moFace Vegas report on Virgin Blog

[GaF]

Last month I made the trip out to Vegas along with some of our poker players who had won packages online, as well as David Pomroy and Julian Gardner, Virgin Poker's sponsored players. Vegas is a wild place, and just how I imagined it, although one thing I didn't account for was the temperature - The heat as you step out of the airport smacks you in the face like a hairdryer, and air-conditioning has never been so necessary. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

We were staying at Caesar's Palace, which is the original home of everything kitsch and glitz about Vegas - it's an enormous resort, with nearly 5000 rooms, 2 vast casinos, and more shops and restaurants than you could shake a stick at. Not to mention a 25,000 sq foot nightclub, and a 10,000 seater arena specially built for Elton and Celine to warble in. I knew we could have some serious fun here!

Most days were spent at the circus that is the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Rio . I have never seen so many poker players in one room, let alone accounting for all of the spectators who were jammed into the main tournament area, about the size of an aircraft hangar.

The Amazon Ballroom at the Rio

The day after arriving, M3Monster and Moface were all set to take part in the $1500 no limit event, and after registering early in the morning (and a failed attempt by Fishy in a $175 satellite), the Amazon room filled with 3000 players and the tourney kicked off at 2pm.

With only 1500 chips to start with it was going to be tough to get involved with any marginal hands, and after a couple of hours Moface and M3Monster had increased their stacks and were in pretty good shape. Sadly soon after M3monster got all his chips in the middle with JJ against a hyper-aggressive player only to find his crazy friend peel over 2 red kings. Man down. Moface took his time and slowly increased his chipcount, picking up pots with KK twice and AA, and with a few well timed steals found himself comfortable on about 8000 nearing the end of day one.

Moface collecting chips in the $1500

That evening we decided to play the $220 tourney at Caesar's, which was not particularly memorable, apart from having the company of TheWaster at my table and some pretty good banter with a Johnny Chan wannabe (who even brought his own orange to the table). Unfortunately I found my bluffs being raised and my stack dwindling rather quickly, so I stuck it all in with 10 10 to be called (and crushed FYI) by AQ. Ho hum.

Being the first man out as usual I retired to the relative safety of the bar only to be joined pretty soon after by M3Monster with another bad beat tale. TheWaster managed to last a fair bit longer, but ultimately fell just shy of the money, so a pretty dismal performance by the Virgin boys on day one!

The second day saw Moface continue in the $1500, and with about 500 players left he was very close to the money.

M3monster Fishy and TheWaster at Caesars

Fortunately he managed to hang on, and once in the money lumped the lot in with 10 10 to be called up by JJ. His last 100 chip went in with 62 and that was that! A very commendable performance by Moface, and 202nd place out of 3000 players in his first WSOP is a great performance. That night we went out to sample the Vegas nightlife, and had a great night out at various nightclubs including Pure and Studio 54 at the MGM Grand.

Moface counts his dosh

The next morning was the big one, the start of the main event, in which Julian and Dave had been drawn to play on day one. The atmosphere inside the Rio was palpable as players desperately scrambled to register for the biggest poker tournament the world had ever seen. Last year's WSOP had 5619 entrants, and people had been speculating about the field size this year. It was announced that there were a remarkable 8773 players this year, and that first prize would be $12 million!!! This is an absurd number of players, and shows the explosive growth that poker is still enjoying. God only knows how many players will turn up for next year's event, it looks like Harrah's and the Rio had better start organising it now.

Once the cards were in the air, Pommo and Julian settled in nicely and both made the first break at around 15,000 chips. The levels in the main event were 2 hours long, so there was plenty of play, but also plenty of folding time which meant a reasonably dull first few hours. I left the boys to it and decided to go on a celeb hunt around the room. On my travels I managed to spot Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, Lennox Lewis and overheard a blinged up gangster-looking chap claim that he was the bad guy in the new Rocky flick. It seems everybody wants a piece of poker at the moment.

Pommo in action

When I returned from my celeb-hunt I noticed that Pommo wasn't in his seat, in fact there was someone else sitting there. I assumed that he had been moved table, but soon had a call from him which explained. He had flopped a straight (and flush draw) and got all of his chips in the middle. It was a huge pot which would have put him up with the chip leaders, but sadly his opponent flipped up the nut straight and the flush didn't materialise.

Julian managed to get through day one without many scares, and finished up towards the top of the pile with 60,000 chips, so a pretty successful day one from him. There was now a three day break for Julian as the other 6000 poker hopefuls tried to make it through the day 2. It was going to be a long week.

Days 1b, 1c and 1d saw only one other Virgin player take part, Daniel Schleisner-Meyer, who made it through to day 2 by the skin of his teeth with 3000 chips! In fact many of the huge poker names involved didn't get through day one, such is the structure in the main event. Early casualties included Phil Ivey, Devilfish, Doyle Brunson and a host of other top pros.

Over the weekend I checked out some of the other hotels on the strip, including the Venetian and Bellagio, and went up to the top of the Stratosphere tower - a must see if you're in Vegas. On the Saturday night I found myself in a cash game at the MandalayBayuntil the wee hours only to have my pocket kings cracked by an inebriated Texan holding 75 offsuit. It was not the most successful week in poker I've ever had and hopefully the bad form has been left in Vegas!

Julian was focused going into day 2, and again had a stable day, winning some big pots and propelling himself up the leaderboard ending the day on 130,000 chips. Julian really has the uncanny ability to pick up small pots and seems to always go in with the best of it - on day 2 he was hardly in trouble at all and confidence was high for day 3. By now the field had thinned out dramatically, and we were down to the final 2000 which meant after 7 days at last everyone remaining in the tournament could sit in the same room!

All the expectation and hope for Julian going deep in the event came crashing down to earth with a thud early on day 3 however, when his pocket KK managed to run into the dreaded AA, and although he nursed a shortstack for a few hours, the damage had been done, and he went out soon after. So sadly no joy for team Virgin at this year's WSOP. It wasn't a great year for Brits in the main event, and as I write, Irishman John Magill has just busted out short of the final table. Incredibly the main event doesn't finish until Friday night where after a marathon 2 weeks we will crown the latest poker multi-millionaire.

So after a very tiring time in Vegas it's back to normality and focus shifts to this season's EPT series which promises to be bigger and better than ever. We'll be sending several players through promotions on the site over the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled to see how you can join the poker glitterati in Barcelona , Austria and Monte Carloamongst others. And if you happen to be travelling on Virgin Atlantic any time soon, don't forget to look out for our rather comical sickbags, featured on most flights at the moment...

See you at the tables,

Fishy

[morlspin]

Re: moFace Vegas report on Virgin Blog Very well done Mo!:notworthy Your a superstar now! Virgin Poker Blog, Hendon Mob website.......congrats mate!:clap

[moFace]

Re: moFace Vegas report on Virgin Blog cool have no idea how he knew what hands i had etc cos never saw him after 20 mins in :unsure for rest of week due to my mobile not working lol but hes not far off, except went out with 30mins of day 1 left (unless ronay relayed hands?)