Party Poker Million Cruise - Part 3

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The second to last day of the cruise was the day of the World Poker Tour event. The 2004 World Poker Tour season is surely going to be even bigger than the 2003 WPT, if events like the Party Poker Million III gain in popularity. As I mentioned in the beginning, with a prize pool of $3.8 Million dollars, it's the biggest payout for any World Poker Tour event to date. Heck, with all the payouts of each WPT event, you could practically buy the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour rights :)

Shana Hiatt with random guy (above) and PPM Banner (below)

I realized I actually made a mistake on my last page when I said Final 10 because the final table only seats six people. The special World Poker Tour tables all have the lipstick cameras so that you can see the hole cards and can really only fit so many people at once on the table. That and the fact that it's simply difficult to film and have all those chips at the table probably makes it easier to simply have six people at the final table.

Prize pool payout (top) and prize money (below)

As you can see above, the prize payouts for this event are quite big, even for second and third place, so there are likely going to be no deals being cut in this tournament. What most players don't know is that in the past, there were often deals made between the remaining two or three players at the table. This was because the payout structure was so much in favor of the first place finisher, that most players didn't want to risk getting the second prize payout instead, which could be 1/10th of the top payout. So by making a deal, the two remaining players would agree to split the first and second place prize however they deemed was fair beforehand, that way guaranteeing both players got a decent paycheck. It's not very glamorous, but it was the prudent thing to do (and smart for the most part). Nowadays however, as you see on the WPT, no deals are made because the payout is enough that it's not worth it for many players to make deals when 1st and 2nd place are only $300k apart.

The World Poker Tour - Party Poker Million Main Event

The final table for the Party Poker Million was held in the evening, right during dinner time, so hopefully all the guys in it ate beforehand, because it lasted for a good 3 hours. The filming and setup of the whole World Poker Tour was really interesting to see and I arrived early not only to get good seats but to just see how they set everything up.

As the lounge was filling up, they were allowing people to go up on stage to take pictures with Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten and Shana Hiatt. I took that opportunity and got a picture with them, although they were taken by the ship's crew, so I got them on film rather than digital on my own camera. The set was all moved in before hand and assembled I imagine, as the large WPT 'blocks' were pretty large. They also had to fit the World Poker Tour style lights to the ceiling or some kind of contraption, since they always do those Hollywood lighting effects anytime the game changes.

Shots of the WPT televised set

What was really cool were two screens they had at each side of the stage that were being shown projected images of the top of the table and the camera angles. I was really surprised because they were cutting to different camera angles in real time as the World Poker Tour was going. I'm sure they'll do some more edits before the actual episodes are shown on air on the Travel channel, but the skill of whoever was directing the show was really apparent.

One of the funny things that happened before they started the event was that they needed to get quality shots of the audience reacting to things happening on the table, so Linda Johnson went onstage and offered prizes to the people who performed the best. By performing, she meant when they said 'Cheer!' you had to get up and out of your seat hooting and hollering. 'Sigh!' and you had to act totally disgusted and be groaning. They did this to different sections of the audience at different times, so it was pretty funny watching everyone start screaming and jumping around and then groan and slump the next minute. The best was trying to look 'Interested'. This meant everyone had to lean forward and act like they were trying to look at the table even though nothing was happening at all on stage! This looked MUCH funnier than it sounds, because of the of the situation. I actually managed to get a book myself (they were tossing a lot out) during the intermissions of the filming.

When the actual game began, they of course couldn't show the hole cards live, because some fool in the audience could then yell it out and ruin the event. So what they did was have Linda or another woman broadcast the game as it went and showed the action on the two projection screens. Since the area was on a raised stage, the entire lower floor couldn't even see the action on the stage, so the projectors were really useful.

The Hollywood effects for the World Poker Tour were pretty funny at times, as you could hear the fog machine start as it started smoking up the stage as the lights and other effects went on. Most of the guys there on stage seemed to be enjoying themselves and having a good time. I was constantly distracted in my section because the lovely Shana Hiatt of course was reading her lines to the camera right next to my section. It was pretty funny watching her too, since she would inevitably forget her lines or slip up and they would do another take. Of course you don't broadcast slip-ups on TV except as outtakes, so this was like seeing all the outtakes - in real time! She was a genuinely friendly person too, so it's no wonder they picked her for the World Poker Tour. Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton were all very affable guys on the trip too - and it was almost impossible to miss Mike when he was around, because his distinct announcer voice always carried so well.

As for how the World Poker Tour event went, it was pretty fun to watch. They gave out 'lotto' tickets of sorts, so that if the person in your seat number won the tournament, you got $100 into your Party Poker account. The person in 'my' seat was Chris Hinchcliffe, who I was going to root for anyways, because he was the one true amateur on the table. He actually joined Party Poker a few days before the last days of the Party Poker Million qualifiers were over and won a seat in the Semi-Finals and then won a seat on the cruise / finals. He started the last day as the chip lead with $1.7 million in chips, which was 3x the amount of the next closest person, who was Erick Lindgren. Even though Erick also was an online qualifier, Erick won a previous World Poker Tour event and is a professional player, so he didn't really count as a true amateur qualifier. (Erick is the bottom left in the photo and Chris is in the top right, with the shaved head.)

One thing to mention about this table is that practically everyone at this table is a major threat: Daniel Negreanu (WSOP Champion), Scotty Ngyuen (WSOP Champion), Barry Greenstein (WPT Champion), Steve Zolotow (Poker author, consistent winner) and Erick Lindgren (WPT Champion). So, Chris is really playing with the big boys here and is really the only one who would be getting a windfall from the payout if he wins. Someone like Barry Greenstein for instance, actually plays in games where the average pot is somewhere like $200,000!

Anyhow, I'm not going to do a rundown of the World Poker Tour event in terms of cards because it has been covered elsewhere (and would take me forever!) but let's just say it was a really exciting tournament!

The MS Ryndam award ensemble (top) Erik winning the prize (below)

The top left picture is the presentation of the money, where the Holland America staff and cast came on to present the money on the table as is customary in all the poker tournaments. Of course, they money isn't actually real (for various reasons) except for the top bill, so it was more symbolic than anything. Only at Binion's do they actually go out of their way to give their winners HARD cold cash, which is a really out of the ordinary. In the top right, you can see Erick Lindgren, with his nice $1,000,000 million dollar paycheck as winner of the Party Poker Million.

One thing you won't see on TV is that the lady who was carrying the World Poker Tour glass trophy accidentally tripped and fell with the trophy as she came around the table! Everyone in the audience gasped but she was ok, along with the trophy. I'm sure the World Poker Tour guys will be editing this out, but you heard about it here :)

Party Poker Million Cruise - Final Words

Anyhow, in summary, the cruise was a blast and I had a great time seeing all the pros play and getting to spend my time lounging on a cruise ship for an entire week. Mexico was fun, the food was great and everyone was really having a good time on the cruise. I'm looking forward to winning a spot next year so that I can do this again!

Here's some extra pics that I took during the trip for your fun.

James Woods (the actor) makes an appearance on the Party Poker cruise!

Everyone had to get their picture taken during the safety drill. You can see that Mike Sexton is photogenic even in a bright orange lifejacket :)

None other than Mr. Phil Helmuth, who I realized I accidentally snapped when I was taking a picture of the upper dining room.

The sunset in Cabo from the water really is something huh?

Well that's it - adios and hope to see some of you on the Party Poker Million IV cruise next year! :)

PPM III - Part 1 | PPM III - Part 2 | PPM III - Part 3