Day 2 Is As Far As We Go

Wow, that was fast. Clear favorite in a hand, and the other guy just got lucky. So, we are done for this year's event. Thanks for following. We'll be back next year!

Six levels down, and still in it. Level 6 saw no cards come, yet managed to hang on to his chips. He has not seen a pair all day! The blinds go up significantly in Level 7, so this will likely be the make or break round. I fully expect to hear an endless stream of 'all-in call' from the tables. If Mike is one of them, i'm sure it will work to his advantage and put us back into the green!

This event is fascinating...the people, the emotions. As people get further in, the mood gets more serious. There are more and more calls for a floor man (the tournament referees) to tables, to settle disputes amongst the players. Just before the break, i saw one where a guy checked, then bet, and claimed he never did check. The whole table saw him check. He wanted a floor ruling. It took nearly 5 minutes, which is a large delay in the game, and the consideration of two floor men, before the ruling was made, and he had to take his bet back.

Level 7 is starting.....let the games begin.....

It's nearing the end of level 6. There are 27 minutes left. I don't know who it his. but someone of interest was just visiting mike's table. The ESPN crew showed up. I hope this picture came out so you can see it!

Day 2 about to start. Mike is at Table 77 this time, looks like seat 3? They have announced that players are to open their chip bags and setup their stacks. At the completion of Day 1, each player gets a sealing plastic bag into which they put their chips and then write their name and the amount on the outside of the bag. They use this information to post the ending day chip counts, and since there is no validation of the number the player writes, i guess the day's end chip counts could be a bit "wrong". Of course, it does not matter what is written on the bag - all that matters is what is in the bag! We the spectators are not allowed in yet, so i have no sense of what his table is like, or what my view is going to be like. I'm going to go around to the side door and see if i can get in.....

It's Day 2

Seven thirty a.m and already starting to feel the energy of Day 2 of play. Play today starts at noon with about 2713 players. These are the players that made it through Day 1B and Day 1D. (Yesterday, the ~2700 players of Day 1A and Day 1C played and ~1300 of those folks held on to move on to Day 3.) Mike has $19,100 in chips, which starts him just in the yellow (see the M-Factor page) against the field average of $39,000 chips. The chip leaders have well over $100,000 chips. Let's hope one of them is not on his new table!

Found this great article on the tournament - filled with all kinds of fun facts. Check is out: http://www.wsop.com/news/2010/Jul/2983/BILLIRAKIS-BRUNSON--MOON-HEADLINE-DAY-1D-ACTION-THINGS-SHAPING-UP-WELL.html.

This morning will be spent having some breakfast, going for a light run, and focusing, focusing, focusing!

Tweeting starts at noon....

We went to the world famous Gold & Silver pawn shop of Pawn Stars!! There was a line to get in but it moved quickly. W e saw Rick!

We're Going To Day 2!

What a grueling Day 1! But, Mike played solid poker and the reward is getting to move on to Day 2. Day 1 ended with $19300 in chips. Play resumes at noon on Saturday, with the second hour of level 5. It will be a new table and new players.

Tomorrow is a day off. We have BIG plans! We are going to go and visit the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop - yep! the store that is the star of Pawn Stars, that show on cable. How cool is that!

I'm sure we will also be playing a fair amount of live poker. Actually, we have to - in order to get this incredibly good room rate, you need to play something like 4 hours of poker a day. Um... yea...like that's hard to do.

Do come back on Saturday, when coverage of Mike's 2010 WSOP Adventure continues!

It's 10:45 out here in Sin City and Mike has now completed 4 levels of play, with a chip stack still in the green! What a level! Doubled up on an all-in of A-K against called by 9-9 and an Ace hit the flop - how nice i that? The cost of a round goes up quite a bit in Level 5. Ante is $50 and the big blind is $400 with a small blind of $200.

Day 1 was suppose to end with Level 4, but they changed the schedule and are playing one half of Level 5 still tonight. All the Day 1's played 4.5 levels. The rumor is, with so many people starting, they need to make sure they get far enough along to have the field down to a manageable number by Day 3 of play, when the whole field combines.

In my books, we made it to Day 2, but formally, we have to make it through the next hour.

We are back from the dinner break. Level 4 starts in about 5 minutes. For dinner, we walked over to the Gold Coast Casino, across the street from the Rio - what a wonderful idea that turned out to be. It's definitely the thing to do in all future years, too. No lines, no crowds, and the walk was a good break for Mike.

He's feeling surprisingly comfortable. He's starting Level 4 in the yellow, but all it will take is one hand to hit. It has been a really difficult 3 previous levels. In 6 hours of play, he saw only about 5 flops, and did not connect with any of them. Seems he made a lot of good lay downs.

We are estimating they've lost about 15% of the field so far. I certainly hear a lot of all-in/calls. One guy was SOOOOOO excited to win the all-in, he was yelling and hoop-laa-ing and he was so loud, they gave him a time out. Yep, they can do that - if you are too loud, or show too much excitement, they give you a time out! You have to sit out for something like 1/2 level.

For those who are commenting (and you know who you are...) no, spectators cannot get a time out for being loud and i AM using my indoor voice!!!

I'll tweet the next level of play, even though all you folks at home are asleep now....hope you find good news when you awake and check in tomorrow!

Fifty minutes in and this has been a fun level for me so far. Mike's table is two back from the rail, so i bit hard to watch. Right on the rail is a table with Todd Brunson and that french guy who was on the final table last year or the year before, i forget. Elan somebody. Todd's older sister, Pam, busted out and she came by to see her brother, and he dissed her! Pointed and laughed, She countered with "i hope dad beats you". ESPN was there taping it all - it was funny! Their dad Dolye is still in, playing in the other room.

Then, Norman Chad, the best announcer there is (this guy should have his own cable show) came by, and i got to take a picture with him!

They finally just announced the series totals. 7319 players total, for a prize pool of $68,000,000. The first place winner will take one $8,944,138. Not bad for 9 days work. They will be paying the top 747 players. First pay is $19,000.

There's 57 minutes to go in Level 3. It looks . Looks like we dropped that $2000 we won 20 minutes ago. Oh well - that' poker! We are so fortunate we are able to come here and take a stab at such a cool thing! That's winning enough in my book!

Two levels of play are done. It is a tough year!!!! No cards coming mike's way at all, other than that initial pair of Jacks, which got chopped up by a silly pair of 6's that caught a straight on the river.

As level 3 starts, mike seems ok, but knows he has his work cut out for him. Good news, is that he is not the short stack on the table. There are 3 others with less then him. No one person on the table is cleaning up.

Time to start level 3. Still no anti, which helps. The big blind is $300 and the small blind is $150. If we survive, we get a 90 minute dinner break, then 1.5 rounds after that before the day is done.

Still no announcement about how many have started today. They actually sell seats through level 2. So now i suppose they will be able to get a final count.

It seems to me that most people (well men anyway) wear socks

It's just about noon and all the players are taking their seats. They have not announced how many people are starting yet. Mike is at tableb19 seat 9.

Those links on the top of the blog? Have you tried them? If you are at work, they may be blocked. Oh, those IT types are so clever!! I'm working on it, however, (i'm not an IT type, but i did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so maybe.....) If the links remain blocked, you'll just have to catch up on the first few hours when you get home. Sorry!

Getting Ready!!

Today's Day 1, hopefully Day 1 of 8! Time to hunker down and concentrate - put on that poker face...

Today is also my mom & dad's 54th wedding anniversary - Happy Anniversary Mommy & Daddy!!!

Play starts at noon. There were 1800 people signed up for today, as of 5:00 pm last night. They have a total of 3800 seats they will sell, and the lines were long last night (so they say - we actually sneaked in at 1:00 yesterday afternoon - no lines - and they said 'sure, you can sign up' even though the formal starting time wasn't until 4:45 pm!).

Off to breakfast!

btw - i set Mike up with a twitter account. It might be too distracting, but if he can, he may tweet every once in a while himself tomorrow! You can follow him on twitter: MikeZuke

The radio people are saying there are a total of 4800 people so far, across the Day 1a 1b 1c of play. They are predicting the total will go to 7000. Only tomorrow will tell for sure!

(radio show broadcast)

It's noon local time. Jet lag is real-i feel like it's midnight. Up since 6:00 am,i'm ready to call it a day! This morning was hectic-setting up the blog, talking with my dad, refiguring out how to tweet, figuring out how to connect to the web from the Rio, watching Mike in the satellite. Yea, my life is so hard. Its all calm now.

I'm sitting outside the main poker room, jotting down these thoughts. It's quiet out in the hallways. Right next to me a table is set up and they are broadcasting a live radio show called Poker Road. The radio guys are interviewing (more like chitchatting) with Gavin Smith & Joe Seaboc (spelling?). These guys are claiming they are going to take some time off poker-yea, right!

Mike had a tough satellite-no cards, no pots won at all. Finally busted out in the last hand of level 3 with A-K against 2-2. After, he was positive in attitude! He feels he played well, stayed in control and remained patient. Those are definitely the key attributes for tomorrow.

We got in around 7:00 pm. Tried to sign up for Thursday but you can't till tomorrow! So we watched some day 1b play. First pro spotted - Phil Laak...

We're getting ready to head out - cringer is helping by counting the entry fee! All this was won over the past year. Let's hope these winnings beget more!

Welcome Poker Fans! This year's coverage starts July 8!