After a few hours, Harrah’s acquired some traditional decks and swapped them into play for Event #1, appeasing the disgruntled players. But the casino employees in Event #2 were still using the cards with the flawed design, and it wasn’t clear if there would be enough cards for the huge field expected for Event #3 on Saturday. Harrah’s has promised that traditional decks are on their way, but it may take a few days before the flawed decks disappear entirely.

 

I’m not certain what the specific problems are with registration, but the long lines of unhappy players clearly indicate that something isn’t right. The real test will come tomorrow (Saturday), when over 2,000 players will be trying to enter Event #3. Speeding up the registration process is a now-or-never thing, because once Event #3 passes, the number of players registering for the first time will drop considerably, until it spikes again for the Main Event. If Harrah’s hasn’t improved the process by then, they would facing harsh criticism from the mainstream media. (Since that’s the only time of year the mainstream media actually pays attention to our little poker world, everything is magnified -- we don’t want USA Today focusing on long lines of pissed-off players.)

 

Our team at PokerNews had our own Day 1 problems, as could be expected. For most of our junior reporters, this would be their first real-world experience. Sure, they received some training, but nothing compares to the real thing. Nothing. It would take some time for them to recognize hundreds of top players, and improve their chip-counting and hand-reporting skills.

 

As a side note, you probably noticed that I called our new people “junior reporters” rather than “interns.” We don’t want to remind people of last year, when Card Player was widely criticized for their sub-par coverage, and much of the blame was focused (unfairly, in my opinion) on their poorly-managed interns. Yes, we have new people this year, but with a roughly 3-to-1 ratio of junior to senior reporters, they are being managed and trained much more closely.

 

 

My primary role will be covering final tables. It’s a difficult job, and not my favorite part of a tournament (I prefer the action at the final 3-4 tables), but I’m really, really good at it. I want to use this opportunity to take my final table coverage to another level. Don’t expect too much right away, as I’ll be getting my sea legs during the first few final tables, and learning how to balance the requirements and restrictions of Harrah’s, ESPN, and everyone else. But once I catch my stride, I expect to provide better final table coverage than you’ve ever seen before.