From: greatbrit Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Subject: WSOP 2003, Days 20 & 21: I never promised you a rose garden Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 16:45:53 -0700 Yesterday was the seniors (50+) $1,000 No Limit, this is the one where they have ten minute rounds with 60 minute nap breaks. I didn't play, one because I've been telling everyone I won't be eligible for another 11 years, and two because I had an invite to the hottest ticket in town. I was invited to the garden party, apparently held every year for the last few years at the home of Maureen and Bob, two of the nicest people in poker and out of poker. The house is a mansion, with one huge separate area of the already huge garden dedicated to an incredible rose garden (Maureen's English, used to live only a few miles from me in England, English people like roses, I think it's a gene thing, along with bangers, warm beer and pot limit). With a great band playing all day, fantastic food, flowing wine (way too much flowing wine in my case), perfect weather, superb hosts, and a whole bunch of interesting people made this one of the nicest days I can remember. One very entertaining guy I met is a vet to the stars, he gets to clean tiger teeth (still attached to the tigers), operates on fish! (he should pop down to Binion's, he'd be working all month), and has an upcoming Animal Planet show. All the who's who of poker were there, but thankfully poker wasn't the main topic of conversation, well it might have been, my recollections of the day are somewhat foggy. Some of us later met up at the coffee shop, then I dived into a late night $175 satellite ($1,600 prize). We usually get 600 chips for this, tonight we got 1,000. I thought I'd lucked into a color-blind dealer, but it turns out they have a graveyard special where they give extra chips, still starting with a 10-15 blind, so the amount of play is tremendous. This allowed me to get maximum value before busting out. The $50 sats to the super sats are still going strong. Two seats given away, you have to play in that day's super, so if it ends before 4 p.m.. you have to play in the 4 p.m. one, then they run more until it would be too late to get into the 8:45 one (if it runs over they let you play the next day). These sats are away from the main satellite area, over by the deli. I haven't played one yet, maybe tomorrow I'll plonk down $50 and brisket. Today I picked up my best friend from the airport, he's in town for a couple of days and will be winning the 1.5K No Limit tomorrow. I've had 4 hours sleep and have to do some work now, then a nap so we can go party tonight, it's a hard life. Paul