Day One

I had a good night sleep and have now put on my tournament uniform: black suit, white dress shirt.

I don’t know why I prefer appearance over comfort, but the suit seems to give me some confidence and, hopefully, some credibility.  I am representing competence, wealth, and professionalism, but I could also be representing insecurity, cluelessness and pretense.  Who knows what people really think?

I will have a danish and a Diet Coke for breakfast when I get downstairs.  I will eat better at lunch.

Random thoughts before the tournament:

*   I had pleasant dreams last night, including getting on a glass elevator that roamed the countryside.  I like to think this is a metaphor for the creative mind: not A to B, more A to F to Q to J to wherever I feel like going.  I’m not sure if poker is a creative game, however: it’s more like restaurant cooking, making the same dish over and over and now and then throwing out an unexpected special to keep things interesting.

*   Hidden bad omen: it turns out that our room is not on the 14th floor.  We are on the 13th floor, which the casino has renumbered on the elevators for obvious reasons.  Sigh.

*   I just got my seat assignment.  I am on Table 824, Seat 6 in the Normandy ballroom.  The WSOP app now lets you see who you are playing with, and I am unhappy to discover that I am sitting to the right of a guy named Rudijanto Soetikno.  Never heard of him?  Me neither, but he has cashed six times in the last two years and he is going to be acting after me all day.  This means I have to be a lot more careful about my play.  Maybe that’s a good thing. (Thinks.)  Nope, I’d rather have him on my right side.

*  There are three other players assigned to the table so far.  One cashed in last year’s Seniors Tournament, and the other two are apparently winless.  That’s about right: this is a tournament that new players and bad players can afford to try, so the experience level will be less than the higher level tournaments.

*   My profile is not accurate: it does not have my four cashes in the WSOP.  This is good because my competitors might assume I am a neophyte (or as much of a neophyte that a 62 year old can be).  Less information about me is always better than more.

Twenty minutes to the start of the tournament.  I am going downstairs.

Here we go!

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