Bigger Deal

Ambling down the long Rio corridor towards the Amazon Room, scene of the WSOP tournaments, I found myself ambling alongside Australian cricketer-turned-poker player Shane Warne. (In the flesh, since you ask, he’s bigger and burlier than expected). That puts a new spin on the state of play hereabouts. Tennis champ Boris Becker has also turned poker pro, sponsored by PokerStars. Maybe I should take up cricket or tennis?

We’ll find out tomorrow, Saturday. In the meantime, the first of the four Day Ones has proved a heartbreaker for many of the big names in search of true poker immortality. Among those already back in the pavilion are Freddy Deeb, Lyle Berman, David Benyamine, Eli Elezra, Gavin Smith, Chad Brown, Josh Arieh, Juha Helppi, Luca Pagano, Joe Sebok, David Pham, actor Jason Alexander, former champ Dan Harrington, last year’s runner-up Tuan Lam and sexagenarian South African final-tabler Raymond Rahme. Notable British first-day fallers included Roland De Wolfe, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Uliott and John Gale.

The day began with none other than Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton, crying ‘Shuffle Up and Deal’ for 1,297 starters – and ended with 636 survivors, led by Mark Garner on 194,900. The signs are that this year’s final turnout for the ‘main event’ will be a shade larger than last year’s 6,358; the weekend fields are apparently going to be heavier, with Sunday (Day 1d) already closed out. The authorities have trimmed the four Day Ones to just five levels, meaning a civilised 1am-ish finish, after ten hours of play plus breaks, rather than the last few years’ gruelling 3 or 4am. This, I am advised, is a plus for us stamina-challenged oldies. (NB: As a grand-dad with a bus pass these days, I myself prefer the word ‘veterans’). 

No fewer than 87 nations were represented here last year, well up on the previous year’s 54 despite the fall in numbers occasioned by the American legislation. This year it is 104 - so far. Considering there are only 195 countries in the world, and only one was represented at the first few WSOPs, these are fairly staggering statistics. 2008 has already produced bracelet winners from 10 nations, including Canada, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Denmark, France, Belgium, Holland and Russia. The tenth you can work out for yourselves.

But the more the US shows signs of a slowdown in the poker boom, for more than merely the obvious reason, the more the trends seem to be heading upwards throughout the rest of the world. The debuts of Russian and South African players at last year’s final table has generated several strong Russian performances here this year, and given the online sites heady dreams of poker taking hold in the continent of Africa.

The entire event gets a little better organised each year, thanks to the attentive antennae of Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack as his panel of top player-advisers relay all the moans from the grass-roots. Now the Amazon Room is colour-coded, making your seat (and your pals) easier to find amid the 2,700 players in action as each day begins. Gone, too, is the dreaded overflow tent, too hot and too cold by turns as the industrial air-con attempted to cope with the 120-degree heat outside (to which we smokers are now condemned). What used to be the hospitality suites across the corridor from the Amazon Room, in the heady days before the profile of the big online sites was lowered by the 2006 Safe Ports Act (otherwise known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act), are now satellite rooms in the build-up, annexes during the Big One.

The clampdown on Excessive Celebration (see Joe Saumarez Smith’s June 3 blog) really does seem to have calmed down those exhibitionists in search of TV time. Yesterday’s world-title scene was more like a cemetery haunted by ciccadas (or, as I guess Shane Warne would want to me to say, crickets) – as in the eternal riffling of the chips – than the world’s richest annual sporting event.

But despite the deep stacks and stately two-hour levels, starting at 50-100 of each player’s 20,000 chips, cries of ‘All In and Call!’ could be heard all over the Amazon Room from surprisingly early on. This year, with ‘All In’ bottled water as one of the event’s new sponsors, dealers are obliged to bellow this mantra and hold aloft an All-In paddle every time this not infrequent event occurs. Expect a great deal more of it on the Day 2s and beyond. And just imagine how much more irritating it’s going to get.

Another of this year’s innovations is the bountiful award of a $100 massage to the first player to make a royal flush. This happened, believe it or not, just two hours and 25 minutes into Day 1a, when the lucky player did not get a call after rivering his once-in-a-lifetime (if that) hand, but was formally presented with his $100 massage pass. Almost as generous as the $10 meal voucher Harrah’s give you when you hand over your $10,000 entry fee.

But let’s not start whingeing. Today is the Fourth of July, America’s national birthday. Not that you’d know it here in Vegas, where not even Christmas disrupts the night-and-day frenzy on countless casino floors. The fireworks in the Amazon Room, where Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Tom McEvoy, Kathy Liebert, Vanessa Rousso and Vicky Coren will be among Day 1b’s starters, are likely to be more thrilling than those outside my Palms picture-window this evening.

Not that I’ll be here to watch them. This year’s evening party schedule is pretty frenzied, seriously endangering my preparedness for Day 1c tomorrow. With my offspring rooting for me so vociferously in yesterday’s Comments, however – hey, thanks a mill, Sammy – how can I go wrong?