Although this is my second year attending the WSOP, it is my first year attending as an actual participant. As I was searching for the words to really describe the WSOP, I realized how one perceives the WSOP really depends on whether you attend as a spectator or as a player.

A spectator is mostly focused on immersing themselves into their surroundings and enjoying the World Series of Poker. They may play an event or two, but they are just as concerned about attending the seminars, taking photos with the live pros, purchasing the online photo of them at the WSOP table, and calling their significant others during bathroom breaks to describe the bad beat that they took hours before. The spectator is still chasing the dream, but not at the expense of their fun.

Even more spectators will skip the events altogether, and just focus on visiting the different rooms and railing different pros, activities and events. A spectator has no expectations, and therefore will thoroughly enjoy and remember his WSOP experience regardless of results.

A player is mostly focused on winning a WSOP event. They are playing multiple events with a planned tournament schedule focusing on their strengths, and have brought a dedicated poker bankroll. Players are concerned with who the other players at the table are only if it provides them with some beneficial information on how the opponent plays. A player is not only chasing the dream, but won't be made whole without achieving it. For the majority, the pressure on their bankroll and coming face to face with so many players will lead them to re-evaluate whether they really want to be a player, or would rather be a spectator. For a small few, their hard work will be validated by a life changing score.

What spectators and players both have in common is how they would describe the World Series of Poker in only one word: OVERWHELMING.

Now it’s your turn. Decide if you want to be a spectator or a player, and follow me through my first week at the WSOP.

Day 1

I leave a room at the Rio at 11:30AM. Everything about the WSOP is larger than life, including the walk from the Rio Towers to the tables set up in the Rio Convention Center. It can easily take 20 to 30 minutes just to get to your table depending on how many people you talk to along the way. Spectators have already been milling about for hours in anticipation of the "stimulus" event, and the madness of 6,000 players has spilled over into the long corridors in between main tournament rooms. Most of the online players met the night before, and their faces tell the story of many hours of drinking in between bouts of introductions. To them, the tournament wasn't known as the "stimulus"…rather, it was known as the "donkulus."

The 1k "Donkulus:" The famous words heard around every Las Vegas casino floor: "I flew in specifically for the 1k event, and it was sold out." The event easily could have had 8-9k runners, but WSOP management decided that they didn't want any tournament to have more entrants than the main event, so they capped it at a little over 6,000 people. They had so many players some people were assigned to tables outside of a cafe near the tournament rooms. As I looked around the room at the mostly unknown faces, I realized that for many players, this was their Main Event…their one shot at glory. I was a little more relaxed than most, as I had a planned WSOP schedule of 6 events, as well as a bunch of the Deep Stack events at the Venetian…but even I was a little in awe at the entire size of the thing. As the echoes of 6,000 players ruffling their chips made their way through the hallways, I thought to myself…the future of live tournament poker and the WSOP in particular looks bright. Finally, the famous words echoed over the microphone: "Shuffle up and Deal." We started shallow, with 3,000 chips, and a few hours in I found myself short-stacked after losing half of my chips with AK against AQ, and soon found myself having to take a flip, which I didn't win.

After the tournament, I went up to the Full Tilt Suite to pick up some FTP gear (part of winning some online qualifiers for some of the WSOP side events), then went downstairs to check out their lounge. The lounge was decked out in classic black, red, and white colors, and as the 40k event was going on, it was full of the “Who's Who” of red pros. My only complaint was that there was a VIP room in the VIP room, which defeats the purpose of giving online qualifiers access to the room in the first place.

Walking around, I see Teddy "Iceman" Monroe really living it up for the cameras. He is talking about himself as larger than life, and baller than ball. As the interview closes and the cameras go off, Teddy becomes quiet. A few minutes later, I find myself standing behind him in the cashier line trying to control uncontrollable laughter as I watch him buying into a game for only 400 dollars.

Day 2

I play in a deepstack event at the Venetian, where I go on a rampage and end day 1 4/32 with 580,000 chips. Play continues on Monday at 4, and soon we are down to 14. I make a bad call with JJ, which I run into KK, and find myself down to 130k in chips. I attack and somehow build my stack back up to 500k as we enter the final table. There are a few guys with over 2 million, and I'm stuck towards the bottom of the field with 500k when this key hand comes down.

10k/20k blinds, 4k ante. Tight player utg + 2 raises to 60k. He is flatted from mid position by both big stacks and I look down at AJ in the BB with 20k already invested. I decide that if I push and with $82k at risk for first place, the tight player will fold everything but JJ, QQ, KK, AA, and AK, and I feel that I am ahead of both big stacks ranges…so I declare raise, and shove all of my chips into the pot. My bold move backfires when the raiser tanks for a while and finally makes the call with AK. GG me..but the positive was 9th place still ships 6k which allows me to play a few more events than originally planned. But with $82k as a possibility, this may be the tournament that haunts me for the rest of the series.

Day 3

Feeling good from the day before, I enter Event 7, $1500 NL Hold’em. This tournament starts with same levels as the Stimulus, but with 4500 starting chips. I double up early in the tournament and have a really good feel for the table when the following hand goes down early in Level 4.

I open from UTG+2 with QQ to 525 at 100/200 blinds, and get re-raisedfrom middle position to 1625.As the action winds around the table, a short stack shoves all-in for his last 3k or so, and yet another short stack from late position shoves all-in for his last 3k or so.

Now the original re-raiser had been 3-betting quite actively, and he had also overcalled several times with pocket pairs like 9's and 10's. I decided he didn't really know what to do post flop, so he just got it in preflop, and with so much dead money in the pot, that he would likely overcall like he had been the last few hours. So, I look down at my hand again and tank for a while, and finally decide that he is holding jacks or tens. So I announce raise, and shove all-in for value. Opponent tanks for about 4 minutes while I put on an acting scene, twitching my facial muscles and generally trying to look nervous when I hear those famous words, "I call." The pot has swollen in excess of 26k while the average stack is 6k, and the following hands are tabled.

Me: QQ

OP: JJ

Shorty1: AQ

Shorty2: 99

Just as I wanted, I get the overcaller to commit almost all his chips drawing thin. Flop comes K 2 4 …turn 10…and river J.Just as I am thinking about how I am going to stack up all these chips, I watch one of the short stacks scoop the main, and JJ scoop the side pot, and I change my thought process to how to get up and walk away without berating the fish…after all, he did exactly what I wanted him to do…SIGH.

* This is Part 1 of JD's 2009 WSOP update. For live WSOP coverage of your favorite online players, visit PocketFivesLive.com.

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