I had promised to write each evening on this blog during the World Poker Tour Amnéville ... The problem, you see is that this week - like all the journalists the way - I've known either morning, afternoon or evening, if I were to summarize what I take from this week in Lorraine, I am contented of sleep (a little), work (a lot), eating (when I could) and meet the needs of nature upon which each person normally constituted.
must say it was a big challenge: the coverage of the World Poker Tour was a first for Hugh and Fournaise me, and it would set the tone for the direction borrow River Tells . So we donated to bottom during these five days, with the assistance more than welcome Aurelien Lafarge, with whom I shared the editorial side, while Hughes was responsible for photo coverage, also helped him for a day by Cyrille Lefranc.
The tournament, overall, was a successful event. 543 players took part in the festival, which is a record attendance for a WPT outside the USA, and the press room was full: I've found most of my friends. The field was a good balance between beginners and experts - but the balance leaning towards beginners - and we had such an exciting day 3, at which the set-up chained themselves to an alarming extent,
Side practical life, I will remember many things from this WPT:
First, all casinos are not used to organize tournaments of this magnitude, which leads to some surprising reactions from the leaders or team organizer.
Second, the press remains an intrusive body for casinos, just to see how our suggestions and comments - not always sugar coated, it's true - were received by the organizers.
Finally, the tournament was held in a Casino open for less than a month (this probably explains that.) If the rooms probably deserve the star they are allocated (buffet breakfast, for that matter, and I assure you a connoisseur), the casino's restaurants, however, have much progress to do as well in terms of reception quality of service, not to mention the delicacy of the dishes offered. It seems that the servers have emerged from the soil at the same time as the casino, a month ago, and they zapped all the training part for restoration.
Example The most obvious: the final night of the WPT, Aurelian, Jools, Kinshu, Harper and I had an hour to restore us during the dinner-wagon, and we settled in the 'buffet' of Casino: Access to this buffet will cost us nothing, since Hermance Blum, PartyPoker, had generously offered us the tickets.
The other evening a cold buffet was available, but in this case - perhaps it is because they expected fewer people - not cold buffet that evening. We installed a waitress, and leaves us a choice of three starters, three dishes, three desserts, perfect.
Just installed, based on our experience in another restaurant from the casino, and determined not to let us have the timing, we indicate that we are part of the WPT staff, and we have that an hour to eat, the waitress is taking notice.
We order.
Twenty minutes later, seeing nothing happen, we remember the good memories of a server that passes the time. "Yes, I'll see in the kitchen" he said without stopping. He returned five minutes later asking, "You had ordered what, already?"
Jools starts to tilt, a bottle of Bordeaux has already reached and the time is now 35 minutes. We remind him of command and the fact that we are in a hurry, and he leaves, the better to return five minutes later: "Sorry, we have more input you ordered"
The bad-beat continues. The waiter brings the available input-a sort of bowl-we ship in less time than it takes to say "The rest, please"
Time passes, it we have only fifteen minutes when another waiter comes to the table, "You wish I could remember your order, please? "
It turns skit, I'm looking for where the camera is stashed. We ask what is the quickest to prepare, the waiter offers cutlets Milanese. Five minutes from the end of the lap, he brings a kind of flat awful, a real shoe meat, and I do not even talk about coaching. That said, give the customer the dish inedible five minutes before he must leave, it played quite well: the client will not return the dish in the kitchen. We are all left in the press room with a feeling of frustration, and if I had pay the bill, God is my witness that the server could sit on his receipt. At the same time, having worked several years in catering, I am rather intolerant. Since
is talking about the common little miseries, and following an idea of Harper, I'll try to list the things I had never seen before coming to Amnéville:
1 - I had never seen a pro player to land P'ti breakfast buffet at 7 am, not having slept with a guitar in hand, and interpret various pieces and varied, with a talent ... diverse and varied;
2 - I've never seen a plasma screen to emerge from a wall: it will take a bit to Captain Picard. By cons, to close the shutter, it is done by hand. We can not have everything, either. I can see the architect reported to the hotel manager: "All major hotels have it in New York is just too great hype, you need it absolutely is € 1.500 per room. What? Electric roller blinds? It's completely out of fashion, my good friend indeed! We do not want to seem old fashioned, is not it? "
3 - I've never seen many set-ups a day, then I think (day 1B, but day 3);
4 - I've never seen a Tournament Director to be told to shut his mouth: when the list of payouts is out, Sammy Torbey announced the earnings of the final table at the microphone. The problem arose when he began to announce the prices of 10 ° to 12 ° place, especially as the tournament clock clearly showed all the info: it has annoyed some, and a " ta gueule! "has emerged from one of the tables, followed by a general protest, fortunately short-lived
5 - I've never seen so many groups around the final table: it is true that the presence of three Local Heroes (both qualified and a member of the Casino de Lorraine Poker Club) to the table has much to do;
6 - I've never seen time that lasts 30 seconds, or count out loud the dealer to start at 5 seconds of the end, nor had to convince a floor manager it is fashionable to respect international rules of poker - instead of the local rules of the Casino - especially when is hosting a WPT (true, the scene had a high potential comical)
7 - I've never seen a security guard stood in front of me in the press room until I shut my pc while I'm typing the closing section of the day, interrupting me every two minutes because it's 4am and should set the alarm. When I pointed out that the rest of the world below (the press room was located on a sort of mezzanine, above the poker-room) he told me he has not seen the report that I have to leave ;
8 - I've never seen reports also stretched between a team organizer (I am talking about the team and not the casino of the Sponsor PartyPoker.fr) and the press, nor a responsible fashion Gestapo told a reporter he would " do everything possible to blacklist all casinos in France "
9 - I've never seen a 4-star hotel without room service. Put it down to the recent birth of the institution;
10 - Finally, I had never drank champagne in the press room: it is thanks to Cyrille Lefranc, photographer from Reims, that first time was possible, thank you to you.
In the end, on the lap I came back: the pace of coverages is still tough, but in this case I have less well supported, perhaps because I don ' had not moved from Las Vegas.
Finally, I sincerely want to send a huge thank you to PartyPoker.fr which gave us confidence for the first time, and that allowed us to start as River Tells the poker scene. Hermance Blum thank you for giving us this opportunity.
I'm leaving on Thursday at Enghien, for the cover photo of the final barrier with Cyrille Lefranc Poker Tour, and also help Sylvain Tia for blog content barrier.
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