Ryan Schmelzer

Roughly 10 days before the start of the WSOP this summer, Gary and I were talking and he asked me if I would be interested working with PokerNews to do chip updates for them. It’s something that I really wanted to do and I knew I would enjoy the time I’d be working. It also would have given me the opportunity to make some connections in the industry incase I decide to dabble in it after I graduate.

I got in contact with Garry Gates, who did some work for this site in the past, and we discussed how everything would work. It was short notice, but things could have worked out with just a little planning (living arrangements, transportation to and from the Rio, etc.).

One thing made me think declining the offer might be the best thing though. If you follow my blog (sadly my entries have been scarce lately), you might remember that last summer my dad was diagnosed with brain cancer. His tumor started growing again this spring and was successfully operated on again. The fact that I never knew what would happen and when led me to decide it was best that I don’t move across the country for a month and a half.

This ended up being the right choice. On what I think was day two of the Series, we found out that my dad’s tumor once again had started growing and had moved into a new location. To make matters worse, the area it moved to is inoperable.

He just started a new study program on Tuesday. He has to get an IV every Tuesday and take a pill everyday. Like everything involving brain cancer, this is in the experimental stage and has no guarantees. All we can do is pray and hope this is the answer.

I hadn’t been playing much poker this summer till a week or two ago. Things were going just OK. However, I recently picked up limit Omaha hi/lo and it has been going well for me. I have always liked the game a lot, but I always felt I had a better edge in NL hold’em. I have only had one losing session in Omaha in roughly 5 sessions. My loss was kind of sick. I had tripled my buy-in and ended up a loser. I wasn’t too happy with that. I played earlier today and lost my first buy-in and ended up fighting back and ended up a buy-in.

All I have for now. If any of you played in any WSOP events, I hope they went well. If you are playing tomorrow in the Main Event, best of luck to you!