Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Players cherish chance to play at ESPN featured table at World Series of Poker

Main Event Day 2A contested Friday at the Rio; Day 2B kicks off at noon today

WSOP Main Event July 6

Steve Marcus

Poker players compete at a featured table during the 41st annual World Series of Poker Main Event on Tuesday at the Rio.

Poker pro Daniel Negreanu stares into the eyes of a player he has never met before trying desperately to get a read.

The 2 of clubs just hit the river, completing a flush draw on the board and Negreanu is facing a big bet from Tony Utnage.

“I’m going to make one of my crazy guesses and say you have the 10 of clubs in your hand and you have the Jack of clubs in your hand,” Negreanu says. “That being said, I fold.”

This all takes place under the glare of television lights and ESPN cameras at the ESPN featured table in the back of the Amazon Room at the Rio.

For players like Negreanu, it’s routine to be the center of attention on a television set. For the rest of the players on the table like Utnage, an online poker pro from Bloomington, Ind., who goes under the screen name “the_ute”, it’s a special opportunity available at the World Series of Poker’s $10,000 buy-in Main Event.

“It’s neat to be sitting here,” Utnage said. “I was just shocked when I found out today that this was going to happen.”

With the huge Main Event field — 2,412 players competed on Friday’s Day 2A — the ESPN feature table usually contains only one famous pro. The rest are a mix of amateurs, up-and-comers and qualifiers.

They benefit from being randomly drawn to a pro like Negreanu’s table.

“This is my first time here and this is the Main Event, so it’s pretty awesome that if you’re going to play a feature table it’s during the Main Event,” Utnage said.

This poker table isn’t like the other 376 in use at the World Series of Poker. Fans venture over during breaks just to snap a picture of it.

It’s hosted all of the most memorable moments in recent poker history, including Joe Cada’s $8.4 million Main Event victory last year. Utnage has hopeful visions that he’ll return to the table as part of the 2010 November Nine.

“I had a few of my friends sit at this table throughout the series and I always wanted to be able to,” Utnage said. “Theirs was for final tables, though, so maybe I can do that, too.”

Players aren’t the only ones who covet an opportunity to work their craft at the feature table. Dealers also consider it an honor when they are picked to work on the ESPN set at the beginning of the day.

Lashon Wallace, a five-year World Series of Poker veteran dealer from Memphis, said everyone went to a meeting each morning to find out where they’ve been assigned for the day. Only the best are sent to face the cameras.

“If you get picked for an opportunity to be on national television, that’s a big thing for anybody,” Wallace said.

Wallace said he dealt some notable television hands during last year’s Main Event, but Friday was the first time he had worked an ESPN table in 2010.

He doesn’t let the attention of the cameras affect him in any way.

“It’s cool for the kids,” Wallace said. “My children like it.”

“When they air it, we’ll be watching.”

ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker Main Event begins in August.

Everyone will have to wait until then to see how accurate Negreanu’s hand analysis was against Utnage.

“He wasn’t right,” Utnage said. “That’s all I’ll say.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer for live updates from the Main Event.

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