WPBT 2009

For me the most interesting part of WPBT weekend is finding out what others were up to when they weren't with me. The WPBT is this giant amoeba -- a pseudopod of people shoots out over here to go to a $300 dinner, and maybe another one shoots out over there to play a round of 40-degree golf. Those pods are still connected to the whole and one way or another the whole will eventually catch up with them. But for a few minutes or a few hours the pods are out on their own, doing whatever it is that amoeba pseudopods do. (If this weekend is any indication, it involves the absorption of alcohol.)

We had Twitter to stay in touch with the rest of the amoeba this year, to remotely spy on the proceedings. That's how I first learned about Table 16. Otis called out his own bad luck; "I have thrown a lot of parties in my life, but few as big as the one I am throwing at MGM table 16". By the time I got there my crack chip-counting skills eyeballed more than $5,000 on the $200-max-buy table. Yikes.

But I still enjoy the trip reports more than anything else. They give a depth to the proceedings that 140 characters don't allow and they let me see Vegas in a way I can't anymore: through the eyes of someone just visiting. Sure, CK and I stayed on the Strip this year to cut down on the possibility of any Layne Flack-like encounters with the LVMPD. But it's different when you live here; doubly so when about 100 like-minded souls aren't in town hellbent on leaving their mark with a 4-day bender.

Please keep those reports coming. I may lurk most of the time but I'm reading as much as I can. I want to find out what the rest of the amoeba was up to while I was needling Iggy, talking journalism with Gnome and Peaker, freezing with Pebbles on the golf course, watching the Stevie Wonder dealer-tainer play air keyboard on the brass rail in the dealer-tainer pit, or rocking out to Steel Panther with BadBlood.

In that vein, a collection of quotes from the weekend:

* "Not a goddamn chance." --AlCantHang, 5pm Thursday, on likelihood of his attendance at golf the next morning.
* "I dated a girl in high school who looks exactly like JoeSpeaker." --someone from the Steel Panther outing (but I can't remember who).
* "Steel Panther? Is that a strip club?" --Carter
* "How much is this worth to you? I have nothing but time and spite." --the legendary Dawn Summers to Penner, playing 1-2 NLHE at IP.
* "Bet more next time." --Otis to Drizz upon paying off a $20 "last longer" prop bet.

There would have been many more but my phone died some time Friday and didn't get juice again until Sunday afternoon. I'll leave you with a quote from the pre-eminent Shane Nickerson, playing mixed games at the MGM Friday night, that neatly sums up the whole weekend:

"It just got interesting, didn't it assholes."

It certainly did. Thanks for an awesome weekend, WPBT. It was sorely needed.