Copyright for all pictures within this blog post: River Tells / Hugues Fournaise
Kinda difficult where to start with the recap so I rather mention the EPT Snowfest as well that happened shortly after the WPT Vienna and Koen De Visscher got 3rd in the main event there. I was already doing the online coverage for that one until March 25th and was supposed to go to Vienna early on the 26th … so I tried to cut my regular workload down before I leave and didn’t sleep. After arriving at Vienna (8h-ish trip by train), I went straight to the Montesino and dropped off my clothes there to look after the players and pick up my press accreditation.
The French blogger and photographer were a bit late, so I could just look around and write some early updates as to what happened and some key hands to win pots. Two hours later they both arrived and we discussed briefly what we want to do and checked the poker room, the game had started around 1pm on Day 1B and should last until after 1pm because there was 10 levels played of 60 minutes each and the dinner break was split up into 2 separate ones since there were so many players on day 1B.
With that high number on day 1B, it actually managed to be the biggest WPT event outside of the US with 555 participants total and 54 places got paid. Unfortunately only one Team770 member should make it into the money, but the action at the tables was kinda entertaining and it was nice to see some of the familiar faces. On Day 3 I also seen Jesse May and Kara Scott who I both remember from the UK Poker Open 2007, but I didn’t have time to catch up with them nor do I assume that they would actually remember me from 4 years ago ;)
Each of the 3 days for the coverage was 12h + at the press room and the floor to post updates, besides that I tried to get some other work duties done for my day to day stuff and managed to create the tourney requests on the train to Vienna and the calendar file for the upload on the way back.
It was exciting to see once again one of our players go deep, but Coralie Nauder didn’t get lucky on the last 3 tables and lost Aces vs 77 preflop (door card 7) – yet she managed to be the best women in this WPT Event and got 23rd out of 555 which is definitely an achievement. Matthias Kurtz from Donkr was the best German player, but struggled to stay in as short stack all of day 2-3 and thus the 16th place was also well deserved.
But the most fun part was actually the interaction in the press room, because so many nationalities clash together and it was the first time as well that I actually done a live coverage for such a big event. Everyone tried to help out each other when they had a problem or question and we either talked in English, French, German, Italian … or used hand and feet. I must admit that there has to be a lot of dedication to do this kind of job, because often the working hours are cruel and you want to crawl into a comfy bed around 1-2 am but the tourney is still going on.
On the 3rd day we left the casino around 2am and I still checked emails at the apartment afterwards and woke up roughly 6 hours later to pack stuff and head to the train station on another 8 hour trip back home. Upon arriving I had a notification that my new camera was here and I picked it up from a neighbor, I think you all know that moment when you are thrilled to get your new toy and can’t wait to use it (pun intended? Not sure … lmao). I still worked for another 3 hours and got some urgent stuff done, yet 6 hours later I was already back up and enjoyed the fresh coffee at home while looking out into the morning sun.
I am already looking forward to EPT Berlin in a few days, I got a bit of time to recharge the batteries now but the restrictions at Berlin will be more strict due to the incident from last year and I have not received an update yet whether I will get seat in the press room or not. One way or the other I will still get a day pass for the media to access the tournament area and do the updates + take photos, so that should be fine.
It also feels good that you know you have earned the money for doing your job, it might not always be easy but it is never boring either. Now I guess I gotta throw myself into the day to day stuff again for a week until the next live event coverage … bring it on!
0 comments:
Post a Comment