Big day

Event #24 today, noon. I will try not to be in my seat too early, as Dr. Pauly always observes that the early arrivals to the donkaments have no chance of winning.

Checking Wicked Chops this morning, I see from the Twitter feed (see above) suggestions that, contrary to the earlier decision, texting from the table will not be allowed. It appears that this was reported by Mark Seif, confirmed by Jeffrey Pollack. I have looked on a bunch of blogs, on Pokerati, on PokerNews, on Tao of Poker, etc., and have seen nothing else about this. Very strange double-reverse, if it's true--first put in the rules that no texting will be allowed, then make an official but non-public decision that it would be allowed, then halfway through the series start citing and enforcing the rule. At this point, I'm not sure what to expect. If there are few Tweets from me today, it may be because they're making some announcement to that effect.

Full of nervous energy. Slept about 6 1/2 hours, but woke up 90 minutes earlier than wanted and couldn't get back to sleep.

Likely 2500 people playing in this one. That means that 11 people would be expected to get dealt pocket aces on the first hand. They hold up about 80% of the time, which means that about 2 people will likely lose with them on the first hand. Wouldn't be too surprising if somebody busted out with them on the first hand. Hope it won't be me.

Filled with conflicting goals about sitting back and playing uber-tight at first, versus taking advantage of all the dead money people are bringing to the table and getting my fair share of it, before I'm left with only the toughest and/or luckiest opponents. Just have to play it by ear.

Am going to try to remember Charlie Shoten's main "mantra" for poker: "I am calm, confident, and clear, and I wait for my best choice to appear after considering all of my choices and the consequences of each. When my best choice appears, I act."

I'm taking along a little notebook for recording observations, interesting/consequential hands, etc. Hope I stay in long enough to generate a fun post when it's all done.

And if I happen to end up with a bit of wrist jewelry and a couple hundred thou in spending money to boot, well, that'll be OK, too.