We went to Harrah's New Orleans Saturday to mingle with the Poker Gods at the WSOP Bayou Challenge (to be televised later on ESPN). Doyle Brunson was featured on all the ads and in many interviews, but he was nowhere to be seen Saturday -- he didn't make it in the money (3 tables). But of course every time we saw someone with a cowboy hat we said, "Hey is that Doyle Brunson?" That became our running joke for the day.
Second-last day report: down from 3 tables to final table. A few locals crapped out but 3 more stayed in, including the chip leader. Howard Lederer missed the final cut (finished 12th), as did Eric Cloutier, but the Magician made the Top 9. Here's the report:
http://www.pokerpages.com/tournament/result10913.htm
Final day: they played late into the night, but the local boys made good -- Walter Chambers from Baton Rouge finished 1st, and Corey Bierra finished 2nd. Antonia Esfandiari (The Magician) finished 3rd. Here's the final standings, though it looks like the detailed report is not ready yet.
http://www.pokerpages.com/tournament/result10921.htm
We couldn't get to see the final table up close -- it was on a theater stage all draped out for the TV broadcast. There were bleachers set up next to the stage with several huge TV screens so you could watch all the action. It was weird -- you could hear the players who were just the other side of the curtain, but not see anything except on the TVs. And of course there were no hole-cams or anything else to tell you what was really going on, just the tournament director announcing. No leaderboard or player names, just the raw TV feed. And hundreds of boring hands that will never make the final broadcast. But the live action was on all the TVs throughout the casino, so you could at least see how many players were left.
The regular poker room was very crowded, as usual for Harrahs. All the minimums on the other gaming tables were set higher than usual, but we managed to play some blackjack and roulette. Out of the 4 of us, 3 went home with some of the house's money. I also scammed a few nice BJ Roulette chips from the tables. Always the chip geek!
