(Update on Event #30 below the cut)

by Wil Wheaton

The room is filled with chairs in anticipation of a capacity crowd for David Sklansky's talk in about ninety minutes. I wrote a post for my own blog, while I waited for David to arrive, and I noticed a beautiful woman was walking around the chairs and coming my way.

I looked up and found Isabelle Mercier standing next to me.

"Hey," I said, hoping that if she read my last post she wouldn't mention it to me, "how are you doing?"

"F---ing Greg Raymer," Isabelle said with a slow shake of her head.

"Uh-oh," I said.

"He raised me, I put him all-in with the ace king before the flop, and he called with queen ten to make a straight. Of course. He crippled me."

"Oh, jeeze," I said, grateful that she hadn't mentioned anything about my sighing.

"I'm going to start a new group," she said with a laugh, "boycott Greg Raymer!

"How about nomorefossilman.com?" I said, and we laughed together. We both like Greg a whole bunch, but Isabelle is a fierce competitor, and I doubt she'd have such good humor if it was anyone else.

"I put all my money in with ace ten, and some guy called me with ace queen. He says, 'you're going to catch a ten,' and the flop comes king ten jack, the turn is a blank, and the river is another ten. He says, 'See! I told you you'd win!' and I wanted to just . . ." She trailed off, and I could see, behind her disarming smile and sparkling hazel eyes the very real disappointment of having the rest of the day off.

"You should have just thanked him, and scooped the pot," I said.

She laughed and said, "Yes! I should have just taken his chips and said, 'next hand, please!' But I think someone else at the table -- like maybe Greg Raymer -- would have told the dealer I was wrong."

"Oh well," she sighed, "now I get to go do yoga."

"I'm really sorry," I said. I meant it.

"I know you are," she said. My heart beat a little harder than normal. "Thank you."

""Have a good night, Isabelle." I said.

"I will," she said. "Do you play tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I said, "I do."

"Good luck, Wil." She said.

I blushed again. "Merci."

***

In other news from around Event #30, another of Team PokerStars' fierce women has jumped out early. Vanessa Rousso has built her $5,000 starting stack to $30,000 in the first five hours of play. Humberto Brenes is also still in the hunt with around $10,000 in chips. John Duthie is also sitting on chips late in the afternoon.

Today's reading:
Being Barry Greenstein
WSOP Event #30: $5,000 NL Hold'em Short-Handed (Mercier crippled by Fossilman)
What a Long, Strange Poketrip It's Been (Jon Friedberg)
David Sklansky to speak in PokerStars suite
WSOP Event #29: PokerStars stars make day 2