We started with 670 players and the tournament directors announced that 63 places would pay. Nearing the end of the first day, it was clear that we might actually make it into the money by the end of the day. The tournament schedule called for playing 10 blind rounds on the first day, but the tournament directors announced a slightly different plan. Instead of playing 10 blind rounds, they announced we would either play 10 blind rounds or until we made the money…whichever came first.
Some time after Marcel Luske busted at our table, Huck Seed came back to join me. Huck and I greeted, and we exchanged our congratulations for making it this far. By this time, there were only 8 or 9 tables left, we were VERY close to the $-money-$.
When there were only 7 tables left, the tournament directors stopped the tournament to do some accounting and figure out how exactly how many players were still in. Instead of playing hand-for-hand like they do in online tournaments, the directors announced that we would play circuit-for-circuit. Here’s how that works. When circuit-for-circuit started, if the button was on seat-3, then we would play an entire circuit of hands around the table until the button was back at seat-3; then we would stop and wait for the other tables. When all of the tables completed their entire circuit we would see how many players were left. If there were only 63 players left, then we were in the $-money-$ and play would end for the night. If we still had more than 63 players, then we would play another circuit. This would continue until we reached 63 players, or until level-10 was completed.
When circuit-for-circuit was announced, Daniel Negreanu raised a HUGE stink. He called the tournament director over and argued until he was blue in the face. The mild-mannered and good-natured Daniel Negreanu was now yelling and screaming, and just thought circuit-for-circuit was a horrible idea. Instead, Daniel wanted to play hand-for-hand instead of circuit-for-circuit. Unless this was the first year of the WSOP with this new policy, I don’t know why Daniel was using this opportunity for complaining – as he would have surely encountered the policy before. Daniel believed that hand-for-hand was a better way because some tables had more players than others – thus allowing full tables to play more hands during a circuit than tables missing one or more players. I can see Daniel’s point, but I think it was ridiculous for such a seasoned professional to argue about it for so long (5 or 10 minutes) when he’s certainly not going to change the policy on the spot; and I think the circuit-for-circuit method is actually better for a tournament of this size. If we played hand-for-hand, the tournament would grind to a halt and it would take an hour or more just to play the last few hands into the money. Circuit-for-circuit is more efficient because it eliminates virtually all communications barriers between tournament director and dealers, and eliminates the possibilities is making mistakes of dealing or not dealing a hand when required. (It was VERY loud in the room, and you couldn’t always hear the tournament director, even though he was talking over the PA system – because of poor room acoustics and the large amount of ambient noise.) If you take Daniel’s argument to its extreme, then you might as well play the entire tournament hand-for-hand. I just don’t think it’s that important for the exact number of hands be played by all players when you’re that close to the money.
By the time we were playing circuit-for-circuit, my friend Drew (“OutDrewsYou” screen name on Party Poker) came by to watch me play. The Rio kept him away from the action – so as not to interfere with the tournament in progress. Drew wanted me to just tighten down and squeak my way into the money – but my cards had a slight different idea. During this time, I was dealt hands that mandated that I play them. When I would look over at Drew, he would see me involved in a big pot and he looked back at me in horror. He eventually shrugged his shoulders and mouthed “what are you doing?” I just shook my head back, and scooped the pot when it was over. During this time period I played some pretty big pots and managed to come up over 10000 chips. Afterwards Drew and I talked and he was glad I played the hands, but a little surprised that I would jeopardize my chip stack this close to the $-money-$.
We started the last circuit before the money with 64 players. We only needed to knock out one player to make it into the money. As fate would have it, we knocked out three instead.
So we started the day with 670 players, and ended the day with 61. We played 13-1/2 hours – until 1:30AM. There was still about 20 minutes left in level-10. The tournament gave us bags and some paperwork to fill out – our name, chip count, etc. These bags are VERY secure and can hold mountains of chips. Before inserting your chips, you also use a permanent market to put your name, table, seat, and chip count on the bags. Insert your chips, seal them up, and show back up tomorrow at 2:00PM.