Bags o' fun

All day yesterday, people kept talking about The Bags. It was "bag this, bag that." I got the impression the bags were really important. I sort of figured everybody was talking abouut litle gift bags. Maybe something with a few coupons in it or something.

Okay, so I tend to underestimate things.

In the middle of the room, all by itself, sits Daniel Negreanu's bag. A few minutes ago, somebody walked by and said, "I've got Michael Jordan's bag." (Yeah, MJ is going to be around here, but that's a whole other tournament and a whole other thing).

That's two of the bags, but, to be sure, there are just a lot of bags around here. Hundreds of them.

Now, I don't want to sound like too much of a shill, but PokerStarsis really going out of its way to treat its winners well. For the past two days, PokerStars' staff has been stuffing these big red duffel bags full of stuff that, frankly, I'd like to be taking home with me. Three or four nice shirts, beach hats, beach shoes, frisbees, teddy bears, and a whole bunch of things that I can't remember at the moment.

As I speak, the valets are loading luggage carriers full of the bags with the intention of sneaking them into players' rooms during the 7:30 cocktail party.

It's the kind of perk that one just might not expect and it's pretty nice.

Not bad, really. A week in paradise, a multi-million dollar tournament, and one heckuva nice bag.

Bag this, indeed.