Deuce-to-Seven Final, and Today's the Day

The deuce-to-seven final table lived up to its advance billing. Except for a snafu with the TV table. You see, despite having assembled seven of the most recognizable names in the poker world for the final table, ESPN chose not to broadcast this event (having learned its lesson in 2006(?), when it broadcast every event and was met with horrible ratings for the non-NLHE events). What was curious about this decision is that Bluff also chose not to broadcast it on ESPN360. This, to my mind, was a mistake. The ESPN360 broadcasts are only going to be watched by the hardcore poker nuts, and they were clamoring on several different message boards, begging for the table to be broadcast.

Nope, no could do. Because ESPN hadn't intended to record the final table, the set wasn't insured for the day. Or at least, that's the story we were given. It doesn't make much sense to me, since it's not like the set magically vanishes if no taping is going on. Doesn't it still need to be insured in case some donkey wanders onto the set, has a light drop on his head, and sues?

As a result, we started "around the bend" from the stage area, just about the worst possible spot for a final table of that magnitude to take place. Logan and I were set up on "tall boy" chairs because there was no media table close enough; the spectators were on the rail about four or five deep and couldn't see anything, and we didn't even have a real tournament clock - instead we had a little hand timer (like the types that dealers use for single table satellites) that the floor attached to a nearby metal riser, making sure that none of the players knew how much time was left in the level.

Then, to make matters worse, after three people had been eliminated, word came down that we could actually use the tv table. But because nobody was broadcasting, the only camera in use was a low-def, high-overhead table cam, which proved useless for just about anything. We also didn't have an announcer for the first half hour either because the floor didn't want to do it, or because he couldn't find a mic. Given the shitty job he did after a mic was procured, I'm going with the former. This made my job more difficult than when we were outside the stage area, because at least out there I could hover over the table, then scurry back to my laptop. For the tv table, we are not allowed on the stage area at all.

So now, there was room for more spectators, but nobody could really see what was going on. At least when we were outside, some spectators could see, and we could do a decent job reporting. We were finally able to impress upon the floor, after about an hour, that he needed to do a better job announcing, but it was a nightmare all around.

A word about feeding the animals: if you engage Mike Matusow in the slightest way in any bit of conversation, he will chew your ear off in response. I made that mistake just before we came back from the dinner break and was rewarded with a non-stop stream of monologue for about five minutes.

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I want to publicly give a huge thanks to all of my backers in today's razz event. I was surprised by how quickly I sold out. I guess this means I've done a good job fooling people over the last few years about how decent my razz game is. That, or you people have way too much money.

Either way -- I will do my best tonight. That's all anybody can really do.