THIS IS OFFICIALLY my first blog in what I plan on being a series of blogs to come. I have been telling myself to do the damn thing but like most things i plan on doing it just doesn't happen.

I really want to post a trip report for the WSOP ME ,which will be played by my lovely wife. If nothing else it will be a nice little journal for us to remember her first Main Event.
YES, she won a seat in the cardroom we both work at and I have bricked about $500-$600 worth of online superSAT's ! So its a couple ceasars tournies and the $500 employee event for me. maybe next year

So we are both pretty excited about the trip. We are going to make it a roady. It's about 550 miles each way from SacTown to vegas.

She won the seat last sunday in a $550 event that our little local 7 table casino holds each year. We run $65 SNG's which gain you entry into the $550 SAT which she won on the 22nd. We only got 45 players for the final so it was the ME seat and $2500 to the winner and 2nd-5th got $5k, $2.5k, $1.5k, and $1K respectivley. She played pretty flawlessly and was definetly my pick to win at the final table, not just because i married the woman but I think her experience was probably somewhere around double that of the other 9 combined. (In terms of hands played, tournament strategy and so on from the online and live tournies we both have played, she had a clear edge.)
She made a couple brilliant laydowns and also PWNEd a couple of the weak little fishies and slyly showed myself and the rail her 62o after the SUPerdonk check folded the flop with half his stack invested. LOL.
So when it was down to 4 players the other fellow with all the chips approached her on break and asked her if they got heads up would she give him the seat and she could take all the $$ from the top 2 spots = $7500. Although we need the $$ after the wedding, honeymoon, and many house projects, she politely declined knowing that she could PWN them all and would love the opportunity to play her first ME.
It was obvious that the 2 short stacks wanted to move up in money, (niether played very well and WAY too passively short handed) so like the little hurricane she is she pounded them both and chipped up so that when they got heads up they were fairly close in chips. 100k to her 80k...
To make a long story short she knew that she could outplay this fellow post flop so she called 80% of his raises (which were always close to min-raises) and took pots where he missed and valueTOwned him when she connected. A bit frustrated from being outplayed by a girl, she PWned him into getting it all in on a flop where he was a needin a Lunner Lunner to survive. The turn bricked , which meant he was a drawin dead....and it WAS VIVA......LAS VEGAS for the NEWLEYWEDS. {married 05/24/08}
I watched the whole final table and drank beers with her uncle. Most were rooting for the hometown hero so it was VERY exciting when she won it. Last October i watched her win a tournament in Reno at the POT of GOLD and I must say it is PRObably more rewarding than winning one yourself. I put some thought into what its like to watch someone you care about succeed and I realized that I was like a proud papa who just watched his son hit a homerun at his little league game. It's fun to hit a dinger in a softball beer league but to sit in the stands and watch someone who you have been with through all the strikeouts hit one in the stands.... THats magic baby...

SO we are off to vegas on THURSday and I hope to be able to provide a LONG trip report that will extend into NOVEMBER.
For all the times I had to hear the regulars at the cardclub telling me that my girl plays better than me, its ok guys, Im proud of little mama, and she might just retire me at age 27...

IF you got this far, thanks for listening.....

CA_GROWN