Well, today was a day for fun and relaxing; although I had signed with a ‘Dream Team’ event with my two new best friends Christopher (Left) and Chuck (Right).
They were looking for an extra for their team and when they heard ‘The Big Chief’ maybe interested they jumped at the chance. I couldn’t have wished to have met a couple of nicer guys. They scrapped their initial idea of a team name and decided on a new name ‘Apaches’.
We all entered the tournament with anticipation and, I have to say, there is a little more pressure on you than normal because when you knock yourself out it doesn’t really matter, but when you let you team-mates down it really does.
I was fortunate to soon double up with pocket Aces and was flying. At this stage it was difficult to know how Chris and Chuck were doing as they were a little far away.
Soon I went all-in pre-flop with Kings and a guy called with pocket 2s????
Naturally, the first card on the flop was a 2!
The cowboys had got me again only this time I was holding them! I went to report the damage to my team mates and they were doing OK. It wasn’t long though before I saw Chuck wandering the ailes looking dejected. He had just had pocket Aces cracked with pocket Kings! (Those pocket COWBOYS had beaten us both).
Our only hope now lay on Christopher who was doing OK but not massively stacked. Then the news came through that the blinds were killing him and he made a move with Ace, Queen and a guy called with Jack, 8. An 8 came on the flop and we were out.
It was a great day though as I did tonnes of magic and met two fantastic guys.
Thanks to Christopher, Chuck, Alex the M.C. and all the team at Dream Team Poker.
(For the guys. High res pictures maybe found here, here & here).
Last night, on the last hand of the evening, I was big blind and had King and 10 of diamonds. The guy on the button had been raising all day and Chris Ferguson and I both knew that he was stealing most of the time. We took advantage of this occasionally when we had half decent hands and re-raised so he folded.
This action worked most of the time and we had accumulated loads of chips.
Then the guy did it to me on the last hand of the evening and I had Kd, 10d. I saw a cheap flop which came down QD, JC and 4D and the guy raised again. I re-raised as I had an open-ended straight draw and a near nut flush draw. Eventually I went all-in for $250,000 and the guy called. He had Queen King. (Ironically the hand I went out with last year).
He stole my chips and I was left with $34,000 overnight.
In the morning I was quite cheery as I had come back from worse positions in the past and the first hand I looked at was Ace, Ace. I check raised with this and two guys called my all-in bet. Together with the blinds and antes I QUARUPLED up!. Back on track.
However, with the blinds now at $2,000 & $4,000 and the antes at $500 I was soon going down and my small stack was dominated by the millions of chips around me. When I was on the button, I looked down at pocket 9s. Someone had already raised and I re-raised all-in hoping to knock the raiser off.
It did not work. He called with pocket Kings – COWBOYS!
They stood up all the way to the river and my tournament was over. I missed the money by 12 places, but I didn’t come here to just earn my money back, I came to win.
I will keep you informed of developments over the coming days as I have been asked to attend further events as a ‘celebrity’ – Something must be working!
All day I was sat next to Chris Ferguson who was a true gentleman. I watched him go from $18,000 in chips up to $300,000 – Pure Genius.
On the on the other hand, I started the day with $126,700 and on THE VERY LAST HAND OF THE DAY I went all in with and open ended straight and flush draw.
The other guy (Not Chris), managed to get a queen on the flop which held up.
The sad news is that I doubled him up. The good news is that I am still in the tournament but am low stacked.
For more pics click: here For articles click: here
More updates in the morning. (Afternoon for Brits).
Day three is here and I am currently 50th in a field of 2,000 runners. Initially there were 6,494 entries into the main event and I am in good shape.
I am feeling confident due to all the warm support I have been receiving from everyone, but I got hardly any sleep last night as our car blew up yesterday.
Anyway, I don’t think I will be on tilt and have set my goals for today.
Remember that you can find live updates of chip counts by clicking here: Live Updates (My exact chip count for the start of today is: $126,700 and play, once again, resumes at noon (8pm UK Time)
Good luck to everyone in the Mint casino in Torquay tonight as that is my local casino in the UK where they will be holding their Friday night bonanza. (Unless Nick and Matt have changed the schedule yet again)
Have had a relaxing day during ‘Media Day’ at the Rio.
Media day means that all the media staff can enter their own tournament which looked like a lot of fun. I did some magic for the staff and just chilled waiting for the action to start again tomorrow.
From tomorrow onwards, it will be relentless as I expect 6 days of solid poker.
I will try to keep you all informed as much as possible, but even I need to sleep sometimes. The day there is a long article on this site, you will know I have been busted as I will have more time to moan!
Andy went to the Rio with $37,450 in chips for his 2nd day at the World Series.
Interviews today included RTL, Fox News, ESPN and Poker Magazine.
Many people have asked me to comment on the hands but it is extremely difficult to remember them so I took these two directly from the World Series website. They are screen shots so the pictures are a little blurry.
(By the way, Who is Little Big Chip? My name is LittleBigcard!).
The good news is that I have made it through Day 2 and hold an above average chip-count of $126,700. The average is £113,000.
Live updates of all the chip-counts may be found here. Although, this may take a couple of hours to be exactly right.
Will be back at the Rio tomorrow for another day of tireless poker.
Just a quick reminder of things as they stand at the moment. I have $37,450 in chips and there are approximately 600 people with more chips than me, (I think the chip leader has $200,000) but there are 500 players who are worse off than me.
I have been in far worse situations and have managed to win the tournament so at this stage the battle plan is to just keep my head down and play solid poker.
None of the attention is getting to me but I think it does affect other players – Good News!
I will only go out tomorrow if I do something stupid or if someone has a really lucky break against me, so I expect to be reporting more success stories later on tomorrow.
Thanks again for all the support, particularly to those people who are now just approaching me in the street and wishing The Chief good luck.
I will try to remember a few of the hands both good and bad as several people have asked me to comment on these directly. I must say however, once you have played a hand and are heavily into a pot, it is extremely difficult to remember exactly what may have happened even 10 minutes ago, let alone a few hours.
Starting time on Wednesday is the usual 12 noon (8pm UK time).
This is a guy called Adam. Wow, we just had to compare our head gear.
Adam, you are crazy – at least I can take mine off at the end of the night!
Anyway, people have asked me to comment on the media attention which seems to be gripping the poker world.
As Phil Hellmuth was entering the event as Caesar yesterday with 100 scantily clad women, I was already ahead on the photo count. The media took an average of 1 photograph per minute of LittleBigCard and I am now able to give you a few links to those sites. I am told that most will be for next months magazines.
By the way, today I was interviewed by TV station form Argentina, France, The Netherlands, Italy, USA and UK. I am assured these will all be hitting your screens once the series has concluded.
Is it that I am now officially the ‘Most photographed’ person in the whole of the 2009 worlds Series? (According to runners at the event).
Or the fact that I can command up to $30,000 to wear a poker logo on the front of my head dress?
Or even that I have given 16 TV interviews today – Sky poker, ESPN, PokerNews, Bluff magazine to name a few?
Perhaps it is because I have signed caps, poker shirts, walls, boards, poker cloths and even a poker table!
The answer is none of these things all though they are all true.
The real thing I wish to mention to all of the fabulous mates I have back home is the fact that I have made it through a day of 14 hours of gruelling poker. I never got a real hand to speak of apart from pocket aces and that was the only hand where I had a walk – Gutted!
Anyway, the average chip count is $44,000 and I have $37,500. I will follow this up with a more detailed post about 6pm UK time but it is just past 2am here and I need a kip.
Wish you were all here. Who know, maybe in November you will be for the final table!
Well, today was a day for fun and relaxing; although I had signed with a ‘Dream Team’ event with my two new best friends Christopher (Left) and Chuck (Right).
OK. Here is the news!
Day three is here and I am currently 50th in a field of 2,000 runners. Initially there were 6,494 entries into the main event and I am in good shape.
Have had a relaxing day during ‘Media Day’ at the Rio.
Andy went to the Rio with $37,450 in chips for his 2nd day at the World Series.
Will be back at the Rio tomorrow for another day of tireless poker.
This is a guy called Adam. Wow, we just had to compare our head gear.
Well, what do I talk about?
