I managed to sleep like hell for what was left of the night after the Fremont Street Experience decided the rest of downtown Las Vegas had experienced enough brain concussion booming for the night.  Part I is here. I was up around 7 a.m. and did a little work before going down to the coffee shop.  Robert “Chip Burner” Turner was there having brekkie with a coupla guys and gave me a hearty “Good morning, how are you?”

I sat by myself and downed coffee and a veggie omelet (damn the place for not having a coffee pot in the room) and watched the employees as they bussed and served.  People are fun to watch, even if nothing unusual happens.

Back to the room and a bath…umnhhhhh…a bath is a luxury when you live in most RVs.  I would normally opt for a shower if I had the choice but every now and then, there’s nothing like a tub soaking to arrange the world in a different order.  Yummy!  By the time I finished up and went back to the computer for a few more things, Marie was on her way up.  We were off and running.

We went to The Grand; the show was supposed to start at noon.  We were told it would be starting about a half hour late and since we were there about 20 minutes early, we decided on coffee and Marie would have breakfast.  The coffee shop was no help, they wouldn’t get us in and out so off we went to Starbucks.  Wonderful chocolate eclairs – we each had one – that’s another thing friends do.  As we were sipping and eating – about down to the last few bites – I mentioned how big the eclairs were and how wonderful and we should have just shared one.  Her reply, “Linda, no we shouldn’t have.”  Affirmation that doing bad things to yourself aren’t always all that bad…love it!

Back to The Grand.  Now there were about 50 people in a huddle waiting to be let in.  Kee-rist!  I spotted Charity and asked if we could go in first…hey…I was the grand prize winner for hell’s sake.  She said she’d walk me in shortly.  We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Mike Matusow showed up for his book signing.  I think he did some autographs and pictures but did not sell a book (not in my presence anyway).  The crowd liked him, and they should, he’s a funny guy once you get through the scowl that seems to have grown into place as the years get heavier.

Then Hasaan Turk spotted me – he was back in the edge of the crowd and couldn’t wait to come up and bend our ear.  Hasaan has been part of my poker career since the opening of the Mirage in 1989.  He played $5-10 7 Card Stud in those days.  He is from Cypress – “The island of L-O-O-O-V-E!” is how he expresses it.  We have a lot of poker history.  He’s the only player I know of that always tipped when he lost.  Kind of like throwing you a tip to show you that you were an idiot for making him lose the pot…we need more of these players at the tables.  We spent some time visiting and then…finally…the doors opened to the show and true to her word, Charity came for us.  By the time we got into the area, there were already about 40 people in the spectator area but Marie and I found a seat in the center bleachers up in the back row which gave us pretty good viewing.  It was disappointing that the feature table had the dealer facing us and the players with their back to us…of course it was to accommodate the cameras, etc., damn show biz.

We couldn’t help but laugh over Phil Hellmuth’s entrance.  He came in, went to the center bleachers, stopped, and turned with a big smile to the audience…as if the whole show was about him.  Hell, maybe it is!  When the American team came in there was a huge round of applause, everyone had country flags to wave for their team choices, and Doyle Brunson got a huge round of appreciation.

I wish my camera did better shots in low light with action – and the distance didn’t help anything – but I got a few that are pretty good and give an idea of the set-up.  There were a few that would have been perfect but just as I snapped, someone walked through or a hand went up to block it.

Robert Williamson III in the last shot, check out those crazy socks…but that was wa-a-a-a-a-y late in the night, there were many hours in between.

When “Shuffle up and Deal” hit the air, it was a long time past 12 noon, and there were no chips on the tables yet.  A little unorganized disorganization was afoot but it finally kicked off.  A cocktail waitress came through, Marie ordered wine, MOI ordered water.  Not much happened in the tournament, everyone was playing for a team and none of them were going to go off on a fancy move of their own because the TEAM was at stake…except for one of team Brazil players.

After an hour or so, Mike Matusow strolled in, and stopped in front of the center bleachers, spread his arms and did a loud  “H-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-Y!” kind of thing.  It got some attention so he did it again.

After about two hours of game play and no one going broke, we left to go meet Gary at the Venetian, but first we did some errands Marie had to do.  We had a great meal at the Venetian, they had comps and I got the royal treatment…an excellent rib steak with a salad.  I ate too much.  My normal diet doesn’t consist of meat but every now and then…give me SOMETHING THAT BLEEDS.

Gary decided he would go to the World Team Poker show with us for awhile.  Away we went…and amazingly got our same seats back.  Gary had a glass of wine, Marie was good to go with zip, I had more water.  They left about an hour later.  I stayed for another hour and finally gave up, going up to do some work and sleep – by now it was about 7 p.m.

I did nap…poorly…and got back up, washed my face,  down the elevator and in the show around 11 p.m.  As I was coming in, Edna, Donna Harris, and Ben Roberts were going out – England was done – and Donna had been sitting in the front row with Edna for hours but Marie and I didn’t know it or we would have chatted her up.  Crossroads?  What’s so bad about that?  Everyone has them right?  That was mentioned in my brief passing with Donna, Edna, and Ben, just thought I’d toss it out.

Here’s the deal:

• Eight teams – Australia, Brazil, China, England, Greece, Israel, Vietnam, and USA playing for a $400k prize pool.
• Five table shoot-out format with rounds of LH, PLO, NLH.
• Two players left at each table move to the next table, if two of the same team survive at different tables to heads-up, the team chips are consolidated.
• Even if a player busts, they are not out, the team has to go broke for them to be out.

All of this is a series of tournaments of regular season league matches that will culminate in a championship event…a true tournament of poker champions, like the Super Bowl or NBA Finals or the World Series.

Robert Williamson III was the main host/commentator…how the hell he stood up over the long hours is beyond me.  Matt Corby and Kenna James appeared to be more or less confined to a seated commentator area (see picture above) and late in the night, they still sat there.  I felt awfully bad for them, they looked as tired as I can ever remember being in my life.

Robert handed a few of the pros the mic now and then.  Devil Fish seemed to target Tony G with a threatening implication and unkindly remarks…not that Tony hasn’t been named the King of Smack Talking, but it seemed a bit strange with the team event – IMHO.  It appeared to be quite personal.

Now there were four teams left, at one point Australia was down to one team member, but they were at the final battling it out.  I was dragging ass.  I went back to Starbucks…damn…they had a chocolate eclair just waving at me and calling out my name.  So I ate it!  I told Marie about it the next day when we talked on the phone and we laughed our asses off over it. I did go back to arena and this time sat in the front row, the audience had thinned out.  I sat next to another gent that had won his plane tickets, seats, etc., but I’m not sure where he was staying and he was from Iowa or someplace I can’t remember, must’ve been the sugar rush.

We talked for quite sometime about the poker pros, how they were at the table, did they tip, etc.  It was kind of fun running through some of it now that it’s not been my steady, brain warping diet for the last three years.

About 3 a.m., I was totally done; back to the room, the tournament was still running with four teams.

The next morning I jumped on PokerNews Live Reporting to see what had happened, it was a little after 8 a.m. and it had just finished with Team China winning it.  I put in a call to Charity (my go-to-girl for WTP and the grand prize winner gig), because they had offered to give me cash compensation for my flight tickets (my broom didn’t have to fly very far at all).  I met Charity and Brenda downstairs (after one more trip to Starbucks but they didn’t have any chocolate eclairs left…*sniff*) and got to visit for a minute about the whole presentation. Charity apologized for them ignoring me as they had – not a problem.  They gave me a check for flight expenses – very nice!

I asked how they decided who would play for the teams.  The Management Team of World Team Poker picked the team captains and the team captains picked their players – Phil Hellmuth had been chosen for the USA but he apparently handed the honor over to Doyle Brunson.  I asked why they didn’t plan on a two-day event, since it went around 19 hours.  Charity said they had done a test run and played down and it only lasted 11 hours.  My opinion, to her, was that the test run was not even close to what would happen in reality because these guys were playing a team event, they would not make certain moves that they would if representing themselves and add the fact that knocking out one of them did not eliminate the team.  It’s kind of a live and learn thing.  They graciously gave me a WTP folder with names, bios, plans, teams, etc. in it which I really like to have and look through…I still have the original one from the World Poker Tour.

They also gave me a swag bag that had a WTP cap, a fifth of Comisario Tequila Blanco, and two nifty shot glasses.  And thanked me for coming, and I thanked them.