Garry Gates

Well here we are on July 9th, with just a little more than a week left in the 2007 WSOP, and I've finally managed to find the time (and motivation) to get a blog post in. For those of you who are unaware, I've been working as a blogger for PokerNews.com at the WSOP (under the screen name 'gsqwared'), therefore I've tried my best to avoid spending any of my free time blogging for fun, so as not to get sick of blogs, bloggers and blogging altogether.

I'm one of the night crew guys on the team, and most of the time I don't get out of the Amazon Room until after 4:00 a.m. or later. My days have gone as follows: Go to work at 5:00 (sometimes earlier, sometimes later, depending on the schedule of events for that particular day), work until the sun comes up, drive home, sleep until two or three, eat lunch, catch up on the day's events and start the whole thing over again. It has been a real grind, but I wouldn't do it if I didn't love every minute of it.

John Caldwell and the rest of the crew behind the PokerNews machine have put together a fantastic team of bloggers and tournament reporters, and it's been a lot of fun getting to know and work with everyone. Of course there's always room for improvement in the growing field of tournament reporting, but overall we feel like we've produced a solid product. If you haven't already, stop by and check out our daily coverage at www.pokernews.com - we'll be working our tails off until the very last pot is pushed.

As for what's next, I really don't know to be honest with you. I would say that I'd expect things to return to normal once the Series is over, but I think I've forgotten what "normal" is. That said, I'm optimistic that my experiences this summer will turn into something bigger and better, as I've been fortunate enough to have met some great people in the business, while simultaneously adding a pretty solid bullet to my resume. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

In any case, with one "Day 1" left to go, this year's Main Event is shaping up to be one to remember. The atmosphere in the Amazon Room has a much more serious feel to it than in year's past. The costumes, masks and semi-circus style acts of recent Day 1's have been kept to a minimum; there's one bracelet left to win before it's all said and done, and each one of the players who ponied up the $10,000 entry fee to play in the event has their sights set on it. With three of the four Day 1's already behind us, and already 4,575 entries thus far, the 2007 Main Event is (temporarily) the 3rd largest poker tournament in history. All eyes will be on the size of tomorrow's field, when we'll know just how big this thing is going to get, and how much the grand champion will receive.

I've got tomorrow off (we're celebrating my girlfriend's birthday a day early), but I'll be back on the saddle Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. PDT. Don't forget to visit www.pokernews.com for the most frequent live updates of the Main Event you're going to find anywhere on the net, on the road to crowning the 2007 World Champion of Poker.

That's all I can muster for the time being - have to wake up in just a few hours for a birthday breakfast at the Wynn buffet with the Ms.

Until next time, good night and good luck!