The 2005 World Series of Poker is in full swing right now, although you'd never know it from reading this site :) I've played in the WSOP four out of the past five years, but never really wrote much about it because I didn't feel like I had much to add to the mass hysteria of media and web coverage it generates. This year has already generated much more coverage than last year, both online and offline and I'm curious to see how the coverage the main event generates in mainstream media will compare to last year.

I heartily recommend both Dan and Pauly's coverage for up-to-the-minute details from well-informed and seemingly omnipresent bloggers. About the most hard-working guy in Vegas right now, Pauly is doing real-time reporting of all WSOP events to his own site, promoting other great-quality WSOP reports on other sites, and doing writing for other sites. I liked this piece of coverage:

Also there was an interesting hand involving a cellphone. I knew an incident like this was bound to happen. The hand in question involved John Phan heads up with some guy who I don't his exact name. Phan moved all in with a 9 for his door card. After he pushed all his chips in, his cell phone rang. He answered and the floorman declared that his hand was dead. He violated a rule. However, all of his money was in the pot, therefore the phone call could not affect his decision... since there was none to be made. Phan offered to allow his hand to be declared dead. The tournament directors decided that Phan's hand is good. Phan's opponent wasn't thrilled with the ruling and implied that there could be a bigger controversy brewing if he loses the hand to Phan. In the end, Phan's two pair loses to a higher two pair. Controversy averted. WSOP Lesson of the Day: Turn off your cellphones.

I'm surprised to see that Phan's offer to declare his hand dead was overturned by the tourney directors, since that offer was in agreement with the initial floor ruling, but like any tournament decision I'm sure there was a lot more talking, thinking and discussion going on than can be summarized into one paragraph.

Meanwhile, Dan is doing his best Hunter S. Thompson impersonation, with a great narrative about poker tournament goings-on both on and off the felt, and tons of funny banter and observations, interspersed with hard partying and just good poker stories, including gems such as how Phil Laak kept taking breaks from a $25-50 NLH game to make out with an apparent fan. Nice.

Good luck to all you playing out in WSOP events this year; with record-breaking numbers in every event, including a main event that is likely to sell out in advance, you'll need it!

just for the record ... the girl he was making out with was jennifer tilly, who reportedly is his girlfriend.

Posted by: Dan M. on June 22, 2005 05:46 AM

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Posted by: alexander baker on December 4, 2005 11:26 PM