Where are They Coming From?

A few years ago I flew to Connecticut to play in the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Casino. I think there were a few players I recognized from Las Vegas there, and I made many new poker friends from the East Coast. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the tournament last year, but fewer than 90 players played in the $10,000 no-limit hold'em championship. Howard Lederer won that event, and now is so famous that his secretary calls me to say, "Mr. Lederer is on the phone for you." That is an example of how big poker is getting. This year, 313 players showed up to take a shot at winning the modern-day lottery. Foxwoods qualified so many people through satellites that attendance for this year's event more than tripled last year's. I kept hearing two comments: "I can't afford to miss this," and, "Where are they coming from?" This is funny, because I have been trying to figure out how I can afford to keep playing. I think there were two people at my starting table who had never played no-limit hold'em, and of course they lasted much longer than I did.

Speaking of lasting longer than I, the final six players were Brian Haveson, V. Senthil Kumar, Christopher Ackerman, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Mohamed Ibrahim, and Hoyt Corkins. Hoyt ended up winning and taking $1,089,200 home to Alabama. That isn't too shabby for three days' work at the office. As always, Kathy Raymond (director of poker operations) and Mike Ward (tournament director) did a wonderful job of hosting the tournament.

I had the opportunity to spend a morning with Nolan Dalla. Nolan is in charge of public relations at the World Series of Poker as well as at the Showdown at the Sands in Atlantic City. I was shocked at what goes on with a PR director. Nolan said that for the first time ever, newspapers and magazines are calling him for poker information. However, as easy as that sounds, only one of 10 reporters actually get back to him. I used to think baseball was tough, because the best players in the world get a hit about 33 percent of the time. I can't imagine working at a job in which a good result is failing 90 percent of the time. So, Nolan, keep on getting poker the exposure it deserves.