Barely Loafing in Las Vegas, Part 2
Still hanging out in the desert with a Horse with No Name. Actually, it’s a rented Kia Sportage. It has been almost two weeks here in Las Vegas on vacation (shattering my own personal record) observing the World Series of Poker Main Event, chatting with mixed martial arts fighters and playing in my own little tournament involving a decades-old baseball board game and some extremely nice fellows who freely and good-naturedly admit to their own geekiness – but more on that later.
Back to the poker. Maryland’s poker royalty, Steve Dannenmann (2nd in Main Event in 2005) and Rhett Butler (5th in Main Event in 2006) were both eliminated earlier last week after making it out of the first round. Neither cashed. Dannenmann saw a pair of queens cracked by a straight on the turn in the second round. Butler, one of the best short stack players I’ve ever seen, was trying to regroup after three bad beats earlier in the tournament but apparently could not. I haven’t caught up with Butler yet after seeing him battling in the second round and I saw he made it to the third round with over 50,000 chips, but he’s not on the cash list. There are several Marylanders who did cash and I’ll report on them later.
But the big Maryland story right now is Andrew Brokos, a pleasant and earnest young guy who went to Catonsville High School and the University of Chicago. He began today in second place with about 4.4 million chips. The chip leader had 5.8 million. There were just 79 players remaining out of a starting field of 6,844 when play began today (Sunday). First place prize is $9.1 million. There’s a lot of poker still left to be played. They’ll take the next few days to get down to a final table of nine and finish this thing in November in a grand finale on ESPN.
The big guns still left are Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow.
Brokos has his own web site. Here it is.
This is an email he sent out earlier today to folks who are following his play. Talk about drama.
I began play yesterday with 565K chips. My girlfriend was preparing to
fly out here to join me. While she was at the airport, I lost most of
chips and was down to 135K. I called to warn her that there was a very
real danger of my being eliminated before she arrived. She hates
flying, and I didn't want her to spend five hours on the plane each
way for nothing. She still had 20 minutes before boarding, so I told
her it was her call and I'd let her know if anything changed. Twenty
minutes later, she sent me a text message: "On brd. I hv confidence in
you. :-)"
Two days later, there are 80 players left, and I am in second place
with 4,444,000 chips. We are all guaranteed $77,200. I really don't
know how I made it through the day at all, let alone with so many
chips; my table was so tough, full of really solid players.
This is me with another player named Jamal, (Editor's note: photo not included here) we've been friends since we played together two days ago. I got moved to his table at the end
of the day, and we both made it through.
Thanks to everyone who's called, written, posted, etc. to congratulate
me or wish me well. I am somewhere between terrified and exhilarated.
Much love,
Andrew
