Stacking up

Eastern Standard Time, that venerable old time zone, refuses to show mercy. Even in paradise, the sun sets at 5pm. The tradewinds blow in the darkness and the beaches go empty. So, what does a blogger do when the sun goes down and the poker room is still void of the shuffling of cards?

Well, he goes in search of the one thing that everybody here wants:

Chips.

I'd been told earlier in the day that the newly-minted PokerStars tournament chips were under lock and key, behind double, maybe triple bolts in a safe. I could see the safe. It sat right there against the wall. But nobody offered the combination and since I'd only be on the ground here for a few hours, I didn't feel comfortable asking for the keys to the castle. Plus, under some obscure work permit law, I'm apparently not allowed to do anything with the chips anyway.

Still, like anybody might, I wanted to see them. Call it a poker player's nature. Call it primal curiosity. Call it being nosy. I wanted me a look-see of the one thing for which everybody here will be fighting.

Then, glory be, tournament director Mike Ward got it in his head that the chips needed to be racked. Where I come from, they call that opportunity. With the care of a man who knows how to handle new chips (that's handle with care, respect, and a sense for how a $1,000 chip likes to be handled), Mike racked them, stack by stack. What's more, he didn't protest one inkling when I got close enough to smell the racks.

I'm funny that way.

"We had to order some $10,000 chips this year," he said. I think I saw a look of reverence in his eye. Then again, Mike's been around the block enough to not get to misty.

As he stacked and stacked, I took the opportunity to steal a look inside the safe. As a poker player, I should've been able to count how much was there, but frankly, there were just too many checks. It's one thing to look across the table and count a guy's stack for him. It's another thing entirely to see enough chips to fund every one of the nearly 400 players' buy-ins.

I didn't want to seem too googly-eyed. A blogger has to maintain his poker face, after all. Still, I thought it might be good to snap off a few shots. You know, for posterity's sake.

The first flight of the main event is still almost two days away. Either in their rooms, on a plane, or still at home, the players are thinking about these chips. They are thinking about how they'll hold them, how they'll shuffle them, how they'll stack them. More than that, they're thinking about how they'll move as many of them as they can to their seat at the table.

Alright, enough of this. I've reduced myself to stating the painfully obvious.

And while I'm stating the painfully obvious, I might as well point this out:



That's a rack of $10,000 checks.

Okay. Enough chip-talk.

For now.