A World Series of Poker Recap

(Note: Cheddar Ben reports on the Futures Game following this piece from Sip.)

I was hoping not to write this week. That would mean I was making a run in the World Series of Poker.

Not the case.

See a bad beat hurts when you play in a $20 home game. But it really, really hurts when it happens in the $10,000 Main Event.

I'll spare you the details. If you really want to know email me at Noonewantstohearbadbeatstories@Momo.com

So I'm out. Go get 'em next year, right? Salt again.

But the World Series was cool. I wasn't nervous until I woke up Sunday morning. I went for a run among other things to try to relieve some stress. I grabbed some breakfast with my cousin and then hopped a cab for the Rio.

I tipped the guy at the cab stand $3. I then tipped the cab driver another $3. 3 is my favorite number so I figured, why not?

When I got to the Rio I felt like I was at a Star Wars convention. Poker really draws an interesting crowd. Thousands of people there as fans. They wore the clothes the pros wore and talked poker like it was baseball.

To me, it's one thing to talk about Jose Reyes making a good play or the great defenese of the Knicks. It is another thing to talk about a great hand you watched on TV.

"Can you believe he called with a 6,4 suited?"

Poker is a game for dorks who need an outlet to compete with the cool kids because they couldn't do it in real sports.

This coming from a super cool BLOGGER.

Anyway, 12:00 couldn't come soon enough. When I sat down I had butterflies in my stomach. I was nervous.

This was a $10,000 poker tournament!

It all went well for the first couple of hours. I was up to about 24,000 chips and doing fine (everyone started with 20,000 chips).

After the first break I lost a HUGE hand and was down to 9,000 chips. I was REALLY REALLY ANGRY. "Steaming" I believe is the term. I went down to about 4,000 chips and was about to kill myself. But then the Sip turned it around.

About 3 hours later I was sitting pretty comfortably at around 15,000 chips. I had outlasted some of my famous neighbors including Nelly, Greg Raymer and Jose Canseco.

(Jose Canseco may be the biggest man in the world. He was also toting a 5'2 blonde in heals that looked like she was straight out of Hustler magazine).

But I was back and feeling good.

That is when the bad beat went down that cost me all my chips. I was very upset.

I was back, I thought, and then I was gone. That's the game I guess.

I got back to my hotel and just wanted to lay down. But my friends who came out with me for the weekend wouldn't have it. They forced me to smile and it ended up being an awesome night.

My buddy Matt, up about a billion dollars for the trip, took care of dinner at Nobu. We then did a night at the Hard Rock with half of the NBA and all of Vivid's elite porn stars. Then, we hit up the casino for an hour long black jack session with Yi Jianlin.

I'll tell you guys one thing. That guy a'int going to Milwaukee. Pretty cool guy, though. And apparently in China when something good happens, like a black jack, they say "Pao!" which I have since stolen.

As I write this I reflect back on the trip. Good friends, good times, a rough poker story but a heck of an experience. The World Series of Poker is a little silly. There is just too much luck involved in outlasting 7,000 people that it becomes a competition of who can avoid the most bad shit from happening to them. I couldn't.

But last year Jamie Gold did.

I watch the ESPN coverage of the final table and I see Jamie Gold ask famous poker player Johnny Chan: "I'm playing well, right?"

Here is a guy dominating the biggest poker tournament in the world unlike anything the poker world has ever seen and he is so insecure about how he is playing that he needs to ask for approval.

Can you imagine Tim Duncan needing reassurance from Gregg Popovich right before the Spurs won the title that he is a good basketball player?

Just something I was thinking about.

No championship this year for Sip. Maybe next year.

Poker players crave bracelets. I just want the Blogger of the Year award.

Good to be home.

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of dr2000.com, genetics-and-society.org, chinedaily.com, msn.com)