Through the Lens of Drew: Poker's Annual Gold Rush

Remko Rinkema • Jun 5, 2018

The World Series of Poker is in full swing. Experience it through the lens of Drew Amato.

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Drew Amato has been covering the World Series of Poker since 2014. This year he’s covered the U.S. Poker Open and Super High Roller Bowl for Poker Central. Twice per week, Amato will share his favorite images from the World Series of Poker. Enjoy this recurring piece as, in his own words, Amato describes the biggest moments in the game.

Stairway to Heaven: Nine steps, one for every seat at the final table. Since 2006, all World Series of Poker Main Event winner walked these steps to poker greatness, but who will it be this year? Math, reads and applying years of study during which you’ve taught yourself to let go of all emotions come into play as soon as you enter the icy Rio hallways, but let goosebumps carry you up these steps with thoughts of winning one of poker’s biggest events before you lock down and put on that poker face.

Ace in the Hole? The most coveted prizes in all of poker are handed out no less than 78 times this summer. Aces? Kings? Or perhaps you need a big bluff, but the cards will ultimately decide who will leave town victorious.

The Colors of Success: The World Series of Poker debuted a new chipset for the 2018 series. This set includes a bright yellow 1,000-chip, a hot pink 5,000-chip, and lime-green 25,000-chip.

All Aboard the Mothership: The most iconic final table setting in all of poker has been brought back to the Amazon Room. This table will house all the PokerGO live streams and with that the biggest final tables of the year. On any day of the week, you can find a large crowd of friends, family and die-hard poker fans watching as poker history is made.

POSITIVITY: Phil Hellmuth will let no opportunity slip by to promote his book #positivity. Here he is dishing out some knowledge to Brandon Shack-Harris at the feature table of the $10,000 Omaha Eight-or-Better event while Ralph Perry has clearly been through this once too many.

Knights Fever: Scott Seiver rocks the Las Vegas Golden Knights jersey during the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw event in support of their Stanley Cup run. Hockey has officially taken over the desert as the Rio is filled with Knights gear, from the $1/$2 cash games all the way up to the highest buy-in tournaments. The local boys are a big dog to take it down with the Washington Capitals on the brink of hoisting the cup, but that will not lessen the support for this expansion franchise one bit.

Just two Joes: Continued success for WSOP Main Event champions is no guarantee, but Joe McKeehen (2015) and Joe Cada (2009) have proven they belong. The final table in Event #3, a $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout, featured both Joes, with Cada coming out on top to collect his third bracelet. McKeehen went on to finish in third place.

Perfect Petrangelo: Fresh off a deep run in the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl, Nick Petrangelo wasted no time going nearly wire-to-wire in the $100,000 High Roller event in the World Series of Poker. Petrangelo collected a cool $2.9 million along with his second career gold bracelet.

Follow Drew Amato on Instagram. Relive the Super High Roller Bowl final table on PokerGO right now. The 2018 World Series of Poker streams live on PokerGO now. Don’t miss a minute of the action by subscribing to PokerGO. The PokerGO WSOP Sweepstakes is still open! Sign up now for a chance to win your way into the 2018 WSOP Main Event and $1,500 towards your travel. Follow Poker Central on Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest from the world of poker.

Scott Seiver, Joe Cada, Phil Hellmuth, Nick Petrangelo, Joe McKeehen, Drew Amato, 2018 World Series of Poker, Las Vegas Golden Knights