Our stalwart team of 4, Alysa and Don (who you’ve seen here before ) and Anne and Troy, chipped it out with about 200 other players last Thursday at the Golden Nugget. I couldn’t go because I am in the infamous “Black Book” which lists known cheats, card counters and buffet devastators. <cough crab leg fight cough cough> Fortunately for us, Derek, spouse of Anne, is not yet in the Black Book and he took some pictures.

Here’s the deal - all the players from all the different Corporate Challenge companies were spread out into tables of ten, given a starting pot of 5000 “dollars” and turned loose. Survival of the fittest. The better you did, the more points your team received. Here’s Anne at her table and doing her secret ear signal. She was fifth at her table.

Here’s Troy at his table. He was also fifth at his table. Troy and I go way back – to CLT training last April.


Alysa managed to get third on her table. Alas, the cards were not going Don’s way that night and he got eliminated early. This is the final week for the Corporate Challenge so I’ll be blogging soon about how Zappos did in Corporate Challenge 2009.

Okay, I am a poker novice. Flop, hit, river, stud, blind, back door – all foreign to me. I mean I can use these words in the regular way ie “Hey Joey, put your safety glasses on when you drive those mounting studs for those back door hinges. If you get hit in the eye and go blind, you’ll end up living in a flop house down by the river.” <groan! that was the prose>

But, I still had a great time watching my friends duke it out in the 2nd qualifying session for the 4 slots on the Zappos Corporate Challenge Poker team. This event had one of the highest ratios of applicants for the slots available. The top 2 players from each session would make the team. The game was no limit hold em and each player started off with 5000 in chips.

I showed up about an hour into the session and I think about half the pool had been eliminated - there were 5 players remaining. Soon it was down to just three – Alyssa, Derek and Don. Don had the biggest pile and it went back and forth a bit between Alyssa and Derek. Alyssa came back and edged Derek out. It would have been cool to watch Don and Alyssa battle it out for 1st, but that might have made for a long night.

So congratulations and best of luck in the real deal on June 5, Alyssa and Don and Anne and Troy!