The BIG NEWS at the Series today (Saturday, June 30) is that they announced that they are extending the opening “day” of the Main Event to cover FOUR sessions instead of three. Even though they set up the Amazon Room and the Menopause Pavilion and some tables in the hallway at the edge of the casino to accommodate 3,000 per day, they decided three days wasn’t enough for the start of the Series. They will also split “day 2″ into two sessions.

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I’ve been back after 2 days in Scottsdale and I can feel it. Everything is different.

The World Series of Poker has crossed the Rubicon. The Main Event has gone from “in July” to “next week.” The friends who were coming “at the end” are here or en route.

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This is a continuation of my notes from the $1,500 Mixed Hold ‘Em event, where I finished 7th out of (as alternately announced and reported) 619 0r 620. It’s a continuation of the notes and observations contained in entries ## 183, 184, and 188. As I mentioned at the end of #188, I ended Day 1 with 22,700 in chips, about 50% above the average but substantially below my highest levels.

My notes on Day 2, as I got deeper into the tournament, became more dull, mostly listing times, players left, and chip counts. But there’s a little more in here than I initially thought, so I’ll pass it along, as part of my task of giving you a feeling what it’s like participating in the Series. (I’m going to do another entry geared specifically to that matter, probably my next entry.)

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[This continues my story, based on the notes I was taking at the table, during the $1500 Mixed Hold 'Em event. #183 and #184 contain my notes from Day 1/5 PM through 11 PM. We continued to play until 3 AM, plus I have notes from Day 2. As it gets later in the tournament, the notes get more boring. I'm observing more as a player than as a writer. People at the table are always asking me about what I'm writing but end up disappointed by what I show them or read them. As I mentione in $184, I got moved to Randy Jensen's table, where I immediately got lucky and won a big pot from him.]

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I finished 7th in the $1,500 Mixed Hold ‘Em yesterday (June 26), as has been widely reported, including in this blog. I have been thrilled and gratifed by the number of e-mails I’ve received wishing me good luck (before) and congratulations/condolences (after).

Thank you all so much.

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I’ll spare you the suspense if you don’t already know: I finished seventh in the $1,500 Mixed Hold ‘Em event. It was worth $22,000, though I was bitterly disappointed. I played really, really well for two long days and put myself in exactly the position I wanted. I even got good cards early. But everyone was so short stacked that every time I put a chip in the pot, I either ran into a bigger hand or someone who hit their draw. I don’t think it was avoidable.

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It’s 4:45 AM and I’m about to jump out of my skin so let’s cut to the chase.

I made my first World Series of Poker final table. It’s Event #40, $1,500 Mixed Hold ‘Em. Because it started the same time as the $50,000 HORSE, it has a little of a minor league feel, compared to The Big Show, especially this year because it seems they have a floorman and security guard for every table. And, because they’re running that event over five days, it’s like a country club over there.

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I’m up a little earlier than I thought – 9:30 AM – so I thought I’d continue with the business from yesterday. I guess yesterday was an unusual day at the WSOP, and because the events are all multi-day, it will reverberate. The usual pattern is to have a mass event at noon and a specialty event at 5 PM. The noon event was the $50,000 HORSE yesterday, and our Mixed Hold ‘Em (a/k/a Mixed Nuts) was at 5 PM. The restaurants didn’t know what to make of it. Combined, the events took only about 80 of the Rio’s 300 tables.

Today has another pair of bizarro events. Noon is the Senior NLHE. I thought Razz was the senior event. 5 PM is Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. Other than a couple online sites – including Full Tilt – the game doesn’t really exist. It appeals to only two sorts of people: those with way too much gamble, and those who know how to deal with players with way too much gamble. Between the two, there isn’t anything going today for the player between the ages of 22 and 50.

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I finally finished my cover feature on Phil Hellmuth winning his eleventh bracelet for BLUFF. It ended in a marathon session in which I spent 24 straight hours in my room, ending at about 4:20 PM on Sunday. That left me just enough time to buy into the 5 PM event, $1,500 Mixed Hold ‘Em, but not enough time to think about it. If it turned out to be a mistake, there would be time for that later.

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… and I don’t think it’s coming back.

I had this dream of selling Ted Forrest’s 1994 Lincoln Mark VII on eBay during the Series and blogging the sale in real-time. It would be doing Ted a favor, give me a chance to contribute to poker history, and give you all something in addition to the Series to watch.

It’s not going to happen.

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