The last Reno WPT

starts tomorrow. I'm still not sure if I'm playing. I have a nice phat wad of 77 benjamins ready to throw down, but the way I have been running/playing/thinking/donking it seems like a pretty thin EV situation. That and the fact that the fields this past week have been very tough.

I've been thinking about how an amateur player has any chance to compete with these fields anymore. The challenges of online poker have caused a contraction of the universe of players so that when I sit at an online tourney table I recognize several names every time. These are people who grind for a living, playing >10 hours daily and who have amassed hundreds of thousands of hands of experience-- how can i realistically expect to compete with that? The thing is that even with all that experience, the edges remain small. Winning a race once in a while would also be helpful.

I've played this tourney 4 times. Previously its been a $5100 entry. In 2004 I went out very early. I was a superfish, highly intimidated by the field, and I called off all my chips with top pair with QJ to a guy who had flopped a set of nines. I almost rivered a flush, but ended up making an exit after only about 2 1/2 hours of play.

In 2005 I made a big run, headed into day 2 as one of the chip leaders, and getting into the money and into day 3. Played with Phil Ivey on that third day and got all my chips in with TT to be called by AQ. Flop came with two Queens, so it was not to be my day. Barry Greenstein eventually busted my A5s with QT.

2006 brough Hassan Habib to my first table and he just bulldozed the rest of us. After half a day's play I found myself with AQ on a Q high flop and lost all my chips to a well-disguised KK.

2007 started off fairly well. Phil Laak and Mike Simon were at my first table. Made it to the dinner break, but was fairly short. Kirk Morrison rivered an ace with his AT against my all in 77 and that was that.

The opportunities to satellite into this tourney this year have decreased. There is a mega-sat tourney today that I might give a whirl. Failing that, I'll have a talk with Mr. Franklin from the bank and see where he is best placed.