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And the beat goes on. Five tournaments are rolling along tonight. Day 1b of the $1,000 NL event is heading into its final levels. Day one of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship is on its dinner break. The $1,500 NL 2-7 Single Draw Lowball is down to three tables. Then there are our final tables. The $1,500 Limit Holdem event is on the secondary final table and the $1,500 NL Event with Tom Dwan as chip leader is at the ESPN final table.

Late Night Madness at the Rio

Late night at the World Series of Poker has its own sound and ambiance. The events that are in day one are grinding down towards the end of the night with players doing what they can to survive to Day 2. Day 2 events are beginning their own grind, but instead of making a 2nd day, they are trying to make a final table.

ESPN Final Table Area - Event #11

Then there are the final tables. The “lesser” final tables or those without big name star power are mostly silent and looking to win the bracelet. The tables that have a star, such as Event #11’s final with Tom Dwan are another matter. They are relatively quiet until there is an all-in. Then the set erupts with railbirds cheering for their favorite player. When a player busts, you hear polite clapping for the busted player, and then everything goes back to relative silence. The only things that you can hear are the tournament announcers for the two final tables.

Correction. On occasion you hear some random fan that decides that it is a good thing to yell out some random thing. Sometimes you get a group of fans that start a chant. I tried to start a “send us redheads” chant, but it didn’t catch on. Actually it got ignored. I guess poker is more important than redheads. (When I get to the point where poker is more important than redheads, shoot me.)

Norman Chad Getting Fed to the Lions

The $10,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship kicked off at 5 p.m. As one would figure, the event is filled wit most of the big names in the poker world. Erik Seidel apparently didn’t learn any lessons from durrrr and decided to play this event at the same time as the 2-7 Lowball event that is down to the final three tables. Doyle, Phil (Hellmuth and Ivey), Daniel, Jennifer, Scotty, and the rest are in the event.

Phil Ivey AND Men Nguyen at my table. EV = -100%

I then noticed Norman Chad in the event. What? Who the hell put Norman Chad in this event? Yes, Norman has cashed in a Stud 8 event at the WSOP. However, I hardly think that qualifies him for this event. Granted, Norman is a good Stud 8 player. With that being said, I don’t give him any realistic chance of doing well in this event. But estimating World Series of Poker odds are more art than science.

To emphasize my point, I looked around at his table and Norm is at the table with both Phil Ivey and Men “The Master” Nguyen. I have been told that he played in this event last year as well. I wonder if he will become the Maureen Feduniak of the Stud 8 World Championship.

Random Fans From the Rail

Sometime you go out looking for fans to make fun of, and sometimes they decide to camp out in front of the Media Tower. The first one was a young lady and her husband, origins unknown. The young lady had a beer in her hand and the husband I will assume was named something country. Anyway, when I saw the young lady, it reminded me of one of Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck jokes. “If you wear a skirt that is strapless with a bra that isn’t, you might be a redneck.” To make things worse, as soon as I saw her, she sat down and took a long drag off a beer. To quote Bubba J from Jeff Dunham, “Titties and beer!”

One day honey, we will bring our mobile home out to Vegas.

The other fan was originally pointed out to me from one of my buddies in the Media Tower. He said, “You were talking about V-neck brigade. Check THAT out.” Then I saw a young man wearing a PINK pair of shorts and a white t-shirt. I got a couple of shots, and then he struck the following pose:

Even Erik Seidel in the background is going "WTF!?!"

I love my job sometimes.