Vegas Final Thoughts

When you participate in sporting events, it's not whether you win or lose; it's how drunk you get.
--Homer Simpson

There was plenty of drinking going on throughout the weekend of the WPBT Holiday Classic, that's for sure. When AlCantHang, Big Mike and MrsCantHang showed up to the 10am breakfast on Saturday, they were carrying glasses of SoCo. Good God. Liver failure is just around the corner, Al!

Just a few final thoughts on a stellar (but sadly too short) weekend:

1. "That Asian chick". Well, first off, I suppose I should give the masses the one (poor) shot of Evelyn that I managed:




Keep in mind that this was taken while Charlie Shoten was speaking about his Ten Commitments, in a large, dimly lit banquet hall, while Evy was standing clear on the other side of the room. That explains the poor quality. As soon as Charlie was done, she left with Kiril and Marcel Luske to go play in the $3000 NLHE event at the Bellagio. No chance to chat, but it's ok. Not only was she swilling that Red Bull at 11am, but she also lit up, and if there's one thing that's a big turn-off, it's smoking. My dreams of a poker girlfriend will have to remain unfulfilled.

2. Lack of blogger time. Yes, it's true. I went all the way to Vegas to play cards with, and meet up with, other poker bloggers, most of whom are (surprise!) degenerates aka my kind of people, and then wound up ditching them for half the weekend. Mea culpa. In my defense, friends from LA were also in town, and I unfortunately I couldn't make both worlds come together all that well. Despite the lack of blogger time, it was fantastic to meet everyone. Truly. God willing, we'll all meet again in WPBT II: The Search for More Money, rumored to be taking place at Hollywood Park -- not far from my old stomping grounds in Santa Monica, CA -- sometime soon.

3. The "Meet and Greet". What a stellar line-up! In no particular order: Charlie Shoten, Ron Rose (who provided free copies of his coffee table book Poker Aces to all bloggers), Marcel Luske, Kiril whatshisname, Tom McEvoy, and Eveyln Ng. Wow. I was privileged to have some one-on-one time with both Charlie and Ron, and I can confirm that they are very nice guys indeed. Ron has a sense of humor, too -- after Felicia protested the inclusion of John Bonetti in Ron's book, he ripped her copy out of her hands, tore out the pages for John Bonetti, and then gave it back to her, saying, "There. John's not in the book anymore." I wish I had been able to chat more with Kiril and/or Evelyn (ah, Evelyn) but them's the breaks.

4. The Weather. This one's really just a personal thing. Standing in the Denny's parking lot with a belly full of greasy meat and basking in the 70-degree sunshine, I kept asking myself, "Self, why did you move back to NYC?" Oh, how cold and lonely the winters here seem in comparison. Of course, I spent most of my Vegas time indoors in dimly-lit, smoky poker rooms and thus didn't really get to enjoy the weather, but that's neither here nor there.

5. Thanks. Again, in no particular order, huge kudos and thanks to: all of the aforementioned pros for taking a break from their schedules to attend a geek convention; Pauly, the Head Geek (even tho he likes to deny it), for coming up with the idea of the WPBT Holiday Classic and working to make it reality; PokerProf, for being Pauly's liaison in Vegas and hammering out a fantastic schedule (he also has a much, MUCH better photo of Evy at the top of his page right now); Dick Gatewood, poker manager of Sam's Town, for securing us breakfast, a banquet room, and three tables for the tournament, in addition to allowing bloggers to stay in the hotel at the bargain poker rate of $70 (made even cheaper when split with a friend); Jeff from CheckNRaise Poker, for providing some really nice jackets to each of the players (Jeff also jumped into the 4/8 game while the tournament was raging and seemed to hold his own); and last but not least, each of the bloggers that made it out to Sin City to poker it up. See y'all at the table again some day soon!