Paul Phillips at the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker main event started yesterday at the Rio in Las Vegas with the first flight of over 1000 players. Last year's field of over 2500 has been more than doubled to 5600. Paul Phillips, poker player and raconteur extraordinaire, is keeping a daily diary for Slate magazine. The first installment is here. It includes a brief synopsis of his banning from Binion's, home of the World Series until this year, in 2001, a situation which led to me being barred from that property as well. I didn't mind that, since I thought it was a cesspool anyway and wasn't planning to play in the World Series until it left there. It was all quite amusing. He also includes a couple of notes on problems with the way the tournament is run:

Harrah's acquired the World Series of Poker two years ago, and the abrupt change in management has led to numerous missteps. One example I noticed today: Despite documented cases of players sneaking fake chips into the tournament, the Rio is still selling souvenir chips that look almost exactly like the real thing. Even more embarrassing is a tale I heard from entrants in the WSOP's first preliminary event five weeks ago. When they showed up, the players discovered they had been seated alphabetically, placing fathers and sons next to each other and forming a table full of the many pros named Nguyen. (The organizers eventually redrew the starting positions.) This is a nerve-racking atmosphere; I'm getting more nervous knowing that I cannot trust the basic competence of the tournament staff.

The table full of Nguyens is amusing, but that's a brutal table with Men, Min and Scotty Nguyen at the same table. Good luck to Paul this year, and to Kellen, one of the regular players in my home game, who is playing today.