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.

What advice would you offer to someone making their first foray into the WSOP?

It’s been a long time since I was there, and I probably play a lot different from someone sitting down for the first time. For example, I’m looking to pick up a lot of chips early in a $1.5K event, and if not, I’ll enjoy the rest of the day. Whereas if it was my first or only event, I’d be playing super tight and looking to survive early on and make the most of it.

For someone that’s here for the first time, I’d advise them to stay away from the pit - it’s a money burner. If you’re here for the tournaments, stay away from the cash games, because the last thing that you want to do is stay up all night until 6AM before a tournament and possibly lose a lot of money, because then you you’re not going to be focused on your $1.5K tournament. Map out your schedule, choose the events that you want to play and can afford, get a good night’s sleep and come in realizing that it’s the World Series. Take it seriously. It’s like anything else – you don’t want to be up partying and drinking the night before. If you’re doing it seriously and want to do well, then you’ve got to treat it seriously.

I know that this sounds like standard advice, but it gets overlooked or blown off all of the time. People are miserable because they weren’t prepared and got knocked out of a tournament, so they fly over to the pit thinking that they’re going to win their $1.5K back. The next thing you know, they’re down $10K. All of a sudden, a $1.5K buy-in that was affordable has now become almost a $12K loss. The key is to stick to the game plan early on – that’s key.

I’ve seen so many people come to the WSOP with a list of things that they plan on doing, like eating good, getting exercise, going for a massage, getting plenty of rest, and staying away from the pit and live action. After two days, they’ve been drunk, lost over half of their bankroll, haven’t done the other things that they wanted to do, and they haven’t even left the casino. They’ve done everything completely wrong in the first two days. Getting off to a good start is crucial, because it’s easier to keep doing things right than it is to try and get out of trouble. On the other hand, when you get off to a bad start, everything is a lot more likely to go wrong. The discipline is sticking to your own rules.

Is there anything that you’d say to players coming specifically from an online background?

I’d advise them to stay completely focused on the game at first, like not wearing headphones for example, because you’re going to miss out on things that are really important. You don’t want to miss out on blind structures, conversations at the table – there’s too much to pick up when you’re new to this type or level of tournament play. You need to stay focussed and try to pick up as much information as you can and not be distracted; watch the play, watch the action, and listen to the conversation.

This is especially true when you’re seated with good players. Back when I first started, I remember being seated with guys like Howard Lederer and I’d listen to everything that they said and watch how they played. You can learn a lot from good players just by watching them. I specifically remember watching him and another really good player, and really paying attention to how they played every hand. If you’ve got your earphones on and you’re just staring out into space, you’re not going to learn nearly as much. It’s a totally different world from online play.

While we’re talking about online play, I thought it would be good to revisit a little feature we’ve dropped over the past few weeks: the big stakes games. Thanks to our friends over at the High Stakes Database, we can tell you that since July 1^st, the biggest overall winner on the site has been OnTheRize, who’s banked more than $851K so far. He’s followed closely by Team Full Tilt’s Gus Hansen who’s picked up more than $822K, and CHUFTY, who’s raked in nearly $760,000. The full list of the top 10 is shown below:

• OnTheRize - $851.316,00
• Gus Hansen - $822.244,55
• CHUFTY - $758.302,00
• Urindanger - $588.364,75
• David Oppenheim - $509.842,30
• Aeron73 - $509.703,65
• pr1nnyraid - $508.134,25
• La Key U - $505.299,95
• Nizot Skizared - $462.186,25
• Rob Hollink - $434.431,55

When it comes to specific games, pr1nnyraid is leading the No-Limit Hold ‘em money lead with more than $306K in winnings since July 1^st, while OnTheRize has made all of his money at the PLO tables. Gus Hansen is the big, big winner in this month’s PLO Hi/Lo games, with more that $1.4 million in profit, though he’s given about $600K of that back to the poker community in other games. Who says the pros don’t know how to share?

Return of the Monthly Million

After a two month hiatus for FTOPS VIII and our 150 Main Event Guarantee, the Monthly Million returned to the schedule last weekend, much to the delight of GulahPapyrus who took down the tournament and more than $219K in first-place prize money.

Overall, 2,396 ponied up for Sunday’s big tourney, generating a prize pool worth $1,198,000, which was good enough to pay out the top 351 finishers. Some of the notable names who padded their bankrolls on Sunday include Michael Craig, Roy Winston, Matt Sexton, and our newest Full Tilt Poker pro, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh.

Welcome to the Family

While we’re talking about new FTP pros like Josh, we’d be remiss to mention a few other red names you’ll be seeing around the site. First off is notable high-stakes player and the always entertaining, Eli Elezra who brings with him one WSOP bracelet and a whole lot of “gamble”.

Another bracelet winner joining the pro ranks is Nikolay Evdakov, who along with Vitaly Lunkin and Svetlana Gromakova, make up our new Russian team. Speaking of teams, our buddies over at CardRunners have expanded their lineup as well, adding some familiar online names to our roster. Look for Isaac Baron, David Benefield, and Ryan Daut playing under their own names in our ring games and on our educational tables.

Personally, I’m lobbying to head up our newest effort, Team St. Bart’s, but it’s going to be a tough fight against The Captain. Wish me luck.

Until next time…

So now that we’ve reached the final table of the Main Event with a bunch of no-names, can we officially declare the decision to the delay the final table a complete disaster?

Not quite yet. I’m going to pull a complete 180 here and pretend that I’m an optimist for a moment. Let’s give the giant propaganda machine that is Harrah’s/ESPN a chance to do their thing and turn these nine nobodies into the next big thing. The power of persuasive media can be, um, quite powerful.

But yes, my initial reaction to seeing that nine stiffs had made the final table was that Harrah’s/ESPN were probably shitting their pants. Obviously they’re praying to the wrong god, because this really didn’t work out too well for them. Might I suggest the Church of Fonzie for their next stop?

Whatever happens, it will certainly be interesting to watch it play out. Either the powers that be will be able to turn water into wine or this is going to be the biggest disaster since Waterworld. My feeling is that if things don’t work out well the WSOP will switch back to its standard format next year and kill the delay. It should be a fun four months…

The Tiffany Michelle debacle was obviously the biggest storyline of this year’s Main Event, any thoughts on the matter?

Oh boy, do I have some thoughts. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, some of them will probably get me fired, and some of them are better suited for Penthouse. With that said, I’m going to tread lightly here and answer this question as carefully as possible.

I think that Tiffany’s deep run in the Main Event was great for poker. It would have been fantastic had she made the final table, but hey, that’s poker baby. The enormous amount of pressure on her going into that last day of play had to be a tremendous burden, it sucks that she wasn’t able to just focus on playing poker and forget about the rest of it.

As for the other part of the story (the part dubbed by Sir Dr. Pauly as the battle for Tiffany Michelle’s breasts), yeah, not so much. She made a rather stupid decision to pimp a not-to-be-named-here online poker room currently engulfed in a not-to-be-named-here scandal. Was it because she’s friendly with people who run the not-to-be-named-here site? Was it because they offered her the best deal? Was it just some bad advice from the wrong people? Or did she really just not know any better? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but I do know this is bringing negative attention to online poker at a time when we really didn’t need it. And that’s all I have to say about that.

And, before I forget – giggity!

I’m not really into conspiracy theories, but the whole moving Hellmuth to Matusow’s table thing when they were the only two big names left in the Main Event reeks of backroom shenanigans.

From what I’ve heard (and trust me, I don’t hear very much these days), ESPN were really the people running the show this year at the Main Event. So am I surprised that both Hellmuth and Mikey wound up at the same table to put a show on for the crowd? Of course not, poker is entertainment and having those two sitting next to each other is about as good as it gets. Do I think this was some elaborate JFK style conspiracy? Umm, no.

Think about it: the best case scenario for ESPN was having both Phil and Mikey make the final table (along with Tiffany Michelle’s breasts). If they’re sitting at the same table, the chances of them both making the final nine decreases substantially. Instead of having their own pool of fishes to feed on, they were both swimming in the same pond. That means that pond just got a hell of a lot smaller, and there are less fishes to eat.

So save the conspiracies for your local crazy homeless guy – this is poker, not politics. Until next week…

The three guys I was tracking had mixed results. My Toronto pal Stephen Ladowsky nursed a short stack most of the day and finally went out around 480^th when he pushed with A-Q and ran into aces. Iggy managed to maintain and build his stack with some blind steals and re-steals and finished Day 3 with 177,000. Hoyt Corkins fared even better, using his aggressive style to build his stack up to nearly 480,000. It was funny watching him pace the aisles before play began this afternoon. Hoyt seemed more nervous today than he did before the final table of the World Poker Open in Tunica in January (he finished second there). I guess that shows you the importance of the World Series of Poker to people.

Iggy seemed very relaxed and drew fellow poker writer Jeremiah Smith two seats to his right. I talked with Jeremiah (who enters the day second in chip count with about $1.3 million) quite a bit last year, so it’s good to see the former PokerWire reporter doing so well in this event. Plus, Jeremiah was dressed in Full Tilt Poker gear so of course we love him here on Poker From The Rail.

Phil Hellmuth and Jean Robert-Bellande are at the ESPN featured table today. There’s a dynamic duo for you – that should make for good television.

I probably won’t stick around the Rio long here on Day 4 because if I want to make my fortune before I leave Vegas, I need to try to satellite into the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza Main Event on Sunday. If I can win a mint, it will give me a good bankroll for the upcoming FTOPS events.

The World Series of Poker is winding down to a conclusion. I always have mixed feelings on the event’s conclusion. Most of the tables no longer in use have been cleared from the Amazon room. No cash games are running here anymore. You can sense the excitement of the WSOP when it begins, when bankrolls are still fat and hope abounds. By the time the lights are turned off, most dreams have been dashed and a lucky few have earned a king’s ransom.

It’s nearly time to turn out the lights.

As I write this, we have reached double digits in main event participants. Long gone are Iggy, who busted in 403^rd on Day 4 to earn $28,950, and Hoyt Corkins, who was gone in 162^nd place for $41,816. That hiking trip may be on, after all, if he’s up for it. I know how disappointed poker players can be after busting in a major event; and after all, this is the biggest event in poker.

Play will continue here through Tuesday night, when the November Nine prepare for their place in history in, er, November. I can only imagine the feeling those nine players will have after receiving their checks for $900,000 and having the opportunity to return to Vegas four months later to play for more than $8 million more. I don’t believe we’ll see them on The Late Show with David Letterman reading a Top 10 list, but I think the move by Harrah’s to delay the final table until November will create a lot of additional interest and coverage for the WSOP among the mainstream media. Even though I think Harrah’s tries a little too hard to make a buck sometimes ($2.50 for a 12-ounce can of soda in the WSOP Poker Kitchen, really?), I do believe they have the best interest of poker at heart.

I have no grand illusions of personally making a mint during my last few days in Vegas. I have, however, reached the second round of a major blackjack tournament at the Golden Nugget where the winner will received $25,000. Hey, I never said I wasn’t a degenerate! I’ll be taking my remaining bankroll back home to Tuscaloosa with an eye on the upcoming FTOPS events. For now, I’m off to the Bellagio for some cash games. 

Nearly driven mad in the land of poker, I had the opportunity to get out of town on Sunday. Since Hoyt Corkins busted out of the main event on Saturday, he had time to go for a hike.

I went to his house and we hopped in his jeep, fully equipped with four-wheel drive, roll bars, and a five-ton winch that would surely get us out of any sticky situations. Starting too late to tackle Mt. Charleston, we headed to Red Rock Canyon to take the jeep trails into the Rainbow Wilderness area.

It wasn’t easy going up the rocky trails and I was surprised to see a few Grand Cherokee drivers try the climb. Although it was a relatively short distance, it took nearly an hour to reach the North Peak trail from the point where we exited the main scenic drive.

The hike was 1.3 miles from the jeep and I lugged a backpack full of bottled water and trail mix. As the young one of the duo, I got to be the mule. Although the trail was labeled as difficult on the guide sign, we found the going fairly easy at first. Still, those uphill trails can get an out of shape fellow winded pretty quickly, so we took frequent breaks.

The view from the top was worth the hour hike. From the North Peak we could see all of Vegas below, as well as Lake Mead, which was 50 or 60 miles in the distance. I’ve done a lot of hiking in my day, from the Appalachians to the Rockies, but this was the best view from the top with the absence of trees blocking the panoramic view. We stayed for a while to enjoy the view, but departed when we saw rain clouds coming up on us.

“You don’t mess with those flash floods,” Hoyt said. “If it starts raining very hard, we’ll be stuck here for the night.”

I certainly perished that thought so we hustled back, although we had to take it easy in spots due to the loose shale along the trail. It started sprinkling on the way down, and with a cool breeze in our faces it sure beat the heat of walking down the Strip. By the time we made it back to the jeep, the rain had stopped and we headed back down.

Meanwhile, the WSOP Main Event had played on. They’re down to 34 as I write this and will play to 27 tonight. On Monday, they’ll play down to 9 and then everyone will go home for four months. I sense that Tiffany Michelle will be the star of ESPN’s coverage. As an attractive young woman who is currently in the top 10 in chips you can expect to see a lot of her during Main Event television coverage. If she plays here cards right, she could make a mint from the exposure. 

A bleary-eyed and yawning press still awaits the November Nine. As I write this, it’s 12:45 AM in Las Vegas and 10 players remain in the World Series of Poker Main Event.

They’ve finally condensed to one table, after playing on two tables for much of the evening. The bigger names have fallen – first, former World Poker Tour winner Brandon Cantu, then Tiffany Michelle, the last woman standing. Michelle’s 17^th place finish is the best in this event by a woman since Annie Duke went out in 10^th back in 2000.

I think most of us are ready to get the heck out of Sin City. Many have been here for at least six weeks covering the 54 events. After less than four, I’m done with this place. It’s been a frustrating trip for me as I could never get anything going at the tables. Hopefully, the trip will pay off for me in the form of the time I’ve spent networking for more writing opportunities.

Tenth place will get just under $600,000 while the other nine will come back to the Rio Tuesday afternoon for a few hours to get their checks for $900,670 and receive details on what exactly is going to happen over the next four months. ESPN will document how their lives change for a special to air before the plausibly live final table. It will be interesting to see what becomes of these nine.

My favorite at this point is Dennis Phillips, a 53-year-old from St. Louis who wears many hats (including his favorite Cardinals hat). He sells various vehicles and equipment, and is a commercial account manager for a trucking company. He’s played well toward the end, with aggressive raises and re-raises that have caused many opponents to lay down hands. At present, he’s the chip leader with almost 22 million. I had a chance to meet him during the break and he gave me his card so I can call him for a profile for Rounder magazine in the coming months.

Another potential winner is Scott Montgomery, a 26-year-old professional player from Canada, who has a WPT final table from this year on his poker resumé.

It’s now 2 AM and I have to get some sleep before my flights tomorr….er, later today. I’m off to my hotel.  

Team Full Tilt’s Mike Matusow had the honor of being the last big name left in the 6,844 player field, and he bowed out in 30^th place after taking after his A-Q lost to a full house of Aces and 9s. We’re sure Mikey is hugely disappointed with his finish, especially since he’s been playing some insanely great poker over the past six weeks. Hopefully, the $193,000 he banked for his Main Event performance will help ease his pain.

Unlike most other tourneys at this year’s WSOP, the pros just didn’t perform as well as the amateurs in this year’s Main Event. Of course, with more than 6,800 players in a single tourney, even reaching the money in this kind of donk-fest is a pretty impressive feat. With that in mind, here are some of the other FTP pros who earned back their $10K entrance fee and a little bit more:

• The recently signed David Benefield - $77,200 for 73^rd place
• Mark Vos - $77,200 for 80^th place
• Jeff Madsen - $41,816 for 112^th place
• Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, and Chip Jett - $41,818 each for 117^th, 160, and 161^st place
• Ben Roberts - $38,600 for 178^th place

• Total amount won by the FTP pros during the 2008 WSOP: $12,213,376
• Number of bracelets won: 10
• Number of final tables reached: 46
• Number of pros who cashed: 80
• Number of pros who cashed for $1M or more: 1
• Number of pros who cashed for $500K or more: 8
• Number of other useless categories I can keep creating: 236

While the poker world was focusing on the action in the Rio’s Amazon Room over the past two weeks, there was another series of tourneys in Vegas that drew some big fields and big names; the Bellagio Cup.

Why do we care? Because one of the big names – and big winners – was Team Full Tilt’s Clonie Gowen. Yup, after cashing four times during the WSOP, Clonie found time in her busy schedule to take down the biggest event of her career, the $5K No-Limit event worth more nearly $438K.

With that win, Clonie has now officially earned more than $1.2 million in tournament winnings, a mere $1,199,995 more than yours truly.

Greetings from the World Series.

I’ve been here for more than two weeks now, but am just now officially posting as the Blogger on the Rail. (Doesn’t it sound like a title of such importance?) If any of you reading this have never been to the WSOP or even Las Vegas, you need to plan a trip. If you love poker you have to come experience it.

This is actually my fifth year at poker’s grandest event. The first time, in 2004, the tournament was still held at Binion’s Horseshoe. It’s really hard to think of the size of the WSOP then with the size of it now. Today, for Day 2B of the Main Event, they’ve got players spread all over the Rio, from the main play area of the Amazon ballroom to the Rio poker room, which is a good third of a mile away. I hear it’s in the neighborhood of 2,700 players playing today. Insane. I remember in 2004 when they were trying to find space for the nearly 2,600 players at Binion’s. Here in 2006, before the UIGEA was passed, there were nearly 9,000 runners. There were still nearly 7,000 this year. I think this poker fad has legs.

Let me share a quick history of my WSOP play. During that first trip in 2004, I took a shot at an event. It was the $1,000 with rebuys and I was attempting it on one buy in (Dumb move, I know. But as a novice what did I know?) At my table at various times were players with names like Vahedi, Tomko, Plastik, Longson, Rodman, Shoten and this guy they call Hellmuth. You may not be surprised to learn I didn’t fare so well.

I played one $1,500 NLHE event in 2005 with no luck and another in 2006 with similar fortunes. I won a Main Event seat in 2006 through another online poker site and was a card rack on Day 1, catching Aces five times and flopping quad deuces against Patrik Antonius. I managed to take half his stack in another hand in which I turned a set of nines. My good fortune continued until I ran Kings into Aces shortly after making the money in Day 3. The 770^th-place finish was good enough for $16,500.

Last year I played no WSOP events, but thanks to Full Tilt Poker and its Battle of the Bloggers tournaments, I was able to play the $1,500 HORSE event. I sat with Mike Matusow, himself a FTP pro. As seems to be usual in the $1,500 events I play here, I didn’t last long. In fact, Matusow and another player busted me in the third level during Stud/8 when I missed both my low and flush draws.

I’ve used my Vegas bankroll I earned through the blogger tournaments to play other tournaments around town, but haven’t had much luck. I finally cashed last night in a $340 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza event, but only got $740 for the effort.

I’ll be bringing you more from the Rio in the coming days. Thanks for your patronage.

I have to admit I’ve watched the Main Event the last two years with great envy. After taking part in 2006 and experiencing the highs and lows of playing in poker’s biggest tournament, I am jealous every year I have to watch and not participate.

I felt a little thrill in railing Iggy, one of our most famous poker bloggers. He has been called the “Blogfather” because he was one of the first and best. This year, he won his first Main Event seat and I could sense the joy he had in getting to play the thing. It was like when a little kid opens his presents on Christmas. I remember that feeling. Well, then I asked him how it felt to play in it on Day 2 and he looked uninterested. “It beats work,” he said as he continued to fold his rag hands.

Players were eliminated briskly on Day 2. More than 63 percent of the field survived Day 1, but many hit the door quickly as the blinds and antes grew. At the end of the day, less than 1,300 survived and prop bets were made among poker writers on whether or not enough players will be eliminated on Day 3 to reach the money line of 666.

By the end of the day you could sense palpable excitement in Iggy as he held nearly 87,000 chips (close to the average) entering Thursday’s Day 3 play. As we walked from the Rio to the Palms in search of beer, he threatened to let out a primordial scream. Finally, as the afternoon had grown long he caught some hands.

Day 3 is the most treacherous day of the Series. It provides great disappointment for half the remaining field and great joy for most of the rest who survive into the cash. After all, $20,000+ is big money for most people, especially since many of them got into the Main Event for much less than $10,000.

I personally have a rooting interest in a few people today. There is Iggy, of course. There’s also Stephen L. from Toronto, a guy I met in Reno a couple of years ago and have been friends with since. And there’s Hoyt Corkins, my fellow Alabamian who I’ve gotten to know over the last few years, especially since I’ve been working with Rounder magazine where we feature a monthly Q & A segment with him. Hoyt and I are supposed to go hiking on Mt. Charleston when he busts out of the Main Event, but honestly I hope the trip can wait until next year. I’d be just as happy to see him make the final table.

What’s the deal with the lack of big name pros with big stacks at the Main Event this year? I thought this was supposed to be the year of the pro?

If anyone’s been reading Wicked Chops recently, they know that the term “Year of the Pro” has been trademarked by those wacky bastards. So, to avoid the risk of getting into any legal troubles, let’s just refer to it as the Year the Pros Did Better Than the Previous Few Years (YPDBTPFY, for short).

With that little caveat aside, let me feebly attempt to answer this daunting question. The short answer would simply be variance. The pros have been running well in the Series thus far, but that can’t last forever. Plus, the epic size of this year’s field (the second largest in Main Event history), means that the sea of donkyfish (thank you for that one Pauly) is much harder to navigate. Every player is a landmine, and your ass risks getting blown up whenever you attempt to step on one of them. Then again, the $9 million first-place prize is certainly worth the risk of losing a few limbs.

We’re also still fairly early in the proceedings. I have no doubts that a few pros will build a big stack over the next few days and we will once again be discussing whether or not this truly is the year of the pro. Whoops, I meant the YPDBTPFY. Please don’t sue me Chops, I’m ever so insignificant…

Do you ever get the feeling that someone’s watching you? I’m not paranoid or anything, but I think they’re spying on me…

Let’s just file this one under “Why drugs are bad” and move on…

Hello, my name is Svetlana, your new mail order bride. Thank you for your purchase, I look forward to seeing you very soon.

Whoops, don’t know how that one got in there. I must’ve been looking at the wrong inbox…

I just saw that the FTOPS IX schedule has been released, why does it pretty much look the same as the last FTOPS?

Why mess with success. If something ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Yada, yada, yada. If you don’t like it, go play on somewhere else…

(Editor’s note: please disregard the preceding paragraph. One Angry Monkey is obviously high on whatever fumes he’s been huffing today. We would like you to know that we do our best to provide an FTOPS schedule that’s appealing to as many of our players as possible. Full Tilt Poker – we care a lot!)

Until next week…

If you’ve watched any recent interviews, then you know what I’m talking about. Not only is Mike keeping his head and wits about him, he’s legitimately relaxed and positive. Recently, we had the chance to discuss his newly found calm and find out what it is that’s “levelled him out as a person and a poker player.” Here’s what he had to say about luck, staying calm, and the true power of positive thinking:

Do you believe that you create your own luck in poker?

It used to be that I didn’t believe that, but I do now. I know that if you believe that you’re going to be unlucky, then you’re never going to win. If you always believe that you’re going to win – even if you don’t – you’ll always bring a real positivity to the situation. That will make a big difference. So yes, I do believe that you make your own luck.

How important do you think that positive thinking is?

Speaking as someone who people probably considered the most negative person in poker two years ago, to a person who is now one of the most positive people in poker, I believe that it’s everything. I mean, I’m working out and running every day, and always thinking – telling myself – that I’m going to win, no matter how much I’m down. I no longer think that the card on the river is going to beat me; the card is inconsequential. If you don’t even think about being beat, it makes a huge difference. If that card does beat you, you just recognize it and take it as a part of the game and come back the next day with a positive attitude. That’s what I’ve learned to do over the past three months.

Along those lines, how do you handle the swings and keep them from getting to you?

Recently, I’ve read a lot and listened to tapes on the power of positive thinking, and I’ve learned how to take the negativity and turn it back into a positive. Then your frame of mind is clear and things don’t bother you. It’s taken some work, but I’m level as a person and as a poker player now. I think that’s helped me more than anything in playing at the level that I’m at now and have been throughout the series.

What kind of advice would you give to someone to make sure that they’re in the right mindset to play?

My best advice is that, first of all, you have to be on the right sleep schedule. That’s one of the reasons that I’ve taken the last three or four days off. After I won the tournament, I was up until seven in the morning with interviews and everything. This meant that I was sleeping until 9 o’clock at night, and that’s just not good. It’s taken me that long to get back on a schedule where I am waking up at 9 or so in the morning, getting ready, running for 30 minutes, and so on. I’m also trying to eat well – it’s tough to eat well during these tournaments. But at least I’m keeping up with the exercise and doing the right, positive things. That’s the most important thing: keeping perspective and a solid positive attitude.