WSOP, here I come

Well, I fly out tomorrow to take a shot at the 80 million dollar prize pool, which happens to be the largest purse in any sport (yeah, I said it- sport) in the history of the world. 10 million goes to the winner, who will be one of 8,000 would-be champions of poker.

After my debacle of an outing in Copenhagen, I am determined to play more aggressively. I don't wanna die one chip at a time. From what I heard today, pro Eric Seidel (a great player, but sadly is best known for losing to Johnny Chan in the 1988 WSOP final as shown in the movie "Rounders") but I digress... Seidel said that the pros have seen newcomers to the WSOP play with a level of aggression not previously seen, constantly coming over the top (re-raising) pros.

The notion, spread in many of today's books on Texas Hold 'em, and not a new one, is that the amateur's best chance is before the flop, and they expect to get outplayed after the flop by the pros. This is not new, but the prevalence of aggrssive play is new. Most newbies don't want to go home a second before they have to, and tend to play tight as hell, so this type of attacking game is new.

Talking up playing aggressive is one thing, but re-raising guys like Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson when they are staring at you is another deal entirely. I give these guys credit.

I like to guage each table on its own merits, but it looks like I am going to have to play tighter than I expected. If the bulk of the players are playing one style, you need to adapt and play the opposite, within reason.

My first plan of attack is to play a couple of small tournaments prior to my Monday main event outing. I have such a dread of busting out (losing all my chips) that I need to play a couple of times and lose just to make sure the world doesn't come to an end.

Sure, I have busted out on line a million times, but in person, at the World Series... well, it's a little different.

Wish me luck.