I will be doing a presentation to the national sales force of Star Magazine at their annual sales meeting in September. I am also looking forward to the Ultimatebet.com Poker Classic in Aruba this year. It was great fun last year and promises to be even better this year.

I flew back to Las Vegas on July 4, to participate in the Team UB photo shoot the next day. The shoot went well and we got some great pictures. I have some posted on my site already. After the photo shoot I went to the private screening of a preview for No Limit a documentary about a couple that plays poker professionally. There was a reception at the Ghost Bar at the Palms following the screening. Since many professionals were featured in the documentary several attended the screening including Mike Sexton and his sister Stephanie, Kathy Liebert, and Mel Judah. I sat with Jim Meehan and "Miami" John Cernuto. I also saw Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak as well. I got to know Jennifer while filming the Poker Royale Celebrities vs Poker Pros for GSN. She is a lovely person.

Later that night I went to the Fulltilt party at the Wynn Casino . All the familiar faces were there. I played in the Charity Poker Tournament. (Gavin Smith's pocket eights held up to knock out my A, K suited). There was also a charity auction and lots of celebrities.

On the 7 th of July I went to the Lederer's barbeque at Steve Zolotow's home. What a beautiful property! I rushed from there to the Ultimatebet party at the Palm's Ghost Bar. This was great fun. I met lots of the on-line players that had won their seat at the WSOP main event. I bumped into Andy and Eddie, two friends that I had met at last year's UB Classic in Aruba . These are two of the funniest guys I know. Later, I rushed back to my room to change for the Rio party. Andy Zimmon (of Andy and Eddie fame), became my Red Carpet date. We had lots of fun, desserts, drinks and “schmoozing”.

On July 7 th “ Miami ” John Cernuto and I had a 30 minute interview with Players Network. We discussed the current boom in poker and how we got into the game. We also discussed the future of poker.

I entered the WSOP Main Event on the 8th , well rested and ready to play. I played in the second heat (there were 5600 total entries). I doubled up in the first round and through rounds 2-5 slowly built my chips. I had 26,000 at the dinner break. I was feeling good about my play and comfortable with my chip stack.

There was a gentleman from Scotland who was sitting one to my left. He had been playing loose and aggressively and was pushing many players around. He called an all in bet from a short stack when he only had 3, 6 suited and doubled up the short stack. I had a feeling that I would take him out or he would take me out. Everyone was playing cautiously around him and folded when he raised. I knew that even if I had the best hand going in it would be risky with him in the pot. He was calling big bets and raising almost everything. I drew pocket 10s one off the button. The Scottish guy was on the button. The blinds were 150-300. I raised 1000 and he called. The flop came out 6(h), 7(d), 8(h). I still had top pair so I bet 5,000, over betting the pot to make the call too expensive to chase a flush, just in case. He raised to 15,000. I was confident that he did not have an over pair. I put him on a flush draw. I realized that I would have to go all in to protect my pair. This would give me two chances to win, one if he folded, two if he called and didn't draw out. I figured that even if he called, the worst case scenario was that he had two over cards and a flush draw which would make it an even up race. I went all in. He called and turned over A(h), Q(h). I turned over my pocket 10s. When the turn came out 6(d) I became a 2:1 favorite. Then the river showed A(s) giving him the higher two pairs. Although it was tough to lose, at least I felt good about the way I played and I did not lose on a “suck out” by an underdog.

That evening, I went to the “Doyle's Room” party. One my students had a 27 year old copy of Doyle Brunson's first book, How I Made $1,000,000 Playing Poker , and asked me to have it autographed. Doyle was great and felt flattered that someone had kept the book for so long.

Throughout the WSOP I visited and helped out at the International Poker Association (IPA) booth whenever I could. We signed up many new members and got a great deal of positive feedback.

Now that the WSOP is over I am focusing on the Legends of Poker in August and the Ultimatebet.com Poker Classic in Aruba in September. Here are some parting observations about the World Series this year and some suggestions for next year:

1. Bathrooms were a problem. There were too few bathrooms and they were too far away from the conference center where the tournament was held. The breaks were not long enough to accommodate the long walk to the bathrooms. This was corrected with longer and more frequent breaks later in the series.
2. The Lifestyle Show was great.
3. Harrah's $10 off coupon for the buffet at was pretty cheap considering the amount of money the WSOP generated for the hotel. Although the buffet didn't “break” anyone, the $10 coupon was a weak gesture.
4. The Rio party only had desserts and no hors ‘deouvres. Again, considering the amount of money the WSOP generated Harrah's could have made a bigger gesture.
5. Although the accommodations were roomy and there were plenty of places to eat, it just didn't feel like the World Series without Binion's Horseshoe.
6. There were several muggings reported in the parking lot. Although this may not be uncommon for a casino, security could have been stepped up during the series. (I teach my poker classes “Always Use Valet Parking”).
7. Pre-registration for the events was a stroke of genius. The lines for the first event were 5 hrs long.
8. Surprisingly, I had no problem getting reservations at the Rio .
9. There were almost as many people there with the media as there were players.
10. Parties, Parties, Parties.
11. The Woman's Event continues to be treated like a second class event. Lower blind to stack ratio to start would have been a better structure. It was also one of the events that was not televised.

June 2005

The WSOP has begun. I arrived at the Rio in Las Vegas on June 2, ready to play in the $1500 No-Limit event the next day. Yes, me and 2399 other people. I had pre-registered and pre-paid so missed the 3-4 hour wait in line. There were only 200 available tables. The solution was to run tables of 11 players for a total of 2200 players with 200 alternates. This made for an interesting mix of playing styles and skill levels. I played down to about 600 players but was knocked out. I had taken a bad beat on the previous hand and was now short stacked. I went all-in with my short stack and pocket sevens. I was confident since the only other player in the hand had been playing very loose and was likely to have played any two cards. Unfortunately I bumped up against pocket Kings. Even a blind squirrel finds the nuts occassionally.

I had gotten up early that morning to do an interview with Scott Simon of National Public Radio. The feature aired the next day on June 4, 2005 as part of NPR's “Weekend Edition” program. My goal was to illuminate the “mainstream” side of poker, especially the influx of women into the game. The interview was fun. I thought the result was great. NPR's Weekend edition has a regular audience of more than 4 million listeners. You can listen to the interview by “clicking” the link on my homepage.

I flew out the next day, June 5, 2005 to Jackson Hole , Wyoming and Glamour Magazine's 2005 Annual Sales Meeting. Because of my extensive business background and my current poker career, Glamour asked me to prepare a presentation that drew the parallels between sales and poker. I did 3 “break out” sessions with small groups of Glamour's sales staff. Within the context of an hour long poker lesson we covered a number of parallels including: Reading one's opponents, bluffing and aggressive pursuit of “the win”. I met a lot of interesting people and some potentially excellent poker players in the group. Jackson Hole was amazing. What a beautiful area. That's probably why it is among the most expensive places to live in the US .

I flew out of Jackson Hole , WY early on June 7, 2005 . I was looking forward to playing in the No-Limit Short Handed 6 event at the World Series later that day. I would need to make a very short connection in Salt Lake in order to reach Las Vegas in time. At about 6AM MST it began to snow. We were delayed on the ground while they de-iced the plane's wings. Although we took off a little behind schedule it looked like I would make my connection and everything would run smoothly. Unfortunately the weather was about to deal me a “bad beat”. There were thunder showers over Salt Lake City and as we approached, the pilot announced that we would be in a holding pattern over Salt Lake City waiting for a break in the weather. About 30 minutes later the flight attendant announced that were beginning our final descent. Unfortunately we were not descending into Salt Lake City . We had been diverted to Pocatello, Idaho to pick up fuel. I missed my connection and the chance to play in the event that, besides the main event, I was looking forward to most.

I was able to play in the $1000 Multi-re-buy event on June 8, 2005 . But as in most re-buy tournaments the early action was “very loose”. Intelligent reads were at a minimum and "bluffing" was rampant (as I teach in my classes, there is a fine line between making a good bluff and making a bad bet). The tournament took on the flavor of a “slot machine” tournament. I decided to simply play one entry and one re-buy and to take my chances. I was unwilling to make upwards of 15 re-buys as some were rumored to have made.

I flew back home to tend to my consulting business and my poker school but will be flying back to Las Vegas in two weeks to continue in the WSOP.

I flew back to Las Vegas on the 23rd of June. On the 24th I played in the $2500 NL Hold'em Event. I raised the pot with A, Q in late position and was called by the Big Blind. The flop came out A, Q, 4. I raised and the Big Blind went all in. He showed pocket 9s. The turn showed a 2. He was now about a 20:1 underdog. Then he caught his third 9 on the river. This was one of many very frustrating outcomes at the WSOP this year.

On the 26 th , I took a break from the World Series and went over to the Bellagio with Charlie Shoten. The result was no better. I was out in three hands, with the final blow delivered by an A, K to my A, Q.

The $5000 Limit Event started on the 27 th . This time there were no bad beats, just bad cards. I had very few opportunities to play and when I did, I had very few draws. Although I survived until midnight on the first day, it was painful. I survived by playing bad hands well, but it couldn't last forever. The format for this event was the best so far, however. The starting chip stacks, the blinds, the length of the rounds, the breaks, etc. Everything ran well. Unfortunately I never really got “on a roll” with cards to play.

The $2000 No-Limit Hold'em event on the 28 th was the most upsetting. I was playing very well. I was focused and my reads were great. I had my chip stack up to 9000 by the fourth round. I was on the button, just before the dinner break. I had Q, K. Everyone folded around so I made a 1200 raise. The big blind called. The flop came out K, 8, 2 rainbow. The big blind checked. I bet 1500. He called. At this point I put him on a K, J. A four came out on the turn. There were no draws on the board. He checked. I bet 3000. He goes all in for another 4500. Previously, this player had called an all in bet from another player with a J, 8. The other player had pocket tens but he drew a J and won. He had also called two other all ins with A, Q and won. I knew he had a king and I was confident that I had him out kicked with only one card remaining. I called his all in. I showed my K, Q and he showed a K, 7. Great! I would double up just before the break. He rivered a 7 to give him two pair and knocked me out! He and his friends at the table laughed and celebrated. Then he put the icing on the cake by uttering the mantra recited by every bad player who “sucks” out and beats a better hand, “I HAD OUTS!”. It is always hard to take a bad beat. It is even harder when the bad beat knocks you out of a tournament. But it is harder still when you get knocked out by a player that isn't even good enough to realize that he is betting as a 13 to 1 underdog into a pot that will give him less than 3:1 on his bet. There is a fine line between a good bluff and a bad play. He crossed over onto the wrong side of the line and probably still doesn't know it.

“ Miami ” John Cernuto decided to try to cheer me up by teaching me Razz. (I thought he wanted to cheer me up!?!) . I think I'll stick with Hold'em and Stud. I did go to dinner with John and his family and had a wonderful time. Yes, food, that will cheer me up. I flew home the next day to take a rest before the WSOP Main Event. I was tired and had caught a cold. I slept for days.

As always, I am keeping busy. I will update my journal as often as I can. Hope to see you at the tables.