Kara Scott: Ode to the Poker Bloggers

There is a constant stream of messages right now on Twitter and Facebook from poker journalists who are counting down the days until their Vegas marathon begins.

You can tell how long they’ve been making the yearly pilgrimage to our mecca of all things gambling by the tone of their messages. They run the gamut from pure exhilarated excitement to wary weariness. Or maybe that should be weary wariness. Perhaps I should leave it to them to find the appropriately poetic phrases; it is their job after all.

One of the toughest gigs

And what a job. I think the bloggers in Vegas during the WSOP have one of the toughest gigs in the industry. The hours they work are often grossly ridiculous and their number are generally too few to manage to cover even a fraction of the tournament fields, which number in the thousands.

Setting the actual logistics of this occupation aside, the job they’re tasked with isn’t an easy one. They need to find new and interesting and ever more entertaining ways to tell us how AA got cracked or how set over set crippled yet another favorite. And not just for one day or even one tournament. For 51 days in a row and for 57 events. And remember, these are people who love poker too, who will be looking to play themselves during any of the rare days off they see.

A bunch of people just playing cards for about 6 weeks

They are the people who make sure that friends / loved ones / enemies / random poker enthusiasts are able to follow the progress of individuals who would otherwise be hidden in the throngs of faces that swell the halls of the Rio for the summer.

They make the WSOP interesting when in reality, it’s a bunch of people just playing cards for about 6 weeks. They find the stories that people had no idea they would want to hear about; everything from Doyle Brunson having his scooter nicked outside the Amazon Room to the electric ‘Ass Girl’ sighting last year. If you don’t know who Ass Girl is, you really should subscribe to more poker blogs.

So this is just a word of thanks to the bloggers. Thanks for all the information and entertainment you dispense. Sorry for the idiots who are rude to you. Thanks for bearing with it and showing up again this year. Without you, the WSOP would probably be pretty much the same. But really, how would anyone know?