I hit Vegas on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday was for a custody hearing on the Rioteer.  I’m pleased that Riot will now spend equal time with both his parents; perhaps they can all act their age and things will improve.  On Friday I came in to get settled at Gary and Marie’s place and get ready for the WSOP November Nine extravaganza.  I also met Jennifer Newell on Friday for late lunch at the Gold Coast and that’s where I ran into her and AlCantHang at the bar.  We talked about a variety of things and the subject went to body piercings after I showed Jennifer my inner Conch opal barbell piercings.  Ah-h-h-h-h…well…you would have to be there!

Saturday, the 7th, I met up with Gedas and Juras from LT – part of the team that I work with here at PokerWorks.  It was great fun and Gedas and I have emailed and chatted for quite some time – talking face to face was gooder than good.  It was their first trip to Vegas and I chauffeured them down the Strip in the Silver Steed after we picked up our media passes and had breakfast at the Gold Coast.  We went back to the Rio and separated.  They were in the better part of the seating arrangement and I was, once again, up in the press box of the Penn & Teller Theater.  I only made it long enough to watch the second bust out – Matthew Jarvis leave the green felt arena.

The press box had no lighting this year.  Apparently it affects the camera lighting for the stage or some such nonsense and an engineer finally brought up two floor lamps that did nothing other than make the place look more gloomy and desolate with a row of eye-blinding computer monitors sticking out along the glass wall overlooking the theater.  There are three live TV monitors in the press box where we could easily see the hands as they were played out and player expressions – but hell, it was way too dark for me – and cold, you could hang a side of beef in there – and I came to Vegas with a cold and semi-headache.  So…I packed up my computer and hit the door.  Thanks but no thanks.

Next year when I apply for credentials I will ask for main theater seating and if I don’t receive it, I won’t go.  In the middle of the main theater floor, there are two rows reserved for media, alas, I’ve not scored a seat there for the 2nd year in a row.  Yes, I’m whining.  But if the WSOP wants coverage, they need to figure out that the press box is not a viable answer since we can’t have lighting and the temperature this year and last was just too frigging cold.  I do plan on venturing back tomorrow night at 8 p.m. to watch the heads-up.  I do not believe I will even take my computer, that will make it a much faster escape if it becomes unbearable.

Today – Sunday – I hit the Rio just before noon to watch the Martorano’s Masters Meatball Eating Championship that started at 12:00 p.m. and catch the press conference with Jonathan Duhamel and John Racener that was to take place at 1 p.m.

I found a place in the upper balcony that didn’t give the greatest photo opportunities, but for me it was as good as it was going to get. I had no desire to try to shovel my way through the crowd around the stage and then try to get a picture.  Damn…I need a new camera! *heavy sigh*  How the announcer was even able to get through his contestant presentation without losing his voice was a mystery to me.  He was SCREAMING into the microphone and from where I was at, the words were mostly a jumble with nothing recognizable coming out of his mouth.

But in the end, with 13 players, the reigning champion Joey Chestnut took it down.  Amazingly, a small Asian woman took either third or 2nd place by eating 35 meatballs.  These were not your run of the mill, tiny frozen meatballs, they had some size to them and each contestant loaded up multiple drinking glasses at their station and pounded meatballs in between sips/gulps of fluid.  Contestants had to use a knife and fork, no finger stuffing allowed.  Here she is, I can’t imagine where those meatballs went but she stood all the time she ate, as did the champion and one other contender.

Yes, it’s a lousy photo, too far away, bad lighting, yah, yah, yah.  But here’s a YouTube of some of it.  They ate for 10 minutes and as time zipped by, the music changed, the announcer screamed louder, and all in all, it was pretty much fun. I seriously thought the guy to the left of the champion was going to spew meatballs all over everyone in the front row. When the contest stopped, he was still swallowing his beverages around meatball stuffed jaws, and kept holding his wrist up to his lips like he was trying to keep it all in.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cavYOjK4p_o[/youtube]

After that it was supposed to be post time for what was left of the WSOP Nine. I waited…and waited…and waited. After 1:40 p.m. I gave up. I wondered if everyone else got notice that it was going to be late. The Susquatch was running around on the casino floor, flinging his arms up in the air in mock attack stances with people that wanted photos with him, but the entire meatball stage had disappeared down into the bowels of the Masquerade Village, leaving a gaping hole. Media people were hanging out, waiting, waiting, waiting. When I left my rail bird position, just before I hit the escalator, Nolan Dalla went by me like a gazelle being chased by a cheetah. Guess it was going to happen after all, but I wasn’t. I hit the Steed and fired up for home away from home.

Edit: I received a comment on the YouTube video, the Asian girl finished third with 33.5 meatballs eaten.