I worked right up until the dinner break of the final day which was an honour and a thrill to be part of the WSOP right up until its final moments. The final day was a little anti-climactic, especially after Tiffany Michelle busted out in 17th place. We were all sad to see Tiffany fall short of a final table berth, but obviously the big dogs were relieved that the stresses of the whole saga were finally over. PN released a press statement to get their feelings out in the open, to the raised eyebrows of many, so I’m sure it’s not the last we’ve heard of this situation.That night, Tim and I headed over to South Point to donk around in a low limit cash game. It was good fun as we were playing 80% of pots and splashing around. I raised every time I was on the button, much to the amusement of Tim who was always two seats to my left in the big blind. Tim fluked a $100 bonus when he hit a one-outer to make a straight-flush to put him back in the black, while I was pretty much square. Then a hand came up where I held 78o on the button and after some overly aggressive betting I found myself with the nut straight on the turn. The action was frantic as a third spade fell on the river. Tim donked out into me and I exclaimed “If you’ve got the flush I’m leaving!” and made a crying call. Tim showed a junky suited connector for the running flush against my nuts on the turn. Joke. Luckbox. Things then got pretty ugly as I couldn’t connect with any flops to cash in on my crazy, aggro image. One guy at the end of the table kept hitting all of his draws, and on one occasion made a running straight on the river, bet out into me and turned over his cards before I’d even acted. I’d flopped two pair and been run down. Standard. At least his stupidity saved me another crying call.Finally it was 4am and we were ready to call it a night. I said to Tim “I’m going to get aces this time” and I look down at two black kings from under-the-gun. I raised, Tim re-raises, I 4-bet and he calls. The flop is K-Q-T. I have top set, and the action is capped once again. “You don’t really have A-J do you?” I say and I feel sick when a jack hits the turn. I check and Tim quickly checks behind. A brick hits the river and again we both check. I flip over top set expecting to be good, and Tim shows a horrendous J-9. The guy caps it preflop and flops the second nut straight. Unbelievable! I grab my chips and walk out the door in disgust. Live poker is so rigged.That night I pick up some sort of bug as I’m feeling pretty average the next day. We head over to Garry’s where all of the PokerNews guys are hanging out for the day, with two tables of poker going as well as some action on the Nintendo Wii. Plenty of beers, laughs and fun were had by all. I played in the HORSE game and was in front early but then ran like a retard once again. I had to fold sets three times in Omaha. I flopped a full house with 33XX on a 3TT and Anthony check-raises me twice with T3XX. Eventually when I found myself re-re-straddling, I realised I needed a break.Later that night we went to karaoke. Highlights were Aussie boys doing “Land Down Under”, Leon’s “Hey Mickey”, Melissa’s “It’s Raining Men” and Zeke’s “Safety Dance”. Garry and Shane win the boy band award for their “Bye Bye Bye”. By this stage my fever had set in and I was struggling to get through the evening, and not just because of the bad singing. Once I got home I found myself shaking cold in bed, which was a little bizarre in the Vegas heat.The next day I drugged myself up and went for a quick trip up to the strip to do some shopping with Tom and Craig. We said hi/bye to Amanda and I got to see ten minutes of my first ever live WPT event at the Bellagio. Tom then picked up a new Mac laptop before we headed back home. We were going to catch up with the others at a poolside BBQ, but I started to crash again. I wanted to say goodbye to everyone, but I also wanted to try and get myself better for the 20+ hour flight back home the next morning. In the end I just wasn’t up to going out and rested up. My final night in Vegas was an early one!It was a memorable 7 weeks or so, full of hard work and long hours, but plenty of fun, excitement and laughs in between. The PokerNews guys are a fantastic group of people which made the whole experience so much more enjoyable. I’m sure we’ll catch up again on the circuit….somewhere!

Lack of updates…time running out…tired…busy, busy, busy…etc

I’ll update the past week’s happenings ASAP, but we only have one more day of work to go….tomorrow is the FINAL DAY OF THE WSOP!!!  WOW!!  I’m sure all PokerNews workers will be able to roll out of bed and do it all one more time when they watch the following video.

Enjoy.  Be inspired.

After 2 months of scorching desert heat, we were amazed to see it pour with rain today. We were like kids again enjoying the thunderstorm!

“Great for the farmers!” said Tom.

Riiight, not many farmers out here, but we found a stray child loitering in the carpark and took a photo to post up on the Internet in case his parents are looking for him:

Do you know this child?

Tim, Tom and I were given an early night and decided to take advantage by heading over to the bright lights for some fun. We wandered up and down the strip, visiting Caesars, Bellagio, Venetian and Planet Hollywood just to name a few. We played a little Pai Gow Poker, which I hadn’t played much live before. It’s a popular game due to the large number of “pushes” resulting in your bet being returned which extends your game time. It gets better because if you’re not sure how to play you can just turn your cards face up and have the dealer tell you the correct way to play them!

Of course I luckbox my way to a few full houses to get in front early, as Tim the degen got stuck and started chasing his losses. He found my poker quips, about him playing too loose and that he was a fish, simply hilarious. I cashed out a small profit and we headed over to the Roulette wheel. Tim placed bets on 35 out of 36 numbers, while Tom tells me a story from school where he correctly predicted the colour of 15 consecutive chocolate clinkers. “A mathematical freak of nature!” I shouted as I demanded he choose between red or black. After five correct spins I wished we’d parlayed our winnings each time instead of running away with the profit, but the sixth spin would’ve ended it all anyway. We celebrated our Roulette genius, as Tom says “I think it’s time for a green” moments before the 00 is spun ending the nightmare for young Tim. He scraped together his last coinage for a bus fare home as we headed to the cashier.

So after the freeroll we headed down the road to the Palms for the PokerStars official WSOP party at Rain nightclub. After collecting our VIP Access “grey” wristbands and oddly being asked for ID, we fought through the crowd to the nearest bar. The place was packed and the bar was my favourite kind…open.

I grabbed a Carona and turned to find a rather flexible girl in a hoop suspended ten metres in the air above the dance floor. The hoop was all she needed to bend in an unimaginable variety of positions to get the evening off to a good start.

Apparently our VIP access gave us access to a more private bar, which was nice, but when some of the guys found an area we weren’t meant to have access to, (where PokerStars pros Joe Hachem, Emad Tahtouh and Grant Levy were hanging out) it suddenly seemed important for us to be in there. I’ve learnt in Vegas that if you are doing something you shouldn’t, you just act like you are doing nothing wrong, play it cool and no one cares. We walked into the “black wristband” area and hung out there for a while until security got sick of us ignoring their requests for wristband checks and asking us to move. I heard one of the guys slipped the meathead a $20 to stay. Personally, I was happy enough to be $20 richer in the “grey” area, so I wandered downstairs towards the stage and bumped into Tom (who had been working late and just arrived) and just in time to catch a eyeful of the delightful Dita Von Teese.

The Queen of Burlesque first emerged like a pearl from an oyster and followed that up with a performance as the bubbles of a champagne glass!




There were other performances from girls hanging from various objects, with girls dancing all night aound the massive multi-tiered complex. After drinking too much and laughing at stupidity of others (Isabelle Mercier/Dario Minieri/Steve/Schepis/Slippers/etc) we headed home in the wee hours to grab some sleep before we had to wake up with sore heads for the first day of the big one…the Main Event!

Here are some more pics from the party:

So the first four flights of the WSOP Main Event have been run and it was all a little anti-climatic to be honest. Besides a little pre-match hype and a bit of an introduction, it really was just another donkament, just one with a little more importance. The reporting was pretty typical of a normal event and there weren’t a whole heap of strange characters unlike previous years.

The strangest thing I heard was that Phil Laak played the entire day in a latex mask as he pretended to be an old man. Strange but true.

We then had the only day off of the entire series where no one had to work. This was the day of the PokerNews freeroll with $5k up for grabs and a few bounties on the biggest donkeys in the field. First hand, I had a chance (although a little unrealistic one)to actually claim a bounty. Fillipe (our Portugese photographer) raised UTG to 150 and John Caldwell (the head honcho and bounty) flat called. It folded to me in the big blind and I tossed 8d2d into the muck like a weak tight fish. Flop A-8-2. Fillipe and John get into a mini-raising war with Fillipe eventually tossing away A-6 and John flashing A-K. I would’ve cracked him and been $300 up after one hand. Doh!

After that I was really tight and pretty card dead. The first hand I was involved with was holding two black kings with blinds at 50/100. Flipchip (another photographer) raised to 250 from middle position and I bumped it to 700 from his direct left. It folded around and Flipchip quickly called. “No ace, no ace, no ace”….Flop A-rag-rag with two diamonds. Flipchip checked and I check behind. Turn was a third diamond and Flipchip moved all in. Urgh. I toss away the kings and am back to 2,200.

A little later that level I raise with pocket nines from the hijack and Change flat called on the button. John called in the big blind and we see a flop of 8-7-5. I lead out for about 650, leaving myself around 1,000. I’m committed to the hand, but Change moved all in. I cringed, knowing that I’m crushed, but it’s a freeroll and I’m not folding. She has pocket aces. A six spikes on the turn to give me my gutshot straight and I double up. Change picks up pocket queens next hand and get them cracked also to bust out. “Right, I’m going to go and get high!” she said between clenched teeth!

So I’m back over 4,000 when Marc Hodge comes over and takes a seat to my left. He’s short but starts moving all in over the top of limpers and raisers to quickly double his stack without a showdown. In one hand I joined in the limping with a pretty JdTd but had to give it up when Marc squeezed. So I’m getting sick of the raising when I find A-J and open for 600. Marc again comes over the top for another 2,000. I guess I can fold here, and I normally would, but it’s a freeroll and he’s done it like 3-4 times in a row so I decide to make a stand. He turns over A-K, the board bricks and I’m back down to about 1,200.

My final hand was with pocket fours under the gun when I shoved all in and Matt makes a fishy call with QsJs. He rivers a queen and I’m done.

However I agreed to swap % with Tim, Logan and Matt (under review for future swaps after that fishy call), and I was looking good for a big score with all three in great shape with 11 players left. However after some confusion about doing a deal due to lack of time, Logan goes for the win and races his big stack against the chip leader with AK vs JJ. The board bricked out and Logan bubbled. They then chopped ten-ways, eventhough Brian was a luckbox to get that far, and Mr. S Horton DELIBERATELY tanked for over five minutes on the bubble with absolute trash cards to limp into the money. SHAME! So I ended up with a small profit thanks to my horsies!

We then headed over to the Palms to the PokerStars party…more details to come…