tony outside before it kicked off, and later advised him to get rid of his red top so he couldn’t be identified (his ginger hair is probably a giveaway too), but when Tony removed his top, he revealed another red top underneath. “Oh great,” thought Sunny. If I'd been in range, I would have brought out the guns myself, but I arrived on the scene too late to release the beasts. Ah well, their time will come.

Meanwhile, James returned to an inaccurate stack, the dealer trying to fob him off with 8k when it should have been around 50k. The mistake was rectified, and the rest is history. Let’s just hope James can keep his cool and snap up one of those shiny gold bracelets before the end of the day. This might be our best chance to bring back some gold. I’m not sure what’s more likely though, James winning a bracelet or Tony making it to the end of the month without being barred.

Must dash, but before I go, I’ll leave you with some puntastic headlines that Dana and I have been having fun with at PokerNews’ expense. Which do you reckon is the best (or is it worst)? Place your votes now…

Levi-Tation (David Levi)
A Close Schaef (Brandon Schaefer)
Dutch Courage (Dutch Boyd)
Attack of the Clonie (Clonie Gowen)
Lisandro Suffering From Agita (Jeff ‘Tony Soprano’ Lisandro)
Tim Fails to Ad-Vance (Tim Vance)
Blair Rich Project (Blair Rodman)
Amir All Over the Place (Amir Vahedi)
Flock of Spegals (Mike Spegal - reigning champ)
Green Green Grass of Going Home (Martin Green)