Garry Gates

At 4:53 a.m., I find myself sitting at my computer desk still wide awake, and for the fourth night in a row I probably won't get any sleep until the sun comes up.

My first column for WHP debuts tomorrow (today if you're the "it's already after midnight" type), so I'm excited about that. Coincidentally, Wednesday was my favorite day of the week even before I found out that my weekly column would be published every Wednesday.

I am particularly excited for this Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, because my homegame officially welcomes its newest regular - one of the original poker tables from the now extinct Stardust Hotel & Casino. My roommate Brian participated in the auction held by the casino's owners, during which thousands of priceless items from the casino were sold for a pretty penny. Brian put together some serious dough to land this monster pick-up and I look forward to its initiation later tomorrow night.

I also enjoy Wednesday because it is the one day of the week I actually put my body to work, in the form of an indoor soccer team I play on with a small group of poker players. One of my teammates is Joe Tehan, high stakes tournament player and winner of the inaugural WPT Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, cashing for over 1 mil. I watched Joe earn a spot at the TV table live at Mandalay Bay and was surprised to hear he would be playing on our team. He's missed a few weeks traveling to and from various poker tournaments, but I'm happy to report that he scored his second goal of the season last week in our dominating 8-4 victory over the last place team in the league. High five, Joe!

I'm going to try and get a good night's sleep before what should be a great day tomorrow. Take a minute to read my first WHP column - feedback is always welcomed.

Goodnight for now,

Garry (with 2 r's)