The Surreal Life
Walking around the 2005 WSOP Main Event is somewhat surreal, somewhat unreal. It's surreal because we at Wicked Chops Poker feel like we're trapped in a dream. Not the cheesy, "Oh, I'm meeting all of these pros I see on TV" kind of dream, but more like, "Ok, this is cool. Dammit I wish I was playing. This sucks. I really want to be playing. Here I am walking around a bunch of poker tables and I'M NOT PLAYING. Is it too late to register? Ah, all right, we're here to report. Ok. Screw it. Where's Shannon Elizabeth again..." With all of this poker playing going on, it was flat out surreal to not be playing poker.
The crowds are finally dying down after this last potty break (at 10pm). Nicole Richie has been waiting on her fiancee, DJ AM, to wrap up for some time. ESPN has been waiting though to sneak a shot in of Nicole. Addict overheard an ESPN producer telling his camerman, "The girl in the red jacket is Nicole Richie. You must get her on camera." So while the cameraman was "setting up" for a "shot" of DJ AM, he really just let the cameras roll on Nicole.
Gotta give her credit though. As our women can attest, the life of poker babe ain't easy. Stand by your man, Nicole. Root him on so we can say, "Well Nicole Richie doesn't mind when her husband plays for days on end..." Unfortunately for both of them (and us), DJ AM just got knocked out when his A-K didn't hold up to an A-J (a Jack hit on the river).
DJ AM can now hang out with Johnny Chan and Barry Greenstein, who have been sent to the rail as well. Both were short stacked (under 3k) and were forced to make a move with marginal hands. Barry was eliminated when his Q-9s didn't catch a break against pocket Kings. Barry, always a class act, gave the young man who busted him a signed copy of his new book, Ace on the River, along with the last of his chips.
Johnny got knocked when his A-J went heads up against another rounder's pocket 8's. The river produced a fourth club, turning pocket 8's into a flush (Chan had no club). Still, it was a good overall WSOP for the Orient Express after winning his 10th bracelet last week.
At table 45, one young player claimed the man to his right in seat 3 was the "best player [he's] ever seen." Who is this new poker heavyweight? Andrew Prock (pictured here) of Oakland, CA. Andrew, a runner-up in Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo in the 2002 WSOP, sits on a healthy stack of over $25k.
We weren't kidding when we said that, "Every time we walk by Lee Watkinson he's amassed more chips." Now he's one of the chip leaders with 78k. Raymer is up there too with 58k. Rafferty is at 50k. Layne Flack has built his stack to over 30k. Shannon Elizabeth is over 20k, as are Josh Arieh, Scott Fischman (doubling up a couple of times over the last few levels), and Ted Forrest.
Play will likely go on for another four hours, if not longer. The amazing thing is, even when today's play concludes, there will still be somewhere between 4,400-4,800 players left...and a week's worth of reading, raising, and raking chips to go. Now that's simply unreal.
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