How to Win $20 Million.....

• Step 1: Be in the top 36 of 1800 poker players on a Level 1 Freeroll Daily Satellite at Full Tilt Poker.
• Step 2: Be in the final 9 of 1000 players on a Level 2 Weekly Satellite.
• Step 3: Be in the top 20 of 1800 players on a Level 3 Monthly Satellite and win an entry fee to the World Series of Poker equaling $10,000.00.
• Step 4: Go to Vegas
• Step 5: Beat around 6600 other players to win $10 million. By playing through Full Tilt, get another $10 million for winning the WSOP, and walk out of the Rio with $20 million.

At least that's the plan.

Tried Step 1 yesterday on Full Tilt's website. They are running tournaments through July to send players to Vegas in September for the WSOP.

Had a bit of a surprise as there was an actual pro in the tourney - one of Full Tilt's designers, Chris Ferguson. Pretty cool.

Tourney started at 1:45 AM, everyone gets 1500 in chips. Good thing I got to sleep late on Saturday so I won't fall asleep. Running diary time!

1:50: Make my first push when I flop straight. I get a caller, double up, and knock someone out.

1:55-2:10: I push into a lot of pots after limping on the flop, and I get people to throw cards away, so I make some small gains.

2:11: Someone gets tired of me doing this again and again, so they go all in. Too bad I hit top pair on the flop. They're out, I have about 5000 chips. Already, 700 players are gone. Fast-moving game.

2:21: Raised with A-10 pre-flop and got a bunch of callers. I hit two pair with the flop, but played it soft and let betting go around before I go over the top. I get 2 callers. I take all their chips. This is going a lot better than I thought. I have about 7000 chips.

2:24: 1,000 people are gone. It's about this time that I notice the pro at another table. He has a lot more chips. Big shocker there.

2:39: Someone tried to make a stand with a short-stack but I flip over K-Q. King on the flop sends them packing. Up to about 10,000 now.

2:43: Right before the break, I lose a a race - my A-10 falls to wired 7's. Down to 7500.

2:46: 1st Break. I am #227 out of 545 remaining players.

3:05: After folding a bunch of hands and losing small pots, I start to roll with a LOT of good cards in a row. K-J suited, A-Q, K-7 suited which pushed everyone out, setting up...

3:11: I get an all-in, I call, and gleefully flip over my cards showing a pair of Kings. Back up to 12,000.

3:25: Antes come into play. This is always fun. Stealing antes is GREAT. You'll see a lot of pro's loosen way up when the antes start coming out because they can intimidate everyone else at the table. Normally, it doesn't work for me. But this time....

3:30: I take half of a 3-way pot with a pair of aces. The one loser in the pot goes home. Up to 160th.

3:34: K-Q suited. Q on flop, I check. Blank on river, I push, other player all in, other player going home. Up to 89th.

3:36: 10-9 offsuit in the big blind, I get a very nice flop pairing my 10. I push and win a small pot. Move to 69th.

3:40: Started hitting rough cards for about 20 minutes. Had some bad flops and I lose about 2,000.

3:54: 2nd Break. I am 93rd. Ferguson is 60th. Not too far ahead right now. I'm getting tired, though, but going downstairs for a Coke at 4 AM doesn't sound like fun either.

4:04: Dealt wired 5's, flop appears to be a mess to everyone else but me, as I get three of a kind. I push (looking like a bluff) and get several callers, winning a nice pot.

4:05: next hand, same thing - 5-5. I hit trips again and this time knock out two players.

4:07 - NEXT HAND: I have K-10 and hit two pair on the flop. Other players try to push, I go over the top and get two others all-in. They are knocked out. I am up to 22nd out of 148.

4:10: Win a small pot with A-Q. I now have 29,700 in chips. Whoa...

4:15: I trap two players with a pair of kings and win a monster pot to go to 45,000. I am now 7th of 117 players.

(I could actually make it???)

4:25: I win a 20,000 pot with A-K. I am up to 60,000 and I am 7th of 104. As long as I don't get any bad beats I can make it to the top 36.

4:28: I'm moved to another table as players are knocked out elsewhere. TOo bad - I had a run going.

4:35: Uh-oh - I lost a third of my stack when my A-10 falls to a pair of 8's. Hitting it would have pushed me over 100,000. Losing, though, brought me down to 30,000 and 37th out of 87th. Aggressiveness is not going as well here.

4:37: Ferguson knocked out in 87th place. Hey, if nothing else, I survived longer, whether I make it or not.

4:40: Lose about 8000 when I try to push for a pot, but get put all in. I fold 9's. There was an A on the flop along with a straight draw so the odds weren't there. I drop to about 23,000.

4:45: My pocket 3's get hammered by A-8 when 2 aces appear on the board. I'm down to 15,000.

4:52: Blinds are now 600/1200 and antes are 150 so I don't have much time left. I go all-in with A-6 suited. I get called by pocket queens. I am smoked and out, in 63rd place.

So, I didn't make it that time. There are other chances to qualify. Some good lessons learned:

• This was the larget field I've ever played, and I made it to the top 3%. In most cases that would put me high in the money.
• Great players don't win all the time either. And I was playing longer than one was in the same tourney!
• I need to learn how to slow down my play and not push so much. If I'd stopped pushing, I probably could have made it. But, pushing too much got me into trouble that I couldn't get out off. Sticking with just playing strong hands would have been a good play.
• I really need to be ready to focus for long periods of time. The tournament did not end until 7:00 AM - two hours after I was sent packing. I was getting tired after three hours of play.
• I am still able to hear an alarm clock to get up at 8:15 AM after being up until 5 AM.

On that last point, perhaps there's hope yet I'll turn into an early riser.

Hopefully I can improve just a wee bit for the next freeroll. Good thing there are plenty more. This was a good first attempt so I can't feel too bad about it.