Lost Episode 24: Event #55, $10K NL HE, Day 1C

Feeling much better today, I arrived pretty early and excited for another main event starting day.  My initial table assignment was in the second row of the main tournament area, behind the restart tables up near the final table stage.  Long before the players were allowed in, a gaggle of hot young girls were gathering around my table.  I thought at first that they were associated with either Milwaukee's Best Light or one of the many energy drinks that were promoting during the tournament.  These companies employ strippers from local clubs to wear almost nothing and distribute free drinks to the players or hand out some sort of special invite to after hours parties or gatherings sponsored by the advertiser.  They shouldn't be in the tournament area (and normally wouldn't be) while the dealers are setting things up for the day.   Then I noticed they were hanging on a big thug in a bright yellow shirt, that I immediately recognized as Jose Canseco.  In a previous life, one of my little brothers had visited a few spring trainings with me and we had the pleasure of watching Canseco and Mark McGwire explode statistically and physically with the Oakland Athletics.  Since then, of course, he's been the focal point of many legal scandals and written a tell all book pointing fingers at baseball's steroids abusers.  He didn't appear to be off the juice.  Not sure why the tournament director allowed him to come in to the tournament area in advance of the rest of the players, but he was making a spectacle of himself and shaking hands with many of the staff.  He took a seat at the table in front of me, and when the rest of the players starting filling in, the girls were shooed to the rail.

During the first level, Brad Daugherty, Chris Ferguson, Greg Raymer and Robert Varkonyi were individually announced as previous world champions currently in play and each received a honorable applause.  

Like the previous couple of days, there were a few notable celebrities attracting some attention.  Poker enthusiast Shannon Elizabeth seemed to be taking things very seriously and I heard some mention of the singer Nelly.  I was aware during a dealer break that both were on the few tables that I would be pushing into shortly.  Elizabeth either busted early or was moved because I didn't get an opportunity to deal to her, but on my last down of the next string I pushed into Cornell "Nelly" Haynes' table and immediately recognized that he was pretty short stacked and anxious.  On about the third or fourth hand, Nelly saw an unraised flop of K-2-4 from the small blind with a big stack on the button and the big blind.  He opened with a modest raise, the big blind folded and the button put some pressure on him with a pretty large raise.  Nelly made a quick all-in motion and the button insta-called and tabled 2-4.  As I announced "all-in and a call on table 39", Nelly tabled K-6 offsuit, leaving him dead to 5 outs plus a running pair.  The roaming cameras gathered and then another deuce came on the turn, leaving only two remaining kings to save his tournament life.  The river was a blank and a very unprofessional thought came to mind, "I just busted Nelly?!?!"  Never dreamed that might happen.

Over the next couple of three-balls, I dealt to Ted Lawson, John Gale and David Sklansky.  I have notes about a guy that was all decked out in Oregon State University hat and shirt and recall him being vocal about the recent success of the Beaver baseball team, but I never did find out his name or if he had any real tournament success.  I felt like it would be improper for me to mention that I went to OSU during the play, but hoped to bump into him during a break or something later.  Twice on that table, we got short stacks all-in with large pair over pair situations, my notes say queens versus kings and kings versus aces.  On both hands, the all-in player had the smaller pair and caught a set on the board to suck out and survive.  It is strange how the cards seem to run in short spurts where big hands like that occur rather quickly.  I managed to deal eleven main event downs on this day before being relieved by the swing shift dealers, and again, I wasn't ready to leave when they reported.