I know there’s bound to be a few Dopers bound for the WSOP this year, or ones that have played it in the past. But I’d like to hear everyone’s stories. Memorable hands? Bad beats? Post here!
Moved Cafe Society --> The Game Room.
To get you started, here is my WSOP thread from last year.
It contains a few stories and one member here playing and cashing in an event, but wasn’t a thread dedicated to stories.
Having had so much fun last year, I’ll be there for about a week and a half starting in late May. Planning on playing a ton of events (mostly NLHE, but maybe O8 and no-limit single draw deuce to seven), so I’ll definitely check in with memorable stories and whatnot.
My thread from '07, with a relatively brief trip report at the bottom.
Won’t be going this year, as my bankroll won’t permit it.
Oh, and some personal highlights from last year:
[ul][li]Meeting Phil Ivey as he was waiting for the final table to begin play in Event #25[/li][li]Playing at a table that included Jeff Madsen, David Singer, Vanessa Rousso, and Phil Hellmuth (Madsen was already at the table when I got there, and Singer, Rousso, and Hellmuth each arrived within around forty minutes of each other to replace busted players)[/li][li]Shoving a short stack from the button into Hellmuth’s big-stacked big blind and having him deliberate for forty-five seconds before grumbling “I hate math” and finally making the obvious call (I think I had J8o; he had something like 75…I doubled through him)[/li][li]Chatting with Rousso briefly about Duke and some other stuff (she was sitting to my immediate right)[/li][li]Getting seated in-between two online pros whose posts I read all the time at Two Plus Two[/li][li]Staying alive in Event #52 as we approached the money by pretending to look at my cards and shoving my short stack blind UTG for three consecutive orbits (at a tough table that included Liz Lieu and Jeff Lisandro, the guy to the right of me was the only player bad enough to consider folding his big blind to my shove – which he did every time, despite a huge stack)[/li][li]Chatting with Antonio Esfandiari during the break with three tables left in Event #52 (one of my brother’s best friends is his personal trainer, and he was there sweating both of us)[/li][li]A hand against Esfandiari where he raised from early position, I jammed about 15 BB from the button, and he stared me down for thirty seconds and then folded [/li][/ul]
It was all pretty great, actually; I heartily recommend it.
You’ve met David Singer? On TV my mom and I both say he looks like the quintessential “rock star”. Dark sunken eyes, ungroomed stubble (as opposed to purposefully having stubble for a certain look) and messy black hair. Does he look like a rock star in person?
Wow. If I wrote up a list of fun things I’d want to happen to me at the WSOP, lots of those would be on there…though I think I’d be intimidated by Lisandro.
Here’s a question I’ve always wondered: when the cameras are on them those guys can be all chatty and funny…but what are those tables/players like during hour after hour of hands & no cameras around?
Yeah, that sounds about right (see the pictures I link to below). 
He’s a nice guy…we talked about practicing law for a bit at the table (he used to be a lawyer before turning pro), and when I walked by him in the Rio lobby the next day, he recognized me and said hi.
Unfortunately, I only played at the star-studded table for about an hour and a half all told. I was a short stack pretty much the whole time, and when we went on dinner break – about twenty minutes after Hellmuth got there – I had around 10 BB. I spent dinner talking to my friend about how awesome it was, and asking him to get photos when we sat back down. (The best of which are here, if anyone wants to take a look.) Then I busted about half an hour after the break by jamming 66 from MP, getting called by Madsen with AT in the big blind, and losing the flip. So much fun, though.
Maserschmidt:
I’m sure it depends on their mood (for example, when I played with Antonio it was approaching 2 a.m., and he was understandably low-energy), but by and large the “famous” pros I’ve played with have all been very friendly and much like their TV images.
Phil Hellmuth is a riot…he was exactly the way I expected: voluble and amazingly self-absorbed (he kept trying to get Singer and Madsen to validate his play from previous hands), albeit in a strangely endearing way. He’s also a giant, and he has this immense physical presence beyond just his height. The closest comparison I can think of would be LeBron James, if that makes any sense…there’s something about them that’s just legitimately larger-than-life, even around other outsize personalities.
Who else? Jean-Robert Bellande got moved to my table in a different event about three orbits before I busted, and he was every bit as friendly and talkative as he comes across on TV. Told some great stories. Roy Winston was on my immediate left early on Day Two of Event #52, and we talked poker strategy for a bit after he showed me one of his hands while he was laying it down. If any of you follow online poker, I got to play for a while with Christian Harder (in a 6-max event) and Carter King, and very briefly with Shane Schleger and Andy Seth. Most recently, I played in the Ante Up for Africa charity event in April here in D.C., and was at Andy Bloch’s table for four hours. He was absolutely the nicest guy.
The other thing about the WSOP is that if you’re a poker fan, you see people you recognize everywhere. It’s pretty amazing – you’re just walking down the hall and oh, hey, there’s T.J. Cloutier on his scooter or Chris Ferguson buying a yogurt or Tom Dwan chatting with some friends. I think the only people who I might have wanted to see but didn’t get a chance, at least from a distance, were Phil Laak and Gus Hansen. And maybe I just missed Gus because he’s so short.
Great write-up, thanks for answering in such detail! Maybe one day…
Anybody still there?