Let's light this candle

I open up my email today and had this message. I guess there's no going back.

Mr. Cheddah:

Congratulations!! The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious Poker event in the world. This is a receipt for your payment of the Tournament Entry Fee of $2000, which reserves you a seat in WSOP Event #6 on Saturday, July 1, 2006 at 12 noon.

Upon arrival at the RIO, to finalize your Registration and to receive your table and seat assignment, please visit our Registration Center, located in the WSOP Tournament Area. You must complete your Tournament Registration at least one hour prior to your event. Please be prepared to provide proof of identity via a Drivers License, Passport or Military I.D.

This yearÂ’s WSOP will no doubt be the largest and most exciting gaming event in history. Harrahs continues to lead the industry in creating an innovative gaming experience for valued guests. Harrahs and the Tournament Staff sincerely wish you, GOOD LUCK!!

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I played a little Sunday night in order to try to get back into the groove. I haven't had much luck in Tournaments lately, but I think I'm making the right moves. I played in a 1000 person, $24+2 one on Full Tilt as a warmup. Boy, that was fun to watch. Evidently there was something excellent on TV that I didn't know about because the betting usually went like this:

Player one: Raise 3.5x blinds
Player two: fold
Player three: All In
Rest of table: Fold
Player one: call

Player One: KQo

Player Three shows 66.

I just sat back and watched the fireworks. I caught a few nice hands as well, and got paid off on most of them. We lost 60% of the crowd in the first 56 hands. I know the 10 min blind structure forces you to play fast, but that's hopped-up-on-Adderall fast.

Anyway, 2 hrs in, I call an all-in from UTG on a 6d7dTc flop with Ad9d. Guy had KdQd. He'd been playing fast and thought he might have an even worse flush draw than he ended up with. The Q came on the river, and I was now short stacked. I doubled up once but still had an M below 4, so when I saw KQ on button it was a no-brainer push all-in. It didn't take Mr. AK in the big blind long to call, and I'm out in 200th-something.

I really concentrated on making good reads, and did well in that regard. Still played junk too much after a big win, but that'll get out of my system soon. I think that's a side-effect of playing so much 6-person $2-4nl lately. The games are as you'd expect, and with people over-playing top-pair any-kicker it's been profitable to try to limp in and then call small raises with the 67's of the world. originallylly started playing the 6-handed games to work on upping my aggression; that has happened to some degree. But since the ultra aggro's tend to play there, I've spent more time playing the willing calling station than I would have thought before hitting those tables.

Finally, for those that didn't see it, I've been drinking this shake and it really works. It's allowed me to moonlight as a tow truck. Not a tow truck driver, but the actual truck. After watching the video of the 76 yr old He-Man, I was deeply disturbed. He's crossed the line from "guy-that-profits-from-others'-pain-but-gives-them-hope-healing-whatever" to "snake oil salesman that belongs in prison". If I pulled this shit, I'd be in jail tomorrow. We can hope the same happens to Pat the Presser as well.