Day 3: I like to watch

As I described yesterday morning, I went into the day not only hungover but with little desire to play more poker. After working on entering my time for November and some discovery responses, I headed over to the casino a little before 2pm. Griftdrift had started play at noon in the $1000 event, and purported to be nearly as hung over as I was because I kept him out on Bourbon Street a little late the night before. Feeling guilty, I hoped he would not be bounced early.


As I arrived on the steps of the casino, I got a desperate call for coffee and a muffin. The good news was he was still playing. There is a Starbucks in the casino, and after stopping there I headed over to the tournament room. I was quite surprised to find he had well more than double the average chip stack. He can tell you himself about his early adventures of playing with a hangover, but apparently no hangover in the world can reach the hard-wired part of his brain that thinks about cards.


I watched him for awhile, then decided to go play some slots to kill some time. I know what I said about slot machines, and I do still hate them, but there is really not much else to do in a casino other than gamble or watch other people gamble. Penny slots are the easiest, most mindless way to kill an hour, and that is what I needed to do. And amusingly enough, I won $300. Those were my only winnings thus far.


When I returned to the poker room, he was still up pretty high and starting to look very comfortable. I ran into the other friends of ours on this trip, both of whom had now won $500 satellite seat chips though both confessed to having played 3 single table satellites that morning for between $65 and $125 each. Though I was disappointed that I still hadn't won anything, I knew that not playing today was the right move for my state of mind.


After the dinner break, as I watched the tables narrow and kept an eye on the guy in the garnet and gold hat, the person running the single table satellites announced they would do one satellite for a seat into the ladies' tournament. About five women eager to get a table going pressured me into playing, though shortly thereafter the director made clear that even though it was all women, it would still function just like a $65 single table satellite. Unfortunately, I was pretty distracted by not being able to see if Griftdrift was still in his tournament across the room and so I didn't play very well, the first time I would legitimately say that about my play. I was out in 5th. I shook it off, and returned to the other side of the room to watch some more.


As the field narrowed from 45 to 27 to 18 to 15, and as it got later and later, I couldn't stay and watch because the ladies' tournament is at 10 am today. (What sick bastard came up with that plan, I do not know.) I left a little before 1am with 14 players left and Griftdrift holding a stack that was about average for number of chips in the tournament, even though they seemed to actually be dispersed among several very large stacks, a few middle stacks, and several really small stacks all centered at his table. Generally, the play continues until the field is narrowed to 10 or until 2am, whichever comes first. I was hopeful that today I would be able to watch him play a final table, but alas it appears it was not to be. He finished in 11th according to his blog post, which still made him enough money to pay for this entire trip and all buy-ins, and have about a grand leftover if my math is correct.


Strangely, I think I was more nervous while watching him than he is while playing. I sweat every pot he's in, pray everyone will fold even when he's got great cards, and feel like I'm going to throw up when he goes all-in. But I am so incredibly proud of his play on this trip. He has really been impressive, and if there was any doubt that he is a legitimate threat in any tournament he plays in, I think this weekend has answered it. No matter how negatively I feel about my own play, I am so glad I got to be here to watch his.


This morning is the ladies' tournament, but since I could not sleep last night for some reason I do not think my chances are very good. If I am knocked out early, I will consider playing in som single table satellites to try and win one last seat in the 6pm mega satellite. Or, I may just come back to my room and take a nap.