Off to San Antonio/Las Vegas

Well, I depart tomorrow morning, and in a long tradition, I stay up too late and pack at the last minute. I am excited about the trip and it seems to pass more quickly if I go to bed with only two or three hours until I get up. It also gets me right to sleep. I often toss and turn half the night when I get to bed at a reasonable time the night before a big trip.

Tomorrow, I land in San Antonio to speak at a conference of really wonderful folks who changed the schedule around a bit to help me out.
Saturday morning, I fly to Las Vegas to compete in The Poker Dome. Apparently, I am shooting interviews as soon as I land, then there are things they run us through during the day before we tape the show live at about 5:30 or 6pm. Amazingly, the only edit IN a few things like snipits from interviews, and they somehow do it all in one day, airing the episode on Sunday night.

That's right folks, yours truly will be playing crazy speed poker on national television Sunday night, 11pm EST on FSN, also known as Fox Sports Network. It should be pretty exciting.

The game of speed poker is crazy. You only get 15 seconds to make a decision. That shouldn't be too tough for me,m as I play online quite a bit where you get a very limited amount of time to make decisions. The difficulties for me will probably be around the pre-flop "pot" limit wagering (as opposed to No-Limit) and the escalating blind structure.

They all also attach a heart monitor to you, and broadcast heart rates to the studio audience, which is outside the sealed dome. They known the cards you are holding and your heart rate, they know your chip counts, all registered by tiny micro chips inside the chips and cards, and you just know that things are moving very quickly and that your head is spinning.

My brother Jay, who lives in Las Vegas, will be there, as well as my brother Geoff, who is driving out from California to watch the match. I have been on such a roll of late, I can't expect great luck. Buit I will sure need it. Skill plays a smaller role in a tourney such as this, with speed a factor and the blinds escalating rapidly. I am going to try to stay cool, remind myself that it doesn't really matter in the whole scheme of things, whether I win or lose, and just make good decision. Above all, I need to be unafraid of losing so I can take necessary risks.

Wish me luck!