By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV
During my first WSOP in 2005, I got very geeked out at the parties. I was broke and hungry and jonesin' for free meals and booze. Pre-UIGEA the online poker sites blew millions of dollars a year trying to outdo each other with lavish, baller, swanky parties. It was sort of a pissing contest between the major sites to see who can blow the most money and get the buzz on the street that they had the best party at the WSOP.
Last year in the wake of the UIGEA, the parties shrunk in size and the free booze didn't flow as freely, and there seemed to be fewer events than in previous years. My attitude also changed. I had a rigorous work schedule last year and didn't really have to time to attend the parties let along have enough hangover recovery time in between parties and work.This year is different in some ways... I have the time to attend the swanky parties, but I sort of lost my enthusiasm to drink heavily and schmooze industry insiders. My mind set has been... if I want to party it up, I want to do it away from poker. After five weeks of seeing the same fuckin' people, the last thing I wanted to do was spending my spare time rubbing shoulders with them.
However, there are exceptions. For example, if you host a WSOP inside a strip club... I'll be there. Lucky for me it was the Bluff party sponsored by Doyle's Room at Sapphire... the world's largest strip club. Well, maybe not the world, but definitely in Las Vegas.
Since Change100 and I both write for Bluff, we felt a little more pressure to attend. I'm glad we did. I mean, open bar in a strip club? A wet dream indeed.
I hung out with some friends... Friedman, Otis, Mean Gene, and event Blinders was there. The guys from Bluff Australia found me (Sean and Stephen) and they promised to take me to the racetrack on my next trip down under. Jeff Haas was sporting a cowboy hat and even Shronk made a token appearance. Michalski and California Jen represented Pokerati strongly and there was even a Snake sighting.
Of course, the weird stuff was seeing pros in the strip club. Doyle Brunson had one stripper permanently attached to his lap. Chau Giang wandered by puffing down hard on a smoke. Also there? Todd Brunson, Dewey Tomko, Dan Alspach, Chainsaw Kessler. We saw Cyndy Violette in the parking lot on the way out. I also heard that Sly Stallone was there, but did not see him.
There was a bad cover band and plenty of free Doyle's Room shit that they gave away. The strippers were hammered because of the open bar. Last week, I had a horrible experience with a drunk stripper at the Rhino... so I was reluctant to talk to soused strippers at Sapphire.
Then one honed in on me. Fantasia was her name. Nubile blonde from Texas. She rushed over and hugged me. I could tell by the way she was dancing and slurring the words to the Beastie Boys song Girls that she was deep into a ecstasy trip. Maybe two or three rolls. She gigled every time I touch the back of her neck. She gave me a lap dance or five. She was too wasted to keep track and only charged me for one.
Upon my return, I saw Zeke, one of the guys who works for Poker News' live reporting team. He was one of the guys I requested to have on my team last year because he was a great kid and had a tremendous work ethic. Anyway, I was glad when Poker News hired him back and it was a nice surprise to see him at Sapphire. Otis, myself, and Mean Gene chipped in to get Zeke a half hour in the VIP room.
Boobies + Zeke = Happy Dude.
A drunken Otis had his mind on one thing... a match of beer pong against Doyle Brunson. He wanted to play $1K a match. I offered to take 10% of his action, Michalski also wanted in. All he had to do was find Doyle and get him to agree to the match. Except... we couldn't find Doyle. By that point it was time for me to go... since the WSOP main event was scheduled to start in a few hours. When I left... MeanGene was talking to a stripper, Otis was in search of Doyle, and Zeke had a mouth full of boobies in the VIP room.
Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
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