Patrons at the Rio have found a way to get their cut of the money funnel that is the WSOP by listing the souvenirs they've collected for sale on eBay.
Among the listings this weekend was a promotional chip for the movie "Lucky You" with World Series of Poker on the reverse side. The chips were a dime a dozen during the poker exhibition as the people manning the booth handed them out, along with posters for the Drew Barrymore flick, to all passersby. The listed chip sold for $10.49 on the popular auction site Saturday evening. Damn, I should have grabbed a handful...
Several poker fans got the stars of the game to sign magazines while they were in town and listed those on eBay to middling success. Apparently, poker pro autographs are not a hot commodity. Magazines signed by Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Joe Hachem and Phil Hellmuth did not meet the $9.99 asking price. However, an issue of Poker Life signed by Daniel Negreanu netted $9.99 while a signed Card Player with Doyle Brunson on the cover fetched $32.
Other people have bought items out of the gift shop and tried to make a buck on eBay. A $6 green WSOP baseball brought $11 on Saturday night, but another auction that ended on Sunday afternoon only reaped $3.99.
And finally, the most interesting auction was for a 500 demonination tournament chip from the WSOP. Did someone stick this in their pocket or pick it up off the floor? Either way, this chip that was auctioned Saturday was technically stolen from the Rio. This ill-gotten souvenir brought big bucks for its owner in the form of $300.
Now if I had kept my seven stacks of pink chips -- that's 140 of them -- and auctioned them on eBay instead of putting them into the pot with my kings against those aces I could have made $42,000...I wonder how much the yellow $1,000 chips would go for?
