So, the tournament is over and my cousin is now married. Been in Colorado a few days and it looks like I've got a backer too which is way cool. Now I can play some of the more expensive tournaments that I've wanted to play, get more experience, get better at them, and make more monay.

On Day 5, I got to the action kind of late, and the tournament was actually completed for the day by the time I arrived. I played some in a cash game and should have had a good shot since there was a guy that kept raising 10-15 times the big blind before the flop. Not really any great cards though. While I was playing Cindy Violette was playing in a high stakes mixed game nearby and Eskimo Clark joined that same game too. I also saw TJ Cloutier swing by. Got autographs from TJ and Eskimo to do some filling of my Knob Creek card deck.

After they shut down the big room at the Rio that hosted the earlier stages of the tournament, I went by The Bellagio to look for possible autographs and to try to make back the money that I'd lost at the Rio (flopping the lower flush can be expensive). I saw Mimi Tran (the real one this time) who was super intimidating in person. I also saw Dustin "Neverwin" (not sure his last name) playing 50-100 no limit without looking at his cards. I also saw that same young Asian women that I thought was named Mimi Tran that gave the table finger at a final table last year.

I eventually played some limit, got outdrawn basically every hand, and left in disgust. Slept a few hours and left for Coloardo for my cousin's wedding.

With a backer, I might have some more exciting, big, live tournaments in the future.

Wish me luck.


And if you want to read about the WSOP main event, there's lots of stuff on cardplayer.com. They've got lots of funny comments too, like Mike Matusow saying he'd rename himself Ivey if he won the main event.

Okay, so I went to watch day 4 in the afternoon, took my stepbrothers and one wife to dinner, then went and played some more poker.

Joe's Crab shack has excellent crab, btw. :)

There was some exciting action and after Russ Hamilton went out in 59th, only one World Champion, Greg Raymer remained. Matusow continues to say stupid things. And Phil Ivey nurtured his okay chip stacks to one of the leading stacks in the tournament. Lederer went out and was promptly mobbed for autographs (of course, I joined that little attack).

It's now extremely difficult to see the tournament, with this lame aisle for the press that gets theme where spectators were able to get the day before. Now all spectators are at least 6-8 feet from any table making it very difficult to carefully watch the action at a table. The press have a 4 foot wide aisle or so just for themselves. They also have an L-shaped viewing area, really crowding the players into a small area. They could easily have done an O, surrounding the entire tournament area, or even better and O with an X in the middle so you could see more interior tables very well too. They didn't and it seems pretty clear in what way the spectators are used, primarily as window dressing for the feature table and generally to make the event look good. It sucks being a corporate tool.

Ideally, this event would have stadium seating and the feature table would have a much bigger and higher resolution viewscreen so you could see the cards on the table on the full table view. As it is now, you can't tell what the cards are on the board unless they do a close up on them.

Anyway, enough bellyaching about that. More interesting things occurred.

I ran into Freddy Deeb who was with his daughter and her boyfriend who were all nice. Freddy was patient in getting an autograph from me, waiting outside while I searched for a suitable pen. He felt like he got unlucky in the tournament and what I thought was a tough table (with Gus Hanson and this guy that one some Commerce Casino event and was a highly rated pro) wasn't as much of a factor in his first day elimination. I also ran into Andy Bloch again who was really nice humoring me while I talked with him about odds of Phil Ivey taking this thing down.

There was some exciting poker and the guy that went head to head with Micheal Mizrathi, Tom Sartori, got all in preflop with AK versus kings (rereraising a 650k chip stack rather recklessly) only to spike an ace on the flop. He and his friends got all excited and cheered, prematurly so I might add, as there was still a king in the deck that would have eliminated him. Always save your cheering for the last card because unless someone is drawing dead, only the whole board matters.

I played a cash game after this and kept hitting really strong hands. That's always fun. I saw some guy that said he was looking for a jerk and I told him that Mike Matusow had already left. :P He then came around and seemed a bit irked by that, sat down to my left taking position on me and initially making me quite nervous. That's a move by a guy who knows he's good and wants to take your money. After talking with him for a bit, I think he changed his mind if he had initially wanted to take all my money. The guy said lots of provocative and interesting things and obviously knew a lot of tricks to poker. He changed the entire atmosphere of the table, taking if over and making me nervous that all the conversation was set to distract us all for easy fleesing. I made an extra effort to pay more attention and had a ton of fun, the most fun I've had playing poker in some time.

Turned out the guy was this known player named Teddy Vegas. He was a very nice guy with his heart in the right place who knows lots of poker. After I decided to cash out and the table was sort of breaking up, we talked for quite a while about schemes to make the world a better place. He has an interesting plan for the main event tournament and I'll tell you all about it when the tourney is over.

I also saw David "Devilfish" Ulliott and got his autograph. He was very nice about it and gave it to us on his new business cards that feature him showing his multi-finger rings (sort of like brass knuckles) featuring some mad bling and that say Devil on one ring set and Fish on the other. He was also quite drunk and gave us exact figures for what he got from Ultimatebet.com for being on of their pros. Kind of funny.

Later, Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak swung by and Jennifer was super cool about finding a pen for an autograph in her purse. They both chatted a bit with Teddy. Some full tilt guys (not pros) also joined our table and we had fun with them. One was this guy that I chatted with for a long time at the full tilt hospitality suite. Really cool guy. He said full tilt was adding a feature I really wanted, which was good to hear.

I made a small fortune with KK as I'd be raising (with premium hands) over the course of a few hours and winning many pots, annoying people because they thought I was just stealing their blinds). Queen on flop, reraised, call, I call, we check down the rest of the way, kings hold up. Table image is huge in this game. Had I not appeared to be totally aggressive, I never would have made good money on that hand.

I ended up getting back to my stepbrother's around 7 in the morning, set an alarm, it didn't work and I am in Vegas for one more day now, leaving tomorrow morning for my sister's and my cousin's wedding. It'll be nice to see everyone.

Best place for updates is cardplayer.com btw.

I missed the live action for day 3 and got locked in a courtyard and out of a house away from my car keys for most of the day (umm, crap, but got lots of time to read Harrington's excellent book), but probably the most exciting news is that last year's champion is still in it and doing extremely well, close to if not the chip leader w/ some 2 percent of the total chips w/ about 185 left. Greg Raymer was very cool about giving me an autograph on a card, asking my name, had his own sharpee to do it and was very generous in giving an interview just prior to that explaining some very basic card play (preflop pot odds) to some (likely clueless) reporter. Very generous with his personal time.

He doesn't have to be and Doyle isn't nearly so much. I missed getting Doyle's autograph twice because he was either not willing to give it (one person and 10 seconds away) or about to leave the area. "Guys, I don't have time for this," he said. I don't blame Doyle for it since he was on break from the tournament on Day 1C, as was I, but Raymer is in stark contrast to many by handling his fame both generously and very skillfully, more so than probably about anyone. It's like he was meant to be famous.

If Raymer were able to repeat, it would easily be the most extraordinary event in World Series of Poker History. Yes, even better than Stu Unger's 3 main event wins (Amarillo Slim was voted winner one year so it's a little hard to count his 3 wins as strongly). Of course you'd have a hard time finding anyone that doesn't think Stu was the best ever even if his feats weren't as technically impressive. Raymer also lacks the ten bracelets of Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan and the 9 of Phil Hellmuth.

Keep an eye on Phil Ivey. He played a ridiculous strategy first day of raising 3X the BB in late position every cutoff and button forcing opponents to give him information about their hands while giving them absolutely nothing. It will be very fun to watch some of the camera action of his play. According to the fulltilt web site, he's the best player of a generation. This assessment comes from the almost universally respected Howard Lederer.

Some funny stuff happened with the cutoff too. Since it was hand for hand, it took something like over 3 hours to eliminate the last 9 people. Apparently Howard Lederer was so bored he offered to pony up the 40k to allow the last 4 people (he thought at the time--it was actually 5, whatever) to get paid off because he wanted more action at the feature table. I guess ESPN chose not to pass along his offer (and I do believe he was serious--he's a very serious dude) for whatever reason because the bubble period still took forever. Harrah's paid off the 561st player which was going to be the runner up, basically screwing over 562. :P

Hand for hand means all the tables play the same number of hands so there's no disadvantage between tables and one person can't just play slowly and survive the bubble. The tournament director waits for every single table to finish its hand, then tells everyone to start the next hand.

On to Day 4, hopefully I watch some this time.

Oh yeah, "The Champ" was the Reno WPT guy won the "World Poker Tour Challenge" and was named Arnold Spee. His face looks a lot like Kevin Spacey's and he seemed a lot like a combination of Chris Elliott and Kevin Spacey.

Onward to Day 3. I think I'll play some more cash 1-2 no limit when I get bored just watching.


There's also something you all should know. When they televise poker, you REALLY don't get to see what poker is all about. Poker is actually about playing very few hands, playing them well, and being patient. The hands you often see result from very tricky situations, uniquely aggressive players (sometimes due to desperation related to their small stack size), short-handed play (you can play many more hands with fewer players at the table) and do not represent the majority of what poker is about. Heads up is almost a different game entirely. It's really an art form, and many players and I will play any two cards and it's not necessarily a terrible strategy. Aces and pairs are monster hands heads up.

It's not just the case that they televise the most dramatic hands. They don't televise that many early tournament hands when a tournament is fairly similar to a cash game because you have tons of chips relative to the blinds (or blinds and antes) so you would even fold with kings to an all in bet before the flop. It's only later in the tournament when you're really forced to play hands and reduce your minimum requirements that things get exciting and the difficult decisions that many poker players try to avoid occur. A lot of playing good poker is not putting the difficult decisions on yourself, but imposing them on other players. That's actually why Gus Hansen is such a good player. He bets the hell out of his hands forcing his opponents to make the difficult decisions. He talks about it a bit on Phil Gordon's Podcast interview with him. http://fulltiltpoker.net/podcasts/jun28.mp3

On to day 3!

Something else I just remembered about day 1c. So, this guy at my table, "The Champ" as everyone called him, as I left and shook his hand said something that actually made me feel better. Basically, I'm beyond being made to feel better at a disappointing situation, but "The Champ" succeeded. He told me that "he's never seen anything like this" and that he's played as a professional for 2 years. By anything like it, he meant the incredible good running of the guy that took me down hard w/ jacks and queens preflop. Oh, and I shook hands with Shannon Sharpe on his way out. I thought this guy was the name of this well built, somewhat tall guy that was probably a pro football player--and turns out I was correct.


After Day 2. Interesting Day!

I didn't get to the floor until around 2 after having lunchfast with my dad.

My dad went looking for the guy that played super loosely and took a large portion of my stack. Meanwhile, I checked out various tables including one with Jon Juanda and Greg Raymer. We went to the feature table for a bit and watched Layne Flack as well. After watching a bit, went and played some blackjack and craps with my dad. After seeing my dad off and talking with him quite a bit, largely about poker, I went back to watch some more WSOP main event.

I ran into lucky jerk on the way that ran kept outflopping and outdrawing me, seriously damaging me and was friendly asking how he was doing. He was friendly and told me he had like 150K. I think it's Micheal Padilla based on the lists and he did make it to day 3, but with only 50k. I called my dad right away as he was on the way to the airport with the very exciting news (and since he was cool and was looking for the guy for me). What should have happened with that guy, and what normally happens, is that I figure him out and I get at least one big pot from the guy and sometimes even bust him. Anyone calling with inferior hand values will typically crash and burn hard at some point in the tournament. If my cards had worked out better, I'd have gotten a nice stack that might have seen me a ways into day 2 and possibly day 3.

I saw a number of top pros around including Lederer, Clonie Gowen, Mike Matusow, and a couple of others that sort of got my attention.

There were a number of interesting happenings despite the fact I arrived at the Rio convention center (Carnival) just after the dinner break began lasting about 90 minutes. I got to have a little converation with Chris Fergunson which was pretty cool. I asked him about this hand he played, calling a reraise against a guy that was super aggressive against him on very low board w/ qq overpair. He told me that he was pretty sure the guy had an ace, remembering the board as 234 and expecting to need to fold to any ace or a 5. He also said he was calling and acting as he did because he was pretty sure the guy had just an ace. I got to chat with him some more and get some insights from him which was quite cool. Very nice, smart guy that Chris. He was a little obsessed with the fact that no one has made it to two final tables in the last 6 years except one man, really stressing the luck factor in poker.

I also went and stood next to this group that was talking with Howard Lederer. Unfortunately, they turned out to be press so while I got to hear an interesting conversation, I didn't get an autograph because I thought it rude to bug him while he was on break and in the press area (talking over the rope to the press). He talked a bit about odds and I was slightly surprised and interested to hear him say that he thought that Phil Ivey deserved the best odds of any player in the tournament to win. He also thought that oddsmakers were nuts to not give Dan Harrington a much larger overlay (an overlay is basically a bet with positive expectation, often involving poker skill providing an overlay against a field) than they had (1500 to 1 is what they gave) and said he thought that the overlay that he was getting from oddsmakers was too high (something like 500 to 1).

I also had a long conversation with this Full Tilt dude and then found out this other guy working Full Tilt's area was Phil Ivey's brother, whom many people have asked for signatures knowing it's Phil's brother.

On the way out as we were kicked out of the hospitality suite (how inhospitable!), Phil Ivey came around and signed our stuff at a frantic pace. The guy is so focused and intense it's almost uncanny. Really.

When I got back out to the floor after chatting with a nice group of people in the Full Tilt Hospitality Suite, I was witness to some sweet poker. Of course first I spilled my card deck and had to play 52 pick up in the main intersection in the atrium. Smooth move Benny! :P Michael "The Grinder" Mizrathi, the L.A. Poker Classic winner showed some excellent poker. He got heavily involved in one hand against this dorky-looking guy and ended up folding. I was certain he had something and the dorky guy did not. Friends of dorky guy talked to him and passed on to me that he did have a nice trips pair on board hand w/ a jack and jacks on board. Later, dorky guy called a 4X bb pf after limping w/ AJo (marginal call) and got into a raise/reraise war on the jtt flop. I had trouble putting people on hands this time almost thinking that someone had a flush draw and someone had either JJ or ATo. They ended up getting all in a really dramatic hand and Michael had KK. It held up and he doubled up to like 240K. This was at the feature table so we're likely to see it on ESPN. While kings up was the hand on the flop, it eventually turned into a king high straight. Layne Flack, the feature table captain along with Mike, just pulled off his shoes and started walking around in socks. He kept wandering around and was sitting on his chair like a little kid, leaning his chin on the rim. Pretty funny.

Antonio Esfandiari ended up wandering by which gave me some break from Mike Matusow's constant jabbering and running around. I got him to sign a card, but not before I spilled a couple of them which his girlfriend and he were very cool helping me pick up. He asked who it was to and I thought he was talking about the action on the table where his brother was playing. Antonio ended up later getting on camera with his brother and saying some funny stuff. Nice guy and probably cooler than I gave him credit for. He worked the camera beautifully.

There was a bit of a palpable sense of excitement and urgency as the day grew to a close and the people that made it to tomorrow would likely be those getting into the money. Every all in call (someone bets all in and gets action from another hand meaning they could be knocked out that hand) could be heard due to the small number of tables left (60 something) and people playing tighter at the bubble (edge where you get paid or get nothing). A short stack at the feature table, in great danger of getting busted out, went all in preflop w/ 8s and was called by AKo, the classive battle in poker. The 8s held up and he got to live which must have been a tremendous relief to the guy since was within teens from the money and might have been able to totally wimp out and get into the money by just not playing another hand. Braver than me, my friend.

They closed the day with 569 players so 9 unlucky mugs get to play tomorrow at noon for maybe 30 minutes before they're eliminated out of the money. That's what happens when TEARS (the programs most tournaments use to predict how rapidly to raise blinds in order to cause a particular number of eliminations) fails. Or when they keep the blind levels at 120 minutes.

Also, I saw the player that hit his flush on the flop against me. He had a very nice stack at the end of today and was working over a table with Jon Juanda. Jon said he was playing better than he himself was. He's looking very good right now. I'm interested to see how he progresses in the tournament. Apparently he got to Jon's table (which also had Antonio Esfandiari's brother) and pissed everyone off by being a big stack and raising every single preflop. Heh.

Sometime in the middle of watching poker, I got bored and played some more 1-2 no limit in the big room with the tourney still going. I had some hands that hit well with some loose callers and made some decent money making me nearly even from the other day. I might have made more, but I wanted Al Krux's autograph and decided to just limp with pocket tens on the button because of it. I didn't even want a hand I needed to play there. Not what I got. I limped, someone bet the flop and got reraised big. I folded since it was the tight player next to me that, well, you could pretty much trust had a hand that could beat even my tt overpair. Sometimes you just know. Sure enough, he ended up hitting 2 pair on the flop after limping with 84o. That's why you're supposed to raise preflop w/ tt. So would have made more had I played the hand in the standard fashion, but I only lost 2 bucks.

After play was over at 1 a.m., I went to the Bellagio (I sort of waited for some players and looked for Chip Reese, a living legend of poker with a super mediocre tournament record and others) and looked for pros to get autographs, namely Gus Hansen since I'd talked with someone that had seen him there the night before. The Bellagio is basically where the biggest limit poker games are spread and the best players are to be found. Gus had busted out in the first hand of the day going all in before the flop. He probably didn't like his chip stack because it didn't allow him to make the aggressive moves he likes to make. He had told a guy near me in the bleachers by the feature table that he was a little disappointed in his play.

I did run across Phil Laak (the Unabomber) and heard Jennifer Tilly (his girlfriend and the actress now turned WSOP bracelet winner) was there with him. I also saw the woman who's name I stupidly had thought was Mimi Tran, but I think is actually Tuan Le. She wsa the flick of the camera, f-bomb when she lost girl. She was sitting at a table with no play going on so I talked with her a bit with the intention of getting her to sign one of the cards in my deck. She told me Mimi Tran was shorter and older than she is and then bugged the dealer to get a game going. I decided against an autograph at the point, feeling a little like a silly poker tourist (which I am to an extent) and that she might not be so receptive to an autograph at this point. She might not have been that annoyed because she's so high strung it might just come off that way. I also had mistaken this guy I think was David "The Dragon" Pham for Chau Giang on Day 1B. I think I'll get confirmation from other people if I'm at all unsure who someone is. :P

Laak was playing 100-200 no limit and most people had some 20-80k in front of them (this was cash and chips, everyone had a lot of both). It was interesting to watch. He'd fold tons of hands, chat with his friend a bunch, with others in the room, then get back into another hand. He raised UTG (under the gun, first to act preflop) w/ j9s, gave this guy a hard time and said he'd call, called the guy's flop bet and check-checked the rest of the way acting second w/ j9s hitting top pair jacks on the flop and an ace had come on the river. I also saw this same guy that called him try a 10,000 dollar bluff and fail, waiting for the other guy to show his cards first so he could muck. Laak is one hyper dude, I wonder if he's highly caffeinated or otherwise altered. He's still a sick poker player and coach, getting his girlfriend a bracelet in her first WSOP event (he got second in one event). After more wandering at the Bellagio and missing chances to get signatures from Sammy Farha (he was on the phone the entire time on the way out as I followed him for a few minutes, :P) and Amir Vahidi (walking wrong direction from me, just didn't feel like chasing him) earlier, I left to come home and write this sweet, sweet blog that I know everyone loves and reads to the end. :P

Soooooo, it's the day after my first day of playing.

I initially started at a table in the far corner of the action and was lucky enough to have a number of members of my family come watch for a bit.

Stu Unger's daughter was introduced and told everyone to "shuffle up and deal" and the Harrah's (the owner of the WSOP) announced there were 5619 total entrants and the grand prize would be 7.5 million with 560 places paid a minimum of $12,500. Given that the number of entrants this year is more than twice that of last year, it was surprising that the grand prize is less than double that of last year. The dealers at a table said that the casino was taking a large portion of the prize pool for itself this year, some 4 million of a 70 million prize pool or something. In previous years at Binion's, the buy in has technically been something like 9680+320, where the sum with 9000 or so went to the prize pool and the rest went into running the tournament. Still the largest prize pool ever.

At my initial table, I won the first pot which was cool and for a while, conservative play predominated. I decided to take a less common approach and be a little more aggressive early on. It's generally considered the correct way to play given the conditions. To make the most money you play loose when the table is tight and tight when the table is loose to maximize your profit. Eventually, one player sort of took over the table and I was completely unable to get him out of most hands or to trap him. If you bet into him he started raising every time when acting second and I simply never had a decent hand for the board. So, I was a bit annoyed and was trying to take a piece of his large stack as it hit 15k or so, but just never had the opportunity. I started making it very, very hard on him, sweating him for a few minutes when he bet acting me, just staring at him and not acting. If I couldn't win a pot against him, I at least wanted to make it extremely painful. At the time of the first break, I had something like 8200 chips left.

After the break, this old, tough-looking guy came to our table with a much larger stack than anyone at the table. He played us very aggressively. I called him down with a draw with pot odds for a flush draw (or very close to it) and then again when I also picked up an inside str8 draw (against a much larger bet). I missed all my draws on the turn and was checked to by the guy on the river. I made a small-sized bet after thinking for a bit. It's a safe strategy if the guy didn't have anything and also by its weak unthreatening appearance invites a call so it should make an attentive player suspicious and possibly fold. The guy called and flipped top pair kings, 2 kicker, an extremely weak holding to bet how he did, but he likely put me properly on my draw. Down to 6500. The table broke shortly thereafter. I did have the opportunity to bust one guy before the table broke though, which was sort of cool. Raised with AKo, he all in raised for a tiny amount more w/ ATs, missed the ten and the flush and was out.

Getting to the new table, things changed a bit. Basically, one side of the table consisted of decent players that were getting no cards and playing conservatively and the other side had a bunch of loose aggressive players. Almost the first hand I was involved in, this lame player was all mad and wanted to see my large chips so he knew how much I had. It's proper etiquette to make your stack visible and also proper strategy in no limit to base a lot of your play on stack sizes. I had raised before the flop from late middle position w/ KTs, an aggressive raise, but given no one had entered the pot, the best way to play the hand, overrepresenting its value. This guy called w/ a weak ace, A4o. Our stacks were very similar. I flopped the nut flush draw with an ace and another of my suit on the board. I led into it, following the pre-flop bet which is a semi-bluff intended to either win the pot right there, but also with a chance to win later if I hit my cards. I was raised almost instantly by the guy so I put him on a strong ace, getting my 1200 bet raised the minimum to 2400.

I thought about this decision for a long time. I could easily get myself pot-committed on the turn and get into a situation where my entire tournament depended on the decisions that I made right here, in this hand. I eventually decided that given I had about a 10 percent chance at least of the guy being on a bluff (Harrington's Law of Bluffing) and maybe giving him a bit more since he seemed much more interested in the size of my stack (probably trying to take advantage of my small stack) than in his cards which he checked later, and it seemed like a not unreasonable spot to make a stand. I was getting less than pot odds, but not horribly so and it seemed like a make or break the tournament sort of hand for me. It's very important to pick and choose your opportunities in tournaments and sometimes, you just have to take chances to give yourself a chance to win. This might not have been the best possible opportunity, but I decided calling the bet was my chance.

The turn was a spade! I now had the nuts, the best possible hand. This was a very good situation! Now, how to play it. I thought I could get some more money from the guy, probably overestimating the guy's hand since he played it so aggressively. I had maybe 4200 or something left so I tossed out 2000 trying to appear sort of fumbly, desperate and basically funn of it, sort of expecting some action, but not sure. Semi-bluffing the nut flush draw is a pretty common play. Maybe the guy even had a set. Guy all in reraised me, I called instantly, he just had this POS weak ace and I doubled up. Excellent. This is the way I want it to be. Confidence restored a bit, I continued on with some 13K in chips.

I folded a lot of weak holdings and a few marginal holdings to pre-flop raises. I made a bit more soon after the spade raising preflop w/ an AJo and then betting when the guy checked to me and winning the pot. I thought I might be able to steal some pots and be pretty aggressive based on showing down strong hands. Time to take advantage. I hit a KJo in mid late position and decided to make a bit of a position raise, blind steal bet w/ it. If I get called, I probably do not have the best hand. I get 2 callers which surrpised me then. An ace flops, I bet hard into it, two callers. Time to slow down... I didn't bet after that and one guy turns over a 98 suited (WTF--you can't call a raise with that crap, especially with someone left to act) and another A4s (another hand with which you don't call a raise, especially not overcall--which means be the second caller in a row--as this requires a stronger hand). Okay, so these guys are loose idiots. Time to slow down. Back from 15k to like 13k.

I watched the guy acting right after me get involved stupidly in a ton of hands. This guy and his stupid frog card protector should soon be giving their money to me. I just hoped for the opportunity. In a later hand, smart guy called a preflop raise w/ AQo from a guy that had basically not played a hand the whole time--not horrible, but a good time to be very, very suspicious. The guy put smart guy all in on the flop and he called w/ an ace high--omfg, what a moron. The guy turned over AKo, leaving him in a great position to get rid of smart frog guy. Queen hits on the river and frog guy wins. He mumbles some nonsense about taking chances with a short stack (his stack wasn't small enough to justify his desperation) and somthing about dinner being soon. LOL, this guy is truly NOT a player--he's a gambler.

Later at this table, I called a 6X bb preflop raise (unusually large and slightly suspect) w/ TT. Flop was T86, two-suited, meaning my set of tens was almost certainly the best hand. Guy checked to me, I made what I intended to look like a weak, steal sort of bet of 2k and he raised me all in. I flipped my cards instantly and said call. He flipped AK. Turn was a queen so a jack gives him the nut str8 and I would lose. If he had, it would have been an backdoor str8 draw, requiring two cards, about a 1/50 shot. Fortunately for me, he didn't. I busted out my second player and got to about 23k. I now had more than the tournament average and was feeling good. Got action on my best hand, knocked out a player and doubled up. I have this table largely under control and if I'm able to stay a bit, opportunities will present themselves. Players on my right complaining a bunch about stupid players and bad calls, a sign of more chips my way to come.

Table broke and that's that. On to my new table. Once there I asked a ton of questions to find out how the table was and got some information about this guy with a giant stack of about 60k. I want to tangle with him since he ended up almost doubling up with only a better top pair than another guy's weak top pair (you don't want to risk your whole chip stack with just top pair--it's good, but not that good), but there is significant danger in doing so as he can bust me if I screw it up and I'm gone. Additionally, one player there won the Reno WTP event televised 2 weeks previously. Oh crap. I need to be very, very, very careful here. I do feel kind of cool because I have more chips than the WPT guy.

The next ten hands or so are the beginning of the end. I correctly figure out that the chip leader is loose, taking chances that he shouldn't. He bets 5X the big blind preflop and I raise hima little more than double his initial raise w/ jacks. He calls, of course. A king something, something flops. He checks to me. I bet 6k at his apparent weakness, he all in reraises me. Oh crap, he must have had AKo. I think (not very long) and assume his check raise means I'm beaten. I ask to see his hand ("So, what did you have?") and he shows me AK. Crap, now I have like 14k in chips left. Next hand, I have QQ, the second best starting hand. Cool. I raise 5X the big blind with it and only the loose, giant-stacked guy call. Good. He checks in the dark, a friendly, odd thing he does. It could mean strength, it could mean he's screwing around, it could mean he's waiting for one type of card to hit otherwise he bails from the hand. Flop is AAx. Oh no.

Giant stack's check puts the action on me. I strongly suspect an ace, in fact I'm terrified of an ace, a reasonably likely holding given his style of play. I check after him hoping to showdown for free or to get more useful information. He checks again on the turn to me and I quickly check. Yes, let's just check this down and maybe you show me JJ or TT or something. Low risk, maybe I win. Now, on the river, this guy bets. River was a jack. I consider it for a bit and decide he does not have an ace, but probably a jack. It would be the style of this sort of player and likely ths particular player to bet hitting a jack. I call his 4k bet. We show down and he indeed does have a jack, KJ in the pocket. Cool, I win. But, no. I hadn't noticed the turn made a 3 flush (very bad attention to the board on my part--I rarely miss this and you can't afford to miss this sort of thing and play any poker) and he won with his KJs call hitting a flush on the turn. Insert F-bomb here.

I now had maybe 8k. Outflopped and and outdrawn and sneakily outplayed sort of by this loose mofo, I was not feeling so hot any more. In fact, I had to be reminded to post my ante (this stage of the tournament had antes and blinds). I almost got up to take a walk to shake this off. All of these hands occurred within about 10 minutes of returning from dinner. I bet preflop w/ AKs after waiting for a good hand and finally my preflop bet was respected. That's great, but I only won like 450 chips. Woo. Hoo.

I didn't play a whole lot of hands after this and I usually don't.

Guy raises preflop and I get a funny feeling about it. I'm on the button w/ 88. I call hoping for a decent flop. I get a 3 flush flop w/ ten high. This guy bets the flop and I call thinking I have the best hand, guessing his aggressive follow of his preflop raise means he has two highcards and a flush draw. I didn't think nearly enough about this hand about what he might have, but it's very difficult to put the guy on a hand--he's constantly raising preflop. I call. I also have a flush draw w/ the 8 of hearts. I pick up a str8 draw on the turn as well. He bets more, I still call thinking he put me on a flush draw and that he thinks he can bet me out. River he bets 4500 I call again, going with the same thinking after thinking about it for a bit. He puts on a little bit of an act or trying not to look into my sunglasses looking weak sort of which puts me on guard, but he seems savvy enough to look weak to look strong or to look weak when he's weak pretending to look strong. I call and he shows me Q6s. It was only a blind steal, but he flopped the flush. Yikes. I have 4k left. VERY. NOT. GOOD.

I now am basically looking for my best chance to get all in now and maybe get lucky and double up, but it's a little tricky because I sort of have too much to go all in, but not enough to play an entire hand. Blinds are 150-300. I get an ATs, but it's early position, there's a guy that gets lucky always calling and going all in w/ it invites only calls from likely better hands. Playing it in this position for a normal raise is too loose and going all in w/ it is stupidly risky. I then pick up nothing playable under any circumstances for at least 6 runs around the table. It's a truly sick bad run of cards, among the worst I've had. I'm down to like 2k and I pick up an ace after looking at my first card. It's early position and I don't feel like it's good enough so I don't play it when I pick up a 7 for A7o. Many newer player consider this hand good. It's not. And it would have lost that pot (though that's not a good way to assess its value--it's about whether the decision was the right one at the time and you realy need to push (all your chips in) w/ some chips in order to double up and have enough money to continue play). I probably should have pushed given my stack at the time and the new blind levels, but I wanted a better opportunity. I make it to the dinner break. I've had an unbelieveable run or rags, the two hands with aces were the only hands that were not, literally 92o, 82o, 23o, 27o, t6o, 74o, etc.

By the time I play, I only have 1k left at 200-400 blinds and a 50 ante. I look at one card and it's an ace. I don't even bother looking at the other one. I call a bet in front of me because I absolutely must at this point. Being selective didn't work and I lost a ton of my stack. I'm going to have to double up multiple times to be even able to play further at this point. Not good. I try to talk the loose, giant stack guy out of playing. I do not succeed, he calls. On a low flop, the player next to me goes all in on a low board, 35x (x refers to a card having no bearing in the hand, usually a small card). The loose giant stack guy calls w/ a 5, 2nd pair. I ask for an ace, I don't get it, board double pairs 3s and 5s and loose, lucky, giant stack guy gets the upper full boat and beats us both. He had 57 and called a multiway pot.

Well, that sucks, I'm out, but I outlasted Doyle and James Woods (both got cheers on their way out--respect, not people being mean) at least.

Good overall experience, but I didn't play my best which disappoints me. I also got very unlucky a few times which is fine since it's part of poker that you cannot control.

My dad got me a margarita, I felt fine after that and we discussed playing blackjack, went back to the table to watch the loose guy, watched some other play (including Marcel Luske at the feature table) and then he left to go to sleep.

I played some 1-2 no limit poker and did fine for a while, but then had a bad run of cards, missed the flush I was semi-bluffing and got called down with top pair 9s from the flop and an ace kicker. Then I got bluffed out after calling a turn and betting the river only to get reraised all in. Then my queen high flush on a 3 flush board lost to a king high flush. Not my lucky night. :(

After such a successful night of poker, I went back to my stepbrother and wife's house and went to bed.

I'll watch some WSOP tomorrow and hopefully my luck will be better in the future. I know I'll play better.

I didn't play horribly so I don't mind too much and I did gain some valueable experience. All in all, fun and interesting.

Today was a pretty fun day, watching some more WSOP action.

I got to the event after going for a few more autographs and free goodies late afternoon after getting up fairly late (due to the terrible influence of my stepbrother keeping me out all night). I was able to watch a bit of Men "The Master" Nguyen play. He was severely shortstacked and got really mad when the dealer screwed up the pot and didn't put enough of one opponents chips in it. He was pretty friendly with the guy behind him, showing him cards that he was getting. I saw Chip Reese and Amir Vahidi early on as well. I watched Dan Harrington for a bit as well.

After watching for a bit, there was a dinner break and I met my stepbrother for dinner. After that, we went and watched some more WSOP action. We saw a number of famous players including Chris Moneymaker, Dutch Boyd, David Sklansky, Phil Hellmuth (at the feature table--he stopped by the stands a few feet from us to brag about how he folded tens preflop and some other guy had aces), Amir Vahidi again, Cindy Violette, Chip Reese again and we also ran into Robert Varkoyni (sic) and Carlos Mortensen, chatting by Dan Harrington's table, recognized by no one. :P I guess Annie Duke was there, but we didn't see her. I tried unsuccessfully to ambush Sklansky for an autograph of my card deck and his book--I saw he was playing today so I brought his book about tournament play--but was unsuccessful. Saw a few people bust out, one guy going all in w/ aces, called by queens and losing to quad queens, 2 on the flop. Ouch! Sammy Farha was also there with a bunch of chips--very dangerous for others at his table.

Not a whole lot of other exciting action, just reading Harrington's book. Oh and I saw Phil Laak's bobble head doll and took a picture of him holding it.

Tomorrow is the big day. Wish me luck.

My dad's coming out and my mom and stepdad happen to be driving through. If when having lunch my mom and stepdad don't find time to see me playing (on what might be my only day playing) along with my stepbrother and his wife then they're fired as family! Just kidding, but I hope they can make it since they'll be really close.

The tournament is still going right now too, heh. Tomorrow is going to be 15 very long hours--I hope.

Benjamin

Some new results from day 2 are here mostly focusing on notables: http://www.justgambleforfree.com/world-series-of-poker.htm .

Here's a pretty good day 1 summary that has a few updates throughout the day: http://www.justgambleforfree.com/links7.htm

Results from day 1a are here: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/wsop_results.asp

Some notables still in it are Lee Watkinson, Greg Raymer, Clonie Gowen, Layne Flack, Tomer Benvinisti, Gus Hanson (if it's Gus Hansen and they misspelled his name) and some others I've undoubtedly missed. In the previous posting where I speculated on who might not still be in it, just ignore it if you want to discuss the official, real results because it looks like I missed a number of people that are still in it. It also looks like Shannon Elizabeth was among the last 20 to bust out on Day 1a--okay, weird, checked again, she's not on the listing I saw, but is listed on justgamble.com. That's exactly what I don't want to do. You play 15 hours and you don't even get to the second day. Truly no fun. If the situation demands it, sometimes you have to play though. Shortstacked w/ kk and you're just gonna have to push all in.

For those unfamiliar with texas hold em strategy and deeper playing theory, this site covers the basics: texasholdem.omnihosts.net . And here's a site with a glosssary for people who have no idea what the hell I'm talking about: http://conjelco.com/pokglossary.html

The convention in naming what cards you have is a = ace, k = king, q = queen, j = jack, t= ten, and the rest of the numbered cards are that number, 9=9 and so on. Suited cards are two cards of the same suit (usually referring to two cards in your hand) and connected cards are two cards consecutive in value, usually not referring to something like ak, but something more like 87 though technically ak (big slick is its nickname, also called Anna Kournikova b/c it looks pretty, but doesn't usually win, :P ) is a set of connected cards. A suited connector has both of these properties.

Okay, had to add this because I thought it was funny. As I was walking up to the feature table (which is set off from all other tables by about 25, surrounded by cameras, etc.) I hit the edge of the little raised area (about 5 in tall) and stumbled, ending up about 20 degrees pitched forward and making a large sound. My stepbro saw it. I was about 4 feet from the nearest player, but wouldn't have hit him had I totally fallen. I was a bit amused and just continued to the bleachers I was walking toward to have a good view of the table. I also just remembered that I saw Mimi Rogers. seems like a lot of celebs on Celebrity Poker Showdown have gone on to play poker and get decent at it--Mimi is among these.

Day 1a of the wsop main event, I wrote this early Friday morning. I'll be heading out in a bit to watch some of day 1b.

I didn't play (the main event), but it was still a pretty exciting day. The night before I got a royal flush playing on one of my poker sites. That was pretty cool and is extremely rare. I have played maybe 2 million hands of hold em (and plenty more in stud and omaha) and only gotten royal flushes 4 other times, twice in omaha where it's much easier to do so. I playfully considered this event auspicious.

In other news, I found out my friend Luiz in London is okay. That news was very welcome.

I got up fairly late today after playing some online poker 2 nights ago so I didn't get to the WSOP until like 3 or so just in time for a 15 minute break in play. As usual, I did a little search for some famous pros and got some autographs where I could. I missed getting Doyle's signature by like 5 people. He seemed pretty friendly. Then I got Marcel Luske's signature on a Knob Creek deck of cards. I asked his favorite and he said ace of hearts so I got him to sign that one. Another player at the convention center gave me the idea of having players sign the deck of cards. I saw Mike Caro just after getting Marcel's to sign the ace and asked if he would be around because I wanted to get him to sign my book. He said he could bust out any time so who knows. Oh, so you're playing today, good luck, I said. He seemed like a really nice guy, wishing me luck as well.

Had some lunch since I was going to watch some poker and since every table had someone at it, I chose to sit at the table where Todd Brunson was eating.

I decided to track down the elusive rules since there are some unintuitive ones that could make some important difference in play and provide some small edges for me in the tournament if I properly adjusted to them. A random latin dude was all excited over some decision a floor person made so I had to wait a bit--something about betting with a strong hand and his hand getting mucked. I eventual found out that the rules are online so I'll be able to get them and study a bit. Saw Phil Gordon head off the floor, but didn't approach him because I got a weird vibe even though I qualified through the site that sponsors him. It probably had something to do with someone implanting the thought in me that he was really abrasive in person--which strikes me as odd since he seems pretty cool on celebrity poker showdown.

Sometime around this time, I also ran into Dan Harrington. Someone said something about a photo and I looked around for the likely nearby pro and it was him. I had a copy of his book and got him to sign it as well as got a photo with him. I told him I really liked the book and he remained as calm and unemotional as he is at the table. Class act. I also mentioned to him that the oddsmakers would take a terrible hit if he made the final table again this year. He did that last two years in a row with the biggest ever fields of 800 something and like 2600-2800. Many consider this feat the most impressive in the entire World Series of Poker Main event. Oh, he also won it in 1995.

On the poker floor, I saw a number of top pros, Martin de Kniff (sic), Gus Hansen (along with Freddy Deeb and this other pro that's won a WPT event at his table), Clonie Gowen, Chris Ferguson, Scott Fischman, Humberto Brenes, Mike Matusow, Johnny Chan (who I saw picking his nose, heh), Erik Seidel, Greg Raymer (at the feature table later), Ted Forrest, Mimi Tran and probably some others I'm forgetting in my tired state. Scott looked unbelieveably intense and I was amused to see Mimi since she flicked off the table and yelled obscenities (only to hug many of them a few seconds later--apparently didn't mean it, just venting) at a final table last year. I also saw Jennifer Harmon who lost most of her stack and was crippled by a brutal beat of a str8 flush beating her full house when at the feature table. Ouch! I saw Chris Ferguson call w/ qq in a very sketchy situation, making either a very impressive read or a great odds play. 223 board, he raised w/ qq in pocket, was reraised, though for a long time, just called. King came on turn, guy went all in, Ferguson quickly called and guy flipped over aj off suit and busted out. What a hand! Unfortunately for Chris, he busted out near the end of the day, queens against a str8 (3 queens I might add). I also looked to my right and found myself about 4 feet from Norman Chad recording some platitude (used before) about the tournament involving top players and people off the street--a legitimate, but highly redundant observation.

After watching some more, met up with my stepbro and we had some fun. We ate while he was very nice and accommodated my desire to play in a live tournament running back and forth across town. I eventually ended up playing a 40 dollar rebuy multi at the Sahara. The players were horrible, but I didn't milk my good situations properly and slowplayed aces in early position expecting a raise when I hadn't realized that the blinds had just gone up so I really needed to go all in with them. As a result, some jerk had an inside str8 flush draw and called my all in bet on a 2 flush flop. He hit. Next hand, 88, went all in w/ short stack (no choice) and another jerk called w/ k4 suited and hit a king. That was it for me and I left annoyed and very quickly. I was happy with my play at first til I realized the gross tactical error in the AA hand not realizing that the blinds had just been raised. Something possibly very helpful here when adjusting to live versus online tournament play.

After that, Aaron (my stepbro) and I went and watched the end of Day 1a. It had started at 11 a.m. and was still going when we got there a little before 2 a.m. Much of the field had been elimated, more than half by the time we arrived. We ran across a few pros, watched Raymer some at the feature table, wandered looking for interesting players, and were there when Chris "Jesus" Ferguson busted out and heard lots of excitement and then clapping which I guess all the former WSOP main event winners get now, not just Doyle, when they bust out.

Then I followed the cameras and found that hottie Shannon Elizabeth! She was like a magnet for spectators for a bit (Aaron and I had just unknowingly sat down at the kitty corner table from her which was not in use now) and eventually security cracked down and everyone was pushed out of there. Looked like she was playing survival strategy to make it to the second day with maybe 4k in chips. I wanted to wait to run into her as she left the floor (since they'd almost whittled it down to 650 people), but it was inconvenient. Looking for food later, we did run into her, as well as some dude which I guess is her husband while taking the salmon route back to our cars after everyone had just left the tournament floor. Seemed like everyone was discussing hands of that day. It also seemed like the majority of top pros busted out since I saw very few of them the second go around.

Dinner at the end of the day and good conversation at the end of the day and here I am, extremely tired and about to sleep for quite a while... Looking forward to day 2. Doyle and Phil Hellmuth are playing on this day.

Okay, so... The event is at the Rio in Las Vegas. It's just off Flamingo Drive a few blocks west of Las Vegas Blvd (the strip). The Rio is owned by Harrah's which bought the WSOP from Binion's Horseshoe prior to last year's event. And it is this weekend for me so I play in 2 days, though 1/3 of the field plays their first day today and another 1/3 tomorow. Days 1a, 1b, and 1c start at 11 a.m. and all subsequent days start at noon. Play continues until players are whittled down enough which may mean it goes to 1 a.m. or later and almost certainly 10 hours for earlier days. If you make it, I recommend the covered parking structure just west of the Rio's more westerly tower building.

I already have heard from a ton of people that were very supportive. You guys are awesome! Day 1a just started about 20 minutes ago. I slept sort of late after staying up late trying to get my POP e-mail working and get messages sent out and playing some online poker. Although I got an early call from my friend Ben in LA that woke me up, but given the circumstances I certainly didn't mind. I totally spaced it about my friend Luiz being in London right now and the implications of financial area explosions which I read about in the wee hours of the morning. I really hope he's alright and we're still waiting to hear from him. Odds are in his favor, but I'd prefer no chance at all of him being seriously injured or worse. Besides getting me to realize the implications of that event, Ben's call helped me get up for the WSOP today to watch some of it and was part of an outpouring of support that I really appreciate.

Chris (Born a Stud) was nice enough to send alist of playtimes and airdates for the main event. The event is televised 3 months or so after the play times. Here's the schedule for play and ESPN showtimes:

July 7, Thursday 42 Day 1A, The first 1,000 - 2,200 play

down to 500-650 $10,000 Oct. 11 @ 8 pm

July 8, Friday 42 Day 1B, The second 1,000 - 2,200 play down to

500-650 $10,000 Oct. 11 @ 9 pm

July 9, Saturday 42 Day 1C, The third 1,000 - 2,200 play

down to 500-650 $10,000 Oct. 18 @ 8 pm

July 10, Sunday 42 Day 2, Start with 1,500-1,950 play down

to 500-1,000 $10,000 Oct. 18 @ 9 pm

July 11, Monday 42 Day 3B, Start with 500-1,000 play down

to 200-400 $10,000 Oct. 25 @ 8 pm

July 12, Tuesday 42 Day 4, Start with 200 - 400 play down to

100-150 $10,000 Oct. 25 @ 9 pm, Nov 1 @ 8, 9 pm

July 13, Wednesday 42 Day 5, Start with 100-150 play down to

27 $10,000 Nov. 8 @ 8, 9 pm

July 14, Thursday 42 Day 6, Start with 27 play down 9

$10,000 Nov. 15 @ 8 pm

July 15, Friday 42 Day 7, Final table $10,000

Nov. 15 @ 9 pm

Alright, time to get off the computer, get some breakfast, take Dan Harrington's book out and watch some WSOP! :) I'll get to see the field dramatically lessened (I will for sure survive to the third day) and probably see even a few top pros get busted out (which will put my mind at ease getting them out of the way).

I saw an odds sheet on the eventual winner next to the release forms for appearance on tv. I'd be curious and amused to see how funny my odds are to win if I make it deep into the tournament. :P Right now, you could probably get some pretty sweet odds on me to win it or even make the final table, but they might not cover us unknown players due to how risky it would be to do so since they know virtually nothing about us.

Benjamin

During the time leading up to and during this tournament, I'm going to be extremely wrapped up in the play of this tournament. As a result, I might be neglectful in responding to people that contact me or that were there to support me in this endeavor. Right now, I'm in a fairly serious preparatory phase leading up to the tournament. During the tournament, I'm going to be engaging in serious study in order to improve my chances and adjust to the unique play this tournament provides. I'll probably do a great deal of analysis of my past play.

I am extremely appreciative of everyone that has gotten me where I am and that is supportive of me in this endeavor. If you call or otherwise contact me, I appreciate it. If you're in person at the event in person to cheer me on, I appreciate it greatly--particularly because I gave everyone extremely short notice about this event and virtually everyone has to travel to get to this event. If it takes me a while to call you back or get back to you or I'm not very reciprocating of the attention you provide me, please don't take it personally. It's just the case that in this instance, I need to focus not even so much on me, but on my play in this tournament. There's too much money at stake and this is far too good of an opportunity to not give this my absolute best effort. A no limit tournament with this much money at stake with players this aggressive and skilled results in a series of extremely difficult decisions that requires a great deal of attention and results in high levels of stress. Sometimes the only way to properly focus on the task at hand and deal with the unique stress may involve not engaging outside stimuli.

With that said, I expect I'll probably still be pretty nice and responsive to those in contact with me, but if I'm not very responsive you'll understand the reason.

--Benjamin

Okay, this goes on a bit (for a few paragraphs), but what can I say, it was a terribly exciting (and intimidating) day and it sure felt to me like a lot of interesting things happened. It was a mixture of organizational snafus and lack of togetherness on my part (sort of lost generally) coupled with the excitement and intimdation due to the threat serious stakes, challenging poker and top players being sprinkled all about.

I arrived in Vegas last night and was fortunate enough to stay (for free) with my stepbrother and his wife who are excellent hosts. Make yourself at home, here are some keys, come and go as you please, towel set on the bed kind of excellent hosts...

Today I had the pleasure of a nice meal and a short seminar with the pros of fulltiltpoker.com. I was fortunate enough to win an online qualifier through them on July 3rd. The meal includes a simple romaine lettuce salad, a nice zitti with some vegatables, some grilled vegatables including yellow squash, zucchini and asparagus, a sausage cannoli (I think that's what you call that), and a nice grilled chicken with (I think) cumquats and mushrooms (If memory serves me correctly). A tasty and actually fairly healthy meal.

Walking toward the Full Tilt Hospitality Suite, I ended up walking about 4 feet behind Robert Williamson, 2nd place finisher in one of last year's pot limit omaha tournaments (it was televised). He was disappointedly explaining (to someone else) finishing in the money 4 out of 17 events--though he seemed to feel okay about it. I also ended up walking past Antonio Esfandiari a couple of times and he seems like just as much of a tool in real life as on tv. His girlfriend was way hot though. The pros were everywhere and there weren't even any tournaments today!

Once I found my way to the Full Tilt seminar, arriving there a bit late due to some confusion about where the WSOP was happening--the Rio, not the Harrah's even though Harrah's doesn't make this fact very clear on their WSOP web site--I walked in to around 90 people in the same boat as me. These were the other full tilt qualifiers. There for just a bit I also saw Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer sitting down at a table. This was pretty exciting since these are top pros (Ferguson won the main event in 2000 and Lederer has won a few bracelets which you get for any WSOP tournament win and is an extremely well regarded theorist and player). It was a surreal experience, seeing these larger than life elebrities that you typically just see on tv.

After the meal, they (Howard, Chris, Clonie Gowen and Andy Bloch) spoke with us a little bit about the tournament and mainly suggested we play our own game and try not to be intimidated (and the common advice to steal the hell out of the blinds when near the bubble, where people are just out of the money). Then they answered a bunch of questions. There was one annoying kiss ass guy that complimented them on everything about their site and their composure (I mentioned Mike Matusow since he's famous for some less than perfect behavior, and for literally crying when he lost last year in the main event--he lost all in pf w/ his ak to aq which sucks badly since he was a 7:1 favorite so I can understand being upset).

When I asked a question about being pot committed and used an example involving a pre-flop hand, Howard thought I was asking a much stupider question about pot odds before the flop and sort of rebuffed me (telling me I had to go home and study) resulting in me trying to explain that I knew the pot odds in pre-flop situations and get him to answer the quesiton I was asking.

Once that was over I got Andy Bloch's autograph in this book for which he did the forward and picked up my registration. I found that I was playing on Saturday (which is good, I can get some people to come watch and my mom is passing through Vegas on Saturday so she could watch briefly too).

I then went to the gaming floor and tried to find out what was being played--hoping to watch some live tourney action--today was only satellites to the main event though. I signed up for a 1-2 no limit game once I figured out there were a bunch of cash games being played on the floor where the main tournament will be played.

After that I went to the conference room (where I'd initially been looking for my full tilt meal/seminar because I was lost). I signed up for all the drawings I could and picked up some free stuff that I thought worth having instead of just any lame thing they wanted to give me. I try to be a selective beggar. There I got an autograph from Lederer (where he was promoting Knob Creek bourbon and I got a small cupfull), saw Phil Hellmuth--big line to see him, and talked briefly with Todd Brunson, the son of Doyle and great cash game player. He seemed pretty cool and after I said I liked watching him on the Poker Superstars Invitational II (on Fox Sports Net) he said the ending was very good. Cool.

Then I unsuccessfully searched for Phil Hellmuth's book to get it signed and moved my car from the wrong side of the Rio closer to the conference center part of the Rio where all the goodies were (not the mention scantilly clad poker-related merchandise huckster babes). I returned to the conference area and in order to best prepare psychologically for this event, scoped out where my table is (96, right next to the edge so easyto observe) and played 1-2 no limit for a bit. I got basically no cards (in about 2 1/2 hours only jj, aq, and qq, 99 were very playable) but still won by winning a bunch w/ aq (a hand Doyle Brunson almost always doesn't play b/c it's such a heartbreaker) when the board came qtt. It took a bit, but I was able to win a bit against a field of very aggressive and sometimes fairly loose opponents.

I plan on watching some of the event earlier in the day tomorrow and looking for a live tourney to play in so I get some practice in live no limit tourneys, just getting used to how they proceed, a little to the rules, and a little more to live play since I've primarily played on the net.

On Friday, I'll watch later in the day and on Saturday, after more than 1/3 of the people are already eliminated, I start heat 3 of first days (1c). Sunday is day 2 for everyone. So many people have qualified for this event that the poker room cannot accommodate all of them so day 1 was split into 3.

I have work ahead of myself making some money in internet cash games (regular income), studying the Harrington on Hold Em books (which are awesome, better than all the other works on tournament play and maybe the best overall poker books I've come across), and typical information input about the tournament so I can best prepare myself. I want to at the very least get into the money in this thing, but it's not easy, so we'll see. All I can do is take the best steps to prepare myself in all ways. Fortunately my sleep cycle is already set. The tournaments starts at noon (except day one in which it starts at 11 a.m.), but may run until 1-2 a.m., until enough people are eliminated. Being functional at the late hours is essential so my staying up all hours of the night playing poker is finally reaping some rewards.

I had a number of cool conversations with friendly older guys about their previous tournaments and playing in the big one. I talked to a guy that accidentally reminded Dewey Tomko about losing to Jack Strauss when all Strauss had was a single chip left, heads up, in the main event of the World Series of Poker. Tomko apparently had horrible luck playing after that. Heh. The phrase "a chip and a chair" (is all you need) was proven that day (that Dewey lost) and is a bit of a poker cliche.

Tomorrow's blog will likely be much shorter. Today was the bright-eyed newbie initiation day of sorts.