For the rest of us, we had the $1000 Re-buy today. I decided not to go mad with the re-buys and just give it a go by investing a maximum of $3000. Unfortuantely, I had Scott Fishman (triple Bracelet winner) and Daniel Negraneau on my table, both of whom were willing to invest considerablely more! The sight of their pile of $5,000 cash chips in front of them (buy-ins at the ready) could have meant an expensive day for me, but after Fishman decided to put me all in pre-flop with 9T offsuit, I decided to bow out gracefully (I actually called him with JTs and had him in bad shape pre-flop but he spiked his nine), Anyway, I didn't fancy beating my personal record of 19 re-buys in the 20 Nottingham Gala comp!
Nick had a similar problem with John Juanda, he moved all-in pre-flop with 92 offsuit in a raised pot with 5 callers! Some of the pros were treating this tournamant as a way of having a bit of a gamble and play cards they would not normally play (last year Daniel Negraneau had 27 re-buys and won it!). For the rest of us, I think we should stay away from these type of events in the future and let the big boys fight it out to be Champion Re-buyer. A few people were saying they were being disrespectful to the other players on limited budgets, but I can understand why they do this, just letting off a bit of steam away from their normally high-stakes pressurised environments.
Only 3 days till we play in the main event, and no poker scheduled in between. This event is our last chance to get a few dollars back before we return to sunny England. Although the field will be 6600, I hope some of the English players go far, I am not sure how many we have in, but I bets its over 70 players, a mix of experience operators and some eager amateurs! In 12 days time, someone will be picking up $15m, 14 other people will be millionaires and 10% of the field will have made a profit, however small.
Being honest, personally, I feel too tired to look at 2 hole cards after 20 days here, I'm probably not in great frame of mind to play a big event like this, and if I don't get through the first day. I'll be flying home to see my family and friends ASAP. I don't want to discourage other players from doing the whole nice yards next year, and I'd probably feel different if I had done a bit better, but I'm absolutely shattered. I have the upmost respect for the guys that do this for a living, playing every day under intense pressure. For 8 years, I worked 80+ hours a week in business, and that's a walk in the park to 20 days of bad beats and silly mistakes!
This WSOP has illustrated the growth in poker, unprecedented fields and prize pools, a new venue and its big business. I hope the some of the players who win the big money in this year's main event are some of the guys that really need it, the seasoned pros who have been broke and broke again, just managing to scrape together their $10k buy-in at the last minute, instead of some part-time $20 dollar internet qualifiers. Lady luck, smile on those who have contributed their lives to the game, and help make it what it is now, but have bugger-all to show for it!
