2008 WSOP Day 37: Main Event Day 1C and the Tao of Five with Flipchip

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

It felt like Ground Hog's Day. The third Day 1. 38th day in a row. My brain is/was/is/was fried. Anyway, the biggest field showed up so far at the WSOP world championship and when action ended on Day 1c, Harrahs dodged a bullet and got more entrants signed up than last year with one more flight to go.

I could do a recap but just read the blog from Day 1c. It's better than anything I can whip up.

Iggy survived the 1,928 person field and advanced to Day 2. Plenty of hot chicas that I know all played... such as Liz Lieu, Lacey Jones, Michele Lewis, Tiffany Michelle, Isabelle Mercier, and Kara Scott.


Liz... (courtesy of PokerNews.com)

* * * * *
On Day 1c, I spent a lot of time with Flipchip talking about a variety of topics. I recorded some of our conversation and decided to use excerpts for a new installment of Tao of Five.

Flipchip has been photographing the WSOP for over three decades. I have been working with him since 2005 and he's known around town as the best in the business.

How did you get into photography?

Flipchip: I liked it when I was a kid. I hauled around my grandmother's Browning and took pictures of things other than relatives which labeled me as weird. When I served in Vietnam, the military is when I saw my first real camera. A Nikon OM1. I hardly knew which way to point it. They gave it to me. They needed photos of dead people and I just happened to be standing there. I ended up with the camera and the film. I went out and took the pictures. If there wasn't any dead people, we'd fake it. We'd have people act dead. It was like being in a movie. I was like a movie director. 'OK, you guys lie down.'

I took photos of dead people. On both sides. I figured those (photos) were used for propaganda. We were so confused we really had no idea anything what was going on. We knew that the country hated us. When I came home I was told not to wear my uniform and not to go to a civilian church. When we got to the airport, people would spit on us. We got to fight in one of the big mistakes. America doesn't like losers. That's the sad part. Nobody likes losers.


Can you capture the essence of humanity with your camera?

Flipchip: Anyone who has played in any poker tournament knows that feeling the moment you find out you're out. You're empty. The world is over. You don't want to walk out, you want to run out. You want to disappear. We see all that heartbreak. That's what I try to do with the camera. I try to capture that look of the moment that they know it's over for this year. The dream is gone. The life has gone from the eyes. I do that every time I hear an "All in and a call!" I can get one of those photos of the light going out. I do about a thousand photos a day or more during the WSOP. We get 54 winners photos and 30,000 loser photos.


From up here in the press box, as you look out into the sea of players on Day 1c, what are you thinking?

Flipchip: You see all these thousands of people in the Amazon room, pick out a face and ask them where hey got an extra $10,000 in this economy to come over here to play cards. I look at these average joes and wonder where the hell they got the money to play in the WSOP? Anyone who knows anything about stats and fall out rates and dead money knows that you have slighter better odds than buying a lottery ticket. Here, there are some people would couldn't win it if you gave them a seat at the final table.


What's one of the biggest differences of the WSOP from twenty and thirty years ago?

Flipchip: Back in the 1980s every table was a killer table. You knew everybody there. There would be a few rich guys, mostly Texans, that would come and tell you right up front, 'I know that I can't win it. But I can go home and say that I sat next to Doyle Brunson and TJ and I won a pot from them...' They paid to have that memory and have those bragging rights.

In the 1970s and the 1980s it was about poker. Now today, it's about sponsorship money and a hundred million dollars to the corporations. They turned the WSOP into a huge profit center. It's no longer about poker or the player. It's about the corporate branding of the WSOP. That's kinda sad to see it happen. I guess in today's world it had to happen in order to survive. Well it's also good for us, because without that we would not have a job. It's blood money, very much so.


What was the difference between the mob that used to run Vegas or the suits in corporations who run it now?

Flipchip: When the mob ran the joint, and the joint means 'the town', we had a lot less potholes. It was really easy to get a comped meal. You didn't need to have players cards or prove you've done whatever. You just had to have juice. Jucie meaning that you knew someone named Dominic. We all know a Dominic around here. I know two or three. That was like your golden ticket. It would get you free food, it would get you free rooms, it would get you whatever you wanted.

They had a very direct way of dealing with things around here. They're business methods are very successful and they're very blunt and direct. If you screw up with those guys they break your arms or kill you. I thought it was better then. Las Vegas was a better place.

The downfall of Las Vegas, and there are lots of reason, but Howard Hughes was one. He came to town with the idea of cleaning it up. He ran out the guys that we knew were crooks and bad guys and they were part of the landscape. He brought in his set of crooks. The only different was that they were suits and you didn't know they were crooks. I prefer the guys with the baseball bats. They got more things done and were more fun to be around. They had lots of great stories of the old days.

But the new Vegas is a world spectacle. It's worth coming here to see this marvelous thing that people have built in the dessert.

Don't forget to check out Flipchip's photos.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

2008 WSOP Day 15: Tao of Five with Wicked Chops Poker

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

After two tough weeks, I finally had my "Office Space" day when I came in and just spaced out and pretend to work. I really tried to work, but there were too many distractions, so I went with the flow. It was a relaxing day for me as I ended up getting sloshed at a party at Bare Pool at the Mirage.

I managed to finish up an interview with the hombres at Wicked Chops Poker for the latest installment of Tao of Five.


I first met WCP at the 2005 WSOP. They came out for the main event and we hit it off right away. We've been tight ever since and it's been a sheer joy to see them flourish and become what they are. As one media member joked, "Pics of hot chicks? Nah, I only read Wicked Chops Poker for the articles."

What I love the best about WCP is that they just don't give a shit what anyone thinks about them and that attitude is why they managed to succeed over the years. Dozens of ripoff sites and hack wanna-bes tried to "borrow" from the WCP model, but they have come and left, since none of them have the snarky wit and an amazing eye for talent.

For the last four years, Wicked Chops Poker is among the first couple of sites I read everyday. Doesn't matter if I'm in Las Vegas, Sweden, New Zealand, or Hollyweird... I love Wicked Chops Poker.

Anyway, without further ado, here's an interview with Snake from Wicked Chops Poker Fame...

1. Pauly: So when did you guys make the decision to go with full blown tits and ass on Wicked Chops Poker?

Snake: When we started Wicked Chops Poker, we all played poker a lot and had been playing for years out of Atlanta and then we'd go to Tunica or L.A. to play poker and we wanted to start writing about poker and that journey. It was going to be more personal when we started off but then it organically evolved it what it is. We knew there were other blogs out there doing personal stories, and blogs like Tao of Poker that had more of a journalistic approach and story telling. We wanted to find our own niche.

It was right before or during the 2005 WSOP when things changed. There was a photo of April Soctt that we like and we tried to connect it somewhat to poker. We needed an excuse and since she was a model for one of the poker sites we went with it. From that point on when we posted post a pic of a hot girl we tried to find an excuse to connect each girl with poker. After a while, it was just poker and an unrelated photo of a hot chick. We're a big fan of sites out there like Hollywood Tuna for example that post lots of photos of famous models and celebrities. We wanted to combine that element with poker.

Pauly: That's smart. I think poker is fuckin' boring sometimes.

Snake: I know. I think we say on the site, "Hot girls because you can only talk about poker so much."


(Courtesy of WCP)

2. Pauly: But you guys aren't just tits and ass. You guys actually break stories and are an integral part of the best alternative media coverage of the WSOP. So you actually provide an invaluable service, right?

Snake: Absolutely. I think what we do, Wicked Chops and Tao of Poker and Pokerati, is help people who are not here keep of track of what's happening. If you just go to worldseriesofpoker.com or Poker News, you can follow along what's going on at the table. But there's so much more going on away from the tables. There's a huge room here with 300 poker tables. And there's the railbirds and cash games and the pros in the hallway. What we try to do is paint that complete picture and if you put it all together it's a pretty cool event that you see here that the mainstream poker media rarely captures. You don't see all the different elements.

Somebody commented on Tao of Poker that they were even here playing and it was so big that didn't know what was going on. But they had to read about it on your blog to figure out what was happening. This is so big. So if you put together the mainstream media and key blogs covering the WSOP, then you get a clearer picture of what's going on. It's what happens away from the tables that makes it interesting.


3. Pauly: How's your girl Anna Benson?

Snake: (Laughing) The Anna Benson thing, man, we flat out called her a bitch. It was based on our personal experience and seeing her at her table and her being a total bitch to the floor and the dealer and to the players. She was doing an interview with Gambling911 with Jennie Woo and (Jennie) brought up Wicked Chops and Anna Benson said, "Wicked Chops Poker are nobodies, the site is garbage." I actually took it as a compliment. We tried to set up a game since she was living in Atlanta at the time. But we never arranged it.


4. Pauly: Who is the most random person who reads you?

Snake: We got pros that read us. JC Tran is trying to figuring what we mean when we say "JC Tran has spectacular breasts." We don't even know what we mean by that. Since he was asking, we did a clarification post about it. I know that Gavin Smith is enjoying the photos that we are taking this year so he wants to help spot a hot girl on the rail. Daniel Negreanu enjoys the photos a lot, which could end some speculation there.


5. Pauly: Is Dan Michalski gay?

Snake: I have never seen him with a girl before, so that's like prima faca evidence that he's, you know, maybe not into girls, so the opposite of not being into girls means... you're gay or asexual. I was gonna say that I saw him at a strip club one time. He was walking in as we were walking out. He gave us a ride home. He didn't even go in. So he'd rather take a bunch of dudes back to their hotel than go into a strip club. That's even more evidence.

That's it for now.

You can check out the last installment called Tao of Five: Benjo.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

2008 WSOP Day 7: Introducing... Tao of Pokerati, Tao of Five, and Billy Shears

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

I'm trying out a lot of different new things at the 2008 WSOP. In addition to hitting up the Tao of Poker several times a day, some of you are also following me on Twitter and getting text message updates to your cell phones.


Yesterday, Michalksi from Pokerati and I launched our first ever joint-podcasting venture called Tao of Pokerati. It's our very lazy and ghetto version of a podcast. Episode 1 is around three minutes.

Click here to listen to Tao of Pokerati - Episode 1.

Right click here and click "save as" to download the mp3 file of Episode 1 to your hard drive.

* * * * *I also started up a new feature called Tao of Five, which is a series of five random questions that I ask in an interview format. Although I'm focusing on media reps at the WSOP, this formula will not be limited to them at any point in the future.

There's a running inside joke in the poker media that there are two things that I don't do... the first is chipcounts... and the second is interviewing poker pros. I always hated it and refused to do them. You'd be shocked how much money I potentially lost from declining interview assignments.

So that's why I decided to focus on my friends in the media, which will give you an opportunity to get to know the people that I know well and have to spend ungodly amounts of time with in the trenches. The interviews will flow more like real conversations.

The first installment of Tao of Five features an interview with everyone's favorite malcontent chain-smoking French journalist, Benjo.

Here's a little backstory... Benjo is a journalist from Lille, France covering poker for various outlets. I first met Benjo at the 2007 EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo. It was three days in when he finally mustered up enough courage to introduce himself. He had been a devoted reader for many years and we clicked right away.

We hung out a lot at the 2007 WSOP and had such a great time that we decided to share a canal apartment for a holiday in Amsterdam in August with our mutual friend Johnny Mushrooms. Anyway, Benjo writes primarily in French but he's a damn good writer in English.


Benjo in front of the Tilted Kilt at the 2007 WSOP
So here's the first edition of Tao of Five...

Pauly: This is your third WSOP. Are you having a good time this year?

Benjo: Yeah, I'm having a great time. The job is good so far. I like the set up inside the (Amazon) room. I said that I was trying to pace myself, so far there was too much news to write about. I basically spent 41 hours, I did the math, in the Rio in the Amazon room in three days. So far it's good. Good winners. Organization is flawless this year. Harrah's and ESPN are not giving me too much shit and to the media in general. This year is great.

Pauly: You're from France, but live in London, and travel all over the world covering poker tournaments. You visit Las Vegas a lot, so what's your favorite thing about Las Vegas?

Benjo: The thing I love about Las Vegas is that it caters to 24 hours (lifestyle). You can do any stuff at any hours and do a variety of stuff. Of course, you can gamble freely. I like the fact that Vegas is a place where you can forget about yourself. You can plunge deep into a gambling fever, whether it is poker or classic gambling and you don't give a shit. You forgot what time it is because it's so dark in there and there's no clocks and when you finally wake up whether you lost or won, at least you had the excitement and thrill of gambling. What I like about Las Vegas it is any day, any night, any time of year. The gambling is crazy. Everything is excess. Excess of food. Excess of sex. Excess of gambling. Excess of money. If you can stand that, you're in for a good time. I can understand why people don't like that. This is the first time I'm in Las Vegas and I'm starting to get bored with it. I finally got over it. Vegas feels like home because I'm gonna be here for two months. I was here two months last year. It's 1/6th of the year. It's just like home. It's not exciting anymore.

Pauly: Who is the best French player in the world?

Benjo: The top player in France without a doubt is David Benyamine. He has such an amazing story but he's never gonna tell anyone about because he's a very private person and doesn't care that much about speaking to the press and giving interviews. He done crazy stuff over the last ten years. He was already playing for millions (and) raised a bankroll for 8 million francs. He would have the equivalent of 1.5 million Euros and go to Las Vegas and blow it all. It would happen several times. In 1997-98-99, the card rooms in Paris were not developed because it was before the poker boom. There was only a small group of players who knew each other and he was a King among them. But you only get to know the stories second hand. The thing was that he had all this money in his pocket and he wanted to play as high as possible. The first time he went to Vegas he sat down and played with Johnny Chan for 400/800 and lost all his money. And he came back again and again. We will never know if he's flat broke or running good, that's the stuff that never goes into print. We never really get to know those crazy stories. From the journalistic standpoint, it is killing me because I can never get a straight answer and I try and try. He's a great player who learned his trade playing live when there was no online poker. Then he started playing on PokerStars in 2004 and killed the limit games. Now he's a Full Tilt Pro and killing the games. He's having a great run in Omaha. That's what I like about him. He's one of the old schoolers. But online, he can play anyone. He will probably not win against everyone, but he doesn't care. He doesn't give a shit. As long as there's action, it doesn't matter if his (opponent) is good or bad, it's action. He's a gambler. He's not a poker player first, he's a gambler first. Yesterday I saw him playing a hand blind in Razz in the Mixed Games. He raised and said, 'I don't look at my cards.' I saw him playing the big game, he can bet all in for 100K without blinking. He doesn't give a shit about money, being broke, being robusto. Doesn't matter. He just wants to play. He went to Vegas and made it and stayed there. So many players avoid him because they think he's crazy! He is wired differently. If you could look inside of his brain, you would see cards and chips.

Pauly: Who are the French players that I don't know but I should be paying attention to?

Benjo: Ludovic Lacay who was runner-up at WPT Barcelona and Arnaud Mattern, the guy who won EPT Prague. They're due for a final table this year.


Michalski playing in the 2006 WSOP
Pauly: Is Michalski gay?

Benjo: He's really trying to hide it. He even kept the pink shirts in the closet this year. Last year the pink shirts were all over the place. He got a lot of shit for that. Right now, it's only white shirts and black shirts. He's even afraid to wear a light blue shirt because people will say, 'Oooh, light blue is close to pink. You're gay, dude.'

And that concludes the first installment of Tao of Five. Stay tuned for future interviews with the legendary Flipchip and folks like Otis, Snoopy, Wicked Chops Poker, and even Michaslki... sans pink shirts.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.