Main event such a special tournament. Like so many others I watched the moneymaker run on ESPN when my only experience was £5 home game stt’s with friends , dreaming of playing it some day. That summer I discovered online poker and 2 years later I qualified on Doyle’s room for $215 (this was on the Tribeca network , possibly the softest of all time)! Even better , my good friend who had just started dabbling in online poker , talking 0.25/0.50 pence cash games, somehow got a seat in a freeroll just a few weeks before the main so I had a travel companion!
It was our first time in Vegas and we were in awe of the sheer scale of the place, we honestly thought the Rio was the best hotel we’d ever seen . Of course, now I know it’s a complete shithole but at the time it seemed amazing. Being from Scotland , the whole concept of drinking buckets of beer outside in a huge pool was a big novelty . We spent the first few days acclimatising, playing some blackjack and just wandering around the strip. As part of my package I got to meet Doyle and get a hardback copy of super system 2 signed by him (which i still have), it really was one of the top books on poker back then! The Pavilion used to be a huge WSOP and poker companies merchandise area with loads going on, I think it really helped the sense of occasion especially for the fans who just went along for a look:
Anyway, onto the main itself. I remember the sounds and size of the room being unbelievable to me , and there was more razzmatazz to the kick off of the event than there is now with more dancers and music etc. My first hand I got JJ on the button and 3-bet a 150 UTG open to 500 (10k starting back then) , honestly shaking and shitting myself just wanting to win the first hand. Think I potted it on a ten high flop and was relieved to take it down, and relaxed from there. I’d hardly played live at all but the standard then had to be seen to be believed , was actually fun to watch and seeing the hands that were turned over and the range of characters that came and went from my table. My highlight was knocking out Robert Varkoni who I know had won a few years previous, it even got the cameras on me which I was very excited about and I made a very brief appearance on ESPN! Can’t even remember how I went out but think it was at the end of day 2 when the whole table was drinking beer after beer.
My friend and I had swapped 10% even though he’d literally only played one tournament, the freeroll to get here. Not even exaggerating when I say he was reading super system before day 1 and on subsequent nights to try and learn more! The excitement around the room approaching the bubble was immense and for him the min cash was absolutely huge having just finished Uni. I had so many beers on bubble day and was watching for hours and hours to see him triumph. He ended up reaching day 5! He eventually came to a sticky end in a blind v blind scenario against Jeffery Lisandro , who had 3d6d and flopped an open ended straight flush draw v my friends AA. The pot was over a million so a huge spot with 10k starting. He got around $50k for his 106th place which kick-started a really successful poker career for him before he moved on to start a property business. We had a few massive nights out to finish and when we got back the local paper ran a story on him haha
9 years after that and many attempts at trying to cash the main, I had a huge run into day 7 before coming a cropper in 12th in a pot of life changing size (which I was 80% to win). But it was honestly no better than my first experience of playing and railing my friend all that way. I really missed it this year and hope things are back to normal soon, it really is a special event and feels different somehow from any other poker tournament. Every year you have people on your table on day 1 who’ve dreamt of playing and you can see what it means to them, and the camaraderie as you approach bagging up is so fun and unique with beer drinking mandatory.
Probably TLDR but hope someone enjoys