Mickey wrote: If they had bounties in the tournament then they would have been on celebrity poker players. My guess as to who Eric would be is either Eric Seidel, very tall, slender, dark haired and balding, or Eric Lindgren, average height and build, blond haired.
I'm not sure why my entire email didn't post the first time --- but here goes again.
Welcome back, Mick.
The only well-known celebrity poker pro who was there was Annie Duke --- and her "purpose" was to give an autographed copy of her new book to all the media members. She ended up winning the tournament. I went up to her, introduced myself, and told her she was scheduled to be a guest on my radio show on August 4. She said she knew nothing about that, but that if I had set it up with her publicist (I had), everything would probably work out. I told her, "I feel better knowing how much you're looking forward to this interview." She responded with a smile, "Oh, I definitely am." Made my day.
It's tempting to say "Of course she won -- she was the best player" but there's a lot of luck in any individual tournament. On one hand she was ALL IN with an unsuited QJ and was called by a guy with a suited A9. That made her a 3-2 dog (about), but the flop came out QQJ, crushing her opponent
I can recognize on sight both Eric Seidel and Eric Lindgren and virtually all of the others in the now-defunct Full Tilt ads. Neither of them was there.
There were a number of experienced poker players there (you could identify them by the backward baseball caps and the ability to shuffle chips with one hand) --- all of whom knew more than me about playing the game --- but none of the big names other than Annie.
There were twelve "bounties" out of the 130 or so players. Most of the bounties worked for WSOP somehow. During one of the rounds I was seated next to Lon McEachern (yes that's the correct spelling --- although it's pronounced McCAIRen) who is the "straight man" announcer (along with funnyman Norman Chad) on the WSOP television broadcasts. I asked him if there was a bounty on his head and he said, "No, and I'm very upset about it." He tried to deliver the line with a straight face, but couldn't. It came out quite endearing. He was knocked out a few people before I was.
Bob
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