I wanted to give you a flavor of what your experience will be like should you win Wednesday night's RTTWSOP Tournament. It was an experience I will long remember. If I am not successful Wednesday then I hope you enjoy this opportunity as much as I did.

On May 25th, 2005, I was fortunate to win the Chip Board to The World Series of Poker Tournament. The final table consisted of the following players:

Tom Hanson The Couga

Terry Lazarus Mad Dog of Pa

Steve Bedo Ditch Dog

John Long Azman

Brian Watts joeprogrammer

Rick Miner remin

Steve Passalacqua screwylouie

Dennis Shoop vegasds

Michael Kaplan nitecap

These players earned the right to compete in this tournament by being the top nine point getters after a 25 - week tournament held each Wednesday night on Poker Stars. Approximately 54 players competed in some or all the tournaments.

For being the winner at the final table, I earned a seat in the $1,500 buy-in event of the WSOP which was held Friday, June 3rd, 2005. This was my first experience playing in the WSOP. I began playing poker seriously on Father’s Day, 2003. At that time I set a goal for myself of winning the $10,000 buy-in event within five years. Little did I know those short years ago how big this poker craze would become. I admit it was a bit of an ambitious goal to set for myself. But, hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

I tried to prepare myself by playing in two tournaments at Casino Arizona; Tuesday and Wednesday nights preceding the Friday WSOP tournament. I played as though I were playing in the WSOP and finished 1st Tuesday night and should have finished in the money Wednesday night except for a “Senior Moment” when I over played a pair of 10’s. I’ll never do that again. Right!!!!

I was able to get a free room at the Rio, where the WSOP events were being held, for Thursday night thanks to one of the CC>CC club members. I don’t want to mention his name because he may be inundated with requests from others. It was the finest room I have ever had in Vegas.

I purchased the ticket to my tournament via the internet. I would strongly recommend anyone playing in the WSOP do the buy-in this way. It was a mad house at the Rio during the buy-in there. The lines were forever and there seemed to be a lot of confusion about which line to be in. I simply went to the appropriate counter and picked up my ticket with no one in front of me.

Andy Hughes had told me that it was a long walk from the rooms to the convention center where the events were being held. I paced it off and he was correct. It took 8 minutes and about 4/10 of a mile of walking. The path to the convention room I dubbed, “Bad Beat Boulevard”. As you walked to the convention center all you heard coming from those walking away were bad beats stories. The room for the tournament was enormous. It had 250 tables, I was told, and had a big area set aside for the final table event with all the TV lights and cameras equipment. That’s as close to the final table as I got when I walked over to inspect it.

All tables were set up to have 11 players at them. On the Friday of my event, I arrived one hour early and so did about 800 other people. By the time the event started there were 2,200 players with 105 alternates and many, many casino employees. There had to be 3,000 people in the room. I noticed a few well known names as I walked to my table. I started the tournament at Table 53, Seat 9. There were no known names at table 53 but there was one player from Scottsdale, Arizona, my home address. There was one woman and one older gentleman, like me, and the rest were those “Young Dudes” who probably won their seat on some web site.

When play began, about 10 minutes late, everyone played very tight except for the woman, who played every hand. She later settled down like the rest of the players after suffering a few loses. This table was very tight. At the end of the first hour we had seen 38 hands of which I won two and split another. I would have been happy with those results for the first four or five rounds because when I win they tend to be bigger pots. It was not to be.

I did get a pocket pair of Q’s that first hour which turned out to be my best hand in the tournament. I ended Level #1 with $1,950.00. That was $450 above the starting amount of $1,500.00. About 14 hands into Level #2 I was moved to Table 82. The irony was they meant to move the guy next to me but the hand was already started so they picked me instead. It was lucky for him, not so lucky for me. Table 82 was a very aggressive table. There were about 4 or 5 players who knocked heads several times for the rest of the second hour. They had apparently knocked out a few before my arrival since there seemed to be a lot more chips at this table than my previous one. Some had 2 to 3 times my number of chips. For the remainder of hour #2 it seemed every time I had a playable, but weak hand, someone raised and I was forced to fold. It turned out not one of my folds would have won. I got rag after rag for the rest of the hour. So for hour #two I had no wins and probably saw 34 hands. I was now down to $1,125.00.

At the end of Level 2 there was a 20-minute break to either grab a bite to eat or go to the bathroom. That allowed me just enough time to get through the line to the bathroom. Remember you have 2,500 people trying to use it at the same time

Into Level 3 I found myself down to $725 after trying to play a few weak hands only to be raised again. Being short stacked I could not attempt any bluffs. The other players had too many chips. At some point, two to the left of the big blind, I looked down to see “Pocket Rockets” (AA). The guy to my right “under the gun” called the $100 big blind. I then raised $300. I did not want to blow everyone out with an all-in bet. I knew that the small blind would call $300 or even raise because he was the most aggressive player at the table. When it got to him that’s exactly what he was going to do, he later confessed, except at that moment the dealer noticed an extra card next to the “small blind’s” chips. This card had probably been left over from the previous hand. The dealer called over the floor person and the hand was declared dead and everyone got to pull their money back. I got very upset and showed my pocket A’s. It didn’t matter; the decision was made and so was my destiny for the tournament.

From this point on I didn’t see another decent hand until I had 4-4 in the big blind. Someone raised to $400 and was called by an all-in bet. I thought this might be my chance to triple up since time was running out on me and I hadn’t had anything that was playable. So I called all in with my remaining chips. The hand ended when the all-in bet caught a J to go with his A-J. I was out of the tournament.

I will never know what would have happened if I had won the AA hand and tripled up or I had stayed at table #53 and they had moved the other guy. I later went back to table 53 and noticed basically the same players I had left there two hours earlier.

I walked around to see if anyone else from Casino Arizona was still in the tournament and noticed three guys were still there. I also saw the following players: Tobey Maguire (the actor), Phil Helmuth, T.J Cloutier, Freddie Deeb, Dutch Boyd, Greg Raymer, Mel Judah, David “Develfish” Ulliott, James Woods (the actor) and several other familiar faces that I couldn’t put on a name.

It was only then that I realized the enormity of the situation. To end up at a final table with a field as big as this one is an incredible accomplishment. Either you are extremely good, extremely lucky, or both. On my way out the door I happened upon Phil Gordon telling someone his bad beat story. He had gone out about the same time as I had gone out.

I hope that any of you reading this, who are as passionate about poker as I am, get to experience this event. It is the richest sporting event in the world. I will be back, even if I have to buy in to do it. I have three years left to achieve my goal. This was just one small step toward that end.

John H. Long
#3656