No, I did not get to see Phil Hellmuth's grandiose entrance to the Main Event where he dressed up like General Patton and was driven up in a camouflage painted Jeep. Swing shift starts at 6 PM after all those frivolities are over.
This fourth "Day One" was the most popular with some 2700 players. They could not fit all of them in the Amazon Room. The overflow was handled in other available rooms in Rio's conference center. My assignment was in the Brazilia Room where 50 tables were set up for Day 1-D. While this room was separated from the enormous Amazon Room it still had its share of ESPN cameras and poker celebrities in the field. Sully Erna, the Poker playing leader of the heavy metal rock band Godsmack was at one of my tables and my roomie had the honor of dealing for Todd Brunson and dealing the hand that busted him out of this year's Main Event.
The highlight of my shift was dealing at Phil Gordon's table. Not only was he at the table but in the #9 seat to my immediate right. He was also a delight to have at the table, friendly to all the other players and animated in conversation.
Phil Gordon is one of my primary Poker heroes. While there may be a pretty large seedy side to poker, Phil Gordon represents the more classy, more mainstream side of the sport. I relate to him somewhat because of his career prior to poker. Phil is truly living the dream. A graduate in Computer Science, Phil was one of the founders of a company called Netsys Technologies during the Internet explosion of the 1990's. When Cisco bought them out, Phil (in his late twenties at the time) became a multi-millionaire and retired from the technology business. He travelled the world, attended sporting events everywhere and found poker. He became one of the best there is, not only at playing the game, but at explaining it. He has written several books, all of which are in my personal collection, and for seven seasons he was the expert commentator on a cable TV show called Celebrity Poker Showdown. His analysis of the play on the show was especially insightful because rather than discussing the subtleties of professional play at the highest levels he pointed out things to look for when playing with typical poker players. This kind of information is very useful at the local cardroom! Phil also has a very engaging personality which helps to explain why the show lasted so long. In fact, he was replaced by world famous poker pro and 12 time WSOP Bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and the show was cancelled very soon after. It just did not work without Gordon.
I grew up playing golf, working in my dad's golf shop and have a healthy respect for the games history and traditions. Harvey Penick wrote a classic book on the fundamentals of golf and called it simply, The Little Red Book. When Phil Gordon wrote his book on the fundamentals of No Limit Hold 'em Poker he borrowed from that theme and called it The Little Green Book. I liked it before I even opened the cover. It is must reading for anyone that plays the game. As a matter of fact, he has also added a Blue Book and a Black Book to the collection.
So nothing really eventful happened while I dealt to Phil Gordon, I was just delighted to be there and have a little light conversation while he played a little poker at the Main Event. I was happy to see his chip stack was about double the starting amount. Upon moving on to the next table I wished everyone good luck and congratulated Phil on becoming a father for the first time a few weeks ago.
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