4:40pm

A little while ago I went all in. Yes, it was scary. But, I made it and now I'm sitting with about $8,500 in chips, down from 10K earlier (lost a bit at a time while I waited for a good hand). Of the people left in this thing at the fifth level, the average is $7K worth of chips per player, so I'm doing okay.

In the game

Third satallite game proved to be a charm - got my entry into the tournament and pocketed $200 cash. WSOP started at noon, and I came in with 3K in chips. At the first break (2pm), I'm up to about $4500. Slow start, but I'm in the game.

Overload already?

Like I said my room at the 4 queens is great- with a great view looking over Fremont Street. So great that I didn't close my curtains the first night and had the sun blast into my room at 6am. So I went over to the Golden Nugget to play. To make a long story short I played cards from 7am until 11pm and cleared $1500.

I went over to the Rio to check out the WSOP poker room. It wasn't that busy- the $2000 no-limit tourney was underway (1600 entrants) and they were getting ready for the $5000 final table.

I played in two satellites for the $1500 tourney and had my pocket Kings cracked in both when I had guys call me with lower pairs (pp 6's, pp 4's) and flopped full houses on both! My confidence was a little shaken so I went back to the Golden Nugget and sat down to play cash. I ended up getting along with a guy from Hawaii who got knocked out of the $2000 earlier in the day ad then I realized something that I hadn't thought of...the WSOP is just another tourney to these guys. For some reason that helped my confidence (as well as my cash for the day)- so I'll update everyone about my day during round one.

PRO PLAYER sightings- Men Nguyen, Marcel Luske, Amir Vahedi, Greg Raymer and I also saw Shannon Elizabeth sitting in the $2000 tourney with sunglassses as big as dinner plates.

Vegas, baby?

The flight ended up being delayed for 2 hours total, so I ended up getting here at midnight. Still a little buzzed from the traveling so I hit the blackjack tables at the semi-luxurious 4 queens (they gave me a great room on the 19th floor looking over the Vegas strip) and built up a little more in the cash roll.

Apparently the internet is not free here (said different on my info sheet) so I'll try to keep things up to date as much as possible.

I'm here and the fun is about to begin.

Travelin'

The plane leaves from Charlotte this evening- hopping to Atlanta, then on to Las Vegas. Staying at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino in downtown Vegas- across the street from the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street.

Just a few thoughts on what I'm expecting in the tournament. They're an odd thing- you could be out in one hand, hang on with a few chips for hours- dying a slow death, or get an incredible run of cards and just start hitting every hand. I'm hoping to play well and stick to some basic strategies and notes that I've made for myself- don't play weak hands out of position, use position to the fullest advantage, don't go all in with top pair (unless I "feel" it's the best hand after five cards are dealt), etc.. I expect to do well. My definition of well may change during the course of the tournament, but we'll see how the cards are dealt.

Momentum

A couple days away from the trip and I'm heading to Vegas with some momentum. For a couple years now I've been playing in a game set up tournament style. Last year's trip to Vegas was interesting in that most of the tourney's were set up with the same structure that I was used to in my local game and I did very well- winning the first one I played in and cashing in a couple of others.

So going into this week I've been working on strategies that I think may work. I'll play certain ways against aggressive players and different against very loose players- basic tournament strategies that I wanted to work on.

The results were good. In Saturday night's tournament it took a lucky river card (still had the best hand pre-flop), but I won. Last night's tourney was a bit different. Had a healthy chip stack early, looked down at Aces, with two raisers before me, I move all in and get called by both for all their chips. I had AA- first raiser had KK, and the second caller had KQ offsuit. I was in very good shape until...the case King showed up in the door on the flop. Took a big hit to the stack but caught a boat on the next hand and doubled up and from then on it was pure power poker.

Teri (one of the hosts) and I were heads up at the end- she was the one who beat me with her KK- so it was only fitting. I had a 9-1 chip lead on her. After calling her in the dark the first two hands (I doubled her up twice), we went back and forth for about an hour. I finally won when we both caught a ten high but my kicker was better.

So- going into Vegas I've got two straight tourney wins, the patience is good, and I've been making good reads on other players, so I'm feeling pretty confident.

WSOP week

I'm heading to Las Vegas on Thursday where I will be playing in one of the $1500 No Limit Hold 'em World Series of Poker events. During the trip I'll be posting about the trip, my success or failure in the tourney, and about all the craziness that is Las Vegas.