WSOP and the Gaming Life Expo

Posted on July 16, 2007 
Filed Under Poker

Well, we are a day away from the final table of the 2007 World Series of Poker. It’s been a pretty exciting year. Phil Hellmuth wins his 11th bracelet and a good many poker pros took home hardware as well. Sadly, I didn’t get to play in any events this year, but there’s always next year!

I have a side bet riding on the main event this year that the winner of the main event would be an existing bracelet winner. They don’t have to be a main event winner, just any old WSOP bracelet will do. I’ve been watching closely and when they got down to the final 36 players Saturday night, I still had 5 bracelet winners in the field. Honestly, I really like my odds at that point. 5 guys who have been-there-done-that this late in a tourney… you gotta like my odds. Sadly, 4 of my guys failed to make the final table and I’m down to just 1 horse left in the race; Lee Watkinson. But, what a story this will be if he ends up winning. Not just because I stand to make $100.00, but because of what Lee stands to make.

As it turns out, Lee won his seat on FullTiltPoker.com (FTP). FTP has had a standing offer the past few years that if you won your seat to the main event on FTP and then won the main event, they would pay you an ADDITIONAL 10 million dollars. So, not only do you become the new face of poker for the next 12 months and win 8 million in prize money, but throw in an extra 10 million to keep you company. So, good luck, Lee. For your sake more than mine, I hope you take it down.

During the first couple days of the main event, there is a convention that goes on at the Rio called the Gaming Life Expo. It’s got a couple hundred dealers all trotting out their wears. Lots of freebies to be had, but nothing all THAT exciting when you get right down to it. This was the first year I went to the expo and I have to say I was rather disappointed. There was some fantastic HIGH END goodies that were way out of the “normal guy” price range, but all the t-shirt vendors looked like they would do just as well selling their goodies off of CafePress. No offense to CafePress or it’s sellers, but let’s be honest, these guys spend thousands to have a booth at this show. Bring the good stuff, why don’tcha?

Here’s a bit of a recap of some stuff I found. Some cool, some not so cool. But, you be the judge.

playpokerpro.com and playhardgaming.com - these guys offer an electronic poker table with 11 screens (one in the middle and 10 individual stations) where you can run a cash game our tournament and never once have to shuffle or deal. It’s all done automatically. But, $15,000 is a bit out of my price range. They do have a heads up version for only $5,000… :-/ - check out the demo at playhardgaming. it’s pretty sweet. The only thing I have to say is, “Get your drinks off my electronic poker table!!”

Under The Gun - This is a pretty cool “magazine”. It’s smaller than a normal magazine (about 5×7) and only has about 30 pages in it (mostly ads for online poker sites) but it comes with most of the content on a free DVD stored inside the front flap. I haven’t yet watched all the DVD content, but it’s a pretty cool idea. (sorry, no URL could be found)

casinohost.com - This is a service I’m certainly not in need of, but I like the idea. It’s a company that helps you get comped around Vegas. They have a TON of info on their site, but truthfully, I read very little of it. Like the idea, just don’t need it myself.

pokeracrossamerica.com - traveling and looking for a cash game, tournament or poker league? This site will help you find it!

lonestarpokertables.com - by far the nicest product we saw at the show. This company makes custom poker tables. The one on display at the show was called the Widowmaker. I’m sure it got it’s name from the fact that if the husband buys it, the wife is gonna kill him. $6,000 is a bit pricey for a table, but holy crap it was nice! It had a pull out drawer for all the cards and chips to be stored when not in use. Pull out drink holders so there was never any drinks sitting ON your table. Top notch all the way.

On top of all that, I got to take a photo with poker pro, Phil Laak. He was quite gracious even though he had only minutes before gotten knocked out of the main event early on day one. As well as being a poker pro, Phil also hosts a TV show called I Bet You (all available online for your enjoyment). It is one of my favorite shows and I hope they make plenty more of them. Check ‘em out on YouTube.

Here’s the shot of me and Phil.

Phil Laak & me

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One Response to “WSOP and the Gaming Life Expo”

  1. University Update - YouTube - WSOP and the Gaming Life Expo on July 16th, 2007 9:53 pm

    [...] Link to Article youtube WSOP and the Gaming Life Expo » Posted at geeeek.com on Tuesday, July [...]

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