In late September, I received a mail offer from Ballys inviting me to a poker tournament on October 11 & 12. The event was free. First prize was $25,000 and a seat in the main event of the WSOP. The offer also included 3 comped nights at Ballys or Paris (your choice). How could I say "no"?

I arrived on Monday Oct 10 in time for the registration and dinner buffet with open/free bar at the Paris. At registration, everyone was assigned a 10:00AM or 2:00 PM start time. I received an afternoon start time. Everyone also received a free event t-shirt.

The tournament was not your normal freeze out. Each table was assigned ten players. Each table played down to two players. The two surviving players advanced to the next day wherein everyone played down to one winner. Through out play the diector would give away nice prizes such as IPOD's, Oakley sunglasses, money clips, etc., for various high hands.

The field was truly wide open. Invitations were sent to any players club member of Ballys and Paris who had stayed there recently. Many players had never played poker in a casino before! The tournament had approximately 700 players. The dealers were very patient. The dealers were from various Harrah's properties. Many had dealt in the WSOP.

My table was the Wild Wild West. I played extremely tight, and stayed out of many pots that one would nomally play. Of course, I was seated with a woman on my left who had never played outside of her kitchen before. She did not know even the basics of how to bet, handle chips, or the meaning of "call". She was all over the place and ended up as my table's chip leader at the end of the day (she had pocket Aces on at least 4 occasions!).

My best hand came early on while I was on the button. There was an early limper, and everyone else folded to me. I called with pocket 8's and and both blinds called. The flop cam 8, K, 8. I could hardly controlled myself. The Big Blind made a raise of about half the pot and I called leaving me heads up with the BB. The turn was a J. BB made another medium bet and I went all in. The BB called; she had me covered by literally two chips. She confidently turned over her pocket K's. She was visibly shakened by the sight of my quad eights.

I made it to the final three at my table. In addition to the lady on my left, there was a guy from the East Coast who was a pretty good player. He and I avoid each other and each waited for a big hand to mix it up with the chip leader. The guy folded to me and I had Ad, Kd. I went all in and the lady called me with AA (for the fourth time) and knocked me out.

At 8:00 PM, there was a rebuy session for $250, but I passed. There were just too many wild and crazies in the field. I ended up playing poker at Bellagio, Aladdin, Ballys, and Paris the rest of the trip (I will save these adventures for a nother report).

I understand that Ballys plans to make this an annual event. My advice is to sign up for a Ballys players card to get on the invite list. It was good time for the price.