"Excuse me, but we have an important message...especially for members of the media."
That's never a good thing to hear when you're covering an event. Unfortunately, about five minutes after I walked into the Amazon Room today, Nolan Dalla made that exact statement over the PA system. I knew that if it was anything other than "new sandwich added to media center craft services table," it couldn't be good news.
Well, lets just say that my options of turkey, ham and cheese, and tuna fish didn't change. Instead, Nolan informed us that anyone with a lavender press badge (which includes me and about 95% of the poker media) would, from this point on in the tournament, need to wait in line for a black badge which would allow us 15 minutes inside the ropes. Once the allotted time expired, said media would have to get back in line for another badge.
Ahhh, to feel so loved.
The announcement kinda screwed me. I had planned on sweating current chip leader Kenny Tran, but he was embedded deep in the tournament area and I wasn't about to wait in line half-an-hour for 15 minutes on the floor. Skipping that perpetual circle of hell, I decided to cruise the rail for some interesting action. Luckily, I found table 27, which featured Hasan Habib, Shirley Williams (David's mom), and Gavin Smith.
Here's the thing about working the World Series - you loss track of time, space, and reality. I thought yesterday was Monday...it was Wednesday. That being said, I didn't even realize the main event had reached money bubble play until I got down to the Amazon Room. Already? But it's only Tues-- wait a second.
I talked to Gavin briefly, asked him how he was doing, and he responded, "could be better...but I could be worse." With only ten players to go until the money bubble popped, I thought that sticking around and watching Gavin cash wouldn't take too long. That's when I got my second dose of bad news for the day.
Tournament Director Jack Effel got on the mic and announced that play would switch to hand-for-hand until the money. Hand-for-hand can last a long time with three tables; we had over 600.
The next hour felt a lot like the world's largest game of "Red Light, Green Light." People played, then stopped. If action folded around at your table (like it did at Gavin's numerous times), you could be waiting upwards of five or ten minutes. In fact, the time in between hands became so long and frequent that Hasan, sitting behind a healthy stack, stood right up and headed out for an early dinner break.
Well, folks, on the fifteenth hand of hand-for-hand play, a dealer jumped up and shook his hands in the air like one of the dancers at the VooDoo lounge. Everyone correctly assumed that the money bubble had burst, and the cheering began.
With the remaining field guaranteed to make at least $20K, I reached out and congratulated Gavin.
His response, "for what?"
"Fine. I'll congratulate you on Tuesday."
Satisfied, Gavin nodded and turned back to his table.
