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Viva Las Vegas Vicariously
Good morning.
The first Sky Poker Viva Las Vegas qualifiers arrive here in Las Vegas in the coming days.
Thousands of you tried to qualify to come to Las Vegas with Sky Poker, but just 45 (& their +1's) actually won packages.
So we will this thread to live Vegas vicariously, imagine you are there, & we'll try & bring you all the news, views, chip counts, stories, & general comings & goings.
That includes the staff from Sky Poker - photos, bios, who is here & what they get up to.
The thread only works if you interact, so any questions, fire away, & one of the Team - or qualifiers - will try & reply.
Off we jolly well go.
Comments
Have you qualified to go to Las Vegas with Sky Poker? Well done you.
The folks at home want to rail you, & identify with you, so tell us something about yourselves;
Name &/or Sky Poker alias. If you don't want your real name identified, that's fine, your alias is fine.
Who is your +1, & why did you choose to bring him or her?
Where do you live, what part of the country?
Do you have family - wife, children, pets? Names, types & gender please.
Fave football team?
Hobby?
Biggest poker achievement before Viva Las Vegas?
Links to Blogs will go up on here, too.
There have been a whole bunch already, & you can find them on the Sky Poker Vegas Hub, HERE
As & when new Blogs are published, the links will go on this thread first.
Sky Poker will have quite a few staff here to help give the qualifiers an unforgettable experience, & we'll do some bios, pen pics & photos for you.
The first to arrive will be Sam, who is due to land at Noon on Tuesday on the Thomas Cook flight from Manchester.
(Note all times in this thread will be Vegas time, which is 8 hours BEHIND UK & Ireland time).
What does Sam do at Sky Poker usually?
His Official title - SB&G love grand job titles - is "Poker Customer Experience Manager".
What does that mean? I have no idea, seriously.
What I do know is that, on a day to day basis, Sam looks after "Ops", as in the MTT's, SNG's, Cash Games, & generally is the Top Cheese on a day to day basis on all things Sky Poker. Generally, if a question arises on the Forum, & I don't know the answer, Sam is my first point of call. (Marketing, Content, Priority etc are a separate department - more on those in due course, as if & when they arrive in Las Vegas).
Sam is based in Leeds, & is a Leeds United fan. Yup, Leeds United, lol. Give him some gip, the more the better.
He's a typical Yorkshireman - badly dressed (he has no idea), short on tact, & not the sharpest knife in the draw. That apart, a great bloke. Not sure of his age, but I'd hazard a guess at late forties.
Not his first trip to Las Vegas for Sky Poker - he was here last year, though few of us sighted him after Day One. Likes to drink & party, does Sam. Bit of a ladies man, too, or so I'm told.
I'm due to collect him from McCarron Airport at Noon on Tuesday, & if I can get a photo of him arriving, I'll share it with you.
.
Next to arrive, on Wednesday, due in at 7,15pm on the BA flight from Heathrow, will be Mr Ambo, aka Neil Channing.
I'll be picking him up from the airport unless I make Day 2 of the $600 Big O @ Venetian, which is a 2 day thingie which starts at 5pm on Tuesday, with Day 2 @ 5pm on Wednesday. Safe to say, I'll be at the Airport, then.
You all know everything about Neil, so I don't need to trouble you with a bio. I'll try & get a photo of him straight off the plane if I can, but for now, here's Neil after Iceland beat England. You have to guess what team he backed.
Next to arrive - on Thursday - will be Dan, who runs Sky Poker TV.
It will be Dan's 5th or 6th trip to Vegas for Sky Poker. When he first came here he was just the "runner", aka Teaboy, but he gradually worked himself up the ladder & now runs Sky Poker TV, where he is also the Producer.
Dan lives in West London, & is an Arsenal supporter.
A real pain to work for in some ways, but in a nice way - Dan likes everything to be just so. All the Sky Poker Videos from Las Vegas in the last 4 or 5 years have been filmed edited & produced by Dan. His team back in London is Louis, who looks after most stuff when Dan is away, & Chan, who is the Director, & has been with SB&G since before Sky Poker started.
Dan's work starts on Friday @ 9am sharp, as Friday sees the $111,111 One Drop thing, & as such, it should attract all the big names & faces, so Dan is hoping we can get to interview a few of them.
Most days, Dan will produce a Daily Update from Vegas, similar to last year, with Neil Channing providing the talk, &, if needed, me doing the role of stooge & Wardrobe Advisor.
OK, that should get us started.
Don't forget, the thread only works if you interact, & we'll promise to try & answer all questions.
Over to you.
all the way to the final tables.
Don't forget your sun cream for when and "if" you venture outside
its very hot at the moment.
See the reply by FCHD.
They have qualified for EITHER the $10,000 Main Event, or the $1,111 Little One Drop.
They will arrive later this week or early next week.
Either the $10,000 Main Event, or the $1,111 Little One Drop.
The Main Event starts this Saturday, but has three opening days - Saturday 9th, Sunday 10th & Monday 11th.
The $1,111 Little One Drop has three opening days - Tuesday 12th July, Wednesday 13th July & Thursday 14th July.
Real name for any WSOP updates if I am fortunate enough to get a little run together is Mark Baillie. I am sure you can all figure out my Sky alias but I am usually known online as Marky_Crash although it wouldn't allow me to select that alias when joining Sky.
Who is your +1, & why did you choose to bring him or her?
My dad is coming along as my +1. I asked him to come as he has never been to Vegas but plays poker most nights online. He isn't a fan of the sun/heat so it might get interesting lol. I am sure he will enjoy it though!
Where do you live, what part of the country?
I live in Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland. The area is known for being a hotbed of OH8 talent, producing the likes of WeeCheez1, Churchy18 & myself and a few other Sky regs
Do you have family - wife, children, pets? Names, types & gender please.
Have a long term girlfriend and twins aged 22 (1 boy & 1 girl). Also have 2 rather crazy border collies and 2 cats.
Fave football team?
The same as Churchy I think ;-) Celtic
Hobby?
Hmm not sure about this one... Ah yeah, poker! I like football too but to be honest have not had much time lately for hobbies as I am studying psychology full time at uni, work as a research consultant and voluntarily serve on the board for 2 charities and run a cleaning business off and on.
Biggest poker achievement before Viva Las Vegas?
Taking part in a series of poker tourneys on Eurosport where I eventually finished 2nd for $100,000.
Will try and add a few photos and updates on here and on my blog thread of anything which may or may not be of interest
^^^^
Good work Mark, exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for, as it helps readers identify with our Team.
We need a few more responses now, come on lads, chop chop.
Most of the $1k buy ins are actually 5k starting stacks so this one is quite good. The 1 hour levels are not as amazing as they sound though as it takes longer to deal hands live obviously but are better than almost all of the non WSOP tourneys taking place in Vegas at the same time.
The Sky Poker players get the additional 5,000 chips (as will almost everyone), so 10,000 starting chips, & blinds start at 25-50, with one hour levels. Very much a Roller structure (but with antes from Level 3) & deffo not even remotely resembling a Turbo.
Here you go, here's the structure - it's a beaut.
http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/structuresheets/structure_1232_14969.pdf
I'm off to the airport in a few hours. Really looking forward to it now. It'll be lovely to meet all the qualifiers.
Tomorrow I'm going to play the $1,000 event which will be one of three shots I get, (unless I go really deep in the main and then it'll be two), to win a bracelet. I'll be starting at 11am and Tweeting a little @senseichanning and probably 12% will go back on day two Friday.
I think we get to meet the five players who qualified for the main with Sky on Thursday night so that will be nice.
On Monday all the people who won the smaller package will be meeting up for a nice party. Many of them will be in Vegas for the first time and I'm sure they'll all be nervous and excited. I look forward to meeting and chatting with them.
Would be interested to know how many of the qualifiers from Sky are pro's.
Also still in the field of 25 is 3-time bracelet winner "Miami" John Cernuto who might be even older than Tikay.