Thanksgiving & My 1st World Series of Poker (part I)

I was giving some thought to the things I am thankful for and of course I am thankful for my family and friends, my health (I believe I still have it) and other tangible things like a roof over head, car, money, etc., but as far as poker goes I am really thankful that I had the opportunity to play in the last World Series of Poker to be held at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas. That's where it has been held since Benny Binion started it back in 1970, but the casino had fallen on some tough times due to mismanagement and in January 2004 the IRS raided the casino and shut it down, tossing all the hotel patrons out on the street and seizing all the cash in the cage. For a moment it looked as though Binion's and the World Series were history, but Harrah's stepped in and bought the casino and the rights to the tournament. They saved the tournament just in time, but never again (after 2004) would it be held downtown in its birthpace. The casino reopened in April, just a few weeks before the 6 week marathon that is the World Series of Poker would begin.
I flew into Vegas on a Wednesday night, just three days before the main event was scheduled to start. That meant I had two days to win the $10,000 buy-in or I would not be participating in the historic tournament. I checked into the Golden Nugget, just across the street from the Horseshoe, and after dropping off my luggage in the room I headed straight for the poker room.
Walking into Binion's that first night and for the first time in my life was a memorable experience. I could feel the excitement and the history of the place in the air. I noticed alot of the same faces I had seen on ESPN broadcasts of the World Series and the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour playing at various tables around the room.
It was too late to play in a tournament so I headed to a the cash tables and got involved in a $10-$20 hold-em game. There was something special about playing in that poker room surrounded by the Gallery of Champions on the wall; pictures of all the World Series of Poker winners for the past 35 years. I won some money that first night and headed back to my hotel to sleep and get an early start on the next day.
I can never really sleep when I'm in Vegas. It's just too disconcerting to know that everything is open 24 hours and your mind races if you start to think about all the possibilities just outside your room. I got up early and headed downstairs to start playing. I had some time to kill before the first satellite tournament at the Horseshoe so I played some craps at the Nugget. I won a few hundred dollars, had a late breakfast and headed across the street. They would be holding satellite tournaments throughout the day where you could try to win the $10,000.00 required to actually participate in the world championship main event. These events ranged from single tables where ten players vied in a winner-takes- all elimination match with buy-ins from $100 to $1000, and multi-table events with a $200 buy-in and hundreds of players with as many $10,000.00 prizes as the entry fees and re-buys allowed. In these event you started with $500 in chips and you could rebuy back in as many times as you wanted during the first hour, but after that if you lost your chips you were gone. This creates alot of wreckless gambling as players make a mad race for chips and the play can be fast and furious. You have to be very good (or lucky) or have alot of money for rebuys to survive that first hour. The first one I played in had a few hundred players so there might be enough money to award maybe 10 entries into the big one. I didn't fair well in that one and busted out. I headed over to a single table satellite that was just forming and jumped in for $125. With these you only get $300 in chips and the play is very fast with the whole match lasting maybe an hour. I won that one and pocketed $1250 which I then used to enter a $1000 buy-in multi table satellite being played that night with about 200 players. That meant about 19 seats would be awarded with the excess cash going to the 20th place finisher. I played better in this one, even escaping certain death at one early point in the tournament when I found myself all-in with pocket jacks against my opponent's pocket kings and I happened to make a miraculous flush on the last card to win the hand when I was a 4 to 1 underdog to start. I came within 20 players of winning a coveted seat, but once again it was not meant to be and I was eliminated with about 40 players left in the tournament.
By this time it was close to midnite and I was tired and hungry so I headed back to my hotel, ordered some room service and prepared myself for the next day, Friday. The last day of tournaments to win a seat into the main event. My last chance if I wanted to be part of the historic event that would start at high noon on Saturday! There would be three super-satellites held that Friday with the first starting at 11 am, a little early for me so I planned on getting some needed sleep and trying my luck at the 3 pm tourney. The final one would start at 7 pm. Little did I know that a record turnout at the 3 pm event would throw the Horseshoe into such a state of chaos that the event would be over an hour late getting starting and there would be no way to hold another tournament that day. (to be continued.....)