Guest Blogger

For the second time, I landed at my destination, and reported straight to the tournament area. Who needs a hotel room when there is a poker tournament to report on? Two things struck me right away about the Borgata. The first was how nice it was, there were sculptures everywhere that reminded me of the Temple of the Sun from the Atlantis. The second was the large and luxurious nature of the poker room. It has to be the Bellagio of Atlantic City, and I look forward to the next time my travels take me there. Oh, I almost forgot the best part, the showers! There was a temperature gauge in these things to the exact degree. It gave a nice sense of balance to the fact that the Gold Strike in Tunica probably had the worst showers in the world.

I grabbed mt trusty steno pad pitched in for the last few hours of day one tournament reporting with Gary, Tony Berns, and our newest partner in crime, Tom Bostic. I am very excited to have Tom on the tour with us, he is a great no-limit player, and I know he will take our World Poker Tour coverage to the next level. I went up to my room exhausted and ready to sleep. I did take a quick peek out my window before I hit the sack, though. What I saw was the Atlantic Ocean casting a vast backdrop for the Atlantic City casinos, which lit up the coast. I couldn’t help but stare down at the Taj Mahal and (I know how cliché this may sound) think of the scene from “Rounders.”

The week at Borgata was a good one, featuring great food (the buffet had an all-you-can-eat gelato bar), great poker, and awesome bars. I also valued the camaraderie that ten straight days on the road built between the media, players, and WPT crew. We were all struggling to make it through the exhaustive process together.

I ran into snow for the second time on my WPT travels. I was in the parking garage one night, to run the stairs and jump rope, when I noticed the downfall. Guess what the California boy was wearing when he made this discovery? Basketball shorts and a t-shirt, you gotta love it.

I know this has turned into a rambling jumble of thoughts, but it’s now 1:45 in the morning. So I will take my leave and catch you in a few days with more tales from the Borgata.

Ryan “Force” Lucchesi
force@wisehandpoker.com

One of the perks of this job is getting to know the many different personalities that populate the world of tournament poker, and I assure you they are equally entertaining to write about. A person who has lived up to all the hype, and then some, is Daniel Negreanu. He is the most charismatic player on the tour and he possesses an uncanny ease amongst the media attention and large number of railbirds he attracts. It is not unusual to see him get up in the middle of play and start singing and dancing along to whatever song is currently playing on his I-Pod. In the early days of the World Poker Finals he joined Gary and I at the World Poker Tour coverage desk to watch the “Day in the Life of Little Jon” skit we downloaded from the “The Chappelle Show.” Our trio then proceeded to exchange shouts of “What…Yeah…and OK!”

It’s no secret that Negreanu has been on a tear in the last few months on the tournament trail. It's a bit reminiscent of his dominant 2004 run and I will be keeping a close eye on how he does in the coming months. He finished third at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic back in December and after his runner-up finish in Tunica, Negreanu is right in the thick of the 2007 Player of the Year race. Oh yeah, he also set the record for most consecutive cashes in WPT history with his second-place finish in Tunica at four.

Gary had to fly to Atlantic City to cover day one of the Borgata Poker Classic, which afforded me the honor of interviewing the winner and runner-up at the World Poker Open. Here is the excerpt from my interview with Kid Poker:

Ryan: How are you feeling right now?
Daniel: Exhausted, I’m going to charter a jet to Borgata with Nam Le, JC Tran and Kido Pham.

Ryan: What was your strategy coming in?
Daniel: My strategy was to take advantage of Young Cho. I wanted to use my position on him to take his chips and then take the chip lead.

Ryan: Did the rising blinds cut away at whatever advantage you might have had over the other players?
Daniel: The fact that it took so long to lose one player had a negative impact on the rest of the night. The lack of flops was a disadvantage, and it turned into a card-catching contest. But, I feel I did a good job adjusting.

Ryan: How shocked were you at how long it took for an elimination to occur?
Daniel: It was bizarre; it made it clearly a case of hand against hand, and all the players were happy to wait. Look at JC, he is a great short stack player and he was willing to wait like the rest of them.

Ryan: Will we ever see another final table like this?
Daniel: Yes, it could happen again. I don’t think by raising the blinds quickly that you increase the odds of people busting, though. After an hour it turned into less reads and less strategy.

Ryan: How tough was it to hang in there with your stack down to T400,000 and the blinds getting so big?
Daniel: Not too tough. I played my short stack and waited for my chance. I felt lucky to get back up to 2 million.

Ryan: How important are your four consecutive cashes?
Daniel: It’s the only reason I’m going to Borgata. You don’t get this opportunity too often, so I don’t want to blow it by not showing up.

Ryan: Will we be seeing number five at Borgata?
Daniel: Definitely, I will be very careful not to get sloppy or tired. If I get through day one I should be fine after I get a good night’s sleep. It’s tough to play 10 straight days of poker.

Unfortunately Negreanu did not increase that record to five at Borgata, but I think it’s safe to say that this consummate professional is playing at a high-level right now. Nam was the only player from the chartered jet team that made it past day one, and I caught him constantly napping on every break as a result.

Ryan “Force” Lucchesi
force@wisehandpoker.com
The post final table interview with Negreanu in the WPT announcer’s booth.