Hello again PokerCoaching.com readers and members,

I left North Carolina on April the 9th flew to Atlantic city, for the beginning of an 18 day trip that would take me to the Borgota for nine days, then on to Las Vegas from Philadelphia on sunday the 18th arriving in time to play a couple of preliminary events then the $2500. main event, and return home to N.C. on the 26th.
I know that many of you who are reading this would kill to have a sponsorship deal such as I have in place. But the plain truth is that the physical and mental stress of playing tournament poker is not all fun and glory, but actually is a lot of hard work, disappointment, hours and hours of playing perfect only to be out drawn, thus ending that days hope's and it all begins again the next day.  On the plus side when things go right by playing the game correctly eventually the numbers equal out and you find yourself at a final table and in position for a good pay day, and the excitement of saying I did it. At these moments all the hard work and disappointment take a back seat to the thrill of accomplishment, and you feel like superman.

That all being said you still need some breaks, and on this trip the borgota was a complete bust with my exiting at middle levels of the three tournaments that I chose to play. The venetian was an entirely different adventure. I played a total of three events including the main event, and finished 8th 11th and 32nd in the main event.

Accepting where you finish when you're so close to the big number paydays, is a bit challenging, but if you intend to play this game for a living you better come prepared for the long haul, and be grateful that you beat many other players. I ran extremely cold at the wrong times in all three events, but we all can tell bad beat stories, and if you got your chips in with the best hand, you cannot control fate just accept it with a shrug, and move on to the next adventure.

I will only be home until Saturday may 8th when I will be leaving for two weeks stay in New Orleans at the Harrah's WSOP circuit event.
I am scheduling a few classes this week, so if your interested please contact me.

Coach Bill Seymour

I have returned to my home in North Carolina after participating in the $5000. buy-in main event at the venetian casino in Las Vegas.
I have many positive, and interesting subjects to address pertaining to this event.  The Venetian deep stacks events have become quite popular and attracts many entries, and now adding to the mix is the affiliation with PokerStars.com. newly formed North American Poker Tour (NAPT) combined their efforts generated 870 entries.

The structure of the new NAPT is player friendly. By extending the tournament to five days it has incorporated some common sense into the grueling effect tournament play can exact on a person.  I was pleased to learn that in this new structure instead of playing from noon thru till 2am, we would only be playing each day until approximately 9pm.  I realize that many of the young puppies that are involved in today's game, want to play till they drop, but when your playing for such a large prize it makes good sense to arrive at the final table with a good nights sleep, refreshed and ready to make good decisions. This is the format that hopefully will become the standard for all major buy-in events. It also in a sense of fairness keeps the older generation (who needs to sleep) on a level playing field, and in my opinion will be a plus for the poker community.

We all started with 30,000 in chips and the first level opened at 50/100 blinds 60 minute levels.