“Oh Shit Moment” #1 at the 2014 WSOP

Upside down and inside out

Covering poker, I’ve made a few mistakes over the years.

Just a few.

Okay, more like quite a few.

Alright.  Hundreds.

I’ve spelled gold bracelet champions’ names wrong.  I’ve butchered their names in award ceremonies (you try pronouncing Athanasios Polychronopoulos‘ without notes in front of 2,000 people).  I’ve insulted players without intention.  I’ve listed people who were much older than they actually were.  I’ve thrown chip leaders off the stage during breaks and threatened to have them arrested.  One time, I even sent out a photo of my pet cat to the global gaming press, instead of the real champion’s picture (the jpeg file was marked “Alex,” coincidentally both the name of my cat and the event winner).  I even made a horrific typo once, using what’s sometimes referred to as the “N-Word.”  The word “bigger” has an ugly cousin on the lower row of the keyboard if you look at the layout of letters.

READ MORE HERE:  MY MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENTS

Well, add another hall of shame moment to my resume, which happened earlier tonight.

In Event #3, which was the $1,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, two-time gold bracelet winner Steve Billirakis was way ahead of the field.  Everyone was talking about Billrakis as the potential winner of what would have been a third WSOP title.  I noted that Billirakis was seated in seat 6, and kept an eye on the table.  One important note is that Billrakis’ appearance has changed somewhat over the years.  Even though I covered both of his previous victories and interviewed him twice, he’s now close to age 30.  His first win was at age 21, at the time making him the youngest WSOP gold bracelet winner ever.

Meanwhile, over on the ESPN feature final table, Vanessa Selbst made poker history by winning her third career gold bracelet in Event #2, the most ever by a female in poker history.  This was a huge story for us, which took considerably longer to manage than usual.  Everyone wanted to interview Selbst and get her to take on what the victory was like and meant.

Just as I was wrapping up the Selbst interview, I heard a loud roar coming from across the room.  Since two final tables were going on at the same time, there was no way to watch them both simultaneously,  I darted over to the other table.  Once I arrived, a player who appeared to be about 30-years-old, who had been seating in what appeared to be Seat 6, was exchanging high-fives and handshakes from his supporters.

I prepared myself to interview the champion, which seemed easy to do without notes.  After all, I’ve followed Billrakis’ career and interviewed him twice previously when he won.  This would be a breeze.  I approached the table and stuck out my hand.

“Wow, so incredible – gold bracelet number three,” I said.  “Welcome back to the winner’s circle.”

“Mr. Billrakis” looked really strangely at me.

Next, he mentioned something about meeting me a year or so ago while in Chicago.  Sorry, but I had no recollection.  He said a few nice things that should have tipped me off that something wasn’t quite the way I was seeing things.  But by then I was too focused on the fun of writing a headline in my head which was about Steve Billrakis winning his third gold bracelet.  I was already in way deep.  So, why not just swim to the bottom?

“You know Steve, I think it was right here on this very spot seven years ago when you won that first bracelet,” I said remembering back to what happened seemingly a long time ago.  “You really have joined some impressive company in poker history with this win.”

The champion just looked at me with a blank stare.  I might as well have been from a different planet.

“Thanks,” he said, with a slight frown on his face.

A minute or so passed by.  During that time one of the other reporters asked me if I know much about the winner.  Well, of course, I did.  How did this writer not know anything about Billirakis?  It’s all over the Internet.  And he calls himself a poker reporter?  Of course, I knew about the champion.  After all, I was present for both of the previous wins, right?

Next came the moment of reckoning.

“Umm — Brandon hasn’t won a bracelet before,” the other reporter said.  “Are you sure about that?”

Brandon?

What are you talking about?

Turns out, this victory was Brandon Shack-Harris’ first WSOP win.  Meanwhile, Steve Billrakis finished fourth in this event, which I eventually discovered.

Talk about an “oh shit” moment.

Not only did I blow the official congratulations, but the winner must have also thought I’m an idiot.  Now, I have actually go interview him.  How is he going to take anything I say seriously?  Gee, this should be fun.

After the commotion subsided a bit, I approached Brandon again.  I confessed that I’d been confused.  To his credit, Brandon laughed it off.  He had $200,000 good reasons to smile.  He couldn’t have been nicer about the misunderstanding.

Tomorrow at 1:15 pm, both Brandson Shack-Harris and Vanessa Selbst (I think I got their names correct) will be presented with their gold bracelets in the official awards ceremony.  Hopefully, when scripting things, I won’t blow it.

This is going to be a long summer.  Something tells me with 62 events still to be played over the next six weeks, there might be an “Oh Shit” moment” #2 and beyond.  Hopefully, just a few and not many.