Day 1

So far so good. I made it through Day 1 (after 15 hours of poker) and I have $45,025 chips. A few other Bermuda players made it through Day 1 as well. San Bezant is leading the way with $47,000 chips and Angus Lynn has got around $32,000. Not fairing as well were Keith Dunsmore, whose Aces up with 4's got beat by Aces up with 10's. Bob Burden built a chip stack up to $25,000 but two bad beats in a row including his A,J all in vs another players J,4 all in when the board read JJ5, only to send Bob to the rail when a river 4 hit. Equally as bad was David Cassidy's $30,000 chip stack going over to a female player when David flopped the nut straight, then calling her all in bet (she flopped two pair), only to see her fill in the full house on the river.

I played steady, but I did get fortunate one hand when I over-played an A,J vs an other players KK. He hit his set, but I made a flush on the river, whew. I didn't have AA all day, but I won my pots when I had KK and QQ-twice. I next play on Wednesday Aug 2nd. If I can somehow survive another 15-hour poker day Wednesday, I then play Friday. And if I do make it to Friday, some time during that session, the remaining players should make it into the money.

My plan is to keep playing steady poker. If I feel more comfortable after playing a few hours Wednesday, I might become slightly more agressive in the next session as many players remaining have lower chips stacks than I. I think the average chip count after day 1 will be around $25,000 each person and at the new table I will be sitting at when play begins Wednesday, I'll have the second highest chip stack (at my table).

Again, I haven't won anything yet, but so far so good....

Here is a little background as to how and why I am am playing in the WSOP. In short, through various smaller local satelite tournaments, a few of my poker friends in Bermuda had recently won WSOP seats and were set to be going off to Las Vegas to play in the biggest poker tournament in the World. I had never really given much thought to playing in the WSOP proir to hearing about my friends winning their seats, as the WSOP had always seemed out of reach for a Canadian guy, living in Bermuda. However, over the next few days I thought more and more about the guys I knew that were going to Vegas and I will admitt I felt a little jealous. So, I was home watching Game 6 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and I decided to go on line to play some poker. As I was playing a small tournament, a message flashed across the screen that a special WSOP satelite tournament was beginning in a few minutes. The entry was $215.00 and a minimum of 8 WSOP seats were guaranteed. So, I decided to enter. 440 people total entered the tournament and play began. To make a 4.5-hour tournement story short, I played well and made it to the final table. I was among the chip leaders, so I just waited out a few hands and once the two lowest chip stacks had been eliminated, each of the 8-players remaining won a PartyPoker.com WSOP Package which includes the $10,000.00 entry into the Main Event, $1,000.00 spending money and if you agree to wear PartyPoker.com apparel, free accomodation at the MGM Grand Hotel. Hence I'm off to play in the WSOP! I full well know the odds are stacked against me; however, if anyone has ever seen ESPN's television coverage of the WSOP, you'd know that the WSOP motto is "Anyone Can Win!" ...

2006 World Series of Poker

As a few people know, I won a seat into the 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas, which begins July 28th, 2006. I've had a few requests to send phone or email updates as to my progress during this tournament, therefore the easist method to relay back information to those who are interested, is this blog.

Feel free to follow along as I play. I'll try to send updates as often as possible. Hopefully, I'll be playing long enough for you to receive them ...