I am completing it on Sunday, July 22. I thought that the five intervening days would give me some perspective, though I was wrong. What I felt at the time was exactly what I feel now: a sense that I had shared in something very special. I spent those last few hours thanking everyone I knew – Phil Gordon, Gary Wise, Cory Zeidman, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Michelle Claiborne, and probably 20 others.

It has been a magical World Series. Of course, cashing in my first event and then making final tables in two of my last four events capped the experience. But there was so much more. I released the book I wrote and edited with the Full Tilt pros, and its reception in the poker community thrilled me on a daily basis. I found interesting things to write about, sometimes where I expected to find them and sometimes in the most unlikely places.

For example, when I explained to Lisa Wheeler just HOW great the experience was, I said, “On the fifth day of the World Series, someone broke through a window of my car and stole my navigation system. Even THAT turned out to be a great experience.” How else would I have been able to negotiate extra-fast service in exchange for giving 1% of my action to the auto-glass guy? How else would I have received – and then turned down – a chance to bunk with Clonie Gowen and Shannon Elizabeth? And how else would I have ended up trapped in Clonie’s shower with her stolen underpants if not because I had to invite myself to dinner to save face to all the guys who howled when I revealed I turned down that invitation?

But the best part was the people. It seems odd that poker is such a solitary experience and yet my enduring memories of the World Series are mostly about the time I got to spend with friends.

And that was driven home repeatedly as Tuesday night bled into Wednesday morning. Away from the crowd of the final table stadium was the ESPN studio, with Phil Gordon and Ali Nejad as hosts. All day and all night, a steady stream of guests arrived to appear for a few minutes on the pay-per-view broadcast. It was like a parade of all my friends from the 2007 World Series of Poker.

CHRIS FERGUSON – THE OTHER JESUS ON TUESDAY

One of the first people I saw in this corner of the Amazon Room was Chris Ferguson. I remember being thrilled when Chris and Annie Duke made a final table together in the Omaha EOB/Stud EOB event. It was Ferguson’s first final table in two years and their first final table together. I cancelled my first trip home to visit my family, then was stuck in Vegas – but not watching the final table – when my car was broken into.

Chris also became part of my Series routine because of his tireless efforts to disseminate the STRATEGY GUIDE. There are pictures of him all over the internet reading it during the World Series and he would ask me for a copy or two every time we were near the Amazon Room. His wrath could be mighty – okay, I’m making that up but his mock disbelief was no fun – if I didn’t have a copy with me when he asked.

When I saw Chris on Tuesday afternoon, I asked him about his post-Series plans. To my surprise, his highest priority was putting in some serious time on Full Tilt. He was back at work in his quest to turn his account from zero dollars to $10,000. As many of you are probably aware, he started by playing freerolls. With a few hard-won freeroll dollars and rigid bankroll management rules, Chris is up to about $2,200.

It’s a remarkable achievement and he has no plans to slow down. In fact, he told me about a bunch of related potential projects: updates on his web site, a book, and a new target.

As was always the case when I was with Ferguson near the Amazon Room, he was besieged by people who want his picture. When a particularly large group each wanted to pose individually with him – I have NEVER seen him turn down a request from a fan – we separated. I saw Cory Zeidman nearby, walked over to say hello, and the next thing I knew Chris Ferguson was on television.

CORY ZEIDMAN

Cory sat to my left during the first night of the SHOE (see Entry #195). I instantly liked the guy and the hours I spent with him Tuesday evening confirmed my judgment: smart guy, funny, a straight shooter, and with a perfect-sized chip on his shoulder. Cory was originally supposed to go on the broadcast at 5 or 6 PM. (Who can follow time in such a surreal place as the Amazon Room, at such a surreal time as the final table of the Main Event?)

I know it wasn’t later than 6 PM because we spent some time talking and I left for 7 PM dinner plans. It was sometime after 11 PM when he actually went on – and he’s not a patient, laid-back guy.

It was actually hilarious, talking about a variety of unrelated subjects (a poker show he’s hosting on the Game Show Network, his preference for Stud over Hold ‘Em and for limit over no-limit, the debate over who’s the best player in the world, why everyone was making such big initial raises at the final table, and a bunch of other things), and periodically busting his balls over his interminable wait. First, they got backed up during the first few hours, so the area outside the studio looked like a high-stakes bus terminal. Second, Cory was supposed to go on with Jennifer Harman (they have a famous WSOP TV-table history, including a hand where Cory’s straight flush beat Jen’s full house and, due to a misunderstanding regarding the bets, she thought he slowrolled her on the final call) but Jennifer was playing at the Bellagio. I don’t know if she didn’t want to leave the game when she was winning or didn’t want to leave the game when she was losing – maybe both, at different times. But she held out the possibility, if they called her just before it was time, that she would try to make it.

Maybe her indecision, I suggested to Cory, is her means of getting back at you for the supposed slowroll. Then I started coming up with a list of ever more obscure poker names who were coming to the studio at this moment to appear while he continued to wait. (The funniest of them was ME, as I got the call from Eric Drache to appear before Zeidman actually went on. I was actually back at my computer outside the media center, returned to the studio where Cory was waiting, and told him, “They said they wanted to have me on just before you. But they’ll get to you right away, promise.”

What I really wanted to do was go on WITH Cory Zeidman. He’s so sharp and funny that I could have played of his mock anger at having to wait so long to appear on the broadcast. (At least I THINK it was mock anger.)

MIKE MATUSOW TAKES A CURTAIN CALL

Mike went on with Shawn Shiekhan (while Cory was still waiting). Mike had a great World Series, but just below the radar screen. He missed making a final table in a No-Limit Hold ‘Em event by one hand and finished in the money in the $50,000 HORSE. He also had a lot of chips late in a few events where he ran into some awful luck; one Stud Eight-or-Better event sticks in my mind. He ended his streak of eight consecutive years making a final table – and T.J. ended his streak of FIFTEEN years, giving Phil Hellmuth, at nine years in a row, yet another place in the World Series history books. But he ended up a big winner, playing well and consistently, and coming incredibly close to another long-held and unrealized dream, that of winning a World Poker Tour championship.

On Saturday night, he finished second in the Bellagio Cup. He played brilliantly, beat himself up over one mistake (but did not tilt, and it ultimately made no difference in the outcome), and survived being short-stacked for much of the final table. I watched him at the final table and I’ll soon be writing about that experience.

Mike was mobbed after his appearance at the ESPN desk. This was not recorded in front of an audience per se; it was just the friends, family, and fans who decided to forego watching the final table. But a huge crowd followed to watch Matusow on camera and they surrounded him after. While he posed for endless pictures, he yelled to Shawn, “Get the cards, let’s play some Chinese.”

To which Shawn called you, “Whenever you’re ready, bi-atch!”

I mentioned something I considered important to Matusow in the few moments we had. In the final hand, he knew his opponent had a big hand but he forced the action after the flop when his 8-7s turned into an open-ended straight-flush draw, giving him 15 outs to the nuts.

“Mike,” I told him, “The best part for me was watching you KNOW you were going to hit it.”

“I was CERTAIN it was going to come. I still can’t believe it didn’t.”

“But that doesn’t matter. You believed. That’s a long way from the guy I’ve seen a bunch of during the last year-and-a-half talking about being cursed, never hitting, always taking the bad beat, always getting sucked out on. That guy’s gone and now you’re in charge, a guy who does his best and thinks something good will happen.”

THE REST OF THE PARADE

There were so many old and new friends that I probably can’t even remember them all.

Paul Wasicka was over by the studio. He spent a little while together in consecutive photo shoots for Full Tilt during the Series, and then analyzed a hand together for ESPN.com. (Neither of us realized it while we were discussing it on camera but it was the hand in which Sam Farha SHOULD HAVE won the Championship in 2003. With top pair against Moneymaker, he made too big a bet on the flop, made an indecisive call on the turn, and then folded on the river.)

Greg Mueller – I got to know him at the Series, mostly by watching him go deep, it seemed, every single time he played. I don’t think that guy ever went out of an event before midnight.

Andy Bloch – We talked awhile during the evening, and Andy was at least as mystified as me about the size of the opening raises – 4-6 times the big blind was standard when they were 4-handed. I had a fun evening with Andy right toward the end of the Series. I’ll be writing about that soon.

“DOES ANYBODY KNOW MICHAEL CRAIG?”

So it was a wonderful experience, the whole Series and the chance at the end to see many of the people who helped make it wonderful. But don’t worry about me getting a swelled head. I was reminded, as the Series drew to a close, of the actual marquee value of a poker writer, even if he is friends with Andy Beal, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch (and those are just the "A"s!), and even if he did make two final tables.

Watching the closing moments with some Full Tilt people on a video monitor between the studio and the stadium, Michelle Claiborne mentioned to me that she was hungry. As I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten much in the previous 24 hours, the only meal I recall being shared with Tony Holden and Des Wilson, who fought like an old married couple. It was a delightful experience, but I didn’t eat much.

Michelle Claiborne decided at about 2:45 AM that we should order room service. So I ordered potato skins, she ordered something, a few other people ordered, and Michelle told them to deliver it near the bar. They said it would take 45 minutes, which was ridiculous, but what could we do? Eat something from the Poker Kitchen?

The food still hadn’t arrived when Jerry Yang hit his straight on the river at 3:50 AM to win the World Championship. It finally showed up at a few minutes past four. We both kept our eyes peeled on the bar area, though the harried food monger claimed to have combed the room looking for us.

“I swear, I looked everywhere in this room for you. I must have asked a hundred people, ‘Does anybody know Michael Craig?’ But no one did. I was about to give up.”

Lucky for her, the tip was already included. Of course, the potato skins were cold.

Just a few moments before Michelle called room service from the Amazon Room, I ended my year-and-a-half association with BLUFF Magazine. Ironically, I thought their behavior was EXACTLY like that of the room service waitress, except there were no potato skins.

Even so, if I had to live those 48 days all over again, I can’t think of anything I would do different, though maybe I’d throw those jacks away on the river.

During the dinner break, he seemed happy enough to have 105k because he knew how well he was playing.  Of much greater concern to him was how his stable of horses were faring. 

Kyle also attributed some of his success today to not bother counting his chips unless it was break time. “Usually I count my chips after every hand, but if you lose a pot all you end up thinking about is that you had 15k a few minutes ago.”  He’s taken the same approach he does to cash games—let each hand play itself by chipping away at the small pots.

In one key hand, Kyle turned a straight flush draw with 87 and rivered the straight taking 30k from the big stack at the table in the process.  It was winning those small that enabled Kyle to afford the necessary races versus the short stacks.  His AK bested 1010 for an additional 15k just before his JJ held up versus AQ for an 80k pot.

All of the attention that had been given to Table 25 suddenly shifted to Table 38 when Carlos Mortensen filled the empty seat to Kyle’s immediate left.  Carlos wasted no time mixing it up, taking about 60k from the young player seated between him and Humberto Brenes.  The cameras love the shark and the matador, so there’s a chance you might catch a glimpse of Kyle mixing it up with them on ESPN.

Greg FBT Mueller decided he couldn’t stay away from the action at the Rio despite a full day in the Bellagio Cup III.  Although hometown buddy Shawn Buchanon was eliminated, FBT ended with 35k. He’ll have the day off tomorrow to sweat Kyle as he enters Day 3 with a very healthy stack.

- Read Parts 1, 2, & 3 of The Vancouver Boys

Kyle didn’t start playing poker until the end of his basketball career.  He was called “the next Steve Nash” as Canada’s top high school recruit during his senior year.  After playing college ball in the states, Kyle found poker to be a natural fit for his competitive nature.  He quicly rose to the top of the ranks as one of the best online cash game players in the world.

Using the name “krisqueen” (a tribute to his wife), Kyle dominated no-limit when it was introduced online (remember the 50 big blind days?).  A constant winner, Kyle has two great strengths: the ability to think like his opponents and bankroll management.

“I’m very competitive, so it’s natural for me to try to think like my opponents.  It’s really what I’m best at.”  Kyle doesn’t think so much about his hand or even his opponent’s hand.  “It’s about getting into the mind of your opponent to see the game from his perspective.”  Although he’s known primarily for his cash game play, Kyle does have a highly respected World Championship of Online Poker victory under his belt as well.

When most poker players get a hold of a bit of money, they naturally start moving up to the next biggest game.  After a few rough lessons, “krisqueen” has decided that putting too much money on the table at once just isn’t worth the risk.  With a beautiful wife and three young children, this very young “family man” has his priorities squarely in line.  He plays a few tables of $25-$50 online for no more than five hours a day. This may not seem like much playing time to the poker junkies, but when you consider this 25 year-old has had several million-dollar years you may find yourself rethinking bankroll management. If you measure the best poker players in the world by their ability to not just make money but hold onto it, Kyle ranks among the elite.

If you want to get Kyle talking, all you have to do is ask him about his current business endeavors.  Kyle has invested in five restaraunts in the Vancouver region, but it’s the newest one that has the most potential.  “It’s called Player’s Chophouse & Lounge.  I own it with several pro hockey players and some big-time athletes.  We are having a big opening party when I get home—it’s exciting because it’s right across the street from the Canucks’ stadium.”

Another investment Kyle enjoys come WSOP time is buying pieces of players.  Along with FBT (and sometimes Buc), they have bought a small percentage of—get this—28 players in the main event.  It gives them both rooting interest and the opportunity to win a big chunk of money for a very small price.

With several hours of play before players even reach the money, Kyle still has his work cut out for him.  As long as he can get those ten-fives to hold up, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from “krisqueen” soon.

4:51 p.m I just saw a certain tall blonde guy walking down the hall.  This table just got a lot less interesting.  Not that I can say why, because I have no idea what’s going on, just that I saw this tall blonde guy walking around.  Looks like I’ll be watching the rebuy tourney for the rest of the day.

“That’s a bad call,” Allen Kessler commented as he walked up to watch the final table.  “Calling with K 10 out of position is brutal against that stack.”

On a AQ10 flop, FBT checked and Billavara moved in for over 300k.  FBT tanked for a few minutes before folding.  Billavara showed a second black A after Greg mucked.

3:29 p.m. FBT open-raises on the second hand as well.  This time he raised to 100k with QQ.  Naturally, he wins the pot uncontested. His 100k raise looks like a steam-raise, but unfortunately Greg got no action.

3:33 p.m This guy has played the hand so horribly.  You raise preflop then check-call with nothing on the flop?  This Spencer kid reminds me of Alex Jacob.  Same kind of betting style, everything.

3:49 p.m Greg just raised from the cutoff with another monster A4.  Pimento made him sweat for a minute in the big blind, but Greg winked at him and he folded.  Greg showed the A, then a few minutes later told the table that his kicker wasn’t that bad.  I’d hate to see a bad one.

3:51 p.m  A few chip counts:
Douglas 2.8m
Pimentel – 1.2m
Mueller – 960k

3:52 p.m. Nothing like a little faith in your friends: Todd and Scott, two more of the endless stream of Vancouver boys just stopped by.  “Is Greg still in?”

3:56 p.m. Nothing like a little faith in your friends, redux: “How about in the rebuy?  How are Kyle and Shawn?”   When I told them Kyle had 16k, their mouths dropped open and they asked at the same time, “You do mean Kyle Wilson, right?”

4:15 p.m. Greg just raised with AK and picked up 300k.  I missed some of the action was busy reading a text from Scott Fischman which said "Back up to 9k and calmed down a bit.  Lol.  On table 3 now."  Earlier Scott check-raised for most of his stack on a KJ93 board.  His opponent was very close to mucking, but finally moved all in after a clock was called.  In the process, he actually turned over KJ which made Scott's fold easy.

PokerWire blogger Thomas Wahlroos did not make it through the day in the $10K PLO, which resumes play in a couple hours.  But, Eric Froehlich did make it to day two, with 125k in chips.  Also in the top twenty are Full Tilt Poker's Marco Traniello, Andy Bloch, Joe Beevers, and Robert Mizrachi.  Robert has 204k, which puts him in the top 10. Doyle Brunson will also be vying for his 11th bracelet when he returns to play.

With all the action today, it would be easy to miss everyone's favorite tall, blonde, and goofy-Canadian-ex-pro-hockey-player-turned-WSOP-machine Greg FBT Mueller will be playing at his second final table of this series.  He made a nice charge late yesterday to make the $1,500 No-Limit final table with just over 1m chips. I'm thinking about doing a running commentary on the final table, critiquing every hand FBT plays. 

I hesitate to say I agree with anything that comes out of “The Mouth,” but the outspoken pros are right—the new structure offers more play in the first few levels but turns the late stages into a shove-fest. Players have the freedom to splash around a bit more in the early going, but have little room to maneuver when the chips matter the most.  

The levels that have been removed in the $5,000 No Limit Holdem event were: 25-25, 2.5k-5k, 12k-24k, and 25k-50k.  The smaller events have other levels missing.

The problems with taking the levels out really begin to show on Day 2. By the time they are down to four tables a standard raise usually pot-commits the average stack. If you want to see where the greatest discrepancies lie, look no farther than any final table.

After writing about Mike Binger’s quick start to this year’s WSOP, I began following his play through the final sixty players of the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem event. By the end of the night, Mike had made the final table (albeit as the short stack) along with several other good players.  

The next day I found a seat outside the media center at the Rio to watch the one-hour delayed final table on the big-screen TV. I was anticipating a final table that would demonstrate some great end game play. 

If I were a betting man, I would’ve placed money on Nick Schulman to win. It’s a good thing I’m not, because Nick made an appearance by the TV while he was still on it. Confused? So was I, because Nick had a ton of chips on the big screen, and it was only a one hour delay. As it turns out, play was an all-in fest from the time the cards were in the air.

Last year’s $5,000 event had a field of 622 and a star-studded final table (Phil Hellmuth, Marcel Luske, and Eugene Todd, bro to name a few). Play began just after 2:00 PM and lasted until just after midnight. Take out the dinner break and they played for 8.5 hours.  

As a spectator and poker fan, I was horrified by the rapidity of eliminations at this year’s final table. After whittling down the field of 640, it only took James Mackey 48 hands to claim his bracelet. They played for about 2.5 hours. In no way do I want to take away from the bracelet-winning efforts of “mig.com”, but the disparity in times must be pointed out.

Second place finisher Stuart Fox played exactly one hand before he was heads-up with Mackey. One hand. He then folded the next three before he was all-in and lost. Two hands equals second place. 

When Jon Friedberg captured the $1,000 No Limit Holdem bracelet in the 2006 WSOP, it took him 122 hands. With double the starting stack, this year’s first $1,500 No-Limit event took less than half that many hands to finish—only 59. Brandon Cantu’s victory in event #2 last year lasted nearly 10 hours; Ciarin O'Leary’s took less than 5.  The final blind level for Cantu was 20k-40k-5k, for O'Leary 60k-120k-15k. 

After two and a half hours, the final blind level was 30k-60k-5k for Mackey.  After ten hours, Cabinillas defeated Hellmuth with blinds at 25k-50k.  Even though the average stack for the final 9 may be doubled, the missing levels have clearly impacted late stage play.  While it's possible that some players may be playing faster, almost every no-limit holdem final table has finished in half of the time.  I find it hard to imagine that the difference lies in the players and not the structure.

WSOP officials have shown a bit more willingness to make changes on the fly this year, and I hope they can see a problem when players begin describing the end of tournaments as a “crap-shoot.” I’m not sure what changes the Nevada Gaming Commission allow to structures once they have been posted, but something needs to be done about the late stages of these events.  

An immediate solution would be rolling back the blinds once players reach the final table. Officials could make an easy decision based on X# of big blinds for the average chip stack (50 would be ideal; 35 seems more likely). Yes, events would last several hours longer, putting that much more of a strain on tournament staff and the media…but we’re not the ones playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In the words of the not-always-articulate-but-usually-insightful Mike Matusow, “We can fix it.”

FBT: "To make people think they have more play when they really don't"

Mouth: "We can fix it. I know Daniel was going to try to get it fixed.  It's so stupid.  They skip so many levels."

FBT: "It's so annoying.  You want to make a play---it's the World Series.  They used to play for a bracelet until 6 AM because there was play.  Now they just want you out of here. There's more play at the beginning, but who wants to play for four hours then get busted?"

Mouth: "I want to get busted and go to the next tournament."

FBT: "No kidding..."

Mouth: "I've got 330k in chips and it's not worth anything."