He didnt even know that he still had a coupon for the steps left and stumbled over it by luck 2 days before the promotion ended on Everest and well, he started on Level 2 and managed to go through straight to Level 5 the same day ... and on late saturday night (June 13th) he played the last 2 final steps for the WSOP Main Event package, each just a 10 seater SNG table to beat. Well surprinsingly he took it down and was stunned ... the screenshot hit the german forum where he is most of the time like a bomb and the next few days he set up the whole trip and tried to organise stuff. As I was already at Vegas in 2007, he contacted me via skype to help him and a good friend of mine that should fly over with him - Everest was generous and paid 1.000$ on top of the 13.000$ Main Event package for the flight tickets so he could enjoy that adventure together with a friend. Over the next days, we tried to get all booked and the flight tickets were not that cheap, but still ok and covered by the money from Everest. Well, online it would have been easy to book, but the friend hat no credit card that could have been used and he ended up getting screwed by the travel agency in his local area, that wasnt able to book everything in time. The prices went up and he could not afford to fly over any more, another buddy got asked and also said no as he was moving flats ... so within 2 very chaotic days, I was the chosen one to fly over with him.
I checked my schedule and decided that I can also take over my laptop to the States and do the most important one online, as I just need an internet connection. Additionally I had to post updates on 2 german poker forums where he is active at and got asked by the admins to write some updates from Vegas and how the event goes etc. No problem for me though as I love writing (a lot) and it all went fine, more details about his tournament to come later though. So actually I buzzed around my online contacts that were also meeting over at Vegas and tried to arrange a schedule where I could possibly meet the persons I really want to see in real life and others that I have already met. I went ahead and booked the flight tickets on June 16th though and was excited of course, finally the money from Everest also arrived a few days later and all was secured. The next days we have been skyping a lot and planning the whole trip, reminding each other what to bring over and not forget etc ... the days went and I informed all my business contacts where I am freelancing that I will be flying over to Vegas for 2 1/2 weeks and wont be online as much as I do usually. Just the day before the takeoff I actually received a longer translation and told to myself that I will stay awake all night and finish that work plus not gonna miss the train to the airport next morning. I had a long trip ahead anyway and could sleep either on the train or the plane. Well, I packed all my stuff just a few hours before I left my flat on June 30th and almost managed to miss the train because I was a bit late with the coffee at home LOL ... I eventually had to run to the train station but got there in time, well tbh 3 minutes before the train arrived.
The first omen was after only 10 minutes, as there have been technical problems with the train and we had to change to another one at the next bigger station ... very promising lol. But I arrived at Frankfurt airport in time and the check in there was already chaotic, the electronic preregistration that every visitor to the USA has to get through didnt work properly and it took much longer than usual to check into the flight and also drop the luggage ... well if that would have been the only problem! After the security check we been confrontated with the useless german US Airways staff and half of the passengers didnt have any seat number awarded, the confusion was pretty high and it took them over ONE HOUR to get all sorted and get each passenger his seat ... mostly in small groups or even just single persons! So we already been more than 90 minutes delayed for the takeoff to Philadelphia, funnily enough my friend that won the package had the problems afterwards in Philadelphia when he flew over to the States 2 days later. Fortunately I had 2h30 spare time at Philadelphia that went down to bout 30 minutes ... as I arrived from Europe, I had to grab my luggage and drop it again for the inner US flight - plus the security check again of course. Well, it worked out in time somehow and we kinda arrived in time at McCarran Airport, I went outside and grabbed an airport shuttle for 6.50$ to the Imperial Palace where I stayed for 2 days until my friend arrived (we moved into Caesars Palace from July 2nd to July 5th). Merely 35-40°C outside, not that bad lol ... I tried to reach a friend on her mobile but mine wasnt working properly and it took me some time to get it sorted. She was on the CakePoker party at Vegas and they came back late ... but well thats more likely to continue in the next blog, that will focus on the first few days of the trip from the arrival at Vegas until the start of the Main Event for my friend on Day 1D, Monday July 6th.
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