World Series of Poker - Day 1

Day 1

Wednesday 30th June

Landing in Vegas for the first time is weird. You fly over miles of desert and then boom..a big city suddenly appears beneath you. Then as the plane makes its turn for landing the familiar sites of The Strip spring up. That's when the butterfies started for me. I was finally here after hearing so many stories about the place from Ladbrokes players.

After a relatively easy ride through customs where I met up with Shane Lynch we set off for The Wynn. The hotel is fantastic and the views from the room sectacular. No time to relax though as I headed straight down to The Rio to check all our players registrations. All was good so I could get back to the Wynn to have dinner with Shane and the rest of the Ladbrokes crew along with some other guests. Listening to some of the stories from a well known poker pro's wife (who will remain nameless-what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas remember) made the evening fly by (last year they had misplaced a bag with $50,000 in it). Amazingly it got handed in by someone who is probably the most honest person in the world. Who said Vegas is Sin City? There's a saint walking around out there somewhere.

Wednesday arrived all too soon and the Microgaming welcome party at the Rhumbar in The Mirage. We met up with all of the Ladbrokes players where old acquaintances were rekindled and new ones forged. It always amazes me how our players stick together and make our trips so special and our work as hosts so easy. Bringing Skalie, Steve Davis and Shane Lynch along with us also creates a special atmosphere too. All three of them despite being celebrities mix so well with everyone it's a pleasure to have them experience the Ladbrokes hospitality and to make our exerience a pleasure. A great night was had by all which was obvious by the number of bleary eyed Ladbrokes players who were playing in the $200 freezeout tournament at The Wynn today.

It's our own Ladbrokes player party tonight at Tao in The Venetian. If last night is anything to go by tonight will be a blast. Only 3 hours to go so time to get some rest and recharge the batteries. As luck would have it the $2,500 buy in WSOP event 56 starts at 5pm tomorrow. Plenty of time to recover for all of our players who are registered to play. The 5 players who last longest in event 56 will also win a $10,000 WSOP main event seat. Not too shabby!

Good luck to all - hopefully we'll be celebrating a WSOP win in 3 days time.

Report by Richard Cunningham,
Ladbrokes Poker Team

Skalie WSOP Day 1 blog

Meet the Ladbrokes Poker Team and see the Vegas events schedule