Archive for July 7th, 2008

I came out to Vegas a few days early to get into the swing of things, to see some friends with whom I play and talk poker regularly online but rarely see in real life, and to take care of some business. This will be my third time playing in the main event, and it amazes me how much has changed since I first came to Las Vegas two years ago. In 2006, I was a nervous kid who knew no one, was known by no one, and was in awe of every famous player I’d seen on TV.

I can’t claim to be a poker celebrity, but yesterday I got a taste of what that would be like. After waking early, going for a swim, having breakfast, and putting in some non-poker work at my computer, I made my first trip to the Rio. I wasn’t going to play but to meet up with Bill Ordine, a reporter from my hometown paper, the Baltimore Sun, who is working on an article on poker and philanthropy. He’d already interviewed Barry Greenstein, who’s known as “the Robin Hood of Poker” for donating over a million dollars in tournament winnings to a children’s charity, and Annie Duke, who organized a $5000 buy-in charity tournament called Ante Up for Africa to coincide with the WSOP.