 |
Jesse May in
Las Vegas |
|
|
#2
Thirty Hours to Go
Thirty hours to go. Thirty hours
before the poker championship of the world commences, and 600 of the hardiest
souls square off in a five day knock down drag out match. Thirty hours to
square away those last satellite seats and dish out percentages. Thirty hours
to get that yellow ticket in your hand that says paid in full, play with care.
The smart ones have taken care of business already and are just using their
final day and night to prepare for the task at hand. Barny Boatman left town
with Frenchman Pascal Perrault before the weekend, they vowed to serenely focus
and return with fire in their bellies. Those are two men who still figure to be
bright eyed and aggressive come the final 45 players on Thursday
morning.
Going the other route is Ram Vaswani, who is determined to play
every hour of every tourney down to the bitter end. Ram took another second
place in a preliminary tournament, this one in the limit half Hold’em and
half Stud. I saw Ram on Friday night, during a break in the tournament with
four tables left, and he was as focused as I ever seen him. He didn’t even
recognize me when I came by. Ram is all action, and while I believe he might
sleep for seven days straight when this thing is over, he is so in the zone
that he should still have gas in the tank when he needs it come crunch time.
Would you believe that I saw Phil Hellmuth getting a lap dance at
Olympic Gardens Strip Club a bare one day before the Big One kicks off? Well I
didn’t, but reports are that Phil is considering anything to change up his
tune, and some last minute advice from Layne Flack may not have gone unheeded.
It’s been a rough month for Phil so far, as he’s only turn cashed in
one event out of thirty, small money in the Limit Omaha, and he’s putting
all of his chips in to make a nice show in the final event and still make this
his WSOP, and not forever the year of the new Phil, Philadelphia star Phil
Ivey.
Ian Dobson, in sparkling form all through this month, had to
suddenly fly back to London last week to attend to urgent family business.
He’s going to try and jet back in for the main event, and knowing Ian,
with thirty hours left until post time he’s still a favorite to make it to
his seat on time.
TC (Team Carborundum) caught up with British hope
Surindar Sunar, drinking coffee at the Bellagio bar. “Ready,” he
said, “and waiting. I’m really looking forward to this event.”
No wonder. Besides being one of the best no limit Hold’em players on the
planet, Surindar is also coming into this event with some nice form indicators.
He won his seat in a super satellite, and he made the final table of the tough
Pot Limit Omaha tournament before a bad beat knockout sent him to the
showers.
It’s tough finding people in this town, because the poker
players are all spread out. The cash games are mostly at the Bellagio, where
stakes have been staggering in a massive Pot Limit Omaha game with a fifty
grand sit down price. How big can you bluff? A story is flying about a man who
put in $100,000 on the river with stone cold nothing, only to find himself
getting called. All he could say was, good hand, and he was last seen looking
to raise a rebuy for the game. They’re also playing sky high over at
Sam’s Town, where the limits have reached eight and sixteen thousand, and
one poor fellow is stuck to the tune of one million cold. How much money do you
need to have to lose a million dollars playing poker? The answer sadly enough,
is only a million.
What will happen today? Sunday is super satellite
madness, where anyone and his grandmother will spend as little as two hundred
to try and grab those last desperate seats. I’ll be back with a t-minus
twelve hour report. It only builds from here.
|
Main Menu
