Sunday, July 30, 2006
It's 13 hours before I start the main event....
and it's 11p.m. at night here. Have been asleep for a couple of hours - will need to get some more before I start tomorrow. The Kays have gone out for a nice meal tonight, but I passed as I wanted to prepare myself.
A few have asked about how I got here, so here's a reminder:
With Kay away with Sara for the weekend, me and Ivan settle down to a night of poker on Saturday 6th May 2006. There's this free tournamnet to enter on Paradise Poker, costing 1000 player points to enter. Well, I had thousands of those, so we went for it.
487 players were in for this tournament, with the prize package being $2000 to get you over to Las Vegas, and payment of the $10,000 entry fee into the Main Event http://www.paradisepoker.com/promotions/2006/wsop/package.html
6 and a half hours later, and with cheering on the sidelines from Steve, Niki, Paul, Jenna, Dave, Judy, but particularly Ivan (who had also entered and finished around the top 30), and I had won it! I was on my way to Vegas with a free entry into the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.
There are so many entrants here that they have just under 2200 starting on 4 separate days. Even on day two, the vast number of entrants will mean that this is still split over 2 days.
The first day, and mine is Monday 31st July 2006 at 12 noon (8p.m. UK time), is where over 2000 will play down to about 800. I have looked at the cardplayer.com website and each first day so far finishes after 3a.m. 15 hours of poker where the blinds go up slowly but start to hit after the first 4 hours or so is going to be very difficult.
When I left UK to come here, I set myself the aim of trying to play two days of poker here. With so many top class players already being knocked out on their first day, I just hope to survive as long as possible and to not make a mistake.
It is so difficult to describe what it is like here at the WSOP, but if you want a flavour of it from a professional player, go to the bottom of this web-page http://www.expertinsight.com/_Podcast.html and listen to the podcasts on the Main Event. I have been following it on www.cardplayer.com as well, and there are some incredible hands.
Someone flopped four of a kind and went all in. The guy who called hit 2 perfect cards on the turn and river to make a straight flush and knock this poor sod out of the tournament. On day 1B the first hand had two people all in - and the guy who turned over pocket Kings lost to pocket Aces. Someone who didn't turn up yesterday was finally blinded out of the tournament at about 2a.m.
It is such an immense tournament, I will just have to play my best poker. Gus Hansen, Phil Helmuth, Doyle Brunson and so many others have already been knocked out.
One amusing thing about the first day was that in order to make an "all in" bet as efficient as possible, they give you one special chip with "All In" on it, which you verbally declare and then chuck that chip into the pot. They must have been so worried about it's use that the tournament director kept announcing "This chip should not be thrown into the pot as a joke. Only do it if you mean it." Will have to use mine sparingly ;-)
A few have asked about how I got here, so here's a reminder:
With Kay away with Sara for the weekend, me and Ivan settle down to a night of poker on Saturday 6th May 2006. There's this free tournamnet to enter on Paradise Poker, costing 1000 player points to enter. Well, I had thousands of those, so we went for it.
487 players were in for this tournament, with the prize package being $2000 to get you over to Las Vegas, and payment of the $10,000 entry fee into the Main Event http://www.paradisepoker.com/promotions/2006/wsop/package.html
6 and a half hours later, and with cheering on the sidelines from Steve, Niki, Paul, Jenna, Dave, Judy, but particularly Ivan (who had also entered and finished around the top 30), and I had won it! I was on my way to Vegas with a free entry into the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.
There are so many entrants here that they have just under 2200 starting on 4 separate days. Even on day two, the vast number of entrants will mean that this is still split over 2 days.
The first day, and mine is Monday 31st July 2006 at 12 noon (8p.m. UK time), is where over 2000 will play down to about 800. I have looked at the cardplayer.com website and each first day so far finishes after 3a.m. 15 hours of poker where the blinds go up slowly but start to hit after the first 4 hours or so is going to be very difficult.
When I left UK to come here, I set myself the aim of trying to play two days of poker here. With so many top class players already being knocked out on their first day, I just hope to survive as long as possible and to not make a mistake.
It is so difficult to describe what it is like here at the WSOP, but if you want a flavour of it from a professional player, go to the bottom of this web-page http://www.expertinsight.com/_Podcast.html and listen to the podcasts on the Main Event. I have been following it on www.cardplayer.com as well, and there are some incredible hands.
Someone flopped four of a kind and went all in. The guy who called hit 2 perfect cards on the turn and river to make a straight flush and knock this poor sod out of the tournament. On day 1B the first hand had two people all in - and the guy who turned over pocket Kings lost to pocket Aces. Someone who didn't turn up yesterday was finally blinded out of the tournament at about 2a.m.
It is such an immense tournament, I will just have to play my best poker. Gus Hansen, Phil Helmuth, Doyle Brunson and so many others have already been knocked out.
One amusing thing about the first day was that in order to make an "all in" bet as efficient as possible, they give you one special chip with "All In" on it, which you verbally declare and then chuck that chip into the pot. They must have been so worried about it's use that the tournament director kept announcing "This chip should not be thrown into the pot as a joke. Only do it if you mean it." Will have to use mine sparingly ;-)
