Last night I went down to Bellagio to buy in for the WPT Championship. I decided that if I was scheduled to play in flight A that I’d go home immediately, but if I was in flight B I’d play another session of poker.

I drew flight B and sat in a $4000-$8000 mixed game for a while. I was a little "off" during the short session and made a bad play against Ming, and another against Lyle.

Against Ming, I lost a pot with a board of A-9-7-3 rainbow in pot limit Omaha. Ming had A-9-10-5 and I had A-J-7-3. He bet the pot on the turn and I capped it drawing slim.

Later, playing 2-7 NL single draw Lyle made it $10,000 to go, and in the big blind I capped it with 3-4-5-7-10. Lyle was sweating out his last card, claiming to have a "free look" at a big hand. When he finally looked at the card, he called immediately.

That should have rung a bell in my head to break my hand, but I had an ugly draw needing only a 2, 8, or 9 to improve. I thought for a while and stood pat as did Lyle. Lyle made an 8-6, and I looked at the card I would have drawn… it was a 2! I would have made a wheel, doh!

After a 2.5 session the game broke up and I basically lost what was in those two pots, losing $204,000.

I wasn’t ready to go home yet, though, so I sat in the $2000-$4000 game. At one point I was winning about $130,000 in that game, but after three hours I won $34,000, for a net loss of $170,000 for the evening. Could have been better, could have been worse.

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Today I slept in very late, waking up at about 5:00pm. Most people would be worried about their "clock," but I think I’ll be just fine for tomorrow. I’m doing nothing strenuous at all today. On the computer mostly, checking the tournament updates, reading the FCP forum, and watching some poker on TV to get me prepared..

My goal tomorrow is to end the day with 100,000 in chips. I won’t do anything crazy to reach that goal and am not too concerned even if I end the day with 50,000, but 100,000 would be an excellent start to the tournament and it’s an achievable goal.

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FCP NEWS: The Final table to crown my protégé is now set and we will be holding the live final event on April 30th. I’m super excited to see who wins:

Join us on Sunday, April 30th around 12:00 pm EST to watch Daniel Negreanu’s Protégé Final Table webcast and to check out some FCP special promotions that are only being offered the day of this event. For example, around the conclusion of this final table event, at 9pm(EST),

FullContactPoker.com will be running a $10+$1 No Limit Hold’em tournament with a regular payout structure PLUS a unique bonus prize. The 1st place winner will earn the opportunity to play an online Heads Up No Limit Hold’em match against Negreanu’s newly crowned protégé for $5,000 winner take all (Date TBD).

To learn more about the Final Table participants, click here.

GRAND SERIES OF POKER:

We are pleased to announce the Grand Series of Poker with a total guaranteed prize pool of $1,950,000 and featuring the Grand Tournament VII with a $1 Million guarantee.

To be played out over the week of April 24th to May 1, there will a tournament daily with a large guaranteed prize pool.

During the weekdays, each event will be held at 4:00pm EDT and the entry is $475+$25. Qualifiers are running around the clock for entry into these events. Besides the actual cash prize, each winner of the weekday events will win a ticket to the Grand Tournament VII ($1000+0).

Qualifiers began on Monday the 20th of February, and range from $7+1 to $112+8.

For each GSOP tournament that you play in you will earn Table of Champions (ToC) Points. The top fifty ToC point’s earners will win an entry to Event 7 to be held on

May 1, these players will share a $50,000 prize pool.

You will be able to consult a leader board daily throughout the GSOP to see where you stand for the Table of Champions.

Events Schedule

Event 1

Date: Monday, April 24th, 2006

Time: 4pm EDT

Game: Short-handed No Limit Texas Hold’em

Buy-in: $475+25

Guarantee: $300,000

Starting Stack: 5,000

Level Length: 30 minutes

Event 2

Date: Tuesday April 25th, 2006

Time: 4pm EDT

Game: Pot Limit Omaha Hi

Buy-in: $475+25

Guarantee: $150,000

Starting Stack: 5,000

Level Length: 30 minutes

Event 3

Date: Wednesday April 26th, 2006

Time: 4pm EDT

Game: Pot Limit Five Card Draw

Buy-in: $475+25

Guarantee: $150,000

Starting Stack: 5,000

Level Length: 30 minutes

Event 4

Date: Thursday April 27th, 2006

Time: 4pm EDT

Game: Limit Texas Hold’em

Buy-in: $475+25

Guarantee: $150,000

Starting Stack: 5,000

Level Length: 30 minutes

Event 5

Date: Friday April 28th, 2006

Time: 4pm EDT

Game: Limit Omaha Hi/Lo

Buy-in: $475+25

Guarantee: $150,000

Starting Stack: 5,000

Level Length: 30 minutes

Event 6 – Grand Tournament VII

Date: Saturday April 29th, 2006 – Sunday April 30th, 2006

Time: 3pm EDT (each day)

Game: No Limit Texas Hold’em

Buy-in: $1,000+0

Guarantee: $1,000,000

Starting Stack: 10,000

Level Length: 30 minutes

Play time day 1: 6 hours and 30 minutes

Event 7

Date: Monday May 1st, 2006

Time: 6pm EDT

Game: No Limit Texas Hold’em

Buy-in: Free to enter for the top 50 players from previous events

Added Sum: $50,000

Starting Stack: 5,000

Level Length: 30 minutes