Gary Wise from Las Vegas

Meet The Press

Posted by admin on Jun 3, 2008

How do I do this to myself? I’m starting to blog at 5:10AM and I’m not really sure how it got this late. Seriously, it was a pretty mundane day at WSOP; no final tables, no massive drama. I didn’t play a hand of poker today, so where did the time go?

For one, it went to some lengthy conversations about the main event final table. Get together a bunch of industry insiders and its almost inevitable at this point. Some are excited for the drama the four month delay will build, some think that it’s an ineffective way to achieve the goals of a PR boost and others still think the collusion issue is too big to ignore.

Me, I’m a fan. I don’t see the collusion as much more of an issue than it has been in the past and I’m not usually a fan of breaking with tradition, but as far as health of the industry goes, I think something drastic had to be tried in order to save us from ratings death and programming removal. Is this it? I’m not really sure, but at this point in time, both in the poker timeline and in the AM, I’m happy to try anything without much resistance.

The big thing I took from that gathering of minds is the fact that part of my enjoyment of WSOP routes from the reunion with the finest journalists in the industry. Talking about the past, present, future, winners, losers, TV, tourneys, cash games, players, executives and everything in between lets me geek out with people I respect and can always learn something from. The interaction inspires me, as should be obvious from my recent output.

Bluff’s Lance Bradley has been a joy to work with. Nolan Dalla of WSOP has always loaned me his mentorship and continues to be an inspiration as the hardest working man in the game. BJ Nemeth provides the technical approach that supports my writer’s license, while Dr. Pauly surpassed my output while having the courage to talk about the darker (and therefore even more romantic0 side of the game. Dan Michalski, Jen Newell, Haley Hinte…these people have dedicated themselves to the game, and sharing the upper perch of the media partition with them provides constant inspiration.

The poker media doesn’t get enough love. It’s a mostly thankless task that doesn’t always pay what it should. Players possessed of ego or recoiling from contact can be difficult to approach, and being able to surpass all that is an underrated skill. These folks give their all to the game, cheesy as that may sound, and while yeah, ‘geeked out’ makes a lot of sense sometimes, it better not be used in a derogatory fashion, because without these people who have dedicated their lives to supplementing the game, the people who have followed the likes of Andy Glazer, Mike Paulle and Max Shapiro before them, there wouldn’t be much worth reading on the Interweb. Thank them the next time you see them recording a card or hacking furiously at a keyboard. You can point a finger and laugh at me though.

Speaking of reading things on the interweb…

In a new ESPN column, I remember last night’s stunning turn of events and note how each of the final four had somehow been previously overlooked;

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/columns/story?columnist=wise_gary&id=3422466

Early in the day, Dewey Tomko and Billy Baxter were amongst the chip leaders. The two classic gamblers had me feeling nostalgic, as you’ll see here;

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/article.asp?newsID=2046

In the wisehandpoker.com Wised Hand of the Day, we see David Singer maneuver his way into a commanding chip stack here;

http://www.wisehandpoker.com/Handofday/archive/2008-wsop-day-4.php

In the PokerListings Wise hand of the Day, Nenad medic goes down to good buddy David Williams;

http://www.pokerlistings.com/poker-hand-of-the-day_wsop-day-4-no-repeat?show=all

I have one more article about to go up on worldseriesofpoker.com about Phil Ivey’s big bet with Eli Elezra, but frankly, I can’t really keep my eyes open any longer. 5:35. God I’m an idiot. I’m going to bed, as per usual. Nite,

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

“It’s been a long day.”

Posted by admin on Jun 2, 2008

‘I’m at the end of a very long day.’

I’m starting to get the feeling that either a) that should be the name of this blog or b) every installment I write up until July 14th should start that way. Despite my not being full-time on any one gig and having some freedom to enjoy for the first time in a few years, I seem to always be at the Rio and doing five things at once.

For the second day in a row, it was a fairly news-less day due to a remarkably well-run WSOP ship thus far, but I was following a couple of stories closely, namely the absolutely superb final table taking shape in event #1 – $10,000 pot limit world championship and the absolute dismantling of the record for most players in a live non-WSOP main event.

As I write this, it’s 4:48 and the final ten players in the pot-limit are still going. The final nine will be at ESPN’s televised final table, and that means big bucks for everyone but the last man to go. Prospective player agents have been looming for hours and a rep of one site told me they’d have two players at the final table regardless of who makes it, but with chip leader Andy Bloch firmly entrenched at FTP, second-running Mike Sexton a PartyPoker man and Mike Sowers, Chris Bell and Nenad Medic all having their own deals, you have to think there’s going to be some competition for those last few names.

The big sponsorship prizes left on the board are Phil Laak, Kathy Liebert and Patrik Antonius…

Oh man; 4:56AM and John Kabbaj was just eliminated.

Back to that thought, Phil Laak is a likable and familiar figure, though ‘zany’ and ‘player rep’ aren’t always synonymous in the eyes of industry types. Kathy Liebert is a likable lady to talk to, but she’s burned through two sponsorships and some bridges. The real prize here is Antonius, the supermodel-genius with poker balls the size of watermelons. Stars and FTP must be salivating. There’s another game of poker going on here.

Quick story about Patrik; you know those posters on his website with the nickname ‘The Black Lotus’? Last year in the press room, I was hanging out with then-Bluff magazine staffers Chris Vaughn and Matt Brown and then-PokerNews.com video producer Justin Shronk when the subject of my having played on the professional Magic: the Gathering tour back in the day came up. Yeah, I’m a nerd. Go to hell.

Anyways, the three stooges got around to mocking me a little bit and googling at the same time and discovered that the most valuable card in the game was called the Black Lotus. I think it was Shronk who asked “Is the Black Lotus like the Patrik Antonius of Magic?” They thought the question was so hilarious that they agreed to all start referring to Patrik as the Black Lotus in their assorted coverage. Patrik Antonius, this chiseled god who makes women swoon, who is so cool that internet fan boys profess homosexual love for him despite heterosexual leanings, named himself after a Magic card.

That’s the kind of stupid shit that goes on in the media room.

The second story I was watching was the size of event #2, $1,500 no-limit hold’em. Divided into two days, this thing is going to max out at –get this—4,098. The old record for live non-main event tournaments was 3,151, set a year ago. How often does a record in any established competition get bettered by 25%? TV poker may not be in the best shape at the moment, but tournament poker is better than ever.

Since it’s 5:30AM and I’m getting up in 5.5 hours, I should get to the links. I’ve got four articles for you guys to look at today, which makes me wonder how it is I managed to find time to get to the tables and win a few bucks. Yeah, I know, brag post. On to the links;

- I thought so much of how well day one went that I got an article into ESPN about it late last night. You’ll find it right here;

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/columns/story?columnist=wise_gary&id=3420340

- With Patrik Antonius amongst those threatening to take the bracelet in the PLHE championship, I did a pretty basic piece for worldseriesofpoker.com on some of the best-established players to have never won a bracelet. You’ll find it here;

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/article.asp?newsid=2039

- The PokerListings.com Wise Hand of the Day is a look at a funny hand that happened with ten players left in the PLHE championship;

http://www.pokerlistings.com/poker-hand-of-the-day_wsop-day-2-a-lot-of-money?show=all

- The Wise Hand of the Day on wisehandpoker.com, I look at the final hand of the day’s play;

http://www.wisehandpoker.com/Handofday/archive/2008-wsop-day-2.php

Anyways, its time to hit the sack. Hope you guys enjoy the reading, and keep an eye on that final table over at worldseriesofpoker.com tomorrow. Have a good one.

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

My Favorite Day

Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2008

I think I can say with some certainty that ever since I started covering the World Series of poker back in 2004, day 1 of the event has been my favorite day of the year. It’s the end of the anticipation, the re-igniting of friendships. It proceeds the inevitable grind that WSOP becomes for those of us crazy enough and enamored enough with the game to stay away from the tables long enough to make the event work. It reminds us of why we love the game.

Today, day 1 lived up to expectations. Each year, I seem to know more and more of the guys most of you are accustomed to seeing on television. One of the benefits of my job is unfettered access to the tables and I milked it for all it was worth, dancing through tables, shaking hands and bumping fists, cracking jokes and having them cracked back at me. I’m a little old to be a kid in a candy store, but it was the next best thing.

From the moment the event got under way, highlighted by one hell of a rendition of “Viva, Las Vegas!” courtesy of a marching band, there was a shit-eating grin adorning my face. For all the late nights, the times where the words don’t come, the frustration with scandals, the no-show interviews, this was a genuine moment that made it all worthwhile. The euphoria lasted far longer than I should have ever expected considering I’d gotten around four hours of sleep.

The Bluff party at Tao was great despite my only staying for 75 minutes after a few hands and a Philly cheese steak at the Venetian. I headed back to the Bluff house with worldseriesofpoker.com editor Lance Bradley and worked until Bluff own Eddie Kleid returned to the fold. Once lance crashed, Eddy and I got to talking business. Before I knew it, it was 4:30, I still owed ESPN an article and I was more or less collapsed on my keyboard.

The piece –an interview with ESPN’s Jamie Horowitz that will be posted some time over coming weeks—got mailed in at 5:30AM and I crashed a few minutes later. I’d told Lance to awaken me a few minutes before he was heading to the Rio so I could join him. What I didn’t know was that he wanted to be there by 9:45AM, and I’m paying for it now. I’ve been up for eighteen hours on four hours sleep and I’m not so young that I can really do that any more, so you’re reading the end of one hell of a day.

Despite the general fatigue and the exhaustion of my day 1 afterglow, I managed to get a few articles done and posted. The first was an interview with a man I consider to be one of the most important in the poker industry right now, John Pappas;

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/article.asp?newsid=2035

Pappas, as I hope you’re going to read, is the president of the Poke Player’s Alliance, perhaps our best shot at getting online poker legalized in the United States. He and I get into the basics of why we need that legalization, what the PPA is doing to make that happen and how you can help. Namely, get your ass out and vote.

Another piece I got up on worldseriesofpoker.com was the first of what will be a daily ritual, ‘Notes From the Floor’, a collection of thoughts and tidbits from the day’s proceedings;

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/article.asp?newsid=2036

I think BJ Nemeth, who I’ll be quoting a lot throughout the series, was right in his assertion that the lack of news was newsworthy. After last year’s day 1 fiasco, today ran smooth as silk. If you’re a fan of WSOP (and really, I’m not sure why you’d be reading this if you aren’t) this was a very good sign. One hell of a start for the Seth Palansky era.

Finally, I got up a couple of Wise Hand(s) of the Day posted, one over at pokerlistings.com;

http://www.pokerlistings.com/poker-hand-of-the-day_wsop-day-1-escaping-the-royal?show=all

…and one at WiseHandPoker

http://www.wisehandpoker.com/Handofday/archive/2008-wsop-day-1.php

It’s pretty insane to think about being happy when your opponent turns over a royal. What a colossal screw up. I mean, to err is human, but…meh, call it first day jitters. WSOP is a different animal. Yeah, I’m being nice.

Now kiddies, I must sleep, because tomorrow’s going to be a long one. I’m pretty sure we’re going to have a record-setting field since we’re over 3,000 registrants now and the record for live non-main event tournaments is 3,151 players, and we’re going to be getting down to our first final table. Keep a special eye on a WHP favorite Mark Newhouse, who was down to 1,500 chips at one point. I would, but both of mine are closing and I still have one last article to write.

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

maintained by: BJM for Gary Wise