Don’t know what to say except everyone here is smarter than me.
It’s scary. Phil Helmuth was 2 tables over from me. I lost when my straight got beaten by a flush. Fortunately I finished in the top 2,000… Not that it’s very good… but that millions of other players weren’t here, and a total of 2,700 REALLY good players were. … Mike & Phil finished shortly after me so I feel bad for them. And I console myself with “But at least I played.” Now I’m going to eat a big steak…

Lucky boots… CHECK.
Clean underpants… CHECK.
Skanktacular sportswear… CHECK.
WSOP Registration… CHECK.
Table Assignment. Amazon Blue, No. 38, Seat 3… CHECK.
Holy SHIT this place is huge! Not only does it take 15 minutes to walk from the front desk to the convention center, the room is literally the size of a football field and lined with poker tables. No flash photography – learned that little tidbit a little too late, but they were nice enough about it. Lining the halls of the convention center are chair-massage stations, souvenir stations, food kiosks and information stands for “THE OFFICIAL VITAMIN SUPPLEMENT OF THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER.” From the air quality surrounding many of the players, I thought that was Vitamin 2-C (Caffeine and Cigarettes). They have mini tournaments going on throughout the day, for those who haven’t dropped enough coin already.
What have I gotten myself into? T-minus 2 hours, 11 minutes and counting.

It’s not the smartest thing I’ve done with $1,500, but it’s certainly the most interesting.
I’ve entered the World Series of Poker, Event 27 – No Limit Hold’em. No Rebuys. No Add-ons. Yes, this is the same World Series you see on ESPN at all hours of the morning – but it’s not necessarily the same tournament. It’s not the $10,000 buy-in Main Event – if I had a spare $10,000 lying around, I could think of a lot more creative things to do with it than play cards… Then again, you could say the same thing about a spare $1,500, but at least I have a chance to win a coveted World Series bracelet, and I get to test my skills against the big boys.

Continue reading I Got Your Pair Right Here: The World Series of Poker →

17

Created by OnePlusYou –

This, from a woman who got her ass kicked by a 5th-grader in a poker game on Sunday night… but so did 25 other full-grown adult males (including his dad) and 2 more adult females… so I don’t feel too bad, well, not really.
But next time, Alex, don’t think you can scare me with that BB gun you’re buying with your winnings. I have no moral compunction against using your 45-pound buddies as human shields or even grabbing some Brownies by the pigtails and deploying them as a shrieking set of tween-nunchucks.
It’s ON, punk! It’s ON!

1700 West Washington Street: The Arizona State Capitol Complex.
It’s where I spent my springtime… there, and hunched over my computer furiously emailing members of the Arizona state legislature, the editorial board of the Arizona Republic, other unsuspecting members of the press, and innocent bystanders like yourselves, who (used to) call themselves my friends.
I am (unofficially) a lobbyist… which means I have now worked in three of the most reviled jobs in the universe: Journalist, salesperson, lobbyist. If only I were to enroll in law school, then I could hit for the cycle!
SO DON’T SAY YOU WEREN’T WARNED: YOU ARE ABOUT TO WITNESS THE CURTAIN BEING PULLED BACK ON THE SAUSAGE-MAKING EXERCISE OF LAWMAKING. (And it’s a long, blow-by-blow process) Make a drink, take a seat and continue… we’re gonna change government for the better, and we’re gonna do it TOGETHER!

Continue reading Stacy B Goes to Washington (Street, that is) →