David Wang's Bachelor Party Tournament

Who is David Wang, you might be asking after seeing the title of this blog post?  You mean you never heard of David Wang?  Well, neither have I.  I have no idea who he is.  But on Saturday I was there for his bachelor party poker tournament.

You see I played in a tournament at Venetian that day.  And when I got to my seat, I noticed on the wall, right next to the tournament clock for our game, was another tournament clock that said, "David Wang's Bachelor Party Tournament."

Now I've seen private poker tournaments for special events in Vegas poker rooms before.  But this is the first time I saw the room put the "name" of the tournament right on the tournament clock display that was visible for anyone in the vicinity to see.  I thought it was pretty cool that the Venetian could and did do that.  I hope one of his friends took a picture of that tournament clock as a keepsake.

The tournament that I played in was a very good one (though—spoiler alert—not a profitable one for me personally). And you can be sure I'll discuss it in detail when I get a chance to write the post about it.  For now, this will be just be a quick story about the David Wang Bachelor Party tournament.

Now, unlike my usual practice, I have not changed the name.  It actually said "David Wang" and I assume that's his real name. Since I never met David, and have nothing bad (or, for that matter, good) to say about him, I figure I can use his real name. 

David's tournament was a $100 buy-in with 20-minute levels (it said so right on the clock) and started at 1PM, an hour after my tournament started. It was a one-table affair, and took place right behind the table I was at.  I was disappointed to see that the group didn't have any special t-shirts or uniforms for the event.  There were a bunch of young guys (late 20's or early 30's I suppose) dressed like pretty much every other guy that age you see in Vegas. 

I've seen my share of special apparel made up for occasions like these in Vegas.  Often I see a group of girls going to a nightclub and you can tell it is a bride-to-be and her bridesmaids.  The bride will wear a veil, and a white, slutty version of a wedding dress.  Frequently she'll wear a sash that says "Bride" or "Bride to be."  And the other girls will have sashes that say "Friend of the Bride" or "Bridesmaid."  If you see these girls earlier in the day, you sometimes will see them wearing t-shirts that say "Team Bride" on them, possibly with the name of the lucky girl, and even with the date of the actual wedding printed on them.

I've seen groups of guys with custom made t-shirts too. The most memorable one I ever saw was actually in the T.I. poker room a long time ago (when the room was in the old location).  It had the name of the groom and the date of the bachelor party weekend on the front.  So let's say the guy's name was, I dunno, Holden Caulfield.  On the front it said, "Holden Caulfield's Bachelor Party, Las Vegas, June 17-19, 2009."  And then on the back, and I'll never forget this, it said, in a script font, "One vagina for the rest of your life.  Way to think things through, Holden."

But as I said, these guys were dressed normally.  To look at them, you'd never know they were in town for a bachelor party.  Also, I have to say, they weren't in the least bit rowdy.  They well quite well-behaved, in fact.  I have to believe that this poker tournament was the least salacious activity they had planned for the weekend.  At least, I certainly hope so.

At my table, started talking about the bachelor party tournament.  The only female at our table was the dealer.  So when the waitress came around to our table, one of the players there said, "I'll bet the table behind us wants drinks." That reminded me of the other thing that bachelor parties are famous for. I couldn't help myself, I asked the dealer if a stripper was going to show up later to the bachelor party tournament.  She laughed and said, "No, we don't allow strippers in the poker room."  Then she thought about it and said, "Well…."

I finished her thought, "You don't allow strippers working in the poker room.  I'm sure you have strippers in here from time to time."

As I was writing this post, I thought of a line I wish I thought of at the time.  I should have said, "I wonder who the lucky bride is?  I sure hope David Wang isn't getting married to Aces."