Put me in coach, I'm ready to play

Above: The Gold Coast Casino is my home for the next eight days.

I waited until the line died down today to register for the Main Event for tomorrow. At least, I thought I waited long enough. There were all kinds of donks and wannabes players waiting to buy in. The process is efficient, however, and I was out of there fairly quickly with this:

There are some differences between this time and my previous Main Event in 2014. Back then we started with 30,000 chips and 50/100 blinds. Now it's 50K chips, but starts at 75/150. I'm not going to look at the succeeding blind levels and try to do a Patience Factor analysis, just noting it's different. Also, before, Day 1A advanced and played Day 2 with other 1As. This time 1A and 1B advance to Day 2 (Thursday), but continue playing within their own group. Not sure why, but maybe they've discovered that certain situations allow some players to build up huge chip stacks easier than in others. They're always trying to improve things, so we'll just play it as it comes. The structure sheet is here.

I'll try to update occasionally on Twitter where my handle is @memphismojo. Follow along if you're interested. I'm assuming nothing, but if I advance my schedule is this: Play Tuesday, play Thursday, play Saturday and then each day following.

See you at the final table.

Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield -- John Fogerty

Above: Gold Coast Casino is located across the street from the Rio. It's just fine, not as crowded as the Rio this time of the year, and less expensive.