"This is why I always show up late." Phil Hellmuth's gentle poke at the TV production crew's delays brought a round of laughs from fellow poker pros Daniel Negreanu, David Grey, and Huckleberry Seed. After entering Ballroom G at the Venetian, the pros were forced to wait an extra thirty minutes while the finishing touches were being put on the makeshift TV set to film each player dropping their tournament entry fee onto a poker table.
However, it's not a poker tournament that each player was putting up the $100,000 to enter but a golf tournament. This fall, ESPN will be airing "Doyle Brunson & Dewey Tomko High Stakes Golf." The show will feature primarily poker players with a few high-stakes gamblers thrown into the mix. Players will be teeing off on Wednesday and Thursday in both a "two-man best ball" match and a "three-man scramble."
All Daniel could manage to say when asked about the event was, "We're drawing soooo dead..." Shaking his head, Daniel continued, "We're in trouble with some of these teams. David Grey and Huck against me and E-Dog? That team is stacked!"
In the background, Janet Jones and Vince Van Patten were parading around the set of giant metal cut-out cards. It's no secret that Wayne Gretsky's wife likes to gamble but I'm going to be a bit surprised if she can hold her own with some of these guys in a round of golf (actually, the consensus was that Vince's score would be the only one showing up on the card in best-ball).
While the next few days of golf will be entertaining, the constant wagering and bullshitting will tell the real story about these players. "I like having Huck around. He's kind of like a little kid that I'm always keeping out of trouble," remarked David Grey while spinning tale after tale of Huck's famous prop-bets. It's one thing to hear the account of Huck playing tennis eight hours a day for thirty days straight second-hand and quite another to watch David's eyes bulge while insulting Huck's intelligence for only making $15k on the bet. Then there was the story about Huck winning $5k for spending over a dozen hours in a strip club...betting Hellmuth that he would never weigh over 185 pounds in his lifetime...running the marathon on a summer day in Vegas (all 26 miles on an oval track)...
Stay tuned to PokerWire as I'll be tagging along on the golf course (and the after-parties) to follow the action...
