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2006 World Series of Poker Swag Report

As long as it is free, I want at least one

by Linda Johnson |  Published: Sep 27, 2006

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It was another hot summer in Vegas, the World Series of Poker was in town, and I spent a lot of time in the Card Player Cruises booth at the Gaming Lifestyles Expo at the Rio. The Expo is now an annual event lasting five days that helps to kick off the $10,000 buy-in main event. Assembled inside the convention center were a variety of vendors, including online poker sites, poker magazines, art dealers, and any product or service applicable to the poker world. There was even one booth promoting some sort of new glue. I quickly became interested in the young man sitting in the booth building a house of cards with his glue. He gave me a free sample, and that was when something clicked inside of me: Almost all of the booths were offering something for free.



So, as I sat there preparing to leave for our cruise to Alaska the next day, I looked down at my goodie bag and it was like Christmas in July, because it was filled to the brim with "swag." What is swag? Swag is promotional merchandise, branded with a company's name and logo and given away at trade shows – things like T-shirts, mouse pads, and pens. It's not like I really need any of this stuff, but something about the fact that it is free makes me want it. I am hooked; I am a born-again swagger.



As I made my way across the convention floor, I made sure to note who had the goods, and when I saw someone carrying something that interested me, I asked him where he obtained it and what was required to get it. Some booths required you to sign up for a drawing for a much bigger prize. Others made you spin a wheel, guess a pro's age, or play a hand of poker.



As I walked by one booth, I was handed a game card, and printed on this game card were two cards and a prize code. I was then told to stand in line to enter this code into a computer system to see what I may have won, and to pay attention to the big screen behind me because that is where they would put up a flop. If my hand was the winning hand, I would be eligible for a drawing to win a much bigger prize. As I stood in line, I noticed that the man next to me held two red queens on his card. I held two black aces, so I smiled and told him, "You might as well fold; you're a huge underdog." The countdown to the big flop approached, and there it was: Qheart Jheart 5club. The turn was the 10heart and I was drawing dead because someone with the Aheart Kheart made the royal flush. But hey, I entered my code into the computer and won some really cool blue flip-flops.



When showing the flip-flops off to a friend, she suggested that I visit an online site's booth, where I could complement my beach travel package with towels, beach balls, and a carrying bag. All I had to do was win a hand of hold'em against one of their booth bunnies who was walking around with a cigarette-girl version of a poker table. She dealt me 8-7 offsuit and the flop came jack high. Neither one of us had a pair; she looked at her hand, which was 3-2 offsuit and asked out loud, "Does this mean you won?" I smiled and nodded yes, but inside I was screaming, "Yes, and with only 8 high; ship it!" I chose the bath towel and made a conscious decision not to make a few trips back throughout the day to complete the collection.



Regrettably, there were some failures during the day. A friend suggested that I visit the Sector Watches booth, and told me that if I acted interested enough, I would get a free travel bag, which was quite nice. However, no matter how interested I pretended to be, even after trying on one of the watches and filling out a form for more information, I was not given one of those bags. Brokenhearted, I moved on to another booth.



In the end, my day of swagging was a successful one. I am now the proud owner of even more nonessential items and desk clutter than before. Throughout my day, I was also able to accumulate three decks of cards, a photo of me playing poker, a card protector promoting the new poker film Lucky You, a license-plate frame, a few stress-relieving sponge balls that later in the day became crude weapons, a number of promotional poker chips, a beautiful money clip, and a few poker books and magazines. Most of all, I came away having learned something about myself: I love free stuff. Does it have to have any real value? No. As long as it is free, I want at least one.



I owe a big thank you to Cary Darling for helping me write this column and for participating in the 2006 swag hunt.



Now, let's play poker! spade

Linda is available to host corporate events, seminars, and poker tournaments. She can be contacted through her website at http://www.cardplayercruises.com/ or http://www.lindapoker.com/.