Padraig Parkinson: It Was Easier In The Old Days

For more of Padraig’s adventures at the WSOP you can check him out on Twitter.

The WSOP is certainly a marvellous place to be. It’s the only place in the world where everyone is smarter than at least 90 per cent of their opponents. I could explain to you how this is possible but its very complicated and you probably wouldn’t understand it anyway. You meet guys here who can think on a level the rest of us can only dream of. One such guy I was talking to wishes to remain anonymous so let’s just call him Poker Pages Mark for convenience. I met him as he was about to head off to the Nugget for their $1,000 NLH event. While most guys were going there to avoid the pros, PPM had his own reasons. “They give you a 20,000 starting stack there. I haven’t had that many chips in front of me since I got here.” Unfortunately 20,000 is still his personal best for the trip.

I had lunch with an old road gambler the other day. He was telling me about a conversation he’d had with one of his peers who was of the opinion that all the new stuff was just moves that guys were making years ago. He used floating as an example. My buddy pointed out to him that floating was arguably a lot less risky in those old games especially when you already knew what the turn card was going to be!

The One Drop event was great craic. I think it owes its name to the fact that lots of people got to drop a load of money all in one go. I was watching Day 2 from the rail mainly because I got fed up listening to the commentary on the live stream. I just couldn’t understand how these guys could be so smart and not be in the event. There’s no justice. Nolan Dalla was the other side of the rail in his best suit. I prefer his other one but maybe that’s just me. I mentioned to him that it’d be great for poker if Mike Sexton won it. He said it was going to be great no matter who won. I pointed out that Hellmuth was still in. Nolan nodded to the lady sitting beside me and asked me if I’d met Phil’s mother. I was about to congratulate her on what a good parenting job she’d done on rearing such a talented and modest young man when Nolan told he was only kidding. So was I.

The next day, as the final took place, I was busy doing my money in the 3K PLO Hi/Lo. The main topic of conversation was who had what piece of who in the One Drop. I didn’t get involved because I’m selfish and didn’t give a xxxx. After a while Huck Seed dropped by and asked if I knew we were playing hi/lo. I’m proud to say I did even if it didn’t look that way. Some guy asked Huck how big a percentage Antonio had of himself. Huck replied that he had 100pc of himself and with side bets he’d won a total of 40 million. I think he thinks he’s Irish!