Quote:
Originally Posted by SGspecial
[x] in after tl;dr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Missouri_River_floods
So I'll try and make this part as short as possible, but I do want it for background.
So I grew up in SD, right by the Missouri River, on which there are a series of dams. Apparently it did nothing but snow in March and April in Montana and then it rained the entire month of May. It apparently became increasingly obvious that the damns were going to have to release a ****storm of water, placing my town in severe danger of flooding. The Army Corps came in and built two levees, but ~2/3 of the town, including where my parents live, was evacuated after everyone had maybe a week to move their stuff out.
The levee is doing fine, but the water releases aren't supposed to abate for at least 2-3 months, which obviously isn't helpful for moving back in. On an increasingly frantic series of phone calls while we were in St. Thomas, my parents eventually asked if I could not go to Vegas or cut the trip short somehow and help them move back in at some later unknown date. At this point, I mentally assigned myself a 10% chance of being around for the razzament & was trying to figure out how I could adjust the trip.
However, after the initial panic receded and everyone realized the likely extent and uncertainty of the evacuation/return, it was mutually decided that it wasn't really necessary to cut the WSOP trip short in order for me to have a bit more time to provide labor at some unknown date in the future. My parents were actually supposed to have come out to Vegas on the 20th, their 30th anniversary, for a few days to join me, but my mom didn't end up booking the flights or whatever prior to the flood stuff (she was going to surprise my dad). So after they had to evacuate, that trip unfortunately never got booked.
The whole thing is weird b/c it's not like the floods in other places where whole towns get wiped out, in theory, no homes will be lost and regardless, even though 1k people were evacuated, there's a town of ~90k right next door that's completely unaffected and can provide housing, services, etc. The Red Cross set a shelter up and not a single person needed to go to it, so they shut it down after a week... But, noone will be able to go back in probably for >3 months...
Anyway, now that my trip wasn't severely altered, I was excited & had just a few days left before I was leaving, on Friday the 10th. My boss printed out the schedule of events so he could follow me and asked me to highlight the events I was playing in. I start with the HORSEament and, wtf, this thing says it's at noon?????????? I booked a flight getting in at 12:30pm thinking it was a 5pmament. I called the Rio cage to find out exactly what the late reg deal was, and they told me it's only 2 hours instead of the 4 levels + 2 breaks it actually was. I checked a bag, which takes forever to retrieve at LAS because the stupid baggage claim area is six miles from the gates, and didn't get to the Rio until like 1:30, but that was still fine.
This was actually the first 12pmament I'd ever played in, which apparently comes with a sweet 90 minute dinner break. I stupidly grabbed a pizza hut pizza instead of actual food in my rush to get registered and play, so I was running around the room saying hi to ceegee, osc, professorben, and maybe a couple other people with pizza in hand and then went to the cage.
I sent a wire w/ most of the cash I needed for the series, so went to the cage to pick that up and register for some tournaments ahead of time so I wouldn't have to carry around all the cash. It takes a long time to verify the wire & register for 3-4 events, which is fine, but there was this random guy who sketchily came in through the exit door & cut the line. He then awkwardly stood behind me at one of the windows even though you're not supposed to do that since there's one of the snake queues that people are called from for privacy/crowd control. But, it took me like 15-20 minutes to get fully processed, which was hilarious since he tried to cut everyone and probably ended up waiting longer, so **** that guy.
So I sit down at my table at 2, which I think wasn't actually a "late reg flight table," just a table that still didn't have all the seats filled. Yuvee was there, though he didn't/doesn't know who I am. It was a ridiculously soft table, and Yuvee and I just stayed out of each other's way and scooped up a lot of chips. Everyone was super friendly, though. There was this one lady who was super passive, called almost every bet / played every hand, never bet unless she had like a full house, except for one time she randomly made a bluff on one street in an O8 pot, which was really weird. She also asked how much it was to bet/raise/call on pretty much every single hand. THEN, on one E hand, like 4 hours later into the LIMIT TOURNAMENT, she grabbed whatever one small handful of chips she had left with an A up and just shoved them all into the middle. Obviously everyone was like WTF?!?! and the lady didn't even end up having aces... (???????????????)
I started talking about finance/stock stuff w/ some folks at the table, and there was this one kid who sat down at some point that is in his university's investment club, and I asked him a bunch of questions about what he was doing and what he wanted to do. He answered them well, and then gave him a card for when he would look for a job during his senior year. I then busted him a little while later, only to find out the next day that he was actually djforever, lololol! While I was talking about finance stuff, apparently Cheech from the $40/$80 HORSE game, who had just won an O8 bracelet, recognized me because I also was at the Horseshoe, much to my chagrin as that was the first time in my life I was randomly recognized/acknowledged at a poker table. I think in that spot it actually worked to my advantage as obv. I ran good / crushed the game / ran good to win $5k in it in 8 hours, so I think he was a bit afraid of me and then got tilted... I suppose now I'll be recognized a bit more, though...
There were 963 people in, so they were paying 96 spots, I guess. Despite seemingly being the worst player ever, somehow Eli Elezra was chip leader after Day 1. I think this is a good place to stop now again, so I will. Obv. comments are always appreciated.