Um...holy super satellites, Batman

Before we get on to a fun story for the night, it bears mentioning that the poker room opened for the first time tonight. And by opened, I mean...sheesh, that's a lot of people.

I knew something was afoot when I wandered back from the cocktail party and found the lobby of the ballroom already full of people. While they might not admit it, they were tapping their feet and wringing their hands like a bunch of people who'd been locked out of a poker room for three days. Of course, that's exactly what they were.

PokerStars at one time considered cappping the $200 Super Satellite for the main event at 120 people. It soon became clear that a lot more people than that wanted to play.

The line to buy in stretched around the room. Within an hour, 224 people had ponied up $200 a piece for a shot at a seat in the Main Event.

The room was full of folks, both well-known and unknown faces.


Humberto Brenes in line to buy in

Juha Helppi behind Humberto in the line to buy in

The World Poker Tour production team

The poker room at capacity

Bad beats in the Bahamas
With thanks to Meg for the headline

As Mike Ward called out "Shuffle up and deal" I walked around and watched the first couple hands of the tournament. The first hand I saw was AK vs. AA. For once, AA held up and my faith in humanity found itself restored.

For all of one minute.

Three tables away, I heard a slight commotion, so I shuffled over to find AA vs KK vs 99. All three players were all-in preflop.

"Give me the nine," a young guy in the two seat said a little louder than I expected.

The dealer dealt out the flop: 78T.

I almost couldn't watch. But it's like a car wreck on the interstate. And the squealing tires and crashing metal came just after the young guy screamed, "Give me the suck-out!"

He made his straight on the turn and nobody watched the river for a couple of reasons. First, it was irrelevant. Second, the young guy was now standing, screaming to his buddies across the room, and in a moment I might not soon forget, declared himself at 100 decibels, "THE SUCK-OUT KING!"

The aces handled the outburst well. The kings took some umbrage, however. That conversation is better left in the poker room, however, for there was still a lot of poker to be played.

Like unlucky windchimes, the word "rebuy" tinkled across the room more times than one man could count.


Juha at the table

One table out of 23 looking to make the money

As I type, the super is entering its third hour. One hundred and twenty-three players remain. After the entry-fees, 316 rebuys, and 190 add-ons, the prize pool sits precariously close to $146,000 before a slight reduction for the dealer toke. That means, the final 17 players tonight will win seats into the Main Event. I suspect that many of them already have seats, which means they'll get paid out in cash.

Oh, and if you were wondering, The Suck-Out King is still in contention.