Wednesday, June 06, 2007

All Alone in the Moonlight

T-34 hours. What will I forget to bring this time?

Swung by the Wheatie last night to bid our gracious host adieu. Amazingly enough, he was still there at 10, and in fact made his first WWdN final table! I believe it was his 2nd cash in his own tournament. Excellent timing sir.

While Spock will be continuing the WWdN tournaments, they won't be quite the same. Let's be honest here, the reason most of the bloggers kept showing up was either nostalgia, tradition, habit, or because Wil was playing. This is the one that got a lot of us started on this road. But with the MATH, Mookie, Big Game, and yes, even the Riverchasers, there are many alternatives out there, most with a higher calibre of play. If you want to donk off some chips cheap? That's what Kat's Friday Donkament is for.

But 2 years ago, this was something new. You got to play with a bona fide member of Team Pokerstars, a celebrity (even if the letter in front of "list" is a little low these days), Wesley Crusher, author, comedian, blogger extraordinaire, and all-around decent guy. It also only cost $11, and you could win over $100! The players were better than you, but you could totally learn from them. Ok, so that last bit didn't last long. The Wheaton was a great level 1 incubator - a complete donk could play regularly and if they actually wanted to, improve their game by watching the veterans, although not all of them did. There was even a point where you could find most of the regular bloggers there, and the quality of play far surpassed what a $10 tournament should have. Even to the end it was still the largest field in the blogger circuit.

But most importantly, it was the seed for the tournaments mentioned above. Not to mention the DADI and CC's Bash as well. None of these would have happened if Wil hadn't had a series of Hurricane Katrina benefit tournaments that were so successful he decided to hold a weekly "home game". I know I'd probably still be playing for fake money on Stars and being 6x the donk I currently am if it wasn't for these. I sure as hell wouldn't be going to Vegas tomorrow.

So I guess that means Wil has cost me a lot of money. Hmm...

So thanks Wil, you started something great, and like all successful ventures, this one got a big enough push from you that it can sustain itself now. I hope to see you at the virtual tables still, and that you'll drop by some of our own "home games" from time to time. Hoy's extended an offer to buy you in to a MATH anytime you want. I imagine he's not the only one who is willing.

2 comments:

TripJax said...

I think we started the DADI before the WWdN, in 2005. Still, I will not forget when Wil graciously helped us out by having the DADI replace the WWdN one week so we could have a great turnout for a WSoP seat giveaway. That was really cool of him to do.

Not to mention he came in 2nd in one of our DADI events.

I rarely played the WWdN cause it was on my usual night of taking a break from poker. Still, the few times I played were great times and I do recall making the final table at least once.

Great post yo.

Astin said...

Thank you.

My apologies on the chronology. In my world the WWdN came first since I'd never played in anything else. I don't think I got to the DADI until its final few events... a shame really. But I think those included the WWdN replacement.