straight off the memory card pic.twitter.com/m9N5IqG6aR

— ⏳⌛️♠️♦️ (@ReynoldsXO) July 2, 2016

The Main Event starts a week from today.

More storms and flash flooding in the Las Vegas area overnight but I saw absolutely nothing but a little standing water when I came out of the Rio this morning at 2:30am.

My day was essentially all working the PLO8/O8/Big O event, which went from 207 down to 27, hitting the money four hours into the day. The new 15% payout structure meant 101 of the original 668 players got paid, but the payouts from 101st to 28th were $2,243 at the bottom to $5,639 for 28th (which was the beginning of another payout tier), which is still only about a 275% ROI for twenty hours of play. Watching these folks grind out relatively small returns is making me wonder why the heck I’ve been playing tournaments.

My colleague for the day and I were set up for Day 2 in the Pavilion Room, with all of the cash games and the Deepstacks, and instead of our usual digs at the back corner of whatever tournament area we’re covering, the table we had to use was right near one of the main entrances to the room, so we were the target for anyone with questions, as well as a dumping ground for used glasses and other debris.

I got to the room and started putting out the seat cards we use to (try to) track players, and noticed that though the tournament had been played with only seven players at the table on Day 1 that there were eight chairs at the table. Mentioned it to the TD and they had someone get the extra chairs out, but it threw a wrench in my player ID plans since we were rushed a bit at the start of play.

Despite a decent stack going into the day, my host busted early in the money, and the next-to-last Portland-area player went out shortly before the end of the day. One still remains!

Keeping track of players is one of the primary job functions, and it’s a bit daunting, even in a smaller field. We lost track of several of the Day 1 chip leaders because we didn’t get useful descriptions of everyone before they moved in some of the early-day busts and table balancing. Then, as the end of the day approached, there were several players neither of us had any idea who they were; names that just popped out of nowhere (to us) that were still in the counts but hadn’t been in a reported hand by name.

With four tables left for Day 3, I sort of wonder if we might not be in for either a long day or even a Day 4.

Anyway, that’s my day.

Flying into the blasted heath. West of Vegas in the mountains the trees just stop. WTF is up with that?

Not much to say for this update because I did almost nothing since the last post except for report and sleep.

It was Day 1 of the Mixed Omaha event yesterday. Lots of Portland-area and Oregon players, including my host and one of the players renting a room in the house. There are still five Oregon players in the 207 coming back for Day 2 (including my host), which is a decent percentage considering the relative population of the state. None are in the top 40, but three are above the median chip count of 20K (John Monnette has nearly 87K for the chip lead).

Yesterday was all about finding people and hands to write about. It seemed like most of the big hands were in Big O; you have to wonder how long it’s going to be before it gets its own event.

I got to the Rio when it was sunny an hot. Not too long after I got there, I got an emergency announcement on my phone warning about flash floods. So when I walked out of the building at 2:30am, it was wet. No standing water on my way home, though the wipers seemed to be surprised to be put to use.

Just about time to head back. Got a shower, shaved (so wierd), and now I’m ready for Day 2.

Shout out to John F, who was waiting for a gate-checked bag as I was deplaning yesterday morning and somehow recognized me despite the lack of facial hair. Had a nice chat about poker and comedy on the way to the baggage area.