Two weeks to go until I jet off from Gatwick to join the other 8,000 sharks, fish and monkey in their quest to win an overly gaudy piece of jewellery. I qualified way back in March through William Hill, with my very first crack at a qualifier (click here to read the full details) so my qualification expenditure has amounted to just £15.40.
What's my form, then? Well, I started playing a few years ago when the company I worked for made the decision to move me to a desk in the corner where no one else could see my monitor. They also then didn't give me enough work to do. A heady combination, which meant I'd happily spend a little while every day playing £1/£2 limit poker. A while later, the company went bankrupt. The official records show no evidence of causality.
My first real tournament success was qualifying for the first Ladbrokes Poker Cruise, which was a lot of fun, even though I went out on the first day by playing like an absolute muppet (raising Lucy Rokash's BB with KQ and then deciding that was good enough to call her all-in - oops). Then, last year, I qualified for the William Hill Poker Grand Prix and became one of the Gods of Poker (or so it says here).
However, I've never really had much success in the live arena. I once won a £10 rebuy for £270 and came 7th in a £30 freezeout at one of my first visits to the Gutshot but otherwise I haven't managed to transfer my internet play to the real world. That means I've got all the bad live play out of my system, so there's only good stuff left for Vegas (I will not brook any argument against this logic).
I haven't been to Las Vegas, or indeed the US, before so I'm looking forward to the trip as much for the experience as for the WSOP itself. It will certainly be fun - being profitable would be a bonus.
[Ed Note: Andrew flies out on the 27th July]
