The final table of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament was the most anticipated event of the 2006 World Series of Poker thus far, with the line to get into the stands for the ESPN taping ringing around the aisles to the door of the Rio All-Suites Pavilion.
The bleachers were packed and spectators were five deep behind them, as poker enthusiast tried to get a glimpse at poker legends Doyle Brunson, T.J. Cloutier and Chip Reese, along with young phenoms Phil Ivey and Patrick Antonius.
The crowd thinned as Bloch and Reese took their heads-up match into the wee hours of the morning, but more spectators began to gather in the morning when people again started to arrive for Saturday's tournaments.
Notes from the H.O.R.S.E. tournament
Robert Williamson, who finished 10th in the event, served as the tournament's "Grand Marshall" and introduced the final table participants.
Bloch brought several copies of his blackjack instruction DVD to the final table, handing them out to people in the crowd when he won pivotal hands. One member of the audience was overheard saying: "Getting a free DVD on how to win at blackjack would probably end up costing me a lot of money."
The small crowd near the end of play on Friday morning got quite a laugh out when Doyle Brunson's cell phone rang during a hand, as it blasted out the theme song for "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."
Patrick Antonius had good reason to show up for the final table with less than the amount of the blind">big blind. When Robert Williamson busted out 10th at the tournament's other table, Antonius was involved in an Omaha Hi/Lo pot. He called Reese all the way to the river, but was forced to fold when he apparently missed his low.
The tournament's final table lasted so long that the batteries in the ESPN microphone for the tournament director died at 8:45 a.m.
Several members of the audience, including WSOP staffers, were caught dozing off by ESPN cameramen as the tournament extended into Saturday morning. The cameramen were also more than happy to catch one of their own falling asleep on the job.
In his previous life, Aaron Todd was a sports journalist by day and a poker player by night. He can now be found covering the poker beat for Casino City and making horrendously unsuccessful bluffs in his home game.
Write to Aaron at aarontodd@casinocity.com.
