Fun Times at the WPT Mandalay Bay
The Mandalay Bay is currently holding its first-ever World Poker Tour event right now, and I’m quickly realizing how much more fun poker tournaments are when you’re a freelance reporter. I don’t have to bust my ass from the first shuffle to the final chip count of the day, followed by writing tournaments reports and uploading photos.
If you want to read about what happened, let me direct you to Alex Henriquez’s daily recaps at CardPlayer.com:
(Note: These links are temporarily broken because I can’t find the daily reports anywhere on CardPlayer.com’s redesigned website. I will redirect the links as soon as I find out where they’ve hidden the recaps.)
Alex takes his job seriously as a writer, and he was a good pickup for Card Player. It’s also good that they’re giving him time to write the tournament reports during the tournaments, while WhoJedi and Mike handle the chip counts and the updates. (Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anyone else at Mandalay Bay training for the upcoming World Series of Poker, where CardPlayer.com has a monopoly on the live update coverage. Read more about that here.)
ANOTHER SABINA GADECKI SIGHTING
Sabina Gadecki, the new hostess of the World Poker Tour, arrived in Las Vegas for her second WPT event, and I managed to snap a great photo of her with Joe Sebok:
Isn’t she beautiful? Now that I think of it, I probably could have composed this photo a little better.
Okay, there will be more Sabina photos (without a tumbler in her face) later in this entry. And with that sentence, I just lost 95% of my readers, who are now scrolling down this page as quickly as they can.
LIFE ON THE WORLD POKER TOUR
When I was working for Card Player magazine, I was working my butt off day after day covering tournaments. At the end of each night, I was exhausted, but still had to write a daily report and upload more photos. I often got offers to hang out and party with various poker people (players, media, etc.), but I always had more work to do.
But now I’m a freelancer, and work on my own schedule. And my own schedule gives me time to have some fun. Ironically, I spent the time with a lot of Card Player people, something I couldn’t do if I were still working for Card Player. Go figure.
Before I go any further, let me add a quick photo of Layne Flack arm wrestling with Jeremy Firth, the videographer for Card Player. (This photo was taken shortly after Day two of the WPT event ended.) Flack had just beaten Scott Huff (host of “The Circuit”), so Jeremy volunteered for the challenge. Flack pinned him in about one second. Layne Flack is stronger than he looks. So don’t accept a prop bet to arm wrestle him unless you’re certain you can back it up.
I ended up hanging out with Jeremy and the crew from “The Circuit.” Here’s a photo of Gavin Smith from Sunday night’s show, when they interviewed actress Shannon Elizabeth:
Last night, they interviewed Kenna James (currently ranked 2nd in Card Player’s Player of the Year standings) while I was taking advantage of the free buffet with Steve Hall. But they were still recording when I finished dinner, so I sat in on a couple of segments to listen to the show live. (No, I didn’t talk at all. I’m not sure the powers-that-be at Card Player would appreciate a former employee on the air, even though I’m a big fan of the show.)
When the show was finished, we all went up to a suite where Morgan Machina (pictured here, with Sabina) hosted a party. (Machina finished fourth in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at last year’s WSOP, behind Erik Seidel, Cyndy Violette, and Perry Friedman.) Morgan attracted a great crowd, including players, media, and some people from the WPT. He was a hell of a host, and he threw a hell of a party. It wasn’t anything too crazy, but there was an open bar, plenty of food, and we managed to fit in a cash game and a $100 freezeout tournament — after an hour or two of drinking games. (Okay, maybe it was a little crazy.)
As you can see, Sabina Gadecki showed up. She didn’t arrive until about midnight, and amazingly, most of these photos with her were taken about 4:00 am. It’s a positive sign that she is able to function well on poker players’ hours. She spent some time watching us play hold’em, learning more about the game. She then showed us that New York City bartenders are no lightweights when it comes to drinking games. She’s going to fit in perfectly in the poker world.
Other people in attendance were Kenna James (pictured here), John Phan, Gavin Smith, Joe Sebok, Scott Huff, Joe Stapleton, Danny Egelhoff, Jeremy Firth, Alex Henriquez, and a fun group of people from the WPT. (There were more people, but I didn’t know everyone.) Actually, a few of these photos were taken by a WPT employee who is a much better photographer than I am, even though that person’s job has nothing to do with cameras of any kind (still or video).
What do degenerate poker players do when they get bored of drinking games? They play poker. So here’s a very quick summary of the $100 freezeout we played.
Disclaimer: In my first blog entry, I made this promise: No bad-beat stories. I said I wouldn’t write about the games I played, because nobody would care. This is my tenth blog entry, and I’m already scaling back that promise to not very often.
On the very first hand of our $100 winner-take-all tournament, the flop came Kc-10c-9c. Jeremy Firth led out with a bet, and the next player (Tim, who is Kenna James’s agent) moved all in. Scott went into the tank, telling us that he flopped a low flush, and thinking he could be up against a higher flush. But he eventually called with 7c-6c. Jeremy called behind him with Ac-Jh (nut-flush draw), and Tim showed Qc-9s (queen-high flush draw, pair of nines).
Scott needed to avoid a club or something runner-runner to triple up on the first hand, but the turn card was the 8c, giving Jeremy the ace-high flush. But wait! That 8c also gave Scott a ten-high straight flush! While Scott was celebrating his victory, someone pointed out that Tim had a redraw to a higher (queen-high) straight flush, if he could catch the jack. But the last card was the 3s, two players were eliminated, and Scott had a big chip lead on the first hand.
Photo: The board on the very first hand of our $100 freezeout tournament in Morgan Machina’s suite. Yes, the tablecloth is dirty. That’s what happens when you play drinking games for an hour or two.
Meanwhile, I was sitting out of position to Joe Sebok, and he was punishing me. I was card dead, and any time I came in for a raise, he would move all in, and I would fold. If I limped, he’d limp behind me (with 2 or 3 others), and I’d miss the flop entirely.
Photo: That’s me on the left, sitting out of position to Joe Sebok. He’s been playing strong lately, winning three tournaments in the past month.
I managed to stay afloat, although below average in chip counts. Then I picked up a monster — A-Q. I raised, and Scott called. The flop came A-9-x, and I bet into him. He moved all in, and I immediately called. He had Q-9 (pair of nines), and I had him drawing dead to three outs. And he hit a nine on the river to bust me.
There’s my bad beat story. No more for a long time. (Subject to change.)
Of course, Scott went on to win the tournament, which you’ll probably hear about on Tuesday night’s edition of “The Circuit.” You’ll probably want to listen to that episode anyway, because their scheduled guest is Sabina Gadecki. (Second Update: I originally posted that Sabina would be on The Circuit, then updated it to say that she was replaced by Harry Demetriou. It turns out my original information was correct, as Sabina did tape a brief interview on Tuesday night’s edition of The Circuit. But it was a shorter segment, and Harry Demetriou was the primary guest.)
Photo: Scott Huff’s victory photo after winning the $100 freezeout, showing his winning hand (As-5c). Joe Sebok was the sore loser in second place. To make this official, we even had WPT hostess Sabina Gadecki holding Joe’s losing cards. To add insult to injury, Joe also lost a side bet with Morgan Machina when Joe guaranteed a victory with five players left.
PHOTOS OF GAVIN WITH WOMEN WHO ARE HOTTER THAN GAVIN
In the course of covering all these tournaments, I sometimes take photos on the side. For whatever reason, I have accumulated a lot of pictures of Gavin with women, and I decided that I should start a website called www.PhotosOfGavinWithWomenWhoAreHotterThanGavin.com.
Some of you might joke that “it’s not hard to find women who are hotter than Gavin Smith.” That might be true, but the average beauty of the women I tend to photograph with Gavin is probably a 9 out of 10. I don’t know how he does it, but I think I’d have to win more than a few WPT events to have similar results. Anyway, this blog entry adds two more photos to that series. (Maybe I’ll make some Gavin Smith/Beautiful Women trading cards.) I have a photo of him with Shannon Elizabeth earlier in this entry, and a shot of him with Sabina Gadecki here.
I also have two fun Gavin Smith stories that I’ll share sometime. And for the record, neither of them has anything to do with drinking. (He’s not so much drunk as he is tired in this photo with Sabina. She’s tough to keep up with.)
THE LAST WORD
I’ll be posting another interview with Sabina Gadecki tomorrow. No, I’m just kidding.
I did ask Sabina about her acting classes at William Esper Studios. After studying the conflicts between the WPT and her classes, they have decided to work around her schedule, and she’s been invited back for another year. Sabina is very excited about this, and it looks like she’ll be able to continue most of her extra-curricular activities. She might have to give up the dance company (TADAH), but I imagine that she’ll be too busy to miss it for a while.
Here’s one last photo of Sabina, this time with Danny Egelhoff, who produces “The Circuit.” As you have probably guessed, everyone wanted their photo taken with her, so Sabina posed and I took the pictures. It’s amazing that these photos were taken as the party was breaking up at 4:00 am, after hours of poker and drinking games. And she still looks fresh as can be, even when she’s posing with degenerate poker players like us.
If that’s not a perfect skill for the WPT hostess, I don’t know what is.
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Upcoming blogs: The National Poker League (NPL) at Caesars Palace, followed by the Importance of the World Poker Tour, and an interview with outgoing WPT hostess Courtney Friel.
As always, feel free to leave me comments below.
BJ’s Blog: Fun Times at the WPT
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
