I’ve played seven tournaments in the last seven days, and haven’t gotten anywhere in any of them ~ not even to the dinner break! I’ve played well three times, badly twice, and so-so twice, but the outcome has been the same: an early exit, and plenty of time to dwell on my mistakes and the frustrations of tournament play.

First up was the Ladies Event, a $1,000 buy in No Limit Holdem tournament. I’d been looking forward to playing this event, having played in the 2004 WSOP women’s tournament and enjoyed the rare opportunity of sitting down at a poker table that wasn’t full of guys. Not that I mind who I play with, it’s just nice sometimes to have a break from the extra attention that being the only woman at the table tends to get you… It’s for this reason that I support the idea of women-only poker tournaments, despite being sympathetic to many of the arguments against them. Yes it’s true that there is no reason why women can’t compete on an equal footing with men in open events, and of course many women do, and achieve considerable success. But the fact that women are such a small minority in the (live) poker world can make poker-playing an intimidating prospect for women. All-women events are one way of overcoming this, and encouraging more women to take their game to the big tournaments which are the bread and butter of many serious players.

This year more women than ever before chose to do just that, with a record field of 1,128 players turning up to participate in the WSOP Ladies Event. The sight of so many women sitting down to play poker was enough to make the always-busy Rio poker room even more crowded than usual, and throngs of curious spectators and proud husbands jammed the aisles. I was running late for the tournament having overslept after a late night, and I struggled through the crowd to my seat to find I’d already missed a few hands, including my blinds. Not that it made any difference, as I proceeded to quickly throw away the rest of my chips in a couple of early hands ~ first after missing everything on a huge draw, and then when I was called all the way to the river by a woman with ace high, who finally managed to hit her ace. A disappointingly brief effort, but given that the event
ended up going for nearly 17 hours that day it was probably a blessing ~ I’d never have made the distance.

The next day was the $1,000 No Limit Holdem event, which along with the Ladies and Seniors Events was the smallest buy in event of the WSOP. As such it was even more massively oversubscribed than the first open event of the Series (traditionally the largest tournament other than the main event) at nearly 2,900 entries, including 845 alternates. This too was pretty much a non-event for me, although this time I lasted four levels and managed to get my chips in with very much the best of it. With one limper pre-flop, I made a healthy raise with pocket jacks and was called by the limper, a cowboy-hatted tourist who was enjoying his third beer of the day. The guy checked the ragged flop to me, but then to my surprise happily called my all-in bet for almost all his chips with his A-Q…and hit an ace on the river. I did get the chance to see a bit of Isabelle Mercier’s play while I lasted though, including her own untimely exit. She’d been raised by the big stack at the table, a young guy who (along with the rest of the table) was clearly somewhat in awe of her, so when he called her all-in re-raise from the small blind for around half his stack I expected to see him turn over a big hand. Instead he showed pocket sixes, but as it turned out he’d caught Isabelle on a complete bluff with only Q-J offsuit! After collecting her chips he added insult to injury by asking her to pose for a photo with him ~ being famous in the poker world clearly has its price.

I didn’t fare any better in the five events which followed, some of which I played quite well in but got unlucky, and others where I made mistakes that cost me dearly. The closest I came to cashing was in yesterday’s shootout event, where I made it to heads-up, gained the chip lead, and then lost after making a bad call with a big pair against what turned out to be top two. In fact the shootout event turned out to be the quickest and easiest route to a WSOP cash so far, generating considerable controversy due to its unexpected short-handed format. With far fewer entrants than had been anticipated, a decision was made to simply run the tournament with six to a table rather than amalgamate tables. As well as significantly changing the game, this meant that 1 in 6 players in the event would end up cashing, as the tournament was structured to advance the winner of each table into the money stage ~ effectively spreading the prize pool much more thinly than usual.

UK pro player Harry Demetriou was the most vocal of those unhappy with this state of affairs, storming out in protest at the change, and Daniel Negreanu was also heard complaining loudly about the unexpected format for the tournament. Both players were apparently refunded their entry fees by staff anxious to limit the fallout from the latest in a series of problems that have plagued this year’s World Series. Unfortunately Harrah’s only managed to add to the chorus of player disapproval later that day when they announced a late change to today’s Pot Limit Ohama event ~ apparently at the request of some players ~ to make it a rebuy tournament instead of a freezeout. Following widespread complaints from those players unwilling to outlay the higher amounts required for a rebuy event, Harrah’s then changed it back at the last minute, adding an entirely new (rebuy) tournament to the day’s schedule. Let’s hope they’ve learned some lessons from these events ~ the rumblings of discontent grow louder every day.

In happier news, it’s been great to see yet another Australian make not one but two final tables this WSOP. Mike Guttman overcame one of the toughest fields of the Series to take 2nd place in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha, and got a bit unlucky to only make 3rd in the $2,500 Short-Handed No Limit Holdem event having gone to the final table as chip leader. No bracelet, but the combined prize of more than half a million dollars would put a smile on anyone’s face.

Event #17 NLH $1000 Freezeout and Event #18 $2000 PLH Freezeout

After a reasonably satisfactory World Cup final – I sang La Marseillaise throughout the penalties but all it did was provoke knocking on the wall from the people next door – I got myself off to The Venetian. I checked out their lovely card room and can report that "The Big Game" has moved there. Rumour has it that the casino is paying each player $60,000 just so they will play there and the game was full, with Ivey, Reese, Brunson, Grey and Benyamine all salivating over Larry Flynt. Not sure whether Gus Hansen was salivating or being salivated over. I soon left those boys to get on with it and hopped into a cab with Andy Ward, The Camel, Katherine and 2027 WSOP Champ Jake (big cab). We were off to a BBQ organised by top fella (and top player) Asher Derei and his lovely English wife.

They could obviously see we needed a square meal and soon Asher was taking the male role of poncing around with the glamorous and interesting bits while Mrs D did all the work. Ben Akiva, a regular at The Vic, was also there and we obviously spent a day relaxing away from the Series talking non-stop about poker. Keith entertained us with his list of American players he hates. This is made up of pretty much all of them with the notable exception of Phil Ivey, who we later find out, he’s never actually played with. He reserves a space on top of his list for Daniel Negreanu who, he claims, once described him as weak tight on his blog. He then demonstrates the dance Daniel did in his face after knocking him out of a WPT event. After all that fun it’s time for an early night and I quickly stop by to buy in for Monday’s $1000 NLH freezeout. I’m a bit shocked, though stupidly so, to find out that all 2200 seats have gone and that I’ll have to queue at 9am to be an alternate. Those of you that know me well know that’s not happening, and I manage to wangle my way in.

After one hour of play enough people have gone for my table of ten alternates to start playing. Apparently there are a lot of things you can do in Vegas for $250 a minute and this tournament may not have been the top of the charts. I decided to gamble to get chips which is why I lost half of my chips on hand 2 with KK. The other half on hand 3 went with AK mostly because of the guy who raised to 5bb from utg and then called the reraise for half his stack with JQoff. There are a lot of people like that in these events which is why people travel thousands of miles to play here. They don’t have to always get me though.

At least I wouldn’t have to waste a whole day and I could be fresh for Tuesday’s $2000 PLH. This is one of my favourites and I was delighted to get a good start. I did well to dodge a bullett when I played AK very cautiously in a three way pot against AA and KK. I didn’t do so well to catch a third 8 on the turn holding 8,4 from the blinds and then pay off a guy who flopped a set from the bb. When I got to Gavin Smith’s table I had $4000 and the average was $2500. I call it "his table" because he raised every pot and bet every flop, easily adding to his $14k stack. The only other time I played with him I thought "Typical arrogant, cocky, loudmouth, American, only been around two minutes, loves himself, sure to die broke…" As it happens I was wrong and he is Canadian. Today though I must have been in a better mood as I quite liked him. He certainly knows how to play the game and is kind of a super,super aggressive Jac Arama but cleverer.

I was very pleased with my play against him and got my stack over $7000. In between hands I also chatted to The Lizard who was also doing well on this table. Particularly pleasing was my play with AsQc on a board of Ad8d2d…Ah…5s where I only lost a minimal amount against Gavin’s 8s8c. With almost half the field gone I was really enjoying myself and felt my heart pound when a limper, an early position raiser and a full pot reraise from the button lead to me going all in from the bb with AA. The guy with KK knew it was on him but couldn’t resist the 4/1 odds. The dealer waited until the turn to put a King out and teased me a bit more by giving me a flush draw. That night I played the 11pm 2nd chance. I was very pleased with my dedication and played to my best despite the dissappointing start to the day. With 40 people left and 12k looking like average for the final I got 9k of my 11k in with AA on a 9,7,5 flop against a move maker with 3,3. I just knew the 4 and 6 were coming and it was a battered and bruised Bad Beat that fell asleep that night.

Neil Channing is suffering some disasters on behalf of the ever patient BetUSA.com and BetUK.com

Many have asked me whether or not I am going to play the HORSE event tomorrow but I have answered with a very definitive NO and for several reasons.

Despite really wanting to play the event I am disgusted by the fact that this has primarily been introduced to appease some of the higher profile players on the consultation panel at The WSOP.

This, in my humble opinion, is disgraceful.

Whilst I have no direct opposition to the (re)introduction of a HORSE event (and actually actively personally want and support mixed game events) there should have been something for the ordinary player and as such they should also have had (say) a $5000 event too.

As a stand alone $50k event it is way too elitist and overshadows the main $10k no limit event and if that wasn’t bad enough the organisers are taking out 4%, i.e. they are taking out $2k for every $50k entrant in the prize pool. Call me mean/stingy or whatever but there’s NO WAY I AM PAYING THAT MUCH for the privilege of playing in a $50k buy in event.

I do not care what anyone says about a HORSE event being a fairer test of skill it is not THE main event at this series and it will probably also put pressure on the main event buy in being raised in future years (but that’s a story best left for another time’ as there are several pros and cons to raising the entry fee).

Despite Daniel Negreanu claiming Jeffrey Pollack will be good for the Poker players he is still a Harrah’s employee and as such his primary task is to protect and promote the Harrah’s and WSOP image as that is why a PR man / Spin Doctor has been employed and regardless his role is in many ways contradictory to the interests of the players.

I would openly challenge him to answer some of the following points and am going to try and get him to appear on The Circuit and/or publicly where he can answer directly to ordinary poker players whom I feel are being ignored and treated very badly by Harrah’s.

Firstly as a European I feel we are being victimised. The Rio/Harrahs’s/WSOP seem to ignore us despite our constituting a significant proportion of players. The Bellagio applies and gets ITIN numbers for us whenever we cash and do not withold if you produce a passport from a tax treaty country.

More generally, however, there are many other things that they have continued to get wrong at this year’s WSOP.

Admittedly there are a few slight improvements but as far as I’m concerned they all seem to be token gestures and been way too few for my liking, although of course they are welcomed.

Absolutely NOTHING that has been introduced has cost the organizers ANYTHING and I want to see some good faith on their parts.

By the way, before anyone replies by saying that we the players are to blame as we constantly keep turning up in our thousands to play, causing events to be oversold, I appreciate and accept the point but feel the higher profile players should make a stand and refuse to play in select events such as the HORSE.

Anyway back to my main gripes.

I want to know why ABSOLUTELY NONE of the money from ESPN/Milwaukee Light/Party Poker and any other sponsors is coming back to the players. I think they should at least give us some kick backs in the form of juice free tournaments.

I also want to know why they say they will close out events and then make us play 11 handed and have hundreds of alternates who get introduced to the events several levels into play.

Why are there takeout percentages listed on the tournament schedules without any clarification/breakdown as to whether any of that juice goes to dealers etc etc.

Why does it cost less to get a room at Rio when walking in off the street than by booking the poker rate as a player?

Why are photographs of the players allowed to be taken and sold off for commercial profit by people such as Image Masters?

This year’s Tournament of Champions comprised 27 players. 3 were invited by Pepsi and 3 by Party Poker. I want a proper explanation about why exemptions are being permitted without other bracelt winners getting due consideration for their performances. It strikes me that the tournament of champions is regressing back to it’s original format where ten players of the organizers choice are invited to play almost entriely regardless of merit but merely on their profile.

Tomorrow rather than playing I intend to spend the day with fellow players discussing a course of action to try and get definite answers from the organizers and challenge them to open debate and discussion.

I do not really want this to be a discussion. I have written it merely to try and give an idea of how I feel about a few issues (there are a LOT more).

What I would appreciate, however, are your views, .ie. you the ordinary grass roots players, on what questions you would like raised and answered.

So if you have any questions please post them on the forum.

I understand that you may not agree with my points and have counter arguments and comments about how corporations are expected to make profits but I DO NOT WANT THOSE.

If you post your questions and concerns here then I am going to go out of my way to get them addressed by The WSOP from those in high positions and then report back.

I am fed up of feeling like I am being unfairly treated, taken for granted and financially abused.

I shall be posting this on numerous forums but if you could help by forwarding any concerns or questions that any of you may have I will collate them and try and obtain answers.

Your assistance with this would be greatly appreciated.

This week I came within a whisker of making my very first WSOP final table, in the $2,500 No Limit Holdem event. I had a roller-coaster ride of a tournament and got very lucky a couple of times, so although I was a bit disappointed to miss out on the fame, glory and extra money that goes with a final table appearance, I was more than happy to settle for the $50,000 that went with my 12th place finish. It was also a great confidence boost for me, proving that I can not only play my way through these huge fields, but also push all the way into the serious money once again.

I had a good start to the tournament, for once not facing any recognisable pro players on my starting table, and hitting a few hands early. In fact I doubled up in the first level, calling a small raise with pocket eights, hitting a set on the flop, getting all my chips in against pocket aces, and making quads on the river for good measure. Over the next few hours I steadily added to my stack to stay comfortably above average in chips. However a couple of mistakes and a bad run of cards during level 5 saw my comfort level decline considerably, relegating me to a short stack and nearly putting me out of the tournament.

Fortunately for me, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Mark Seif came to the table, and came to my rescue, giving me all his chips while on tilt after losing most of his stack in a previous hand. Having limped under the gun, Mark quickly pushed all in when I re-raised him from the small blind for half my stack, in a misguided attempt to get me to fold when I was clearly pot-committed. He winced when I called, and sheepishly turned over A-7 offsuit which failed to improve against my pocket tens. Not long afterwards I busted another player eager to put all his chips in with not much of a hand, when I slow-played a flopped top set, inducing an all in push on the turn from a guy with an underpair to the board. All of a sudden I was back in business, and went to the dinner break with an above average stack of around 13,000.

Aside from a hand I played against Erik Seidel ~ re-raising him out of position and facing a scary staredown before he folded ~ the remainder of the evening was fairly uneventful. I didn’t hit many hands, and when I did, they always seemed to run into bigger hands, eventually leaving me again as a short stack when play finished for the day. Although I’d made the money, with less than 16,000 chips I was sitting towards the bottom of the 96-strong field, and knew I would have my work cut out for me if I was to survive for long.

I returned the next day determined to make some quick gains, and the opportunity came in the very first hand. I was in the big blind and three players limped in. I looked down hoping for a big hand but instead found 7-5 offsuit, which I checked, hoping for a ragged flop that would hit my hand, or that I could at least bluff at. When the flop came 10-6-4 and it was checked to me, I figured I had a good chance at winning the pot right there if I pushed all in, which I promptly did ~ but my heart sank when I was called instantly by the big stack on my left who showed A-10 for top pair. The turn came a blank and I was getting up to leave when the river brought the 8 I needed to make my straight! A few hands later Lady Luck smiled on me again when my raise with pocket aces was raised and re-raised all in by two short stacks. They didn’t improve and I had quickly tripled my stack to more than 90,000, to be back in the game again.

By this time players were dropping like flies ~ I think we lost a third of the field in less than an hour’s play ~ and before I knew it we were redrawing for seats having made the final three tables. With some monster stacks on my table and no real hands (aside from pocket jacks which I was forced to fold to an all in re-raise from what turned out to be aces), I had played cautiously, picking up a pot or two but basically going backwards against the rising blinds. So when we kicked off with the last 27 players I was one of the shorter stacks again, and knew any re-raise I made would almost certainly be called by Terrence Chan, the big stack on my table who was raising every pot. I sat tight, stole a few blinds, and waited for an opportunity to double up as other players were eliminated.

Among the first to go was Erick Lindgren, who went out in one of the stranger hands I’ve seen. He had put in 5,000 for his big blind and everyone had folded around to the button before the dealer noticed that there were actually two big blinds out there. Lindgren had made a mistake, but was forced to keep his money in the pot and play the hand through ~ calling a raise from Chan (the real big blind) for a third of his stack, and pushing all in on a flop on A-2-3 after Chan checked. Chan instantly called, and was well ahead of Lindgren’s A-4 with 3-2 for two pair. Chan’s full house on the river sealed Lindgren’s fate, and he left the table shaking his head.

With 16 players left I was running last in the field, but managed to double up twice in quick succession to give me yet another fighting chance. First I pushed all in with A-5 of spades and was called by pocket fives, hitting a flush on the river. A few hands later I pushed in with A-10 and doubled up against chip leader Anthony Reategui’s K-J, which put me back to 120,000 ~ still short but no longer on life support. If I’d just spent the next 10 minutes finding the 9-2 / J-4 / 8-3 hands I’d been picking up for most of the final few levels, I would have kept my head down and survived the last couple of eliminations to make the final table. As it was I managed to find a real hand, pocket queens, which I didn’t hesitate to go in with after being re-raised by Reategui, who with more than a million chips could have had just about anything. But in a re-run of my exit from last year’s WSOP main event, he turned out to have pocket kings, and I was out.

I had narrowly missed out on the final table, but knowing that I was a long shot to make it even half as far as I did I was still thrilled with my 12th place finish. I headed to the nearest bar to celebrate my win in the delightful company of Chris Newton, Neil Channing and Rory Liffey, who had all sweated me at various times during the tournament ~ thanks again guys!  Maybe next time I’ll make it all the way.

With Tuesday’s $5000 NLH firmly in the category of "only if I’m getting the lot" I was facing a week without a bracelet event. I planned to play some cash, get stuck into the World Cup and play a few of the smaller tournaments.

I rolled straight from the $2000 NLH into a cash game at Bellagio. For years the room here offered NLH as a $2/$5 game where the maximum sit down was $200 or a $10/$20 with a minimum of $600 where many people sat with $20k+. What they needed was a happy medium, and a few months ago that’s what they started.

The $5/$10 NLH game is perfect as it contains almost no pros, who largely view it as too small. A table full of tourists sits down with the maximum of $1000 and pay $6 every half an hour to the house. Once the game has been running a while most people have $2500-$5000 and it’s a pretty good game. Saturday wasn’t my day though and I lost two large pots where I put it in pretty good only to be outdrawn. I decided to quit after the briefest of 14 hour sessions losing $2500.

The football coverage here is great. Four years ago it was difficult to see the games, but this time round they are all shown on ABC or ESPN and are on in every bar and sports book. Obviously I choose to watch from my hotel room where I’m never far from Betfair. The time difference means I only have to make the effort to get up at noon and ease my way into the day. The games go well and after each one I’m off to the pool.

I love the commentators, who try to talk about the game as if it’s one of their sports. They smother us with stats and can’t help mentioning deeefence and double overtime. They are constantly praising the referees as a way of showing us that they really know the rules. I love it. Much better than Clive bloody Tyldesley.

With no big tournaments to think about I get back to familiar WSOP territory for me. The late night 2nd chance tournament is a $225 freeze-out that starts at 11pm each night and gives around 200 desperados a chance to win around $10k before breakfast. With only 1000 starting chips and 30 minute levels the tournament is something of a crapshoot. I seem to have developed a knack of playing these ones since they started in 2004 and this week I do ok in them.

Monday night I’m busted in twelfth getting a bad beat in a pot that would have made me chip leader and on Tuesday I take Queens up against Aces but just crawl into the money.

For some reason I missed the money on Wednesday, but at least that gave me the chance to rise early and get myself over to The Wynn for their noon tournament. These are $330 freeze-outs Tues-Thurs and $540 on Friday. The tournament has 45 minute rounds with shuffling machines and so there is plenty of play. The field is made up of mostly tourists and I see virtually no pros there. I had a good fun table and got to play alongside Steve Danneman who seems a nice relaxed guy (probably easier with $4million rattling around your bin). I also played with his wife who made the final. She may be the best player in their house, but learning to pass A6 for a re-raise could take her game forward.

At the start of the final I was 4th in chips and my position was the same four handed. The only business discussed was by the bloke who finished 10th. He suggested taking something off the top for 10th which I obviously vetoed. He didn’t look too chuffed when Mrs. D made a slightly dubious call with AJ to beat his QQ.

The three guys I was left with were all pretty good players but after I won a big race I went heads-up with a 3/1 chip lead. The other fella did have me worried and came back to take the lead 2/1 until I decided to forget about little pots and blasted him away.
$6500 was good for morale and I decided to strike while the iron was hot rushing straight to the Rio for the 11pm. I had never won two live tournaments in one day and I still haven’t. My average stack on the final went in with QQ and ran into AA again. I was 9th for a meager profit but I still felt pretty chuffed.

Friday morning was a bit of a rush as I was moving from the Bellagio to the Gold Coast. The bloke who gets a dollar for repeating your destination to the taxi driver, at the Bellagio seemed surprised at this turn of events. It’s alright for him, some of us are on a budget. With his average of $63 an hour in tokes for eight hours a day he probably doesn’t have such matters to consider.

With my confidence high I was looking forward to the $2500 NLH. I found myself sat next to Mike Matusow and opposite Rob Hollink. Other than that it was a pretty good table. I started well and chipped away at a few smallish pots, getting my stack to 5k in no time. Rob soon tried a move that looked destined to fail and helped Mike to a big chip lead. Mad Marty was a brief visitor until my 10,10 beat his 6,6 and he was replaced by a bloke who has been on my tables a lot in comps over here. I find his constant aggression to be fairly mindless and think he’s quite easy to trap. Unfortunately, I’ve never been the one to trap him. Today he gifted his chips to Mike who now had 50k while the average was just 6k. I was doing ok on 14k when we broke for dinner.

The next 90 mins was the most disappointing of the trip. I settled in and didn’t play a hand for a while but then made two moves on consecutive hands. On both occasions I ran into a genuine hand and I had lost half of my chips to fall below average. There now followed an hour of 10,2/6,2/8,3 type hands just as the table was getting aggressive. My only decision was whether or not to call all-in with these hands. I kept choosing not to until I had almost no chips. I eventually got a chance to be first in with 8,9 against big blind Erik Seidel’s A,4. I flopped an 8 and he turned an ace. I left the room feeling gutted.

A good night’s sleep can often help and I woke up on Saturday, watched a bit of footy and carefully avoided being tempted to play the re-buy comp where a selection of people paraded their wealth and measured dick size. I went to the Rio later and was absolutely delighted to see my good friend Warren Wooldridge come third in the $1500 limit event. I was then almost as pleased as she was to see Sarah Bilney make the last two tables of the $2500 NLH. Rory, the Barracuda and I helped her celebrate at the fantastically named Tilted Kilt.

Neil Channing is sponsored to play poker tournaments by BetUSA.com and BetUK.com.

I got another great Vegas cab driver. A real beauty. This guy told me that he picked up a girl in his cab one night, and she told him to just drive around as she was planning on killing herself. She handed him a bundle of money wrapped up in a rubber band and told him to keep it as she wouldn’t need where she was going. I consider this a very loose play on her part as we can’t really be sure carry forwards aren’t allowed. He drove her around for over an hour and listened as she told him about the row she just had with her boyfriend, which explained the state she was in. He managed to persuade her to have something to eat as suicides and stuff like that should not be attempted on an empty stomach. Over dinner she cheered up considerably, even smiled a little, and finally decided to go home and sort things out with her boyfriend. When he got her home the boyfriend was waiting anxiously for her and appeared thrilled to see her. I told him that must have made him feel pretty good. He agreed that it did, but not good enough to stop him driving off with her $ 2200! Tough town. It’s worth remembering that if you try to make making money playing poker here.

I played the $ 1500 Pot Limit Holdem tournament. It was very player friendly. Only ten to a table. The general consensus among the pros is that giving players double chips, i.e. 3000 instead of 1500 in this case, as they do at most progressive venues would be a lot more fair, especially when bracelets are up for grabs. I tend to agree with them but have pointed out to some of the moaners that perhaps Harrah’s just don’t have enough chips to go around. I like to be fair. I did much better in the pot-limit, I got to level 2. I got plenty of practice at set flopping as I got dealt a whole bunch of small and medium pocket pairs, but it looks like I’m no good at it for the moment. At the dizzy heights of level 2 I changed tactics and raced my pair against the over cards. One of us finished up with a set, but it wasn’t me!

I had the next day off as I’m either too dumb or too bright to feel good about entering a Limit Holdem tournament. I took the opportunity to move from downtown to the Gold Coast. Close enough to the poker room. Far enough from the bad beat stories. A lot of Irish guys stayed here last year, so I decided to play safe and pretend to be an American. I shouted about three times as loud as necessary at the girl in reception and stated the obvious once or twice. I think it worked.

I was hanging about outside the impressive Full Tilt hospitality suite when a bell boy emerged pushing an empty trolley. My companion was impressed that Full Tilt even had their own bell boy. I told him he was need to wheel the egos in and out. It’s hard to keep a good man down.

I did however enter new territory by level 3, where the binds were 50-100. A small stack limped in first position and Minh Ly raised. I had 88. I wouldn’t normally be too crazy in this spot, especially with a limper, but the limper had been limping while short-stacked and passing when raised already. I knew I wasn’t the only one aware of this, so I treated the raise with less respect than I normally would, and moved all-in for about 1700, thinking there was a good chance I’d win the pot there and then. There wasn’t. The raiser called me with 99. The first card over was an 8! Well, it wasn’t actually. It was a jack! Nothing else helped and I was walking again. Three events. $ 5500. Not the start I was looking for, but if you don’t get off to a decent start in these events, you end up on a one-hand-for-the-lot strategy, which isn’t ideal but you’ve got to play the game as it unfolds.

Interesting conversation between Irish pro Rory Liffey and English pro Gary Bush.

Rory : Did you play today ?
Gary : No way! It’s like trying to find a needle an a hay stack.
Rory : So, are you going to try the $ 500 tournament at 5 o’clock then ?
Gary : Nope. It’s a complete crapshoot !
Rory : Maybe the $ 1000 in the Bellagio would suit you better… Slow clock, lots of chips.
Gary : That’s like a championship event, it goes on and on for ever…
Rory : Oh, OK.

This week was one for the Aussies here at the World Series of Poker, with no less than three consecutive final tables featuring an Australian player. Not bad for a place with a population a fraction the size of the US, and a sign that both established pros and up-and-coming players from ‘Down Under’ are capable of again making their mark in the toughest tournaments in the world. I also added my own (much more modest) win to the week’s list of cashes, scraping into the money for a second time this Series.

First up we saw reigning WSOP Champion Joe Hachem manage to outlast more than 800 players to make the final table in Event 5, the $2,500 Short-Handed No Limit Holdem. Joe spent much of the latter part of the event as a relatively short stack and made a heroic comeback to beat the likes of Daniel Negreanu (who was chip leader for most of the tournament) to the final six. He eventually finished as runner-up, and if not for some bad luck on the final hand ~ Joe went all in as a huge favourite with A-Q against Dutch Boyd’s A-5, but a 5 came on the river ~ he could well have gone on to win the event. As it was he took home more than a quarter of a million dollars for his second place finish, an achievement which shows that Hachem’s win last year was no fluke.

The next day’s tournament featured an even more impressive finish, with young Australian pro Mark Vos besting a field of nearly 2,000 to win Event 6, the $2,000 No Limit Holdem. Mark is fresh from some notable wins in Paris, London and Australia, and combined his top notch game with a bit of luck to overcome final table players including 2001 WSOP champion Carlos Mortensen and 2006 WPT Bay 101 winner Nam Le. Mark will take home his first WSOP bracelet, along with more than $800,000, the biggest prize so far in this year’s World Series.

The following day, Australian-born Jeff Lisandro made it a final table hat trick for Australia in the $3,000 Limit Holdem event.
Jeff survived a 415-strong field to head into the final table fourth in chips, but his flopped set of threes didn’t hold up against
Rich Zhu’s nut flush draw, which hit on the turn. He was eliminated in 9th place, earning $23,000 for his efforts.

By comparison to these impressive achievements, my own small win in the Limit Holdem event barely rates a mention….
but I’m going to tell you about it anyway. My tournament started out slowly, and I was enjoying the limit structure ~ playing more hands and seeing more flops, without having to face the constant prospect of an all-in reraise. This helped to ease the stress of playing against Phil Ivey, who was a few seats to my left, and I managed to beat him out of a small pot in early play. It wasn’t long before he won his chips back though, along with what seemed like most of everyone else at the table’s chips too ~ in fact Ivey quickly accumulated a stack of more than 15,000, raising every other pot and barely showing a hand.

I hovered around the original starting stack of 3,000 until into the 5th level, when our table broke and I escaped to a somewhat easier lineup. While I won a few pots here and there though, I stayed short-stacked until well after the dinner break, surviving two all-ins to inch up to 4,700. With blinds at 300-600, I was facing elimination unless I could take down a pot or two ~ and that’s when the deck just hit me in the face. I picked up aces three times and kings twice in the space of less than two rounds, and got paid off each time ~ once eliminating a short-stacked Daniel Negreanu. I then flopped a set which filled up on the river, and again won a huge pot which put me at nearly 25,000 (comfortably above average) heading into the final level of the day.

With 60 players left and 45 being paid I could have just cruised through to the next day and still stayed ahead of the field…but instead I ran into one of the more horrible hands of my poker playing career, and lost most of my chips in a huge pot. The action had been folded around to me on the button and I looked down to find A-Q, so I raised. Jim Bechtel folded in the small blind, but Jordan Rich in the big blind re-raised me, and then quickly called my re-raise. He then check raised me on a flop of A-J-rag and called my re-raise, and bet the
turn after a blank came and called my raise ~ by which time I was beginning to worry that he may have had me beat. When the river came a jack though, I knew I was done for. He bet out, I called, and he turned over…
J-7 offsuit. I felt sick.

I was crippled after this and struggled to make it through the few remaining players left before the prizemoney kicked in. As it happened I busted out right on the bubble with pocket queens all in against four other players, one of whom paired their king. However with the WSOP’s new ‘round-for-round’ rule replacing the standard hand-for-hand play that takes place at every event bubble, I still managed to scrape into the money, sharing 45th place with Michele Lewis who was also eliminated during the round. Annoyingly the shared prize amounted to less than the event buy in ~ so I still managed to come out in the red. I guess it’s better than nothing, but after 13 hours of play it somehow didn’t feel that way.

The fantastic results of my fellow countrymen this week are enough to keep me inspired though. Here’s hoping for a few more Aussie final tables and bracelets this WSOP. So far, so good.

Events # 3 $1500 PLH, #5 $2500 Short-handed NLH and #6 $2000 NLH.It is often said that:"If it was easy everyone would be doing it."When you look around the NLH tournaments at the Rio you can see that everyone is doing it.Pot-limit though is a different animal. It requires subtlety, finesse and, as a last resort, the ability to play some poker.The American people have some fine qualities but subtlety is not their strong suit. They do not turn out in force for this event.If they listened to the advice of one American I heard, they may have felt more comfortable with the format."Don’t play a hand for the first three levels." he advised his young protege,"It’s like No-Limit then and you can stick it in."I was easily able to make the neccessary strategy adjustments which mean you can play more hands. You don’t have to fear being raised out and can small pot sized reraises as you’re getting your odds.Soon I’d managed to weakly call a series of raises with 7s, 8s and 9s only to pass feebly on the flop when overcards came.I took my paltry stack to a new table and sat next to European poker’s latest "overnight" sensation, ("I’ve played for 20 years but have only just discovered tournaments"), Marc Goodwin. He’s tremendous fun and regales us with tales of golf games with his pal Phil Ivey. He also becomes the third person in as many weeks to say that he’d heard I was a rock. He doesn’t offer any better suggestions of how to play my stack of 5 big blinds.

I soon find a suitably bad hand to lump it in with and that was it. Just before the end I did get a good laugh from the table. One guy had been very generous in doubling up four short stacks murdering his enormous stack. As the fourth guy counted his winnings the guy exclaimed:

"That’s the worst hand I’ve played all tournament."

With no pause I replied "Oh, I wouldn’t say that."

Thursday was a Limit Tournament so I decided to join 130 others at The Bellagio for the 2pm $1000 freezeout.

I won’t try to describe the highly sophisticated play I made here with a pair of Jacks as some of you may not understand it. The lady with the two queens barely grasped it at all. Friday was back to the Rio and a chance to play Short-Handed. I never usually mind it during the four of five times a week that I play Mike Ellis at the Vic so I wasn’t going to complain here. I was also pleased, for amusement value, to see a little red-headed geek called Adam. Some of you may remember him as the guy on the ESPN coverage of last year’s Main Event who makes a smaller flush and then bursts into tears. I played with him that day and he was an arrogant little tosser. When I reraised all-in against him I saw the old bottom lip going.

Today Mike outplays him beautifully a couple of times but despite a minor sulk the table stays dry.

I’m soon moved, with a below average stack, to play on a table with former World Champions Berry Johnson and Huck Seed. Chip Jett is also on the table and has a massive stack.

When Chip knocks out Berry he shows a lot of class and respect, shaking his hand and telling him it’s a privilege to play with him. I muse out loud that Berry is not a great one for histrionics. This mild looking old grandfather is a ferocious player and I suggest to Chip that he may be the least likely person to ever whoop, rub it in someone’s face or high five after a hand. He’ll probably add further to his 50 WSOP cashes though and take home a lump of money quite quietly.

I’m quite pleased when young, aggressive Chip agrees that this is the right way.

When Alan Goehring, who may be the best of the lot, joins the table I look at my tiny stack and decide I may need to gamble. When I flop a King to go with my AK I just check despite the flush and straight draw. That Chip Jett is too clever though and checks behind me so I don’t put it in until the safe looking deuce hits the turn.

Chip Jett has a set of deuces. Marvellous.

I was mostly just dissappointed that I didn’t get to stay for longer. It was brilliant fun and you can learn so much from these guys. There won’t be a shortage of NLH Champions this year. Friday it’s $2000 NLH and 1900 people turn out to play "The Cadillac of Poker".

I get a nice "pro-free" starting table and move up from 2000 to 6000 ("I’d like to be locked up with this lot"). There follows and incident involving a pair of 10s, a pair of Jacks and 8000 chips and I leave for my new table with just 900 chips and the right hump.

Although I battled away well and got in as the agressor with AQ v 77 for 5000 it just wasn’t to be.

I’ll have a few days break now before my quest continues with another NLH on Friday 7th.

Neil Channing is sponsored to lounge around poolside at Bellagio by BetUSA.com and BetUK.com.

One of the benefits of jetlag is that I had no problem being up and about at seven o’clock on Saturday morning to make my way to the Hard Rock Café to watch Ecuador beat England in the last sixteen of the soccer world cup. They didn’t. My taxi driver was a poker sickie. He knew everything . We were getting on fine until he told me he didn’t like the way I played the hand in which I got eliminated at the final table of the main event in 1999. I told him I didn’t think much of his driving either, which sort of slowed down the conversation a bit. I tipped him anyway !

I headed down to the Rio after the game to register for the first few events. Half a dozen people (four of them strangers) asked me if I was here to do something for TV, one guy asked me if I was here to write something. Only Nolan Dalla was polite enough to mention that maybe it was about time I won a bracelet. He’s a good judge that Nolan Dalla! I love the start of big tournaments. Everyone is in good humor. Two of the ladies at the registration sang happy birthday to me after examining my passport .They stopped pretty quickly when I joined in. !

It didn’t take me long to make my first final table. Unfortunately, I was there as a spectator sweating my friends Mike Sexton and Andy Black, who both made the final table of the two million dollar free roll Tournament of Champions. A strange name for a tournament where eight of the players qualified by losing (at the final table of last year’s WSOP) while genuine real world champions like Berry Johnson weren’t even invited. It was nonetheless a star-studded final table, with Mike and Andy joined by the likes of Chris Ferguson and Daniel Negreanu. Andy had a bid chip lead and Mike was pretty short stacked. The first big move of the day didn’t even involve the final table. It was an announcement by some excited guy in a suit that the 1500 No Limit Hold’em event would be played eleven handed, and involve over 400 alternates. He didn’t tell us when, if ever, the real poker was going to start. Andy came over to the rail to talk to me, and seemed in good spirits. I was delighted to see him doing well as I’m not the only one who thinks he was the best player at last year’s final table. Ten minutes later, I nearly threw up when Andy blew up and gifted three quarter of his chips to Daniel. If Andy ever stopped beating himself, we’d all have to watch out. Back in my hotel room, I emerged from a jetlagged sleep from which I emerged about every hour to check the chip-counts in the Rio. Mike against Daniel heads-up, you couldn’t make this stuff up! What TV! Great poker played in the true spirit of the game. It went on for hours, during which Daniel got the aces four times, but couldn’t find Mike with a hand. Finally, Mike emerged a winner and gave half the million he won to charity before Daniel could suggest doubles or quits on the golf course. It was a good day for poker. The last time I sweated Mike at a final table was when he finished second in the Seniors at the WSOP a few years ago. He needed the money and wanted the bracelet that day, and was absolutely gutted when he lost. Sometimes, you only find out how much a guy really cares when you see him lose. There’s a great line from a classic NBA final’s commentary, where the announcer remarks "Maybe you have to have your heart broken before you can become a real champion". It seemed more than appropriate here. Few of the enthusiastic crowd even knew that Mike had won a bracelet in the 80’s, had won a European Championship in exhibition style, or was regarded by his fellow pros as a truly world class player. Well, now they know.

I was with Mike the next day, when the Cardplayer guy, Mr. Belski, interviewed him. The interview began with Rick congratulating Mike on winning one of the most exciting heads-up he’d seen in many years. I missed the rest of what was said because I was so busy laughing because the interviewer looked to be about seventeen.

I wasn’t quite so successful myself. The end. I’m only joking. I played my first eleven handed WSOP event. Ten of us were seated with one empty seat beside me. Veteran John Bonnetti was the only one I recognized. The eleventh seat was taken by a guy who was probably one of the three biggest guys in the room. I asked him if he’d be staying long. "Probably longer than you buddy". Ouch. My cover got blown a bit when Robert Williamson III (I think he’s called the third because he’s only a third of the size he used to be) and Warren Karp dropped by to say hi. But it didn’t make any difference. Before the end of level one, I limped into a pot with the Qs 9s and a guy bet into me after a flop of Qd 8s 4s. I raised, hit the flush on the turn, and got the rest in after he checked. He had As 7s. I stood up to go. Of course the big guy was still there !

As I left the room, I stopped to say hello to Mark Sief. Mark is great. He loves a gamble and a smile is never far from his face. I like him extra well since he won the two bracelets last year. Every time I look at him, I can’t help thinking that I only play half as bad as he does, so one bracelet should be quite easy!

I’ve seen a great Brunson T-shirt. It says "Courage doesn’t necessarily mean an absence of fear". Or if you’re Irish, substitute "brains". God bless Ireland.

There’s a rumour that Germans don’t have a sense of humour. Some say it’s more than a rumour. But somebody forgot to tell this to the Germans who represented their country in the 888.com Poker Nations Cup last February. Apart from heading to the gym for a team talk when they were hopelessly adrift of the field rather than joining the other teams in the bar for the night (all of it), they were great fun. In this event, only three out of the six members of each team participated in the final, and the German team reported on the net that the Irish chose their representatives by lining the team up in the bar and selecting the three that could walk the straightest! This was of course a complete fabrication (Furlong was sober!). But you get the idea…

That was then, and this is now. A team event (especially involving the Danes) in February and the World Series in July are worlds apart, and I generally try to take the World Series as seriously as I take the silly season frivolously.

In the early nineties, I was broke, which explains why I spent several weeks watching world chess champion Kasparov defend his title against England’s Nigel Short live on TV. Live chess. Well, I did say I was broke. It proved to be an experience that changed my life. With all due respect to Nigel Short (I’m glad my parents didn’t call me Nigel), it was a complete mismatch. Even I knew that. What fascinated me was the way Kasparov prepared for the match anyway. Hours in the gym. Salads. Hours and hours of mental preparation. If it were me, I’d probably have turned up half asleep or half drunk, or both, and expected to win anyway. I got the thinking that if a genius like Kasparov prepared like this, that perhaps a less talented individual like myself should possibly consider minor adjustments to my life style, particularly in the four or five months leading up to an attempt to win the World Championship. Just in case you don’t know, it hasn’t brought me a world title, but it’s kept me alive and solvent, which wasn’t really the plan, but it’s not too bad.

This explains why I arrived in Vegas a couple of days ago 17 Lbs lighter than my Nation’s cup fighting weight, and ready to play as well as I can.

Having been lucky enough to attend every WSOP since 1996, 2005 was a bit of a blow to the system. Our annual convention had been taken over by the bean counters and stripped of its soul. Bean counters do what bean counters do. The romance of Binion’s Horseshoe had been replaced by the factory-like Rio. Everyone was just another number. It seemed like we had all been sucked back into a system we spent our lives escaping from. The scary bit was that it all happened so fast.

I’m not very proud at my performance at last year’s WSOP, I played a few of the earlier events, I managed just one dinner break. I didn’t play particularly badly, I suppose I could argue I was a little unlucky but that’s not really good enough. The truth is I didn’t play any way near my best and got fed up with the whole thing and went off and amused myself by joining Jessie May in taking an irreverent look at the poker world in The Poker Show. For a finale I played four or five levels of the main event before heading happily to the Bellagio bar.

Never again. For ten years, I’ve played my best poker at the World Series, and I know there’s no excuse for leaving this town knowing you gave it less than 100%. I swear if I ever let it happen again, I’ll never come back. To make sure this doesn’t happen, I headed downtown to the Golden Nugget as soon as I arrived in Vegas, I might have to play the World Series in an atmosphereless casino, but I don’t have to live there. Just being downtown, everything feels different.

There’s something about Binion’s that sets it apart. Maybe it’s the dark seediness of the place. Maybe it’s the comfortable acceptance of the dignity of old age. But for me, I think it’s the ghosts. You can feel the history of the place. The battles won and lost. The champions crowned. The hearts broken. I can’t walk by the wall of pictures of past champions without feeling a tingling in my spine. An excitement in the air. The certain knowledge that it’s way more than just a game.

That’s why I found myself at 5 am on my first morning in town, gazing at the photos of the greats, searching for inspiration. Of course it worked! I forgave myself for last year and can’t wait to be in the middle of the action.

Feeling a lot happier, I wandered through the card room and remembered some of the fun times. I remember standing on the rail watching, with great interest, Phil Hellmuth playing a holdem tournament. Scott Gray came by with comps for the buffet. I told him I’d rather watch Phil for a while than eat, to which he replied "Come and eat anyway. If he’s any good, he’ll still be there when we get back!" He wasn’t.

Another classic occurred when I was sitting at the bar with Scott in an almost deserted Binion’s at the end of the World Series in the nineties. The immaculate Mike Laing walked by, carrying a suit whilst dragging two enormous suitcases behind him. I asked Gray why anybody needed two suitcases to go to play poker. "One is for the hairdryers." was his immediate response.

Gray himself got nailed a few years later by a graveyard dealer "You’re a pro, aren’t you?", says the dealer to Scott as he played in a Omaha game. "Yes", replied Gray chuffed that the dealer had spotted his prowess at the game. "Figures" said the dealer, " you’ve got that poker room pallor!" You can’t win them all.

You can’t take the historic atmosphere of Binion’s to the Rio, but looking back at where you came from just might show you where you’re going. I hope.