WSOP Europe / Dave Allan / 30 September 2009 / Leave a Comment

Popular blogger Simon Zammit returns with another fascinating look at what it's like to work at the most prestigeous poker tournament in London -the World Series of Poker Europe 2009.

Here we go - 27th of September, the start of the BIG ONE.. An early start as usual and the Casino was already packed with journalists and media people. Richard and I had accredited over 160 people during the course of the WSOPE and I think all showed up!

The Betfair Registrations desk was buzzing as is the norm before an Event starts but everything seemed in order. Only one of my Pros, Peter Jepsen was scheduled to play as the rest opted in for Day 1B. The alcohol from the launch party had quickly worn off when it was time to get to work. Richard and I made a quick tour of the play area to know where exactly everything should be and all was prepared for.

About 20 minutes before the Event was due to start, Mr Jepsen showed up and we had a quick chat before handing him his ticket and sending him to his table. Over 150 players had booked a seat at Day 1A and it was nice to see most of them, Pros and Amateurs, have a laugh or two before the kick off!

Surprisingly, I had time to have a nice cappuccino and a cigarette in the players lounge and the timing was perfect as the day was about to suck! I went to Peter's table for some observation and support and he was doing well. Unfortunately, a donk to his left with absolutely no clue of how to play couldn't lay down Queen's and Peter's open-ended straight flush draw did not hit and he was out exactly before the first break.

Everyone at the table, including the player who made the call, thought he had hit a Set (which he admitted to) but couldn't lay down a pocket pair and was actually proud of his actions! WTF? Peter was clearly frustrated but he still managed to put on a smile for an interview and a fan after his autograph. We then had a chat and he went back to his hotel room to calm down whilst I met up with Richard once again.

The day turned into night very quickly and it was soon past 19:00 and I realised I had nothing to eat yet. It was time to call it a night and on my way out, I bumped into my colleagues Julian and another Simon as well as Annette and we all decided to get some steak inside out bellies. Angus was the obvious choice and it was good to have a really long discussion with Annette about different plays and situations in poker.

After dinner, Julian and I headed into the hotel to play some poker online whilst Annette went to bed and Simon ran away chasing after women J

Sunday 27th September

Richard gave me a very late start to the work day so Julian and I met for breakfast around 11:30 and then decided to go to Oxford Street and look at the shops. Unfortunately, all the tourists in the UK must have done the same thing so walking the pavement was horrible. Julian got the urge to buy a new I-Phone and since we live in Malta, an unlocked one would be the only choice.

After an hour of searching, we finally found a factory-unlocked 3GS but the price was unbelievable (£720) so I just bought a memory card for my BlackBerry and we ran out of the shop. To be honest, we both were not bothered about the phone as Oxford Street kept us entertained for a few hours and after having lunch, I then headed into the Casino around 16:00 to meet the rest of Team Betfair before Day 1B.

The start was delayed till 17:30 because of a Jewish holiday so everyone seemed to be in good spirits and well rested. Sorel turned up in his usual relaxed gear and Annette of course looked the part. I then introduced both to the lucky draw winner Mick, who had just won a free £10,350 seat into the Main Event just by playing a bit of poker on Betfair!

This was his first ever live event so a few tips from the very best did give him a boost in confidence. When the time came, we all left towards the casino and Annette sat down at the feature table along with Daniel Negraneau and other players whilst Sorel got familiar with his table. John of course was late and I met up with him about 10 minutes after the start to show him his table.

With all that done and dusted, it was back to uploading videos and pictures to the wsope.betfair website for me and thankfully, not much was left to do as Richard had taken care of most of them. This left me with time to watch the Pros and I was happy to see John had already almost doubled up! He looked more determined then ever to do well and it showed by the way he played. Neil Channing was on his table too but everybody's attention was on the young Welshman as his chips started to pile up.

By the end of the day, Mr Tabatabai's stack amounted to just over 90,000 whilst Annette had 50,000 and Sorel a competitive 30,000. Bed time was soon around the corner and after catching up with family and a very looong but good conversation with Dawn; I shut my eyes and went to bed.

Monday 28th September

Day 2 of the Main Event was looking to be great as most of the big names had made it through. After playing all day on the feature table, Annette was moved to a less intrusive one and John was sitting to the right of his friend and poker star, Antonio Esfandiari.

Sorel had started well but as the day went by, his chips started to deplete and unfortunately was first out from Team Betfair. On the other hand, Annette was grinding her way up and John kept his momentum from Day 1 running well as his stack was now intimidating.

Later that night, during the dinner break, Annette, Julian and I went to dinner at Planet Hollywood along with some friends of hers. We originally wanted to hit TGI but the wait was too long for the limited time we had. Before disappointingly leaving though, the manager recognised Annette and asked for a picture which was funny.

Planet Hollywood was great though and the BBQ Burger I ordered was more than enough to cheer up and fill my grumbling stomach. After washing down the food with a beer, we then made our way back into the Casino and I went to rest a bit before joining the action once again.

At around 00:15, I made my way to John's table after following the action on a few others and by the time Day 2 was over, John had ended the day with 170k (almost 200k if not for an unlucky hand) whilst Annette has approximately 95k. Julian, John and I then made our way into a Chinese restaurant and had a late dinner. Unfortunately, Mr Taba was not feeling to well and little did we know this would come into effect on Day 3..

After finishing our food and saying goodbye, I then collapsed in bed and feel into a coma rather than a sleep! Join in next time to read about Day 3, an expensive but good trip to Old Bond Street and more - till next time, this is me signing off!

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