WSOP Day 33 - Jon Kalmar

WSOP Day 33 - Jon Kalmar

5th July 2009

I was obviously late to rise after the Ladbrokes party. I tried watching the Tennis final but fell asleep. Obviously missed possibly the greatest match in history. DOH!

Monday is my Main Event day so I am planning to take things easy tonight. The problem is Padraig Parkingson is getting married to his long suffering girlfriend Veronique. I hear it was a spur of the moment thing. Now, I am not going to the ceremony, I am going to the evening drinks. This didnā€™t stop Kev from phoning asking me to arrange the Limo.

ā€œGet it for 3.15pm mateā€
ā€œAre you sure, 3.00pm is better in case the strip is busyā€
ā€œOk 3.00pmā€
I book it for 3.00pm and he calls and said ā€œno, no, 3.15pm they donā€™t want to hang aroundā€
OK, so I change it to 3.15pm
Phone rings again ā€œNo, no, make it 3.00pm againā€

Sigh! I call back and by now they cannot find the booking. Sure they cancelled it after all the pissing about. The girl kindly re-booked a new one for 3.00pm. Not before she tried to book it from the entrance of Caesars and not the Bellagio. I was not confident that things would run smoothly and God knows how many limoā€™s they will charge me for. I told Kev to ring me at 3.00pm to let me know all was ok. He obviously forgot.

We got to the Bellagio around 8pm and before long the bar was full of Padraigā€™s friends. One such guy was a man called Scoaff. He used to run the WSOP in the old days and knew all the famous gamblers of old. I could listen to his stories all night. Good to hear them from someone who was actually there and not the exaggerated ones we read about.

I also got talking to a friend of Simon Zachā€™s an ex-boxer. It turns out he lives in my mumā€™s old street in Blackpool. The guy who bought my mums old house has rented it out to two tagged ASBOā€™s, and they are causing havoc on the street. I decided to go back and talk to Scoaff GULP!

When I return to blighty Norm and Bev are hosting a charity event in their home in aid of meningitis. While I was there I took the opportunity to harass any members of staff from online poker sites. Ladbrokes have already generously donated Ā£1000 toward the cost of a marquis and a Killarny package.

DTD are giving us a seat to their Ā£1000 Monte Carlo event. Johnny from 888 has pledged 10 online packages and Warren from Party Poker something equivalent. Finton Gavin has kindly donated a weekend in Galway. (Great place I assure ya!) Julian Gardener will arrange a trip to Old Trafford (Canā€™t believe I have to write that name on this site. I thought the only way I would do that was to gloat the place had burnt down). Steve Davis is arranging behind the scene tickets to a major snooker event of the winners choice.

Marty Smyth has donated 2.5% of his Poker Million entry. Now the face value of this is $500 however considering in the last 3 years he finished 1st, 2nd and Sixth it may gather a great bit of interest. For that reason it will be auctioned. (Marty secretly wants to know what it would get too!)

Despite my best efforts it was 3am before I got away.