Main Event Busto

Well, so much for the building interest level of the WSOP Main Event that I was talking about last week. Monday was like D-Day for all the notable players and stories remaining in the event, as basically every last one of them was eliminated as we played down from 57 to 22 players remaining out of the 6500+ field that started about a week and a half ago at the Rio in Las Vegas.

First it was Andrew Brokos of Thinking Poker, who was one of the first bustouts of the day on Monday in the low 50's, and a big bummer to me as I long for the day when someone I consider to be an actual poker blogger (as opposed to a pro who also keeps a blog, etc.) wins a gold bracelet somewhere, somehow. Then Erick Lindgren, probably the last widely-recognizable pro remaining and one of the just a couple of full tilt red pros to cash in this year's Main Event, busted in the low 30s a few hours later, leaving us with no really recognizable names left in the field of still four tables remaining at the time.

But even then, there was still at least one interesting story left to me -- Erika Moutinho and David Sands, a boyfriend and girlfriend who not only both cashed in the Main Event, but both ran deep deep deep to the final 30 players and who even sat right next to each other at the ESPN featured table throughout Monday's play. To think that a couple would both survive this deep in such a huge poker tournament is truly unbelievable, and that they got to sit with each other and enjoy this once in a literal lifetime experience just strains all credulity, but it happened. I could not believe what I was seeing, actually -- these two played a few key pots against one another, but for the most part they were whispering to each other what cards they were holding whenever they folded without having to show. Right in front of everybody. I was salivating at the thought of all the media coverage this destined-for-fail pairing was going to bring if they could survive down to the final couple of tables (and obviously at the final table, if that could even be imagined), while at the same time frowning at the tournament director for allowing what was very overtly the sharing of hole card information after the respective hands were played, but which when I have played at the WSOP requires one to tell the entire table what they had if they reveal their hole cards to any one or more players. But somehow, because these two were seated next to each other and allowed to whisper with abandon in between playing hands, I could not believe what I was seeing. Not that I have the perfect answer to this conundrum, but yknow Jack Eiffel, you could have maybe just seated them at different tables -- or at least not directly next to each other -- in the interest of promoting fairness and equality for all the players involved.

In any event, eventually both boyfriend and then girlfriend ended up busting pretty close to each other in the 20s, eliminating what to me was the very last thing worth caring about in the WSOP Main Event this year. Especially since the advent of the ridiculous "November Nine" such that we won't even know which of the unknowns is the eventual winner for another several months here at this point, Monday just took the last scraps of air for me out of this year's World Series of Poker. It's unfortunate really -- I mean, I know some people get off on seeing a bunch of noobs playing it out on live tv for the $8 million first prize, and of course I will be happy for whoever survives to pull off that feat this fall in Vegas, but in reality, there's very little more boring to me than the thought of watching nine total and compelte unknowns whom I never cared about before this tournament and won't care about after this tournament, slinging poker chips around with mostly preflop allins. I'm not saying the WSOP needs to change anything or that this is any kind of an unacceptable outcome, but rather than my level of interest in the WSOP Main Event just fell off a cliff on Monday as the last of the stories fell by the wayside once and for all. Let's just say that I won't have wsop.com on auto-refresh anymore starting today, as there'd be nothing for me to even follow along with that is of any moment to me whatsoever.

And thus ends for me the first WSOP without myself there in participation since 2006. I actually made it through ok, all things considered; no bouts of withdrawal, no urge to jump on a plane and call my wife from the air when it was too late to turn around. Playing that tournament at Foxwoods a couple of weeks ago helped to ease the pain a little bit, and I am planning on a similar outing sometime in August or September as well, probably down to the Borgata to play in the Fall Poker Open or maybe back to Foxwoods to get a little more of my poker on later in the year. But not playing at the WSOP in 2011 was ok in the end, and I certainly do not regret my decision not to throw away a couple grand on a tournament that I am nowhere near practiced-up enough to play my best in. Here's to making it back out to the desert for my annual summer reunion in 2012, when some 15 months of no online poker in the United States is I can only assume set to produce lower fields than the record numbers we saw across the WSOP this time around as players made that extra effort to take their existing rolls out to the WSOP given the shutdown of online poker in April 2011.

Fully Wallowed

Well, I ended up doing much the same thing on Wednesday night as I did after my first-night debacle last year at the cash tables at the MGM -- I essentially spent the few hours immediately following my bustout from the WSOP yesterday ratholed in my room, reflecting. More like wallowing, actually. I know Tom was asking in my comments yesterday, but it's hard for me to put a finger on exactly why I was so bummed about how things went in my first WSOP event in nearly two years. I think it's a lot of things, really. First and foremost, it's the result. I don't mind busting out far from the money in any poker tournament, WSOP or otherwise, and I know all too well how big of a role luck plays (in all its different forms in poker tournaments) in any tournament, especially no-limit and double-especially in a donkament like this that is chock full of players who are not going to be playing optimally in many cases or even close to it. It's one thing to be a poker pro, or to have a lifestyle that allows you to travel around the world, to spend weeks at a time in Vegas during World Series time, etc. If that were me, I guarantee you that busting out so badly on Wednesday would not have bothered me nearly so much. But for a guy like me, this is basically my once a year chance at making a big score, and wen you are as Type-A as I am, I tend to build this up as a result, which is just a horrible thing to do with the relatively little ability of anyone to overcome the luck factor in any one individual event.

So the result is the major thing that has me feeling so down about my performance in WSOP #8. But it's more than that. It's not just that I did not cash. My bigger issue is that I was never even a factor. I fell below the starting stack early on pretty much a bullshit play against the idiot to my left when I called his short-stack allin with my AQo and of course this time he had pocket Queens for the second out of three hands even though he had been allin with anything several times before that. The only time I was even ever able to get back above the starting stack was when I raised allin on the turn and my opponent folded at very long odds on the turn, and even that did not last long. It was just one of those days when ultimately my timing was completely and totally off. Just about every single time I got involved in a pot, I ended up getting pushed out by someone because ultimately my hand was not strong enough for the action I was putting in with it. On a couple of those occasions, I made things worse for myself by c-betting on a flop that was not great for my hand and probably was ok for my opponent. In one hand I raised on the flop when I flopped middle pair plus a flush draw -- getting probably a third of my stack in the pot on the process -- a third player very confidently pushed allin for a huge stack, and yet again I had to fold after correctly putting him on bottom set. I don't know that any of these were "bad plays" by me per se, but the end result after several hours of me betting into pots either preflop or post but then folding to action, I am left with the clear impression that my own aggression shortened my time in this event, pretty much dramatically. I don't feel like I pushed too hard in the individual poker decisions I was making, but in the aggregate that is exactly the feeling I am left with. I know that my game is an aggressive one, that I have had success with that strategy, and frankly that there is no other way to really win big mtt's without such an approach, but for whatever reason the way I implemented that strategy on Wednesday totally did not work.

Anyways, after a night of self-pity I do feel a bit better here on Thursday morning, and I'm already setting my sights on my next poker tournament. And it's a good one. I'm thinking that in a few hours I may head over to the Venetian today to play in the Deep Stack Extravaganza. Obviously I have not stepped foot in the Venetian since my big win last summer there, so it would be fun to go back for that reason, not to mention how much I love the poker room there in general as a place to hang and play this game that I love for the day. Thursday's event is a $340 buyin no-limit tournament, a bit less than my score last year in a $540 buyin tournament, but the same general idea and of course the same game in no-limit holdem. I guess I am not 100% sure on this yet, but when I looked at the DSE schedule late yesterday, this tournament immediately jumped out at me. All things equal, I would much rather play a series event like this, and one with the $340 buyin, than instead playing one of the $80 or $100 regularly daily tournaments that most of the casinos in town run. So, these plans could change, but right now I am liking the sound of returning to the scene of the crime of my biggest ever poker tournament win and trying to regain some of the good karma that flowed all over me almost a year ago in the Venetian poker room.

More updates as I have anything to report this week. I am at the MGM now and hoping to meet up with Columbo who is also staying here sometime today, and with CK as well who I was too busy wallowing to find yesterday in the cash games at the Pavillion at the Rio.

Busted

And it feels like shizznit. I really can't even explain how I lasted nearly 6 hours in this thing, but I was never really in it, and I saw as few good situations as I have ever seen in a big event like this. It was just so many 92o's and Q4o's and 83s, etc., and the few times I was able to see the flop, I flopped top pair exactly one time. Over seven hours. So sweet.

So we started off WSOP Event #8 with 4500 in chips, and with over 2300 runners which really, really shocked me given the smaller size of these events in the recent past and since this was a mid-week Wednesday event near the beginning of the Series. I did not have anyone I knew at my table, but I know that fellow blogger Thomas Fuller was seated at the table right behind mine -- before I had a chance to stop by and introduce myself, my table broke (and then his) within the first half hour of play or so and I was whisked away to table 101 in the white section of the amazon room. I also saw Erick Lindgren at the table right next to mine, as well as a number of other recognizable pros along the way which is always one of the big highlights of coming out here during World Series time for me.

Anyways, we started with 4500 chips thanks to the recent "3x the buyin" rule at the WSOP, and as usual in these low buyin donkaments at the WSOP, the play at my starting table was truly frighteningly bad. I would equate it to the play in the nightly $26 mtts on the major online sites (for reals), and not even a shade better. Which makes sense since these events at the WSOP are basically the lowest possible buyin for anyone who wants to take a shot at the big time, which is sort of how I think of those nightly $26 mtts on full tilt or stars. It's the same quality of player for the most part, a least in the earlygoing before the fish start to get thinned out in the live events. Literally, on the second hand of the tournament, the guy to my left raised preflop and got called by the button, bet out on the TT8 flop and got called, bet out again on the raggy turn and got raised. The guy to my left thought and thought and then eventually smooth called for about half of his remaining stack. On the raggy river the guy to my left then inexplicably led out for the rest of his stack against the guy who had just called him on the flop and then raised him on the turn. The other guy agonized -- something most players in this tournament would not consider doing given his hand -- and then eventually called down and showed AT for the easy double with trips-top-kicker. What did the guy to my left have? Try to reason this one out for a minute given the above history and then skip down a bit for the answer.











A7s. Unimproved. This for $1500 on the second hand of a WSOP tournament against a guy who had called preflop, on the flop and even raised on the turn. I was completely flabbergasted, but like I said, does that not sound exactly like what you would see on the second hand of the 32k on full tilt? Anyways, so that shitforbrains had 75 in chips left after that hand, and then I had to sit and watch him win a hand allin with J5s and then another pot with Q3 and still another allin preflop with QQ all in the span of maybe 6 hands, getting him up to around 800 chips. Maybe 15 minutes in to the tournament, I picked up my first hand of the day with AQo in 2nd position and kicked it up to 150 from the 25-50 blinds. The asshat shorty to my left pushed allin on top for another 650, and given his stack size and the ridiculous hands he had shown down (other than the pocket Queens a few hands earlier), I had to call for another 500 into 875, figuring at worst I was racing if not likely ahead. Of course he showed pocket Queens again and I was down below 4000 almost before we started. So ghey, these tournament luckbox bitches, oh how I hate them so.

Right before my table broke I won my biggest hand of the entire day (sadly), when I called a preflop raise with QJs into a 4-way pot. The flop came QT4 with two diamonds, and it checked around, with me not wanting to bet into this draw-heavy board because two of the four players in there with me so far had shown themselves to be tight enough that I was at least afraid of KQ let alone something better to beat me. But when it checked around to me again after the offsuit 6 on the turn, I figured I was likely ahead -- I mean, who checks twice with KQ or AQ on a draw-heavy board like that, into a four-way pot no less? -- so I bet out for 450 chips into the roughly 650-chip pot. The player to my left -- a new guy, since the idiot from above had already busted after getting caught reraising allin preflop with K5o - raised me to 1200, causing the other two guys behind to fold, and leaving me to a tough decision. QJ as I noted above did not seem particularly strong to me on this board, but try as I might I just could not see this guy checking a big hand from last position into a 4-way pot on the flop, and I know that by checking the flop myself I had at least made it seem plausible that I was actually weak. I thought and thought, looked at the pot with close to 4000 chips in it, and looked at my remaining stack of around 2500 chips, and although I was not at all sure I was ahead, I ended up pushing allin in a spot where I was not even sure if I wanted a call or a fold. My opponent thought for a good long while and eventually folded, and as I scooped up around 6k in chips for my high of the day in this tournament, our table broke and I was on to a new set of flonkeys to figure out.

The rest of the first couple of hours was fairly uneventful for me, and by that I mean I stole a few pots, did not get dealt any good hands, and folded a few times after sinking some chips into the pot early. I ended the first break with 5550 in chips, up about a grand from the starting stack and in what I thought of as just-ok shape heading into Hour 3.

The two hours between the 1st and 2nd break were about as slow and crappy for me as it can ever get. It was as I mentioned above just an unbroken string of shitty cards with even shittier kickers, and I believe I saw a total of 4 flops over the entire two-hour span. Along the way I did manage to steal a couple of pots, two of them preflop on resteals with semi-playable hands KJs and T9s against loose-aggressive players, and in one case I did raise three preflop limpers with pocket Queens and got them all to fold for what was my only other semi-big pot of the night (also, sadly). However, after seeing so few playable cards over a few-hour span, I felt more or less compelled to c-bet the flop on the few times I managed to see one, and I managed to lose my c-bets into two of the four flops I did see when my opponent raised, or in one case when I actually had second pair with pocket 7s only to face a raise and then a reraise in front of me. Those preflop-raise-then-cbet-folds each hurt when you don't have a big stack, and by the end of an extremely boring and frustrating Hours 3 and 4, I was sitting on only around 4300 chips and getting down to near half of the average chipstack left in the tournament.

We started Hour 5 with blinds of 150-300, leaving me with only around 14 big blinds to start, and putting me in a precarious situation where I knew I had to try to make something happen for myself or risk becoming irrelevant even if I did double up. Unfortunately, the other players at Table White-101 were not down with my plan, and over the ensuing hour or so I ended up having to fold in the only three pots I played, one of which was a steal attempt by me with J8s on the button which I had to fold to a sizable raise from the big blind with the big stack, a guy who had barely played a hand in two hours of sitting with him and who I did not see raise any pot -- either preflop or post -- even once the entire time. The other two were ones where I raised preflop with TT and then had to eventually fold to a lead bet from my opponent on a lovely AKQ board (gotta love that!) and another where I c-bet a flop with A9o unimproved on an 864 rainbow board and again faced a raise from a big stack. Sure I could be ahead on a raggy board like it was, but I was not about to bust from the WSOP by calling down with A9 unimproved on a board where even a shitdonk with A6 would have me beat with a pair.

One thing that was a constant issue for me in this tournament -- and frankly, has been a lot for me of late, including once in the recent BBT5 Tournament of Champions and again in one of the MSOP events I played last week on full tilt -- was that I kept being severely punished because I know how to fold, in spots where most of the other fonks at the table would surely have called from behind in my situation. So, for example, one time I called a preflop raise from late position with my KQo, but then faced a large reraise from the big blind, and the original raiser in early position folded to me. Would you call there, for what amounted to about a third of your stack? If you said yes, then (a) you probably have a poker blog, and (b) you suck conch at this game. I folded, one other player behind me called, and we saw a flop of -- you guessed it -- 9TJ. The big stack at the table ended up winning the pot with the ass end of the straight when an 8 fell on the turn, which clearly would have meant mega chips for me. And what a fucking downer too, especially to an emotional guy like me, to make what I know is the clear correct poker play and then to be thrashed immediately for making that decision. That was during Hour 4. Again during Hour 5, I called a preflop raise with pocket 7s from the big blind against an utg raiser and a middle position caller. The flop came down 88K, I checked, the big blind surprised me by checking behind, and the MP player checked as well. The turn card was then a Ten, and when my opponent led out, I felt compelled to fold given the now two overcards on the board plus of course the chance that he could have had an 8. Again, aleady being short-stacked like I as almost all the way throughout this afternoon of play, I was not about to call down to the felt with what amounted to third pair on a board when I already had the guy pegged for a strong hand preflop, maybe a solid pocket pair or an AK/KQ type of hand. I felt I had to fold. Of course, the river brought a 7 and I would have nearly doubled up, with me again getting totally spizznanked for making the clearly right play in a hand where I would have been mostly allin when hopelessly behind if I had called. But again, especially being the emotional, tilty guy that I am, this happening for the second time in the span of maybe an hour in a tournament where otherwise I could get absolutely nothing going, I just grew more and more frustrated as the afternoon wore on.

As a result of all this fun, by the time Hour 6 began with blinds of 200-400, I was still sitting on a measly 4900 chips and obviously in dire straits to find a double-up or even just a race where I could have a chance to regain a relevant stack. I got just that chance when I open-raised preflop with A4s and got called by the big stack who had played at least 25% of the hands at our table over the previous two hours. There is a guy like this at every table a couple of hours in at every major live event I have ever played -- someone amasses a big stack early, and then they bully the table relentlessly for hours in making full use of the chip utility that big stack gives them, or bust out trying (I especially love it when that guy is me). Well, this was the guy who called my raise early in Hour 6, and with my stack being what it was, I knew I could not just lay down to his aggression once again. Luckily, I didn't have to be concerned as the flop came down A64, giving me the hidden two pairs and suddenly I found myself hoping that the big stack bully actually had a big hand. I pushed allin for only about the size of the pot, and the monkey instacalled with -- you guessed it -- the JackAce. Of course I barely had time to celebrate getting back into the tournament -- this double would have only gotten me back to just under average anyways at this point, but hey it's a start -- when a 6 natchy fell on the turn, counterfeiting my two pairs and giving the rest of my stack to the bully with the JackAce.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone eliminated me from a World Series of Poker tournament playing the JackAce like a fonkey. But for some reason the same shitmonkeys who play the JackAce also love love love to instacall with it -- the instacall is what makes the hand so invincible, in case you didn't know -- and in this case the guy clearly did not even consider that his unbeatable JackAce could be behind before pushing enough chips into the middle to put my tournament life on the line. So while I took a stoopid beat to get busted from this tournament, in the end, even winning that hand would not even have quite gotten me back to average, and I am left feeling very similarly to how I felt after my very first World Series, when I got short early and then Joe Hachem sucked out a 6-outer on me allin on the turn when he rivered his flush against my higher pair. I could not get a damn thing going in this event, I did not play well, and in the end I paid the price as a result.

So now this opens things up somewhat for the next couple of days. I will spend tonight looking over the WSOP schedule (I do not recall any good tournaments running on Thursday, but I will check) as well as considering what other daily tournaments or tournament series I might consider playing in tomorrow. Right now I will need to get over the negative feelings about how today went -- my not playing particularly well, never being able to get a damn thing going, and especially those two hands which would have got me off to a very nice stack early but instead were I chose to make the correct fold and then got instantly ass-smacked for it -- but I imagine I will be up for some more poker action in a few hours. I may head back down to the amazon room and try to win back some of that buyin at the 2-5 cash tables, or I may head over to MGM early and play some cash there instead while I await the first of my friends around 9pm tonight. Right now I'm gonna take some time and stew over today, just like I did last year after a poor poker performance the very night before recording my biggest-ever score in the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. Failure tends to motivate me as much as anything else, as I really fucking hate to lose, and especially to play shitty poker doing it, so I am looking to do whatever I have to do tonight to get back into a winning frame of mind for when I will look to make a better tournament run on the morrow.

For the rest of tonight, it'll just be me enjoying being in Las Vegas in all its glory.

Finally, Mercifully in Vegas

Well, as you can probably tell from the lack of posting here just lately, actually getting out of New York and finding my way to Las Vegas was an absolute misery, so much so that I don't even want to think about what it took for me to make it here, but at long last here I finally sit. I an doing the free wifi thing in my room at the Rio, where I will be staying tonight until my upgrade to the penthouse at the MGM starting on Wednesday evening. I am happy to report that, after registering earlier this week for the low-end suite at Rio, I went through with my plan to further test out the $20 trick, which once again worked like a charm. $20 to the front desk lady, and not two minutes later I had been upgraded from the regular suite to a Masquerade Suite at no additional charge. This is a room the Rio website quoted me at $1200 a night when I first booked my plane tickets maybe 3 months ago, but one can only assume that business has not picked up at the Rio heading into WSOP time, because they were all too happy to upgrade me now for under $100 total, which is a pretty sweet deal given how nice I think the Masquerade Suite is. It is basically an 850 square foot, three-room suite with a massive bathroom, a bar area, and a large bedroom and large living room area equipped with most of the latest amenities and technologies. And with the floor-to-ceiling windows running all across the bedroom and living area, it really makes for a great place to start my visit, and was well worth sending $20 the registration lady's way.

The first thing I did after dropping off the bags up in the room was of course to head to the convention area to register for the WSOP. And I am pleased to say that, unlike last year, I will actually get to play in the World Series this time around, as I succesfully registered for tomorrow (this) morning's $1500 buyin donkament at noon, which is less than 10 hours from now. Here are the stats from my regisrtation materials, for those of you looking to meet up or who might be in the area of the Rio on Wednesday afternoon:

WSOP Event #8
Wednesday June 2
Yellow section, Main Room
Table 141, Seat 8

Seat 8 is pretty much one of my least favorite spots, as I hate being far away from the flop where it can be hard to see exactly what is going on on the board. Just once I would like to enter a live poker tournament and be seated right smack in the middle in Seat 5. No dealer tip box sticking in your gut, no corners where the space between players always seems to be a bit more limited, and the flop reveals itself basically right smack in front of you. But this time around, I will be starting in Seat 8 at my table, and I will be in the main room which is definitely what I prefer to really get the whole World Series of Poker experience going.

After I sit down to play the WSOP tomorrow, one of the things I love about this particular trip is that I really don't know what the plans will be after that. My brother and the rest of the entourage are coming to town late on Wednesday evening, so if I don't last long in the WSOP on Wednesday then I might stay at the Rio in this fatty suite (she offered me an even lower rate if I stay another night) in the afternoon and hit up the juicy cash games in the Amazon room, or alternatively as I see it is supposed to be about 97 degrees and sunny on Wednesday afternoon, I might also head over to MGM early, register as early as I can for my room there, and then spend the afternoon hanging in the MGM pool, which I have always maintained is my favorite pool area on the Strip. I'm a big lazy river guy, and the MGM has hands-down the best lazy river in the city, plus several slides, waterfalls and multiple pools to choose from. So that is another option, depending on the timing of everything tomorrow.

I guess that's it for now. I am supposed to be meeting some friends for breakfast at the Mandalay Bay buffet at 8am, although with every passing minute tonight the likelihood of me being awake and ready to eat at that hour seems to diminish further and further. But I should probably try to get some sleep now, not having slept much at all on the tiny bench with armrests that Delta apparently calls a "seat" on their airplanes. The plan is to blog from the hotel wifi as much as I can throughout the trip as always, probably mostly in the evenings but I will try to update as much as I can. I say this every year, but ultimately these live trips to play in the WSOP are to me what this entire thing I've been doing for the past 5+ years is all about, and I look forward to blogging about these experiences almost as much as I do to living them, and hopefully this trip should be no different in that regard. So on Wednesday it is WSOP at noon PT, and I will try to get an update or two in during the day depending on my progress. See you then!

Las Vegas 2010 Here I Come

My return to the desert for another shot at poker fame and fortune in 2010 is official.

Departing Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Departs JFK (NYC) 7:30pm, Arrives LAS 10:43pm
Delta Air Lines Flight # 1029
New York, NY to Las Vegas, NV


Returning Sunday, June 6, 2010
Departs LAS 7:00am, Arrives JFK (NYC) 2:59pm
Delta Air Lines Flight #198
Las Vegas, NV to New York, NY


The plane tickets are bought. I originally looked for JetBlue of course -- easily the most comfortable, roomiest, generally best experience one can have with an airline -- but the times are just not great for me on either end. JetBlue could not get me out of New York City on a direct flight to Vegas on Tuesday the 1st anytime late in the day, and I am not planning to have to take a fourth day off from work that week just to be able to be in Vegas by early Wednesday morning. And coming back home, again JetBlue had a morning flight but not nearly as early as the one I will be on via Delta. As much fun as these trips have proven to be every year, I know that come Sunday I will really be missing Hammer Wife and my beautiful kids, and since in four annual trips to Vegas since 2006 I have yet to sleep a wink during my last night in the desert, the plan this time around will just be to pull my usual all-nighter on Saturday night, get on a plane very early on Sunday morning, close my eyes, and wake up on the runway at JFK, in plenty of time to be home for dinner and to spread some cheer among the people that really make me happiest in my life.

So, the plan will definitely be to play in WSOP Event #8, $1500 buyin no-limit holdem at noon local time on my first morning in Vegas. I'll get in fairly late at night on Tuesday, but several factors will help ensure that I register in time to actually be admitted to this event this year as opposed to last year's snafu (that ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me poker-wise). First, this year I'm heading out at the very beginning of the WSOP, so there will be less demand in general for the tournaments than there is likely to be near the end as the Main Event approaches and people are feeling the squeeze of their last chance to play for a coveted bracelet in 2010. Second (really this is a corollary of the first point), this year I will be playing during a weekday, and in one of the first of what are known at the Rio as the "donkaments" -- the $1000 and $1500 buyin tournaments, which are the lowest buyin available for any event at the World Series of Poker. Last year, the big problem that caused my planned WSOP event to sell out early was that it was a Saturday, and it was the very last donkament of the 2009 WSOP, so everyone who wanted one final shot at poker immortality came into town after work that Friday for their last great chance. This year, none of that should be an issue and I expect little trouble registering on Tuesday night for the Wednesday event.

Lastly, I am planning to stay at the Rio on my first night this year, just to make things even easier on myself. Last year my brother was already in town at the MGM Skyloft so I headed over there first to drop off my bags and clean up after long plane ride across the country, but this year I'm going to be arriving a day ahead of my brother so for my first night I will plan to get one of the nice Rio suites, which -- despite all the bad things I've heard said about the rooms there -- are actually quite nice if you are willing to upgrade a little bit. So rather than landing at 10pm, heading to the MGM, catching up with some friends, doing some shots, etc., and then eventually finding my way over to the Rio at 3am like last year, this time I'll plan to head straight to the Rio after I land, check in but then head right downstairs to get in to WSOP Event #8 with what I imagine will be little trouble or hassle. Famous last words I know, but that's the plan.

What I do after Wednesday is still very much up in the air. One of the reasons I picked this particular week is that, if I want to, I can play in the $1500 nlh donkament on Friday in WSOP Event #12 as well if I so choose. As it gets a little closer I will figure out if there are other tournament series in town at the time that I might want to play like the Venetian Deep Stack from last year.

For now I'm just excited to have the flights officially purchased, and I'll be calling the Rio later today to reserve a suite for around $80 to take care of my first night's accommodations in Sin City.

I'm Heeeeeerrrrrrrrrre

As I write this I am sitting in my room at Monte Carlo, and it is 2:17am local Vegas time. My plane landed a couple of hours ago and I headed straight over to the Rio, where I just registered for WSOP Event #12, 6-max no-limit holdem, which will begin at 12 noon Vegas time tomorrow (today), less than 10 hours from now. Fortunately that's about twice as much sleep as I usually get so I should be nice n rested for the big event tomorrow.

Have I mentioned how much I love being in Las Vegas for World Series time? While I was in the WSOP room to register for Event #12, I decided to stick around for a short while and watch as the money bubble was reached in Event #11, 7-Card Stud with a $5000 buyin. In just maybe 15 minutes walking around the Rio, I sat and watched the following pros make the money in this tournament, and these were just the people I recognized from a quick look at them:

Johnny Fuckin Chan
Scott Fischman (sitting immediately to Johnny Chan's left)
Phil Ivey
Chris Ferguson, on a very short stack as the bubble burst
Humberto Brenes
Jeffrey Lisandro (sitting two seats to Humberto's right)
Daniel Negreanu
Cindy Violette (sitting immediately to Daniel's left)
Barry Greenstein (sitting immediately to Cindy's left)

Is that a great table there or what? All at one end of the table, one after the other, is Negreanu, Violette and Greenstein. Yeeech. Glad I'm not sitting across from that motley crew there.

I'm also pretty sure I saw Vanessa Rousseau also make the money, though I could have been wrong about that being her. It was some hot chick anyways, that I can definitely verify for you.

I also saw and said hi to Gus Hansen right as I walked into the World Series room. Gus was just leaving and my guess is he just missed the money in the 7-Stud event.

I know I've written about this before, but to me there is just something magical about being 5 feet away from all these big name pros who I've watched so much on tv and followed so much online over the past several years. This is why I come out to the WSOP, to be part of the same thing that all my poker heroes look forward to once a year to show their mettle against the best of the best. Now I will be heading to bed for a nice, restful sleep before getting up and heading back to the Rio to hopefully make my best-ever live casino tournament run. So far in I think 3 attempts in multi-day live casino events in my life, I have failed to last beyond the first day in any of them. My best run ever was also my most recent, which was the WSOP Circuit Event at Caesar's in Atlantic City back in early March, but even then I only managed to last about 7 1/2 hours as I recall, so it's still not much to write home about. This week in Vegas I intend to change that, starting with today's 6-max nlh event.

Time for bed. I'll write more since my pc is working so well in my room here.