Players received 5000 in starting chips and levels were 30 minutes long. The structure for the tournament was very, very fast. The typical level 3 which is normally 100/200 was skipped and the level 3 was what is normally level 4 which is 100/200 with a $25 ante.

I was never in jeopardy for all my chips until we were down to the final two tables. We were down to about 18 people when the following hand came up.

Paul "Quack Quack" Magriel was sitting pretty with nearly 100,000 in chips. He was sitting on my left shoulder in seat 10 and I was in Seat 9. A few hands earlier I pleaded to Paul the case for him taking a lunch because 50000 should surely get him to the final 10.

I was in the big blind with a 36000 stack... the blinds were 1000/2000 with a 400 ante ... Paul limped in and a desperate player moved all-in for 21500 everyone else folded. I found QQ in the big blind and I tanked before calling the 21500. I even said if I win this I get my entry, if not I am out of here. Paul moves all-in and I knew he had me beat, but with only 15000 left I felt that I was still correct in my assessment that a win here would guarantee me an $5150 entry into the main event. I was pot committed and I called. He show AA the other guy had J 5 off and I flopped a Q and had nearly 100000 in chips. Paul was down to 65000 in chips and he still ended up getting a seat as well.

I eventually finished the event in 2nd chip position. I will be at Caesar's tomorrow at noon, so wish me luck.

The tournament is scheduled to take 4 days to play ad I expect the tournament to pay over $250,000 to win. I need some luck.

First step is just make it to play on day two... that is my 1st goal.

Well Dick said that he had been invited to his clubhouse on Wednesday nights for a Texas Holdem Tournament and it was clear that they did not know how to play. So we decided to bring out a deck of cards and teach them how to play. Well things led to things and soon we were playing for 1500 Sweet and Low Packets, I had so much fun dealing and laughing. I included pictures in this post.

On a personal note: I have now lost 24.5 lbs and am feeling much better than I did a couple of months ago. Just about 140 lbs to go... :-)

I actually posted this next day but the blog was broken so I am posting it late.

I carry a little notebook in my shirt pocket everyday, I write when I wake up, how much sleep I got, when I take my pills, when I eat, when I exercise and my poker notes as well.

I have exercised all but 9 days in the last 60 days and I had a starting weight of 363.5 lbs. I would love to be 200 lbs, so I was 163.5 lbs over weight.

I have now lost 21.75 lbs. which is approximately 13.3% of my challenge in 60 days. I seem to be losing inches around my lower abdomen first and nowhere else. At this rate I may make my goal around July of 2010, if my feet don't fall off

As for playing poker I firmly believe that "80% of Success is just showing up" and being in better physical shape is just part of my responsibility to be the best I can be.

I write this to help with my own motivation and confidence and I thank you for carrying enough to read it.

As for poker tournaments, Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza and Caesar's Circuit event, and Bellagio's WPT preliminaries all are down in attendance big time. Most of these tournaments don't even meet my 250 player minimum requirement to play even when on someone else's money.