Cowboy Up

The rodeo is in town.

A major rodeo event ended today here in Las Vegas, and the Gold Coast is packed with cowboys, wannabe cowboys, and even a few cowgirls and cowboy groupies. Downstairs in the casino there are more than a hundred such folk right now, most partying happily. I didn't even know there were that many cowboys still around.

It is a far different scene at the Bellagio.

There is an intense excitement over there in the poker room. I saw at least ten recognizable pros when I went over to buy in for tomorrow's tournament, the championship event of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Everywhere there was chatter, excited voices celebrating satellite wins, hushed tones discussing misplayed hands, and angry, fatalistic cries after bad beats. They ran a supersatellite for the main event today and got 500 customers. Yesterday's had around 450. The winners sheet from the supersatellites read like randomly generated lists of the top 300 players from Cardplayer's Player of the Year rankings.

This event is a cut above the rest of the circuit. There are several elements that distinguish the 5 Diamond from the rest of the big events:

• The buy-in. 15k. The only major open American event with a bigger pricetag is the 25k WPT Championship.
• The structure. Unlike most WPT events which are four days long, this one is five. The levels are longer and the stacks deeper.
• The tradition. Three years ago this was the inaugural event of the World Poker Tour. I believe that was the first final table ever filmed with hole card cameras in the United States. The champion of that event was Gus Hansen. Paul Phillips won in 2003 and Daniel Negreanu last year. John Juanda, Dewey Tomko, and Humberto Brenes have been the runners-up.
• The venue. The Bellagio is the epicenter of poker in Las Vegas and hosts the biggest games in the world. Also, the Bellagio is generally considered the classiest place to play poker in the States.

I've been thinking about the Five Diamond for weeks. I'm more nervous and excited than I have been since the night before the WSOP main event. With the great structure and strong field of players, there is no way I will be able to make it to day four without playing the best poker of my life. But there is no reason to think I won't. I feel very prepared.