Joy Miller

(and I am fully aware that everyone in the poker media has already used this pun, but i like it anyway!)

Instead of my weekly Top Ten list, I'm going to drop The Good and The Bad from Brandon Cantu's historical WPT Bay 101 win.

Good: At 4pm, I successfully convinced my homie Jeffrey Madsen (aka "The Kid", aka My Child, aka MC JMad) to drop everything he was doing in Los Angeles to get on an airplane with me and fly to San Jose to watch Brandon at his Final Table.

Bad: By the time we navigated LA traffic and got to the airport, we were informed that the 7pm flight only had one seat available and the stand-by line was "extremely long" Boo.

Good: My unwaivering determination that we were both getting on that flight. I managed to convince a supervisor to put Madsen 2nd on the standby list.

Bad: All the unfortunate people who had been waiting for hours on the standby list that were relegated to waiting even longer for another flight since Madsen cut the line. Those death stares gave us the willies.

Good: We also convinced our friend Jim Shipley to fly in from Vegas last minute

Bad: We forgot to get him a room, therefore accidentally setting him up for sleeping on the floor of Ali Najad's suite at 3am.

Good: When we arrived in the WPT Final Table tent, all of Cantu's friends and family that flew in were sitting together and having a great time. E-Tay, Hudy, Fuller, Angela, Jake, Palmer, Ali, Grandma & Grandpa, and Mom.

Bad: Layne Flack stole my seat so he could sit next to Madsen and heckle people.

Good: He made up for it by asking TD Matt Savage why he was wearing Jim Carrey’s suit from "The Mask" (hilarious evidence here http://www.pokerlistings.com/blog/wpt/season6/bop-brandon-cantu-wins-bay-101-shooting-star )

Bad: We were THAT group of loud friends at the Final Table

Good: We were THAT group of loud (supportive, amazingly proud) friends at the Final Table

Bad: Cantu had his back to us for the heads-up

Good: Heads up was only 2 hands, Cantu sprinted in to the crowd to watch his winning hand, and we all got to jump around and celebrate it right with him. Yeeeaaaah!

Bad: I cried a little (in joy, but still).

Good: My college boyfriend, who knows NOTHING about poker, came to watch the last hour with us. He was so excited by the end that he called someone and said, "I just watched a dude win a million dollars!" Also, Matt from PokerListings, the CardPlayers guys, and photog Joe did a marvelous job of providing covering the entire event.

Bad: Final Table finished at 12:30am, therefore ruining any chances of us being able to go out and celebrate since bars in the Bay Area close at 2am. So we made do with The Dolphin Lounge in the middle of Bay 101. Cantu runs so good that he got off without having to buy bottles at a big Vegas club - he probably spent $300 max on drinks for the whole bar.

Good: Cantu had the genius idea of sending me and the ex to 7-eleven to get beers so we could continue to party in our suite later.

Bad: I went a little overboard and got 9 cases of beer for 12 people. We had to donate about 5 of those to the Front Desk the next day.

Good: 2nd place finisher Steve Sung - and his clever bending of the rules that allowed him to sport an Obama shirt (YES WE CAN!) - came over and played cards and hung out with us in the suite after. What a guy!

Bad: The food at Bay 101. Suck isn't even a strong enough word to describe it. EVERY meal was a monstrosity.

Good: Cantu paid for it.

Bad: Esther (E-tay) and I thought it would be funny to switch passports and see if the airport security would notice. Esther is Korean with straight black hair, I am African-American with an afro of brown hair. And we successfully made it through with EACH OTHER'S passports and tickets without ONE word from anyone checking our tickets. But all 5 of the boys were searched and frisked. Sad proof of my theory that having airport screening is a waste of money and time, and was probably solely invented to make me constantly late for flights.

Good: There was no one on our flight so all eight of us got to fly together.

Bad: When Shipley went to drive me and Palmer home, he had left in such a hurry (see GOOD thing #3) that he couldn’t remember where in the Las Vegas
Airport he had left his car. I had to bat my eyes at some bike security to ride around and look for it. (Bonus BAD: The guy checking us in at the San Jose airport spelled his name SHITley. Wait, change that to a GOOD thing because it provided us with giggles for hours!)

Good: One of my dearest, favorite friends whose an amazing poker player overcame a poor showing at the WSOP last summer to play dominant poker for the last few months. Finally winning another major title and showing the poker community that his bracelet wasn't a fluke and that he’s a viable threat at the table.

Bad: I didnt take a piece of him. So I'm as poor as ever - but rich in memories of his incredible win! Photo Proof!...
http://www.pokerlistings.com/blog/wpt/season6/bop-brandon-cantu-wins-bay-101-shooting-star