This is part IV in a multi-part series covering my trip out to Las Vegas to cover the 2010 World Series of Poker. Please see part I, part II, part III and part IV.

Even though I had been up for about 23 hours the day before, sleep was hard to come by on my last night in Vegas. I was partly excited for the play down from 27 to 9 and partly afraid to be woken up by housekeeping sometime after checkout. I had set the alarm on my iPhone so I wouldn’t sleep past 9:30 but as it turns out I would be walking down the halls of the Rio at that time. For those of you wondering, my iPhone alarm sounds something like this.

I was the first one into the media room since it was so damn early, well second as Seth Palansky (WSOP Communications Director) beat me in….and he was in for a looooong day. When I got settled in I was able to parse through the table draws and chip counts and get some notes written down about the day to come. This is what the Day 8 table draws were:

Table: Amazon 100

1: Michael Mizrachi (MIAMI, FL, US) – $6,300,000.00
2: Scott Clements (MOUNT VERNON, WA, US) – $7,250,000.00
3: Michiel Sijpkens (ROTTERDAM, , NL) – $7,765,000.00
4: John Dolan (BONITA SPRINGS, FL, US) – $2,175,000.00
5: John Racener (PORT RICHEY, FL, US) – $10,470,000.00
6: Brandon Steven (WICHITA, KS, US) – $6,045,000.00
7: Redmond Lee (LONDON, , GB) – $3,315,000.00
8: William Thorson (VARBERG, , SE) – $3,680,000.00
9: Mads Wissing (COPENHAGEN, , DK) – $3,070,000.00

Table: Amazon 101

1: Johnny Lodden (JORPELAND, , NO) – $1,560,000.00
2: Joseph Cheong (LA MIRADA, CA, US) – $24,490,000.00
3: Jason Senti (MN, US) – $13,550,000.00
4: Matt Affleck (MILL CREEK, WA, US) – $12,515,000.00
5: Matthew Jarvis (SURREY, BC, CA) – $13,300,000.00
6: Matthew Bucaric (KNOXVILLE, TN, US) – $2,270,000.00
7: David Baker (KATY, TX, US) – $6,825,000.00
8: Filippo Candio (CAGLIARI, IT) – $10,020,000.00
9: Ronnie Bardah (STONEHAM, MA, US) – $2,525,000.00

Table: Amazon 102

1: Adam Levy (LOS ANGELES, CA, US) – $4,745,000.00
2: Benjamin Statz (MADISON, WI, US) – $9,885,000.00
3: Soi Nguyen (SANTA ANA, CA, US) – $23,100,000.00
4: Duy Le (SAN JOSE, CA, US) – $7,255,000.00
5: Jonathan Duhamel (BOUCHERVILLE, QC, CA) – $10,520,000.00
6: Robert Pisano (LAS VEGAS, NV, US) – $8,060,000.00
7: Pascal LeFrancois (ROSEMERE, QC, CA) – $15,780,000.00
8: Hasan Habib (DOWNEY, CA, US) – $1,510,000.00
9: Patrick Eskandar (LADERA RANCH, CA, US) – $1,655,000.00

The 27 players that started Day 8 were placed at the two TV tables and a newly formed third feature table (Amazon 102) right behind the secondary table. Media access to these tables was really tough, as expected. Once they get this deep into the tournament they need to give preference to the ESPN/441 Productions cameras and the PokerNews staff.

@MattCWaldron Ducking the ESPN Camera Jib

After taking pictures of the final three tables, Paul and I would settle into the media platform on the near side of the secondary feature table. This area comes with a bit of a warning though as there is no standing allowed and is restricted to media access only. One fan tried to come in and Seth Palansky politely told him that the ESPN camera jib overhead was a safety issue and he needed to move. The fan pointed to Paul and I and said “What about those guys?”. Seth told him that were were part of the media and that we’d signed waivers that we couldn’t sue for decapitation. Me: Wait, What?!?!

Watching the secondary feature table from this vantage point was pretty cool actually, especially after table 102 broke and we had our final two tables. There was tons of confusion and commotion when trying to seat the final two tables as each player was trying to get their family and friends inside the rail to watch them try to make the November 9.

At the dinner break we were down to 15 players and play would reconvene at 8:30. Paul and I headed down to McFaddens for a final meal before I left for the airport for a 10pm flight. We met up with Lori (@PokerVixen) and Paul’s friend Tim from home. The non-poker highlight of the day happened when Paul bit into his burger and hit an air-pocket which erupted and covered Tim in a combination of BBQ sauce, ketchup and special sauce!

As the dinner break came to an end, I had to bid farewell to the Rio and Lori offered to drive me over to the airport to catch my flight. I was sad to leave the Rio, especially when they were still at 15 players, but I promised the little one I would wake her up on Sunday morning which was now just 7 hours away.

When I got to the airport and was waiting to board, Matt Affleck had his aces cracked vs. Jonathan Duhamel’s JJ on a Td-9c-7h-Qd board for a monster 40m+ chip pot. They were all in on the Turn when the 8d would land giving Duhamel the straight and end Matt Affleck’s November 9 hopes. The beat wasn’t extremely brutal as Duhamel had 10 outs to win, but at this stage in the tournament with so much riding on it, it was just gut wrenching.

The battery on my phone was dying so I powered it off as I boarded US Air flight 66 to Boston. I hoped that when I landed and powered it back on, I would know who the November 9 was. Well, fast forward 6 hours and when we touched down in Boston and I fired up the iPhone they were still 10 handed! Paul was tweeting the action hand-for-hand which went something like this: “Player X opens for Y, and picks up the blinds”.

I grabbed a Starbucks and plugged in my phone at Terminal C so I could charge up and have enough juice to follow the action on the cab ride home. Pure tweet-rail degeneracy. After about 15 minutes of charging I took a cab back to my house, was there to wake up my daughter and was able to rail the November 9 bubble during breakfast on the east coast.

The bubble would end when Brandon Steven busted in 10th place, taking home $635K. Here is your November 9:

• Jonathan Duhamel — 65,975,000
• John Dolan — 46,250,000
• Joseph ’subiime’ Cheong — 23,525,000 (@subiime)
• John Racener — 19,050,000
• Matthew Jarvis — 16,700,000
• Filippo Candio — 16,400,000
• Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi — 14,450,000 (@TheGrinder44)
• Soi Nguyen — 9,650,000
• Jason Senti — 7,625,000 (@PBJaxx)

This trip to Las Vegas was unlike any other I’ve taken. My previous trips were predominantly for bachelor parties and they played out more like the movie The Hangover. This trip was part work, part play and entirely a poker geeks summer camp. Hopefully I will have this opportunity again in the future, but for now it’s back to reality!