I’ve never sold on the open marketplace, so bear with me as I figure this process out. I’m not a high volume tournament player, but I agree with Phil Galfond when he says that strong cash game players can find success in tournaments if they take them seriously.

Poker rooms across town (well, those in Caesars-owned properties anyway) are ramping up their promotion efforts for the series, offering a plethora of ways to win a seat into various events. On top of that, you can step into one of many rooms to pick up a flier for their own mini-series which will run concurrently; events with smaller buy ins but still impressively sized fields and prizes can be found up and down the strip as well as downtown. WSOP time in Las Vegas is awesome. If you like poker, you simply need to see the sheer size of the production that takes place inside the Rio Convention Center. Rows and rows, hundreds of tables (in use, no less…). Strip poker rooms overflowing with players. So many hopefuls, so many fans of the game, all the superstars and several soon-to-be poker-famous players descending on one spot. And let’s not forget… so many fish!

My plan of attack for this year’s Series is fairly simple: Increased tournament intake to my poker diet where value is obvious, while maintaining strict bankroll management. Traditionally I am a cash game grinder, but there is so much value to be found in tournaments that run during the Series that it would almost be silly not to take part and take some shots. (That is, unless you’re a superballer and can win more in Bobby’s Room cash games, or the $500/$1k/$2k PLO that will probably start up in the Rio high limit section.) There will be plenty of time for me to jump in the cash games, and I’m hoping there’s some good low-stakes PLO to be found somewhere. I’ll be keeping my eye on the Bravo Live app on my phone, which will list cash games running at the WSOP for the first time this year. But I’ll be amping up my tournament exposure over the next 1.5 months, which during other times of the year never took up more than around 10 percent of my playing time.

The 2pm $235 Daily Deepstack tournaments at the Rio are great value for the low stakes grinder. There’s a good amount of play and last year’s tournaments got great numbers, especially on weekends. It’s not every day that you see a $50k first place prize for a $200-range buy in event, but these tournaments can provide just that, and with super soft fields. There will also be similar tournaments running at the Venetian, the Golden Nugget, Caesars Palace, the Wynn, the Hoover Dam, the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, and probably everywhere else across town. Bankroll management is key as always, and I’ll be chopping up buy ins and swapping percentages with fellow grinders.

Which brings me to an offer I’d like to present to you, kind and smart reader. I’ve never sold tournament pieces of myself on the open marketplace, and I honestly have no idea what type of response I’ll get for this. I’m going to sell a percentage of myself for the first $1k NL tournament at the WSOP, which takes place on Sunday, June 10th. I’ll be selling up to 70 percent of myself (I’ll buy the last 30-? percent) and am selling this at FACE VALUE, NO MARKUP. A lot of players add “markup” to their percentages, which is basically a fee for their playing services. Seeing as how I have relatively little in the way of a tournament resume, and am happy to play the event and hopefully make some money for my fellow Pokeratizens, I’m happy to get in there and mix it up without fee. I’ll be selling 10% blocks at $100 and I can accept PayPal transfers (this would be easiest). If you live in Vegas I can accept cash too. If we make a big score I’ll need your personal info for 1099s.

To reserve your piece, send me a message on twitter @andrewneeme or email me: andrewneeme at gmail dot com. I’ll send you a confirmation and PayPal details and after I receive payment you’re booked. If there’s enough demand for this, I’ll extend the offer into the next $1k NL event. Again, I’ve never sold on the open marketplace so bear with me as I figure this process out. I’m not a high volume tournament player, but I agree with Phil Galfond when he says that strong cash game players can find success in tournaments if they take them seriously. Hopefully through previous blog entries or through getting to know me you know how seriously I take this craft.

Best of luck to all who descend on Vegas this summer, from those looking for an experience to those in hopes of a big score. Remember to drink lots of water. It’s a g*ddamn desert out there.

OK, before I over-insinuate: some news-you-can-use for poker players looking to play it straight with the Feds:

Attorney Brad Polizzano (aka @taxdood) has a series on PokerFuse about various tax matters pertinent to poker players — such as rakeback, staking agreements, and Form 8-Ben Lamb, I think it’s called?

And Theresa Fox (@TfoxCPAinc) talks taxable income on Strategy with Kristy n — tackling matters for anyone with gambling winnings in play, especially those that may have transpired in some capacity across international borders:

Click here for BJ’s photo gallery from the 2011 WSOP Ladies event … and here for WhoJedi’s … and here for coverage from Wicked Chops … and here to follow the actual tournament, which is currently at the final table and streaming live with only women left and a $192k first prize up for grabs. (The “last man standing” finished 9th.)

Marie-Lizette (left, brunette) and Annie LePage (right, blonde) share with Pokerati the secrets of forging a successful relationship with backers who may or may not want to sleep with you.

But beyond the inevitable spotlight stealing by a flash mob of penis-wielding hooligans … the WSOP Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship is also where many players experience their first shot at being backed in a bracelet event. The low buy-in ($1k) and proportion of men who believe putting a woman in a tournament might some day help them get in her pants makes the hustle for support another ubiquitous part of the ladies event every year … and to that extent, I wanted to know, from the ladies, how they handle it when a guy wanting to give them money might have a different expectation about what it means to book a big score by going deep.

(Men can be so crass and dumb.)

Have a listen as I sit down with Mike Matusow’s girlfriend Annie LePage and Pokerati editrix Marie-Lizette (at the Peppermill in Reno last month, at the party for Jen Harman’s charity event before the HPT’s $1,600 Nevada State Championship) … to learn how it works for women who may want backing but have to be sure all involved — including themselves? — understand that the benefactor really is interested in their potential skills on the table, not under it.

Part 1: Inappropriate Offers
Part 2: Business Women

It’s apparently all about not sending the wrong message for less than a $10k buy-in. While some may believe everyone has a price … I’m not sure if the service this audio really provides is essential listening for up-and-coming women players — on how to draw proper lines when dealing with a potentially horny backer — or more for men, on how to minimize the creepiness factor to be a better big-swinging-dick.

Hi Dan,

Jake and I will be in Vegas the week of June 13. A buddy of his will be staking him in event #26. Do you have access to any kind of staking agreement we could prepare prior to the event? Thanks.

Chuck

Hey Chuck! I’m not Dan, but I am Dan-ielle so … close enough!

There are no set-in-stone guidelines for backing players but the most common practice is a 50/50 split of winnings, after the backer has been paid back on his investment. (i.e. the buy-in.) The second most common is for the backer to get his investment back and 60 percent of the remaining winnings, with the player keeping what’s leftover after that.

Backing deals can get more complex depending on if the player is responsible for paying back all or some of the money if he doesn’t cash. Usually deals that require no make up from a player would have a higher percentage going to the backer, usually 70/30 or even 80/20.

Here’s a video I found — Mike Frazin – Backing Poker Players and the Rules — explaining “make up” a little more.

Ethics play a large part in making these deals, so Jake and his backer should know each other well or both already have a trustworthy reputation before agreeing. It would be a good idea to use a lawyer to draw up a contract but if they just want to keep it simple, just make sure that each party understands the terms and writes them out, clear as day, for both parties to sign or have notarized. You may also want to be sure you both are clear about the breakdown for tips and taxes.

Hope that helps and tell Jake I said, “Good luck!”

(And even if it’s totally made up, I’m sure there’s a funny joke in here somewhere … and Sam and Eskimo can consider it a public service graciously provided by Pokerati to let them know what kinda trash people may or may not be saying.)

So supposedly, just a few days ago, Sam Grizzle and Eskimo Clark were in the indoor bathroom outside the Amazon Room taking a leak during a break. Eskimo apparently asked Sam how he was doing, and vice versa … both grunted.

Then Eskimo asked, “You wanna trade 10 percent in this event?” (I believe it was a $1,500 NL) and Sam apparently agreed, saying, “Sure, why not?”

Sam then washed his hands and left, at which point another player said to Eskimo, “Hey Paul, did you just swap with Sam on the $1,500? He just busted out 10 minutes ago!”

At which point Eskimo responded, “That’s OK. I never even registered.”

[Rimshot!]

After a crazy-busy multilocation 8 am-2 am Thursday (breakfast meeting at Wynn, Poker Beat at Rio North, Semi-secret Chops/Pauly meeting in Rio South, impromptu meeting with Dan from Victory at Starbuck’s … then back to the Amazon for web-advice from @chazbeaner about the upcoming World Cup, and a lengthy convo with @JoeSebok about UB and pedophilia … and then on to the CardRunners happy hour at StripBurger in Fashion Show Mall … and then to the Hard Rock for my 1/2 NL/PLO game, where I may have stayed a little longer than I shoulda, according to my chip stacks, because with two tables running all night, friends, colleagues, and Pokerati readers were showing up one after another, and I wanted to be a good host) …

Anyhow, yes, so I decided to sleep in, which I did for nearly eight hours, and then took a nap for a couple more hours. It was awesome. So to catch up on everything I missed, I went first to KevMath’s Way Outside … and then to the latest link dump(s) on Tao, where I found all sorts of great clicks.

Most notably … Micon’s Donkdown Degen Report on Raw Vegas:

In this first episode, Micon reports on the latest Thang Luu hand-smashing news … though surely he’s just got his timeline crossed, right? No way Luu went back-to-back in $1,500 O8 bracelets AND breaking dealer hands! It’s gotta be a mistake, because if Luu broke two dealer hands in two separate incidents … damn, that is terrible legendary/awesome … assault and battery or not, that’s the kinda tale people will be telling at the 80th WSOP and beyond.

(Here’s what KevMath has on the matter, btw: http://pokerati.com/2010/05/31/way-outside-the-wsop-day-4/#comments)

And who else to get to the bottom of it than a man who funded his bankroll by picking up dog shit?

But also in this episode … an even better story about earning getting others to pay your way to the WSOP … with noted 2+2er HIV, who got the forum to pay for 80 percent of his action, and then traded an additional 5 percent for Las Vegas room and board.

We wouldn’t be heading to the 2010 WSOP without patches, obv … isn’t that the whole point of the summer? (But we are running out ‘em guys, so do be judicious with the sticky side.) The Team Pokerati crew will include some familiar faces and some new ones, too — from across the spectrum of player types who make their way to the Rio each summer. Follow along, root ‘em on, and stay tuned leading up to WSOP Opening Day as we reveal the rest of our player line-up.

This year, leading off will be John Harris, aka @JohnHarristtu.

If Harris is a minor-league pro, then you might consider him a solid A-ball player. He’s done well at poker, but hasn’t yet made a big splash in the Hendon Mob database. (His profile here.) Harris comes from Dallas, where he took over as the tournament director for the 2007 Pokerati Invitational (and did an awesome job). He now lives in Las Vegas and is currently a dealer at Bellagio and the Venetian. He’s dealt the World Series for the past three years, became a TV-table dealer, and in 2009 was a finalist for WSOP Dealer of the Year. But this year Harris won’t be pitching cards at the Series … he’ll be working instead at the Venetian Deep Stacks and playing at the Rio on his days off.

His first event this year will be Event #1 — the $500 Casino Employees event. Beyond that, Harris will be looking to play all six of the $1,000 weekend events … believing that gives him the best prospects for ROI.

However, as an A-ball player, Harris is working with an A-ball bankroll. Thus, he’s currently locking down backers — friends and poker associates liking his chances of small-cashing repeatedly and/or going deep in at least one of those $1k events.

He’s seeking $6,500 in total, and still has shares available. So help Harris get in the game! He’s even got a nifty PowerPoint presentation laying out his tournament stats and the backing arrangement he’s offering.

Go Harris! And if you win a bracelet, we’ll definitely buy more patches.

So DonkeyBomber is making a desperate unique attempt at getting himself on this uber-elite invite list … check it out … this just showed up in my inbox from everyone’s favorite 2007 Player of the Year:

This year, the World Series of Poker is having a Tournament of Champions. Only 27 players will play and 21 [sic.] of them must be voted in.

Here’s the deal.

You vote for me, Tom Schneider, and ONLY ME, and you will be part of the pool that will split half of what I win. First place pays $500,000. 50% of what I win will be split by people who have voted for me. If I win $500,000, $250,000 will be split by my voters. It’s that simple, and if I get voted in, I will be competing against only 27 players.

The site below is where you vote.

http://www.wsop.com/TOC/TOP50/

They will send you an email with a code in it. That code must be entered when voting.

After you have voted. Send this email to me and the verification email you receive from the WSOP site to tom@bigstackmedia.com and you will be part of the pool. I really would like to play in this tournament and your vote is very important to me. That’s why I’m paying for it.

One more important request. Please email this to any friends or family you have that you think might find it fun to own a piece of someone playing in the WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Please vote and then wish me luck.

Thanks again,

Tom Schneider
2007 WSOP Player of the Year

GL Tom! I will so laugh if you make it to #21 and think you’re in when you’re not. I kid, I kid — I haven’t even voted yet, nor decided how I will. If you win, I’m concerned about the cost of stamps eating away profits.

Click below for the current Top 50 (in random order):

Suggested non-lie, politically correct answer: “I’ve been playing poker with my friends since I was a kid — it’s a great game! — and started playing seriously online when I turned 18 and made enough money to turn pro.”

presented by:

Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.21: HORSE Hunting
4:09

Episode 11.22: The Satellite Economy
5:06

It doesn’t look too different from many satellites or second-chance tourneys that get started in the eve, except there are a few more chips in play, and a lot more recognizable players.

27 entrants so far … cards are already in the air … 28. Alan Kessler showed up early. He’s wearing a Doyle’s Room patch. Mike Mizrachi is trying to get Bill Chen in a lasts-longest … there’s Michael Binger (wearing UB, No-Limit Management, and Deep Stacks University … a few other players that I kinda-sorta recognize, but not really. One guy hovering around who I can assume is a backer, but not sure who he’s behind …

29 entrants. Low-key, relaxed, but serious. Will find out if this is their only stab.

http://twitter.com/johnharristtu

Should be interesting. John’s a good player who has taken his game quite seriously over the past year+ … and he’s been playing on a backer’s money in his efforts to build a bankroll (while making a living as a WSOP Circuit dealer). There’ve been lots of ups and downs along the way, a few needle-moving tournament cashes, and overall he has grown his wad … but that process has been a slow grind to say the least. A big score here would go a long way toward helping him to step up to a level where he could do some real damage (or get his ass handed to him and get sent back down to the minors).

Here’s to hoping he can go deep — or at least last until after the UEFA Champions League final so we can patch him up appropriately and get a picture for the Team Pokerati photo album!

BTW: Though this will become more relevant as more events move forward, you can click here to follow all the twitterings of all Pokerati peeps together.

Team Tao of Pokerati hits Caesar’s Palace (and Bellagio) for the first open-field running (second overall) of Dream Team Poker. Have a listen to join Pauly and Dan + Shaniac on our ventures to the registration and jersey-issue cocktail party … a pregame breakfast at Cafe Bellagio (where we declare ourselves the favorites, or at least a Top 10 team) … and then back to Caesar’s for the tournament itself. Along the way we analyze the intricacies of team play, formulate an alliance against TJ Cloutier, negotiate a deal to off Jerry Yang, and show you how big bets on March Madness might be the secret antidote to tilt. Intense strategy talk and hand breakdowns to boot …

Chapter 10: Go Team

Episode 10.1: Gel Time

Episode 10.2: Shirts vs. Skins

Episode 10.3: Spam and Eggs

Episode 10.4: Karma, Villanova, and Thor

Episode 10.5: Bustout Strategy

Episode 10.6: Better Luck Next Time

Jeffrey Lisandro, one of Tiffany’s backers, had been hovering around the Amazon Room all day on Day 6. The other, PokerNews owner Tony G., had already left Las Vegas several days prior. The UB scandal was blowing up, and so was Tiffany’s chip count. Personally, I was concentrated on the task at hand– reporting the tournament– but couldn’t help but notice all the little side conversations that were taking place in the empty back quadrant of the room, which, until only 48 hours prior, had been a sea of poker tables. PokerNews people and Tiffany’s agent, Katie Lindsay. PokerNews people and other agents. And Lisandro himself, putting his arm around Lindsay and walking off with her to have a private discussion. The war over Tiffany Michelle was in full swing as she sat 100 yards away, propped up on her knees, playing in the biggest game of her life.

I spent 8 years in the Hollywood machine and dealt with a lot of agents in my time. They are some of the most ruthless, yet sickeningly hardworking people you will ever meet. The client’s interest is your interest, and it is the only interest. Everyone else can go fuck themselves. Agents can piss people off and get away with it because they hold the keys to the castle by controlling the talent. Talent is the only real currency in Hollywood. Producers, financiers, studio executives, marketing divisions, publicists? Without the talent what do they have?

While I’m not so sure I agree with pinning so much blame on Katie Lindsay from Suited Connections — full disclosure: she’s a personal friend of California Jen’s, and I always saw her as one of the “nice ones” — Change has a little more understanding of how a cutthroat television world can work (a world that is new to poker even though we’ve been on TV for 5+ years) and has me wondering if Tiffany Michelle weren’t, at least indirectly, an unforeseen casualty of a delayed final table that noticeably upped the television stakes as we got closer and closer to The November Nine.

Oh, one other interesting thing … check out Change’s post right before this one. You’ll notice on that picture of Tiffany Michelle, posted before anyone knew of the brewing UB/PokerNews friction … the PokerNews logo is the most prominently displayed, even after she did her deal with Ultimate Bet.

(Mathematically, I suppose I’m still pretty short-stacked with just 1,178 of those chips working for me; ; let’s hope Tom realizes he needs to get more of them.)

(Table 6)
Seat 1: Matt Hawrilenko – 41,100
Seat 2: Andy Bloch – 101,000
Seat 3: David Grey – 79,900
Seat 4: Johnny Chan – 172,200
Seat 5: Roy Thung – 90,000
Seat 6: Tom Schneider – 117,800
Seat 7: Michael Mizrachi – 82,300
Seat 8: Mike Wattel – 120,600
Click below for the complete HORSE table seatings:

(Table 1)
Seat 1: Douglas Ganger – 183,200
Seat 2: Kirill Gerasimov – 64,900
Seat 3: Robert Williamson III – 88,000
Seat 4: Max Pescatori – 62,700
Seat 5: Edwin Ting – 85,000
Seat 6: Chris Bjorin – 8,600
Seat 7: David Levi – 31,100
Seat 8: John Juanda – 85,800

(Table 2)
Seat 1: George Lind III – 76,900
Seat 2: Ali Eslami – 62,300
Seat 3: Hoyt Corkins – 44,200
Seat 4: Toto Leonidas – 22,100
Seat 5: Gabe Kaplan – 105,100
Seat 6: Phil Galfond – 161,600
Seat 7: Brad Helm – 67,200
Seat 8: Minh Ly – 161,200

(Table 3)
Seat 1: Eli Elezra – 45,100
Seat 2: Patrik Antonius – 169,200
Seat 3: Daniel Negreanu – 54,200
Seat 4: Allen Kessler – 115,000
Seat 5: Annie Duke – 66,700
Seat 6: Jason Gray – 121,400
Seat 7: Ram Vaswani – 59,700
Seat 8: Michael Fiorito – 48,100

(Table 4)
Seat 1: Phil Ivey – 45,100
Seat 2: Loi Tran – 97,100
Seat 3: Matt Glantz – 96,000
Seat 4: John D’Agostino – 144,700
Seat 5: Justin Bonomo – 80,400
Seat 6: Dario Alioto – 123,400
Seat 7: Robert Mizrachi – 73,000
Seat 8: Andrew Black – 24,300

(Table 5)
Seat 1: Mark Gregorich – 162,800
Seat 2: Mike Matusow – 103,300
Seat 3: Greg Raymer – 125,300
Seat 4: Shahram Sheikhan – 93,700
Seat 5: Mike DeMichele – 140,200
Seat 6: Scotty Nguyen – 138,600
Seat 7: Perry Friedman – 72,600
Seat 8: Alexander Kostritsyn – 137,400

(Table 6)
Seat 1: Matt Hawrilenko – 41,100
Seat 2: Andy Bloch – 101,000
Seat 3: David Grey – 79,900
Seat 4: Johnny Chan – 172,200
Seat 5: Roy Thung – 90,000
Seat 6: Tom Schneider – 117,800
Seat 7: Michael Mizrachi – 82,300
Seat 8: Mike Wattel – 120,600

(Table 7)
Seat 1: Markus Golser – 82,200
Seat 2: David Benyamine – 150,500
Seat 3: Chuck Danielsson – 141,300
Seat 4: Fu Wong – 188,100
Seat 5: Doyle Brunson – 137,000
Seat 6: Raymond Davis – 110,300
Seat 7: Stephen Wolff – 192,700
Seat 8: Joseph Michael – 120,900

(Table
Seat 1: Erick Lindgren – 170,500
Seat 2: Gus Hansen – 49,400
Seat 3: Frank Kassela – 60,000
Seat 4: Allen Cunningham – 98,300
Seat 5: Thor Hansen – 130,800
Seat 6: Ted Forrest – 105,800
Seat 7: Alex Kravchenko – 105,100
Seat 8: Chad Brown – 116,900

(Table 9)
Seat 1: Chau Giang – 54,700
Seat 2: Lee Markholt – 66,300
Seat 3: Ray Dehkharghani – 167,600
Seat 4: Jim Bechtel – 80,000
Seat 5: David Oppenheim – 88,800
Seat 6: John Cernuto – 66,900
Seat 7: Brett Richey – 96,400
Seat 8: Billy Argyros – 99,000

(Table 10)
Seat 1: Brandon Adams – 113,400
Seat 2: Brian Rast – 132,100
Seat 3: Mike Sexton – 141,700
Seat 4: Nick Schulman – 50,000
Seat 5: David Bach – 110,400
Seat 6: Jan Von Halle – 83,000
Seat 7: Mikhail Ustinov – 39,700
Seat 8: Kenny Tran – 104,800

(Table 11)
Seat 1: Bryan Colin – 106,600
Seat 2: Michael Binger – 115,500
Seat 3: Paul Fisher – 156,200
Seat 4: Bruno Fitoussi – 101,600
Seat 5: Rob Hollink – 149,400
Seat 6: Hasan Habib – 84,200
Seat 7: David Singer – 17,900
Seat 8: Patrick Bueno – 106,300

(Table 12)
Seat 1: Marcel Luske – 97,200
Seat 2: Jennifer Harman – 87,800
Seat 3: Noah Jefferson – 55,700
Seat 4: Soheil Shamseddin – 67,300
Seat 5: Chris Ferguson – 87,400
Seat 6: Howard Lederer – 88,800
Seat 7: Pat Pezzin – 200,400
Seat 8: Steve Sung – 130,600

(Table 13)
Seat 1: Ben Lin – 31,700
Seat 2: Luis Velador – 145,200
Seat 3: Thomas Weideman – 107,200
Seat 4: Greg Mascio – 163,500
Seat 5: Farzad Bonyadi – 162,400
Seat 6: James Mackey – 214,000
Seat 7: TJ Cloutier – 115,200
Seat 8: Dewey Tomko – 41,200

(Table 14)
Seat 1: David Woo – 76,100
Seat 2: Ralph Perry – 195,300
Seat 3: Rafi Amit – 147,900
Seat 4: John Monnette – 124,600
Seat 5: Barry Greenstein – 153,700
Seat 6: Todd Brunson – 112,200
Seat 7: Joe Cassidy – 198,700
Seat 8: Sherkhan Farnood – 106,200

(Table 15)
Seat 1: Diego Cordovez – 49,600
Seat 3: Bill Chen – 182,500
Seat 4: Greg Mueller – 115,700
Seat 5: Tim Phan – 104,800
Seat 6: Layne Flack – 136,300
Seat 7: Joe Bunevith – 81,600
Seat 8: Tom Dwan – 109,700

(Table 16)
Seat 1: Chris Reslock – 210,200
Seat 3: Jeffrey Lisandro – 118,700
Seat 4: Mickey Appleman – 93,400
Seat 5: Bill Gazes – 128,600
Seat 6: Katja Thater – 137,400
Seat 7: Lyle Berman – 42,900
Seat 8: David Chiu – 71,700

(Table 17)
Seat 2: Isabelle Mercier – 112,300
Seat 3: Dan Harmetz – 113,600
Seat 4: Steve Zolotow – 137,700
Seat 5: Marc Goodwin – 157,100
Seat 6: Keith Sexton – 113,100
Seat 7: Freddy Deeb – 111,600
Seat 8: John Hanson – 62,800

(Table 18)
Seat 2: Dario Minieri – 131,600
Seat 3: Tom McCormick – 97,300
Seat 4: Tad Jurgens – 172,700
Seat 5: John Hennigan – 73,700
Seat 6: Huck Seed – 90,600
Seat 7: Abraham Mosseri – 148,900
Seat 8: Tony G – 66,700

At the first break of the mega, Tom stated that he was short-stacked and would probably be out soon. (Ding!) Regardless of the satellite outcome, he plans to play in the $50K event tomorrow and was very honest about how he would do so. He has sold some pieces of himself and is in discussions with a few other possible takers. At this point, he believes he will have to put up a good chunk of the buy-in himself, somewhere in the range of $20K and $35K.

While Tom doesn’t seem too thrilled about forking over that kind of dough, he doesn’t see being able to skip this event with so much prestige and money on the line. So, with bias firmly intact, go Tom!

Kenna James admitted that he does not have the money for the buy-in, though as Dan has previously noted, how many people really do? Kenna noted that a backer had contacted him about the possibility of working a deal, and he is considering that, as well as trying to win his way in through a mega satellite, the last of which is this evening at 5pm. With the announcement of the two additional satellite opportunities over the past few days, this gives him more outs. Personally, I didn’t get the feeling that he was super determined to play the H.O.R.S.E. event, but that remains to be seen.

Mark Newhouse is feeling good this year. With the disagreement with Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf out of the way and a backer firmly in place, he can be found walking around the Rio all the time, even standing around watching other tournaments on his own tournament breaks. He seems more determined than ever to make waves. For this reason, the $50K H.O.R.S.E. has definitely been on his mind.

While Newhizzle has a backing deal for the entire WSOP, he chose to exclude the H.O.R.S.E. event from that deal because “I don’t want that kind of makeup.” He also noted that despite his self-confidence, he doesn’t feel like a huge favorite in this particular event and wouldn’t want to take a chance on it by buying in directly with a backer’s money. He played two mega satellites last week and was not able to score a seat, but when I told him that there were mega opportunities still available, he immediately called his backer to discuss that option. If he wins a seat, he will play.

Off the tables, players are shopping around for backers, as very few players have the true bankroll to justify such a big buy-in against arguably the strongest field in the world. Using the most basic bankroll management math, a player should have $5 million put aside just for poker for HORSE to be a no-brainer buy-in. I gotta think there aren’t more than 25 or 30 mixed-game-capable players in the world with the five double-ems in the family BR, yo? Yet we can expect to see probably about 150 runners competing for the Chip Reese title.

CORRECTION: I made a mistake on the podcast when saying a proper poker bankroll for a $50k buy-in is $5 million. Oops, added an extra zero … $500k should suffice.

…Okay, that title may be the single gayest line I’ve ever typed. My bad. I’m draining Dos Equis and blogging via Hooters WiFi.

I’m about to fire off an email to friends, family, etc., inviting them to take a piece of me in a second $1,500 NLHE Event, which I wasn’t originally planning on playing. I’m actually interested to hear your opinions on how I’m handling the two-event split and the Main Event equity parlay.

Check out the details at my super-new personal blog (blog.karridy.com), and let me know if you think I’m drawing dead.

ALT HED: For sale: BackerTracker.com – $1,500