The great poker adventure begins

I'm here in New Orleans, in my charming hotel room with exposed brick walls and hardwood floors and loud banging construction outside, and my stomach is in knots. I barely slept, not only because of the construction but also out of a mixture of anticipation, terror and panic over what I am about to do today. Well, those and the bedspins.

I am here with $1200 in cash in my purse to play in several of the numbered events that are part of the World Series of Poker circuit event being held at the Harrah's casino. Today I will play in a $300 buy in at 3pm central time. I haven't decided if I will play in satellites or single tables tomorrow and Saturday, but Sunday is the ladies' tournament for a $200 buy-in. And I've never done this before, hence the cocktail of emotions roiling my stomach.

Last night I arrived about 10pm and we walked the block to the casino from our hotel to do a little recon and get me comfortable with how things work. I'd never been in a casino before, not once in my life. I was surprised at how many slot machines there are--just seemingly acres of them in all directions. I never understood the allure of slot machines, as pure a game of chance as you can get. Before we left, we ended up dumping $15 into one while I tried to figure out why anyone would want to play them, and I left about 5 minutes later still convinced that they are the stupidest thing you could play in a casino.

After walking the length of the place and watching briefly the ring games in the main poker room, we finally found the large theater area where the WSOP events are being held. There was one final table from an earlier event in progress, another event was down to two tables, and then there was a half dozen other single table tournaments in progress. Off to the side, in a separate room that was as boring as a library, there was another event down to about 4 tables. We watched several of the tables for awhile, as I got more and more nervous. I hate feeling like a novice at anything, and this is certainly no exception. Hell, I still get a little nervous at free bar tournaments; how am I going to fare with people far more experienced and skilled than me?

Once my stomach reached the boiling point, we found the nearest bar where I quickly downed multiple cocktails in the futile hope that they would help me sleep. Since that didn't work, I'm a little nervous that my fatigue will work to my disadvantage today, but I know I can't rest enough to take away the nervousness. For that, I have Valium.

(Unfortunately, I forgot my camera cord so there will probably be no pictures until I get back. But the hotel room is really lovely and charming.)