My Top 8 Las Vegas WSOP 2013 Experiences - 7: Playing "Famous" Players

I'm not one to get star struck and certainly not in the world of poker where I believe everyone is overhyped but I seems to play so many "big" names , world champions and old school players that I had never sat with before on this trip.  Bear in mind I only played 4 WSOP events and in my first event I sat with no famous names on 1 table before busting 7 or 8 levels in.  List below:

Phil Hellmuth - Without doubt my favourite player, for entertainment value mainly. 
He turned up 55 minutes late and sat opposite me in the bb at 25/50 next to Padraig Parkinson in the $3k PLO8 event.
First hand there was a limp and I popped it up to 200 with A256 and got limper and PH calls.  Flop comes QQ6 and Phil leads out for pot of 625 (He only has 3k at start of hand as u get 2 x 3k addon chips u can use any time or if u bust the chips in front of you) and I flat call.  Turn is a 2 and he pots again and I raise allin obviously.  He calls and turns over 3356 and misses his outs for half the pot. 

So my claim to fame was busting him the first hand I played him, not many people on the planet can say that !!!    On another note I had so much fun on that first table, the banter flying between Padraig, Phil and another young high staker I didn't know was just hilarious at times and most of it obviously aimed at Phil but you could see he was enjoying it and in a good mood. 

Joe Hachem - Haha complete opposite of above and hilarious.  Last 27 players and only an hour left of day 2.  We've just been redrawn and im on his table, he has less than 2 big blinds.  He doubles up luckily the hand before this so has about 4 big blinds and raises pot/close to allin on my big blind.  I pick up naked AA107 so instant call and he shows AA104.   The board runs out 7xxx7 with no low and now the best bit.   He already stood up before the hand and now turns to me and says "REALLY, REALLY KID" in a loud angry voice.  I just wanted to burst out laughing but held my poker face and even began to stand up to offer a shake of hands but he didn't notice and was out of there at the speed of light.   Hilarious stuff, I know I can be a nasty keyboard warrior online but I never let that translate to live play and found it so funny that a guy that's took down the main event can react like this for a tiny cooler pot.

Other past world champions played for the first time were Jonathon Duhamel, Greg Raymer, Huck Seed and Tom McEvoy.

Noted other players played were Barry Greenstein, Luke Schwartz, Elky, Mike Matusow, Steve Zolotow, Tony "tikay" Kendall.  Maybe others will edit if I remember more.