And they are off! The WSOP Begins!

Well, the WSOP officially started this week and 2 events are in the books. It's great keeping up with all the action on CardPlayer (CP) and also on Pokerwire , but how I want to be out there. Would be great to play more than one event, but still, I can’t complain. Maybe next year…

Monday it was like Xmas morning. I couldn’t even imagine being out there for the first few days, the energy must be amazing… I have been listening to The Circuit on CP and reading their live tournament updates. Still getting use to the UI CP put together this year, a little to be desired, but it works. I was able to find a WSOP RSS feed that I've been using at work, very clean and the feeds are coming right from CP. Another down side to CP's updates is the not so subtle plugs for FullTilt, not just all the ad banners on the page, but the FT plugs within the updates themselves. Here’s an example:

Jennifer Harman Exits
Jennifer Harman finishes in 11th place and collects $51,155 in winnings.
Play exclusively with Jennifer at FullTiltPoker.Net.

I’m going to try and keep my family and friends posted while I’m out there and last night I found away via this blog. Just bought the wife a new phone, a Palm 700w (major phone envy, I must say) and was poking around last night and I was able to post a blog via the phone. It’s so geeky it’s cool. Hoping I make it while, I plan on posting chip counts and any big pots during breaks. Should be pretty cool…

The Poker front… Still trying for a second seat on FT. Played this past Sunday in the 200 and came up short again! Got to the final table with a nice stack, I was 2nd in chips. I ended up going out 7th, pushed a little too hard and also ran into Ks when I had Qs… Still trying and we’ll see if I can get one before the ME starts.

Just isn’t going to happen...

Man, I just can't get that second seat... Had a couple chances this past week, but couldn’t pull it out. Last night, played the Sunday $200 on FT where they were giving two seats. 130 started and I took 7th. Was a nice run but went card dead near the end and just couldn't find anything. I also played in a local bar tourney last week where they were giving away a seat for the winner. They played a weekly tourney at their 4 locations over the last 6 months and the top 10 from each location played in the tournament of champions. There ended up being 37 in the tourney and I ended going out about 30th. Got stung early and never recovered.

There are still a couple more opportunities and I'll keep trying for that second seat...

PPT - Season II - I'm In!

On the way out to work this am I stopped and grabbed the mail out of the mailbox, which I forgot to get yesterday... Well, in with all the junk mail was a letter from the PPT Professional Poker Tour. Looks like I met the qualifications for Season II of the PPT and I'm invited to play and participate in all PPT tournaments this coming seasons! I qualified I'm qualified cause my season 3 win in Foxwoods at the World Poker Finals, and I got a 1 year card.

Here's the link to the list of players that qualified, Season II Qualified Player List (Scroll down, 155...)... There are a total of 265 players that are eligible.

There are 4 tourneys and they are free rolls, nice! Here's the schedule: PPT Season II Tournament Schedule.

Borgata: Sept 11-12
Foxwoods: Nov 7-8
Bellagio: Nov 29-20
Commerce: Feb 12-13

Full Tilt is out to get me...

So I was playing last night in a tourney where the top two get a seat into the WSOP 100 seat Satellite. There are 4 left and I'm 2nd with chips, about 8k, the leader has me covered by about 4k.

Here’s the hand where I went out.

The action went,
I was first to act and bet out, about 4x the BB, with KK.
Button folds, SB folds… and the BB just calls
Flop came AK6
BB checked, I bet, he check raised and I pushed….

Unreal! I won $93, less the $75 entry, +$18 for about an hour and half of work…. Grrrr….

The funny thing, the guy on the button said he had a 6! So there were 3 sets on the FLOP! You have to wonder if they are doing this to generate action...

I know, this is a tourney where the top two get the seats and I was in 2nd in chips at the time, but how can I not play this or play it any different.

I think FT is out to get me…

The Ole "Why Not....."

Playing in the MSR rebuy tonight and down to 4 players... Woke up with pocket K's in the BB and the button calls. Blinds were 500/1000 and I Pushed in for the rest of my stack, almost 13k. The button thinks and says "Why not..."

He calls with 7s... Boy do I love poker!!