Back to the night I headed into Vegas to see The G, I made the Golden Nugget and asked where to find the doubles championship, lo and behold, it was at the same place that Suzie and Howard Lederer’s Boys and Girls Club Charity Tournament was held the night of the WSOB. Only all the doors were closed with ‘no admittance’ signs plastered on them. I went through the only one that looked accessible and stepped into a darkened mass of tables, curtains, equipment…and a few people. One guy (I think his name is Bob) asked if he could help me and I told him I was looking for Tony G.
He walked me through more dark drapes into another area where Phil Gordon was sitting next to Gus Hansen who appeared to be lost in a laptop computer, Johnny Chan was sitting next to Tony G watching a big flat panel screen and Carlos Mortensen and Erik Seidel were looking at the score board…oh yeah…and Annette Obrestad was sitting in another chair. Nice! I said hi to Johnny as he was leaving, Tony stood up to greet me, Gus kept staring at the laptop screen, and I got a hug from Erik and hello from Carlos.
Tony and I chatted for a few minutes and people were coming in and out with make-up and microphones for the players. Phil Hellmuth and David Benyamine came in for a minute and chattered with a couple of the guys, and then they were called out to the taping. Gus said hello as he went by and it was all I could do to keep from asking him if he blinded out of the EPT because he was playing backgammon…bite your tongue Linda. Annette was watching the show, just like I was going to do, except she was probably there for the long run, I was only going to be there for an hour or so.
A few pictures taken of the monitor I was watching – these were the teams:
One played took the hand and made all the decisions pre-flop, the other player made the decisions on the flop, etc., etc. Twice there was indecision by one of the team and they were allowed one time out; each time, the player that was sweating the playing player said they didn’t care (yah, we could hear their conversation as they stepped away from the table), it was up to the playing player to do whatever they wanted. Annette started laughing. We both thought it was funny that the sweater put the pressure on the player. I asked her if we could do an interview with her at PokerWorks…umnnhhhhh…if we were PokerNews, maybe, but she didn’t think her new owners (Full Tilt) would go for it. We’re nobodies. She did graciously allow me to take her picture.
Around an hour after the show/taping started, there was a loud pop. Something went awry somewhere. People started checking the set. The players milled. I had a chance to visit with Mori Eskandani for a moment (look for an interview with him on PokerWorks soon) he’s an exceptional spokesperson and monument to the great game of poker. And I also spent a few minutes with Eric Drache…my first card room manager in Vegas and someone that I really enjoy seeing when I’m out and about.
I had planned for this to be much more rambly since I have other things to jabber on about but I’m beat. g’nite.
