We grab lunch at the club then Kyle and Su give us a ride over to the airport. Our first flight is only 45 minutes long over to LA, but after that it’s a five hour wait in LAX until our next flight. I plug the computer in at a bar and play video games for the duration until Celina and I grab some food at the food court.

The flight to Macau is on a large two story jet where Celina and I have a three seat row to ourselves. For the first couple of hours I continue my video games on the computer then watch ‘21’ on the screen in front of me. The film version is like taking the Hollywoodesque retarded liberties that the book took with the story then injecting them with steroids and adding Kevin Spacey in the mix in a desperate attempt to regain sensibility.

After I finish the movie I lean back in the chair and do my best to fall asleep. My flights lately have been much more peaceful, no German girls balling their eyes out or self urination worthy turbulence. However, the constant pressurized cabins leave me with vicious headaches that take a solid day to wear off.

When we arrive in Taipei it’s another three hour wait until our 90 minute flight to Macau, which I immediately pass out on. I wake up a few minutes before our landing in Macau and peer out the window to see the gargantuan Venetian hotel below us. I really enjoy Macau, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see Melbourne below me instead.

Julius Goat

One of the best writers that you\'re not reading − Julius employs a very entertaining style, catch him now before he explodes and becomes famous. He has run a regular segment called "Stupid/System" taking a humorous look at some of the silliest plays and player types in online poker. He\'s currently running a completely made-up set of "bios" on the WSOP November Nine. Look for guest posts from Julius Goat at Bloggers On The Rail in the near future.

Poker Nation

TuscaloosaJohn is another blogger from the poker media. He won entries into several WSOP events through blogger-hosted tournaments, then posted his thoughts here on Poker From the Rail. While he didn\'t make any "life changing" money during the series, he did provide us with some excellent writing about his experiences. John also posted for Pokerati and will make some guest appearances here.

Aimlessly Chasing Amy

Amy Calistri is one of my favorite people in poker. She spent many years covering large tournaments around the world and has seen more than your average blogger. While she missed out on this year’s WSOP, she managed to give her perspective on everything in the poker world. She\'s worked with some of the top poker sites and continues to be a great resource for poker information.

Cause Everyone Else Is Doing It (aka Mookie)

Mookie makes the list for one main reason. He throws by far the best blogger-hosted tournament of Full Tilt Poker. Large fields full of your favorite bloggers, low stress and tons of fun. He usually has a running live blog during the tournament and winner profiles each week that are worth the read. His tournament is each Wednesday night at 22:00ET under the private tab.

Melted Felt

A relatively new blog, but one of the funniest. 100% sarcastic and satirical. Similar to The Onion except pointed at the poker industry. Outstanding stuff and this picture alone gets them a link up today.

That means there’ll still be entries in this blog for another few weeks. And after that? Well it turns out I actually won’t get a major break from live poker for a long while. Beyond the Vic Champs, Celina and I have to return to Macau on August 24 for the APT $5,000 event and the APPT $3,200 and $19,000 events, which run until our departure on September 10^th. Celina has been sponsored with a full package in each APPT event at this point, so I doubt I’ll be skipping them. After Macau there’s the Seoul event on September 24^th, the APPT New Zealand in early October, then Pokernews Cup in mid October, and then finally a considerable break from live poker (though who knows when the APT will decide the dates of their next event, as they still intend on having ones in the Philippines and Singapore).

I don’t think I’ll ask Tilt to extend to blog past the Vic Champs though, as mostly I’m just tired of my writing being mandatory at the end of each day or so. I’ll be trying to spend as many hours online as possible, and I’m hoping to put considerable effort into learning about heads-up cash games from my friend LuckyChewy.

I think the trip overall has been a success, at least from the obvious monetary stand point. I’ve erased my make up and ended up generating a profit for myself, though I actually haven’t run the full math on how much I’ve earned from the tournaments themselves. On top of that there was the $83,000 and change I won from the Sirwatts swap, plus the money I’ve made by running super good online every time I log on.

As for the writing the trip has generated, I’m mostly happy with it. I feel like during some sections it got quite dull or the creativity lagged, but I’m not sure how much I can realistically expect from myself having to write up every single day I’ve lived for three months straight and you can’t put yourself into too many ridiculous or debauched situations when you need to be up in the morning and play each day.

At this point though, I mostly miss normalcy. I miss my Xbox, my apartment, my dog, my computer, my favorite Melbourne restaurants, and everything else about home. When I get home I want to hire a personal trainer immediately as the trip has gotten me pretty out of shape and I intend to play Call of Duty 4 to my heart’s content. Most of all though, I really miss online poker. I miss the rapid rate of improvement that comes with it, the steady stream of income, and the fun of making a final table nearly every day. Live poker is cool and all, but it gets so slow and boring after a while. I think the optimal way to be a tournament professional is a mix of online and live play, but much heavier on the online side.

I think there’s a very short list of guys who can realistically make a good living playing just live tournaments every year who travel the circuit. When you factor in the cost of flights, hotel, eating out, having clothes cleaned, taxis, and everything else that goes with playing live it becomes very hard to finish the year in the black. Factor in that in a good year where you do your best to put in a ton of volume you can maybe play 200 live tournaments and the potential for a multiyear downswing is pretty terrifying, since most online guys play about three times that in a month and month long downswings are all too common.

So when I finally get home a few days from now I’ll be firing up the Xbox, ordering some Indian food, and fighting my dog with a pillow while I shout profanities at him for a few days until I throw myself into the Vic Champs for my last hurrah.

The next morning we set off to see the sequoia trees with our friends Rick and Erin driving the van. They’re about an hour outside of town, far up in the mountains of California. The trees truly are massive, and even though I’m not really the outdoors type it’s hard not to marvel at what is clearly one of nature’s wonders. When we get back to Fresno I describe the experience to Kyle as “Those are some big fucking trees man.”

As for tonight, Kyle and Su have arranged my only direct request of the trip, to see the new Batman movie. Even though we’ve already gotten tickets there’s a long line out the IMAX theatre, and we wind up waiting about 20 minutes to get in. Oh man is it worth the wait, that movie is so awesome. I know many people are saying that this performance truly exemplifies why it’s a shame that Heath Ledger died, but to be honest you never even see Ledger in the whole movie. Not only is he caked in make up as the joker for the whole film, but the transformation into the character is so complete, so thorough, that it never occurs to you that you’re watching a fresh faced Australian guy playing a role. In this film you’re watching Ledger transform into a psychopath.

When we come back from the movie the downtown area is experiencing a blackout. Even though the casino has a back-up generator that prevents it from going dark the kitchen apparently doesn’t have enough juice to have everything at full operation so we decide to find somewhere else to eat.

The end result is ending up on the weird side of town at a restaurant with its blinds drawn and ‘open’ sign off in an effort to appear closed despite the blasting sound of singing coming from the inside. As we walk around to the back entrance Sam the tournament director introduces us to the place with “Hey be chill, people have gotten stabbed back here.”

How weird is the weird side of town? Well it’s 2:30am and I’m in a Laotian restaurant while the guy who played James Dean in ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Death Becomes Her’ bellows songs in surprisingly good Thai in a place that’s pretending to be closed with music so loud you can hear it from the highway and the bottles of beer need to be poured into plastic cups “Just in case of a raid.” Yea, this is just my kind of joint.

I order a stir fry and after downing it start blasting the microphone with my Elvis impression. After that we change over to ‘Angel’ by Shaggy and the whole restaurant is on their feet dancing to my fake Jamaican accent. The man was right, life really is one big party while you’re still young, but who’s gonna have my back when it’s all done? With Timex getting out of the staking business I have no idea. Lord have mercy!

I spend the afternoon in Kyle’s office hijacking his computer and writing. Kyle hangs out for a while and spends time elaborating on all the intricacies of the card room/casino industry, which is pretty fascinating stuff. It’s a sort of juggling act of responsibility. The title of boss means he has to be constantly thinking about the bottom line and the efficiency of the operation, but the work environment of the casino means it’s occasionally necessarily for him to transform into a stripper pole on karaoke night.

In the evening the tournament is having a $50 tournament which I tell Kyle that Celina and I will play. He puts a $50 bounty on both of us which forever destroys any chance of my running a bluff. The tournament naturally has a very fast structure but I manage to run good and come into the final table with a medium stack (which is about 9 BB’s.) A few hands into the final table I peek down at JJ and open shove. I get called by KQ and TT, and when the KQ makes a boat my tournament is over, though I did manage to break even for Celina and myself.

After that it’s karaoke in the casino bar with all the great people we’ve met in Fresno. When traveling many people get caught up to the places they’re going, but what I’ve found really decides how much fun you have is the company your with. The people we’ve met in Fresno have not only been very accommodating but a total blast to hang out with, easily making it one of my favorite stops this trip.

That said, I don’t like doing this during the breaks – you should be taking these to relax and clear your mind, to get some fresh air or do whatever it is that you need to do. But after the tournament is over, it can be extremely valuable to remember and discuss key hands.

What do you think about the folks that come here with just enough for one tournament buy-in, and are here to take “that one shot?”

Again, it depends on that person’s financial situation, what he does for a living. If someone has a lot of money and he’s playing for entertainment, that’s fine. What’s the difference between that and going to a Lakers game with his wife, having a good time and dropping a grand? Or maybe he goes to the Blackjack table, or goes to a Vegas show? To some people, it’s just a different level of entertainment and that’s totally fine. The key is to just be in your comfort zone financially. I mean, I’d never put up $1.5K for a tournament if that’s all that I had to my name.

Along those lines, do you think that there’s a specific point you should be at as far as your bankroll is concerned when you decide to play in the series?

Of course; It’s really important to only play in tournaments where, if you lose your buy-in, you’re not totally bummed out. It’s difficult to put a point on exactly how much money that is, because everyone’s so different. Someone might have a million dollars and lose $1.5K and be really bummed out; while someone who has only $3K and loses that same $1.5K isn’t really that bothered. As long as the buy-in for the tournament isn’t an overriding factor that takes away from your ability to play poker, you should be fine. You don’t want to be continually stressed out and just holding on for the money. You don’t want to be tense and constantly pressuring yourself – you need to be able to focus just on playing poker.

How would you advise handling a bad run – should you jump back in or take a break?

It depends; if you’re playing good, and you’re well rested, and you can afford to play, don’t take any of the tournaments that you’ve planned off – play in them. If you’re playing bad and you’re tired or burned out, take a couple of days off. For myself, I map out the tournaments that I want to play in and after a week straight, if I’m barely missing the money or barely making the money, I’m just going to give it a break; take a day off, go to the pool, maybe play some cash games, maybe just get some rest, whatever. I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep my head in the game and avoid getting burned out. If you’re doing the right things, you probably don’t need to take a day off. But if you’re struggling and you’re mentally down, which does happen in tournaments, take a couple of days off. Get away from it and do what you need to do to be rejuvenated. The key is to maintain your focus, and if you’re burned out and just going through the motions, then you’re just wasting your time – and money.

What do you think is the best way to avoid burn out?

Stay as physically fit as possible and get lots of rest. It’s also really important to balance playing poker with other activities. Don’t stay at the Rio or the Bellagio; rent a condo for the summer if you’re going to be out here that long. I do all of these things – go for jogs and workouts; try to stay away from the casinos when I’m not in a tournament. Go to the movies or do whatever works for you. The point is this: do other things.

Do you have any final words of advice?

It goes back to what I said earlier: play within your bankroll. This is definitely the key to playing in the World Series and poker in general. I’ve done this for a long time, and I still battle with it on occasion. I’ve had big losses that really hurt specifically because I played too big. When you play too big, you run bad; you’ll play timid and afraid. One of the most important keys to playing poker successfully is staying within your limit. If you’ve got a bankroll that allows you to play in $300 or $500 events, then play in them. Don’t play in the $50K HORSE event if you’ve only got $55K to your name. Play with what you’re comfortable with and you won’t worry about cashing, you won’t worry about having to make the money, about going to the pit to get even – you can just come in, sit down, and play. And if you lose, you join the long list of others and you get on with it – it’s very tough to win tournaments. If the money means too much, you’re going to do crazy things and everything will go completely wrong.

We catch a cab to the airport and kill some time in the terminal before our flight to Fresno. The flight is on one of those small planes that you can’t even stand up straight in and has exposed propellers, the type that sway in the wind so much you wonder how it even stays airborne.

At the airport my friend Kyle from www.tworags.com comes to pick us up with his hostess Su and they take us over to his casino/card room in downtown Fresno, ‘Club One’. He checks us into the hotel next door then we head out for Korean food. There truly is no such thing as too much Korean food.

Downtown Fresno is quiet and mostly devoid of people on a Friday night. Kyle explains that he’s on the downtown committee and is attempting to move more business into the area and rejuvenate the city. His club is a roughly 50 table card room that also has a restaurant, bar, and function room. The largest games regularly going are 15/30 limit and 2/5 no limit, with the limit surprisingly being more of an action game.

Kyle has been somewhat of a business manager, agent, and advisor to me − a consultierie if you will (there is no chance I spelled that correctly.) He and I share the same problem, being a workaholic. Despite having his home in LA, Kyle spends at least five days of the week three hours away in Fresno and, when there, spends the vast majority of time at the card room. It seems strange to describe any poker player as a workaholic, but seeing as I never took one day off during the entire series when there was a Hold ’em event at the WSOP or Bellagio and when at home never optionally take a day off from online poker, I think it applies. It’s ironic though, I became a poker player not only because I enjoy the game but because I truly hate working, but now I never stop unless forced to.

It’s clear to me that Kyle likes the time he spends at the card room though. Everyone on the work force I talked to about him said they really appreciate the changes he’s made as well as the fact that he makes himself available. The fun part for me though, is the stories of weirdness Kyle has from his work experience at the casino, stories like:

1. People send him completely insane job applications. He showed me one where the guy writes that he has “classified military intelligence” to give him about cheating going on, then the applicant starts rambling and becomes increasingly racist, writing that cheating Native Americans are in the casino posing as Asians, culminating with him writing in huge letters “GOD DAMN IDIOTS” in a sentence that curves off to the side.
2. When Kyle found out the casino had not been recycling previous to his acquisition of it he began doing so. As a result he received letters from homeless people expressing their outrage at “taking food off my table” from the income they lost as a result of not being able to rummage through the trash to get bottles anymore. One man was so pissed off he attempted to set the dumpsters and building on fire, twice.
3. Best of all was his story about the guy who came into the casino and attempted to bet weed on the table. It’s best because it has a Youtube link with the full story.

We ended up hanging out the majority of our days at the last WSOP, often grabbing a swim at his condo’s pool after our play was done. Among other things, we shared having a massively losing summer in common and spent a ton of time discussing strategy. Watts is smarter than his introverted and modest nature lets on and even though the city of Waterloo has produced an absurd amount of poker talent I’ve heard many people say they think Watts will be the best of the lot in years to come. As I’ve written before, Watts is restrained and mild tempered to the point that I think if I one day walked up to him and said “Hello Watts!” then punched him square in the face he’d stare at me in confusion and ask calmly “What’d you do that for?”

I told Watts I’d meet him at the Bellagio café around 2:30pm today. For the first time in a while I have enormous trouble getting a cab and I don’t actually arrive at the restaurant until well past 3pm, with the final table starting at 5pm. Watts is sitting with Iweargoggles and his girlfriend, who are on their way out. After that I order some pancakes and offer to flip Watts for the bill. Of course he loses.

We make our way over to the WPT final table filming area in one of the Bellagio ballrooms. A ton of 2+2’ers are there to sweat both Watts and Goggles and we find a spot in the group. It’s my first time at a WPT final table and I’m disappointed to find out just how fake it is. For example, in the opening when they have everyone applaud they have to do numerous takes in order to get it right, so the tournament director stands on the stage and says “Okay everyone, pretend your player just won a big pot and cheer!” Also, the lady ‘directing’ the filming seems really pushy and on numerous occasions asks people to move to different seats to make the audience look more full and demands the players return to their seat in a less than polite tone.

The play is very slow early, mostly the fault of John Phan who is taking his normal forever per decision. Every time he enters a pot and there’s a decision placed to him someone in the 2+2 crowd will turn to the person next to them and ask “Over/under?” The average line is set around four minutes, though in larger pots it climbs upward.

Not long into the final table Watts gets involved in a big pot with Thaler:

Watts’ stack: ~5 million, Thaler: ~2.2 million, blinds 40,000/80,000 with 10,000 ante.

Pre-flop: Watts raises to 220k UTG, folds to Thaler in the BB, Thaler calls.

Flop: 7h 5h 4c

Thaler checks, Watts fires 320k and Thaler check shoves for about 1.9 million. Watts goes into the tank for quite some time, then calls. I can’t see great from my seat and it looks like Watts has called him with AK high. When the camera finally turns on the table I see that Thaler has TT and Watts has AhJh. I’m confused as to why Watts didn’t insta call.

Turn: 3d

River: 8h

Our entire section explodes and I’m yelling my head off. Watts seperates himself from the pack and regains the chip lead. During the break I ask Watts why he didn’t instantly call. He tells me he was staring intently at Thaler looking for some form of reaction and didn’t even realize there was two hearts on the board until the tournament director announced the flop.

A bit of a while after that John Phan gets very unlucky and gets three-outed in two straight pots, one of them quite large. The field is reduced to four with fairly equal stacks, though Ralph Perry is a bit shorter than the rest. Play goes back and forth for a little until Watts and Perry get involved in a large pot:

Watts: ~6 million, Perry: ~2.2 million, blinds 60,000/120,000 with 20,000 ante.

Pre-flop: Folds to Watts in the SB, Watts raises to 360k, Perry shoves for 2.2 million, Watts instantly calls. Watts tables AsQs which leads Perry’s KsJd. I’m on my feet screaming for an ace.

Flop: 5s 4c 2h

Turn: 9h

River: Ad

Again our section explodes and Watts drags a pretty massive pot to even himself with the large stack of Benyamine. The final three has come down to the best three players starting the final table and it’s currently anyone’s game. The guy who goes out next will get over $450,000, though I don’t think that’s especially life changing money to any of the three (though I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt either.)

The play actually gets a little bit on the tight side as none of the players seem interested in making a mistake or doing something spewy against such tough competition. After watching many pots get traded back and forth a large hand between Goggles and Watts finally ensues:

Watts stack: ~8.3 million, Goggles: ~3.5 million, blinds 60,000/120,000 with 20,000 ante.

Pre-flop: Goggles raises to 360k, Benyamine folds, Watts re-raises to 1.1 million, Goggles shoves, Watts calls. Watts tables QdQh against Goggles AsKh. The entire 2+2 section is on their feet though many are a little conflicted about screamingly loudly for cards, though overall the support seems to be for Goggles.

Flop: Qc Jd 2d

The Q is the door card and suddenly Goggles chances look awful. He’s only got four outs to the ten to stay in the tournament.

Turn: Th

Goggles erupts in the greatest show of emotion I’ve ever seen from one of poker’s most placid players. Watts is left scratching his head and praying for the board to pair.

River: 6d

The stack of Goggles and Watts more or less trade places and for the first time in a long time Watts is forced into the position of the short stack. Again I talk to him during the break and assure him that “This shit is yours. I’m not worried. You feeling cool?”

“Yea, I’m fine. Still got plenty of chips.”

“Right, no worries. Win please, buy me a house.”

Play goes back and forth for a while and Watts gains chips back from Goggles as Benyamine’s stack stays much the same. I have to say, I’m really impressed by the play of Benyamine. Even though he plays a ton online I always figured he’d be prone to the same stack size and positional leaks most guys who spend a ton of time playing live have but there are none evident. He’s also playing really well post-flop and appears to be a complete gentleman on the table.

As the stacks of Watts and Goggles begin to approach being equal they get involved in another big pot:

Watts stack: ~4.1 million, Goggles: ~4.5 million, blinds 80,000/160,000.

Benyamine folds the button, Watts raises to 480k in the SB, Goggles shoves, Watts calls. Goggles tables AdTh and Watts turns over AsQc, leaving Goggles with three outs to prevent being crippled.

Flop: Kc Js 9h

Turn: 7h

The 2+2 crowd begs for a split pot as we await the river.

River: 7c

I’m about the only guy legitimately happy in the crowd (which feels awkward, since Goggles is a friend too) but I keep my elation to myself. With that, Goggles is crippled and is soon eliminated when he moves in as a short stack with K4o and gets called by Benyamine and Watts, both of whom end up flopping top pair.

Going into heads up play Benyamine has perhaps 11.5 million to the 8.5 million of Watts, and according to Watts “I just can’t win a pot off Benyamine.”

The director lady asks us to move to the stands behind Watts and we accommodate her. Then she decides she needs a row of people to go back and fill in just the front row on the other side of the arena where we just came from. She tells us she won’t let play continue until someone goes over there and it takes several minutes and much arguing before a few of the 2+2 guys agree to go over.

Benyamine and Watts trade small pots back and forth at the beginning of heads up with little change to either players stack. Not long after coming back from a short break the two get involved in a large pot:

Watts stack: ~8.5 million, Benyamine: ~11.5 million, blinds 100k/200k with 20,000 ante.

Pre-flop: Benyamine raises to 500k, Watts re-raises to 1.5 million, Benyamine shoves, Watts instantly calls. When the cards are turned over the cameras don’t turn onto the table and I’m forced to rely on the tournament director for the information. Benyamine looks disgusted when he sees Watts cards and Jack McClelland on the microphone announces “We have the AK of Mike Watson all-in versus the AQ of David Benyamine.”

Flop: Td 8s 2h

At this point the cameras finally turn on the table and the crowd suddenly gasps as we see that Benyamine actually holds QQ. It seems when Benyamine tabled his hand he turned both cards over but one obscured the view of the other. McClelland saw the look on Benyamines face when he saw the AK and filled in the blank, or so he thought. The entire stands begin screaming for an ace at a volume that has McClelland holding his ears as he tells the dealer to burn and turn.

Turn: 5d

I am screaming for an ace so hard I already know I’m going to ruin my voice for days. I’ve never wanted to see a card hit so bad in my life. This is literally a $40,000 river card for me.

River: Ad

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH OOOOOH MY GAAAAWWWWWD! YEEEES!”

Watts runs down from the table and Mastr and I give him huge hugs as we scream in his face. I’ve never seen a bigger smile on the face of Watts. As he returns to his seat they count down the chips and Benyamine slides over the necessary amount. He’s entirely crippled now.

Watts begins open shoving on Benyamine at every opportunity and it’s not long before Benyamine calls:

Watts stack: ~18 million, Benyamine: ~3 million, blinds 100k/200k with 20,000 ante.

Preflop: Watts shoves, Benyamine calls. Watts tables Qh9s, Benyamine Kh9h.

The dealer burns and turns the flop before anyone can react. After she does the cameras turn on it and we see it contains a queen, naturally, we all lose it.

Flop: Ad Qc 6c

“HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!!!!”

Turn: 9c

“HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!!!!!!!!”

River: 7d

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!”

Watts runs into the crowd and again I give him a massive hug. The crowd mobs him, including his sister who flew all the way of Toronto on a days notice to come watch and support her brother. Benyamine takes it all with complete dignity and shakes Watts hand after having gotten unlucky two hands in a row (sure the first hand was just a coin flip, but when you’re one card away from winning it all it sure feels awful.)

Watts is dragged away to do all the promotional photos and interviews while we stand around excitedly talking. After he’s finished we walk down to the cage for the pay out. Watts immediately hands me $80,000 of the $1.67 million and change they’ve taken out in chips for him.

We all agree what this night really needs is some Korean BBQ, so we run over to the front entrance of the Bellagio with a group of 14 and grab a stretch SUV limo over to the Korean joint next to the Wynn. All I can really say to Watts over the course of dinner is “One point six million!?”

Major congratulations to Mike ‘Sirwatts’ Watson − you rich, rich bastard. I told you so.

Yesterday’s $750,000 Guarantee attracted a nice field of 4,057 players and had a prize pool of more than $800K. A hearty round of congrats are in order for all of the players who took part in this enormous donkament (go ahead, pat yourselves on the back), but especially our winner syzygy-1-1-1-1, who can now afford to go on a nice little shopping spree with his newfound $143,285.13.

But the big story of the day had to be David Benyamine’s better half (much, much better), Erica “The Poker Babe” Schoenberg, making a deep run in the $750K Guarantee all the way to the final table. Unfortunately, Erica didn’t quite complete her mission and wound up being the first player eliminated from the final table. Don’t feel too bad for Ms. Schoenberg though, she took home more than $10K for her efforts – not a horrible return for a $200 investment. Brains, beauty, and poker skills to boot – she really is the complete package boys.

Meanwhile, there was some seriously sick action going down at the PLO ring-game tables yesterday. Team Full Tilt’s Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen and John Juanda were joined at a $200/$400 PLO table by high-stakes regulars SteveSung, Pr1nnyraid and LoLiNa for some $20K flips. This was degeneracy at its finest folks – please do not try this at home.

JJ was the big winner for the session, taking home around $280K – a nice payday for one of the nicest guys in poker. LoLiNa also had a very nice session, ending the day up about $90K. I look forward to the day I can afford to take $20K flips, seems like it would be fun. Then again, I look forward to the day when I actually make at least $20K a year (target date: 2052).

The Madness strikes back as we wait for the return of the FTOPS…

Just a heads up for all the Tilters out there in Pokerland – as promised, we’re running another round of Sit & Go Madness this weekend. The fun kicks off on Friday, August 1^st at 14:00 ET and goes all the way through to Sunday, August 3^rd at 14:00. There’s more than $75K in cash and prizes up for grabs, so if you’re a SNG player or just like winning cash and prizes, this one’s for you.

We’re also rapidly approaching zero hour for FTOPS IX (or 9, for those of you not fluent in Roman numerals). The action gets going on Wednesday, August 6^th with Event #1, a $1 million guarantee NLHE donkament, and runs through Sunday, August 17^th when the $2.5 million guaranteed Main Event takes place. There’s more than $15 million guaranteed over the 25 events of this mammoth series, so please don’t miss out on a second of the best donkament action around.

That’s all for now folks. If you’re hankering for more of The Rail we’ll have some new Bond18 action up for you in a bit, and AlCantHang will return soon with another round of Bloggers On The Rail – make sure to check them both out. Have a good one…