Once In A Lifetime....and Being A Part of WPT History

A friend of mine, DP had the wonderful opportunity to play in the WPT Celebrity Invititational at the Commerce Casino this past weekend. Here's the link to the tournament.

There were 430 plus people in the tournament, and my friend made it to the second day. She was happy to have made it that far. The second day began with 13 tables, and their were more poker pros than celebrities left playing. Hoyt, Phil Laak, The Dragon, The Master, Linda Johnson, Jan Fischer, Kenna James, Jennifer Tilly and other players whose faces I recognize but can't recall their names at this moment, were also there on the second day.

The action was fast and furious enough, that by the time I left for dinner, they were down to 6 tables. And DP had been on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Just prior to my leaving, she had almost quadrupled her stack. I hated leaving, but I had already made dinner plans with Amanda. I asked DP to text me if she got out.

Unfortunately during dinner, the flu hit me head on, and I could barely hold my head up by the end of dinner. So after much internal dialogue on how terrible a friend I am, I went to bed....and woke up to a text that she had gone out at 7th.

I was thrilled for her....but I also knew that she was going to be upset, because the final table always films with 6! That means she was the bubble!
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I call her on Monday, the day of the taping to see how she is doing. And the whole story is that she actually went out at the same time as another woman, Beverly.....therefore the final table was going to be starting with 5. She was still going to go to the taping, since they wanted to interview her.

She wasn't doing too well emotionally, and there was nothing that I could say that would help her feel better.
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As they start the taping, Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten announce that "for the first time in WPT history, the final table is beginning with 5 players." I had no idea that this had never happened before, and neither did DP.

In her interview, the girl asked her how did it feel to make WPT history....and I was proud of DP's answer---nothing could have prepared me to answer that one if it had been me---especially with the wound so fresh.
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I've had almost a week to think about the opportunity DP had to play, and how well she did, and the result, and the questions that she is going to be asking herself for a very long time. I feel for her in many ways. I'm so happy and proud of her for doing so well........and I'm sad for her that she is going to be questioning her decisions and being on the cusp of sitting at the final table.

I know she'll make another final table....she is too good a player....and now she should know that she can hold her own in a field of professionals.
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And of course, a woman won the tourmanent....for the first time!!!!!!!!

LA Poker Classic--Final Table

Phil Hellmuth, Woody Moore, Quinn Do, Nam Le, Phil Ivey and Steven x. What do these people have in common? They were all seated at the final table at the Commerce Casino last night. When I found out that I was going to be able to watch Phil and Phil and Nam play poker, I was beside myself with excitement!

Thank goodness, I arrived at the first tape change, and was able to go get to my seat before Phil Helmuth went all-in. He was the first to go. He was jovial, and very pleasant with the audience and the other players--I didn't expect him to be so good-natured--given there was 1.9 million dollars on the line!

Several other pros were in attendance---I recognize their faces, but not their names. I'll have to look them up later.

I didn't know that Phil Ivey has made a WPT table 8 times, and had never won a WPT title before. He has placed 8 - 2, but never first. There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to do it. He was unstoppable! He took Nam Le out with trip 3's, and Nam had gone all-in pre-flop with pocket aces. Ivey called with his pocket 3's. wowowow!

To say that the room went crazy when Phil won is an understatement. He was so focused and serious during the game. And even though he was the chip leader, he played very conservatively and didn't play many hands. He was definitely a great example of patience. Quin had interesting body postures when he was calling, raising and folding. I wonder if he realizes that he changes his body postures when he is playing?

My camera ran out of battery (damn it!) so I won't be posting many pictures of this event. But I will try to post what I can when I get home.

A Metaphor For My Life

is that I spend much of my time sleeping opportunities away!

For example, how many people do you know that have the opportunity to watch the entire WPT Celebrity Invitational, get up close to the celebrities, plan an entire trip around that one event---and then sleep through the whole damn thing?

Yes, I needed to sleep...but...I could have slept later. What an idiot I am!

But I did realize that this is a pattern of mine...sleeping through opportunities....or not being awake/present enough to see them when they are in front of me.

Now I have to wait a whole year for this to come around again. Tonight is the filming, and well, there are only 2 celebrities left...and I don't know either of them!

Oh, why couldn't Don Cheadle or Vince Vaughn be at the final table tonight????!!!!!!!!!!!

For the complete list of 420 entrants (and the celebrities I missed!), you can visit http://worldpokertour.com/tournaments

I'll update this a bit more later. Tonight is the taping of the final table. I'll let you know how it goes!

LA Poker Classic--WPT Event

The final table taping for the LA Poker Classic was last night. And it had to be one of the most boooooooooring games (initially) that I have ever seen--the 6 person final table went on for 5+ hours. And when it got to heads up--it was over in one hand!

The cool thing is that I was working the overhead camera, and through the headset, I could hear all the commentary from the director, and the camera people. It was a hoot.

My "job" became even more important once everyone started going all-in, and I got chastised a couple of times by the producer because I wasn't fast enough zooming in for the flop. (I actually dozed off a few times). And well, Mike and Vince need to be able to see the cards so that they can keep their commentary going--it wasn't until almost the end of the tournament that I realized that Mike and Vince were looking at a monitor similar to mine.

Here are some photos from the event tonight.

The winner of the LA Poker Classic was a first time tournament player from South Africa. He was very nice and humble about his win....and he had a group of friends with him cheering him on!