Not for me.  I’m sitting out in the sticks, at home, tending to my little doggie-o Scout, Mr. Riot, and my son Dan — along with a few thousand other miscellaneous things. Every year about this time I start wondering if I will ever make the journey in to the world’s largest poker festival and put my full attention into playing for gold.

The money part of it is one of the reasons I’m not there. It’s difficult when you have a set income that doesn’t leave much left over for traveling in and out and buy ins — racing in to plunk down a chunk of your monthly nut to try to make a wild run through a few thousand players simply doesn’t make sense. Perhaps one day the U.S. will stop trying to ban online poker and give us all a break by allowing the biggest poker sites in the world into our home.  Imagine the satellites we could play then.  That’s about my only shot as far as I see it.  Satellite in. The WSOP.com does have satellites but this year my attention is focused in another direction.  Lame…I know…but it is what it is.

While I am not playing for a gold bracelet this year, thousands are. Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey have bracelet bets — with anyone that wanted to take the bet — that they would win a bracelet this year.  Some of those that bet against it, must’ve been sweating just a teensy bit when Negreanu was heads-up with Paul Volpe for a bracelet yesterday.  Lucky for them that Volpe jumped in to save the day.

I watched the time delay at WSOP.com of the Razz match between Ted Forrest and Phil Hellmuth and admittedly, I was rooting for Ted.  I have no issues with Phil winning another bracelet, he’s pretty damned impressive with his track record on final tables and gold bracelets, but I happen to like Ted and have much more history with him than Hellmuth. And I’ve really heard nothing about Ted in a number of years and was curious if he would surface for the WSOP this year.  WTG Ted!

In a way, the time delay defeats the noise and grandeur of the rail.  When the November Nine played out in 2013, I had a media pass.  I went to the first day of play — and stayed about 45 minutes.  No fun.  I was up in the press box above the Penn & Teller Theater and could really see nothing; it was cold, dark, and pretty empty compared to years past.

I was staying in Gary and Marie’s spare condo (which was right next to their condo) and I stopped at a store, grabbed a bottle of wine, headed to their place, and we watched it from very comfortable seats.  It was such a great experience, chatting with them, guzzling wine, and watching close-ups of the table and player expressions vs. being isolated in a booth.  Also, the lines were not there…you know…the people that usually flock to fill the audience.  They were probably doing what we were doing, kicking back and watching it from a comfortable spot on time delay.

I won’t be staying in their spare condo this year.  They sold both and moved into the Martin.  They won’t be back until sometime late in the fall so I hope to get a tour of their new place when they arrive from their summer home in Iowa.

On that note, I’m outta here for the night.  Back soon, I hope.