Crazy

$888 to enter, it played 8-handed, and the winner received - you've already guessed - $888,888.

This was a quite remarkable poker event, by any standards. There were 4 opening flights, and the survivors from each of those 4 flights qualified for day 2. It attracted a positively huge entry - 6,761, which is roughly the same number as will enter the WSOP main event. Anyone care to guess how many of those 6,761 made day 2?

You'd never guess in a million years, or even 8 million years - just 206 survived, which is 3% of the total. Never was an event better named. Crazy.

I am King Bok - official

I am fortunate enough to be attending the 2016 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, and one of the best things here is seeing the British and Irish players doing well, and running deep in various events. We see these players all the time back home, and don't take too much notice, but there's a special kinship when we see them in Las Vegas, and we want them to do well.   

Yesterday, I was railing the last 3 tables of a $3,000 NLHE tournament, which paid $569,158 to the winner. That's real money, and with the currency exchange rates moving due to Brexit, it would be even better if a British player won it.

Of the 24 players still in with a shot, 3 were Brits, so I made a point of wishing each of them well.

The first one I saw was a lovely lad named Daniel Rudd. Dan had 650,000 chips, with the average just a tad more, 703,000, so was looking good for a really deep run. Here's Dan, in his stripey shirt, steeling himself to try and win that life-changing sum of money…

We chatted for a minute or two, I said "you can win this one Danny," and then I stepped back from the table as he played a hand. Suddenly, all his chips were in the middle - all 650,000 of them, and so was those of his opponent, who covered him slightly. Dan had A-K, and his opponent had pocket queens. Most of you know this is a "flip," a 50-50 shot. It's not 50-50 though when we saw this flop - A-A-2. That made Dan a 93% favourite to win the hand. The 7 turn card increased Dan's likelihood of winning to 95%. It's all over baby, or so I thought, until a 2-outer queen pinged the river, and Dan was out. Err, sorry Dan.

The next to attract my attention was a young man from Glasgow, Michael Kane - that's Kane, not Caine - who travels the world playing poker, doing pretty well, and when he is at home, he gets the lot in the Sky Poker cash games.

Michael and I know each other quite well, and I'd love to see him win this, so once again, we chatted briefly, and I wished him the very best of luck. Moments later, all his chips were in the middle with Michael holding Q-9, "on the steal" as they say, and his opponent holding pocket kings, the second best hand in poker. Bad timing by both Michael and me, and that was that, Michael was busto, and that was bok #2.

The third and last Brit I saw was James Akenhead, who is no stranger to winning big money at the WSOP, having collected $520,518 after being runner up in a 2008 WSOP event, and a year later, more than double that, at $1,263,601, after reaching the final table of the Main Event, aka the "November Nine."

James was in great shape as I approached him, raking in yet another pot, and looking as happy as Larry.

I mean, I really should have known better by now. Barely had I turned away, then James bust out. Whoops, I did it again, as Britney Spears might say. All that happened in the space of less than 20 minutes. I am the worst.