I am completing it on Sunday, July 22. I thought that the five intervening days would give me some perspective, though I was wrong. What I felt at the time was exactly what I feel now: a sense that I had shared in something very special. I spent those last few hours thanking everyone I knew – Phil Gordon, Gary Wise, Cory Zeidman, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Michelle Claiborne, and probably 20 others.

It has been a magical World Series. Of course, cashing in my first event and then making final tables in two of my last four events capped the experience. But there was so much more. I released the book I wrote and edited with the Full Tilt pros, and its reception in the poker community thrilled me on a daily basis. I found interesting things to write about, sometimes where I expected to find them and sometimes in the most unlikely places.

For example, when I explained to Lisa Wheeler just HOW great the experience was, I said, “On the fifth day of the World Series, someone broke through a window of my car and stole my navigation system. Even THAT turned out to be a great experience.” How else would I have been able to negotiate extra-fast service in exchange for giving 1% of my action to the auto-glass guy? How else would I have received – and then turned down – a chance to bunk with Clonie Gowen and Shannon Elizabeth? And how else would I have ended up trapped in Clonie’s shower with her stolen underpants if not because I had to invite myself to dinner to save face to all the guys who howled when I revealed I turned down that invitation?

But the best part was the people. It seems odd that poker is such a solitary experience and yet my enduring memories of the World Series are mostly about the time I got to spend with friends.

And that was driven home repeatedly as Tuesday night bled into Wednesday morning. Away from the crowd of the final table stadium was the ESPN studio, with Phil Gordon and Ali Nejad as hosts. All day and all night, a steady stream of guests arrived to appear for a few minutes on the pay-per-view broadcast. It was like a parade of all my friends from the 2007 World Series of Poker.

CHRIS FERGUSON – THE OTHER JESUS ON TUESDAY

One of the first people I saw in this corner of the Amazon Room was Chris Ferguson. I remember being thrilled when Chris and Annie Duke made a final table together in the Omaha EOB/Stud EOB event. It was Ferguson’s first final table in two years and their first final table together. I cancelled my first trip home to visit my family, then was stuck in Vegas – but not watching the final table – when my car was broken into.

Chris also became part of my Series routine because of his tireless efforts to disseminate the STRATEGY GUIDE. There are pictures of him all over the internet reading it during the World Series and he would ask me for a copy or two every time we were near the Amazon Room. His wrath could be mighty – okay, I’m making that up but his mock disbelief was no fun – if I didn’t have a copy with me when he asked.

When I saw Chris on Tuesday afternoon, I asked him about his post-Series plans. To my surprise, his highest priority was putting in some serious time on Full Tilt. He was back at work in his quest to turn his account from zero dollars to $10,000. As many of you are probably aware, he started by playing freerolls. With a few hard-won freeroll dollars and rigid bankroll management rules, Chris is up to about $2,200.

It’s a remarkable achievement and he has no plans to slow down. In fact, he told me about a bunch of related potential projects: updates on his web site, a book, and a new target.

As was always the case when I was with Ferguson near the Amazon Room, he was besieged by people who want his picture. When a particularly large group each wanted to pose individually with him – I have NEVER seen him turn down a request from a fan – we separated. I saw Cory Zeidman nearby, walked over to say hello, and the next thing I knew Chris Ferguson was on television.

CORY ZEIDMAN

Cory sat to my left during the first night of the SHOE (see Entry #195). I instantly liked the guy and the hours I spent with him Tuesday evening confirmed my judgment: smart guy, funny, a straight shooter, and with a perfect-sized chip on his shoulder. Cory was originally supposed to go on the broadcast at 5 or 6 PM. (Who can follow time in such a surreal place as the Amazon Room, at such a surreal time as the final table of the Main Event?)

I know it wasn’t later than 6 PM because we spent some time talking and I left for 7 PM dinner plans. It was sometime after 11 PM when he actually went on – and he’s not a patient, laid-back guy.

It was actually hilarious, talking about a variety of unrelated subjects (a poker show he’s hosting on the Game Show Network, his preference for Stud over Hold ‘Em and for limit over no-limit, the debate over who’s the best player in the world, why everyone was making such big initial raises at the final table, and a bunch of other things), and periodically busting his balls over his interminable wait. First, they got backed up during the first few hours, so the area outside the studio looked like a high-stakes bus terminal. Second, Cory was supposed to go on with Jennifer Harman (they have a famous WSOP TV-table history, including a hand where Cory’s straight flush beat Jen’s full house and, due to a misunderstanding regarding the bets, she thought he slowrolled her on the final call) but Jennifer was playing at the Bellagio. I don’t know if she didn’t want to leave the game when she was winning or didn’t want to leave the game when she was losing – maybe both, at different times. But she held out the possibility, if they called her just before it was time, that she would try to make it.

Maybe her indecision, I suggested to Cory, is her means of getting back at you for the supposed slowroll. Then I started coming up with a list of ever more obscure poker names who were coming to the studio at this moment to appear while he continued to wait. (The funniest of them was ME, as I got the call from Eric Drache to appear before Zeidman actually went on. I was actually back at my computer outside the media center, returned to the studio where Cory was waiting, and told him, “They said they wanted to have me on just before you. But they’ll get to you right away, promise.”

What I really wanted to do was go on WITH Cory Zeidman. He’s so sharp and funny that I could have played of his mock anger at having to wait so long to appear on the broadcast. (At least I THINK it was mock anger.)

MIKE MATUSOW TAKES A CURTAIN CALL

Mike went on with Shawn Shiekhan (while Cory was still waiting). Mike had a great World Series, but just below the radar screen. He missed making a final table in a No-Limit Hold ‘Em event by one hand and finished in the money in the $50,000 HORSE. He also had a lot of chips late in a few events where he ran into some awful luck; one Stud Eight-or-Better event sticks in my mind. He ended his streak of eight consecutive years making a final table – and T.J. ended his streak of FIFTEEN years, giving Phil Hellmuth, at nine years in a row, yet another place in the World Series history books. But he ended up a big winner, playing well and consistently, and coming incredibly close to another long-held and unrealized dream, that of winning a World Poker Tour championship.

On Saturday night, he finished second in the Bellagio Cup. He played brilliantly, beat himself up over one mistake (but did not tilt, and it ultimately made no difference in the outcome), and survived being short-stacked for much of the final table. I watched him at the final table and I’ll soon be writing about that experience.

Mike was mobbed after his appearance at the ESPN desk. This was not recorded in front of an audience per se; it was just the friends, family, and fans who decided to forego watching the final table. But a huge crowd followed to watch Matusow on camera and they surrounded him after. While he posed for endless pictures, he yelled to Shawn, “Get the cards, let’s play some Chinese.”

To which Shawn called you, “Whenever you’re ready, bi-atch!”

I mentioned something I considered important to Matusow in the few moments we had. In the final hand, he knew his opponent had a big hand but he forced the action after the flop when his 8-7s turned into an open-ended straight-flush draw, giving him 15 outs to the nuts.

“Mike,” I told him, “The best part for me was watching you KNOW you were going to hit it.”

“I was CERTAIN it was going to come. I still can’t believe it didn’t.”

“But that doesn’t matter. You believed. That’s a long way from the guy I’ve seen a bunch of during the last year-and-a-half talking about being cursed, never hitting, always taking the bad beat, always getting sucked out on. That guy’s gone and now you’re in charge, a guy who does his best and thinks something good will happen.”

THE REST OF THE PARADE

There were so many old and new friends that I probably can’t even remember them all.

Paul Wasicka was over by the studio. He spent a little while together in consecutive photo shoots for Full Tilt during the Series, and then analyzed a hand together for ESPN.com. (Neither of us realized it while we were discussing it on camera but it was the hand in which Sam Farha SHOULD HAVE won the Championship in 2003. With top pair against Moneymaker, he made too big a bet on the flop, made an indecisive call on the turn, and then folded on the river.)

Greg Mueller – I got to know him at the Series, mostly by watching him go deep, it seemed, every single time he played. I don’t think that guy ever went out of an event before midnight.

Andy Bloch – We talked awhile during the evening, and Andy was at least as mystified as me about the size of the opening raises – 4-6 times the big blind was standard when they were 4-handed. I had a fun evening with Andy right toward the end of the Series. I’ll be writing about that soon.

“DOES ANYBODY KNOW MICHAEL CRAIG?”

So it was a wonderful experience, the whole Series and the chance at the end to see many of the people who helped make it wonderful. But don’t worry about me getting a swelled head. I was reminded, as the Series drew to a close, of the actual marquee value of a poker writer, even if he is friends with Andy Beal, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch (and those are just the "A"s!), and even if he did make two final tables.

Watching the closing moments with some Full Tilt people on a video monitor between the studio and the stadium, Michelle Claiborne mentioned to me that she was hungry. As I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten much in the previous 24 hours, the only meal I recall being shared with Tony Holden and Des Wilson, who fought like an old married couple. It was a delightful experience, but I didn’t eat much.

Michelle Claiborne decided at about 2:45 AM that we should order room service. So I ordered potato skins, she ordered something, a few other people ordered, and Michelle told them to deliver it near the bar. They said it would take 45 minutes, which was ridiculous, but what could we do? Eat something from the Poker Kitchen?

The food still hadn’t arrived when Jerry Yang hit his straight on the river at 3:50 AM to win the World Championship. It finally showed up at a few minutes past four. We both kept our eyes peeled on the bar area, though the harried food monger claimed to have combed the room looking for us.

“I swear, I looked everywhere in this room for you. I must have asked a hundred people, ‘Does anybody know Michael Craig?’ But no one did. I was about to give up.”

Lucky for her, the tip was already included. Of course, the potato skins were cold.

Just a few moments before Michelle called room service from the Amazon Room, I ended my year-and-a-half association with BLUFF Magazine. Ironically, I thought their behavior was EXACTLY like that of the room service waitress, except there were no potato skins.

Even so, if I had to live those 48 days all over again, I can’t think of anything I would do different, though maybe I’d throw those jacks away on the river.

¹He had a commanding lead over Bill Edler when Bill came over the top on a short-ish stack.  He looked a picture of his children, then appeared to pray before making the decision to call. I thought he was going to fold several times, but ultimately called and elimianted Bill on the hand. (pictured)

Player bios provided by WSOP media director Nolan Dalla.