Collins has been playing aggressively and his boldness certainly seems to be paying dividends as he eliminated player after player and moved past the 10 million in chips. “I’ve been playing the best poker of my life, and playing this tournament exactly how I want to play it,” he remarked and it his strategy of not playing big pots in situations where he has marginal hands is paying off for now at least. We shall be keeping an eye on his progress.

Build up your skills by playing at an online poker site, many poker players study poker by playing online, building up skills before they even think of becoming professional poker players. It’s all down to study, you really have to study the game hard and you will find that many pro’s read books and articles online. They believe that it takes years to build up the needed skills of analysis, strategy, mathematics and problem solving; many poker players play 15-20 poker games online at any one time, some savvy younger players can even play 30 and 40 at a time. Perhaps it’s time to go to your online casino and get in some practice!

The three-day event witnessed a ton of eliminations early on with more than half the field heading home less than six hours into play. Some early victims included Tom Dwan, Mike Matusow, Sorel Mizzi, Barry Greenstein and Annette Obrestad. Frank Kassela, the leaders for 2010 World Series of Poker Player of the Year honours, made the trip overseas, but also failed to make it through the first six levels. The chase is on and it should be hot!

Gary Kostiuk, a 49-year-old optometrist from Grande Prairie, Alberta, finished 85th to win $79,806. Kostiuk, who won a $350 satellite in a home game with a group of 44 friends to get into the Main Event, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years ago and now gets around in a wheelchair. His son Ryan is quoted as saying “this might be his last year to be able to make it out here. This is special.” Six years ago, Ryan convinced his father to take up online poker. Two months later, Ryan had a $7,000 score in an online tournament, and both father and son were hooked. Gary’s run finally ended when his pocket 10s fell to an opponent’s pocket king. All you really needed to see was his son lean down to give him a giant bear hug in his wheelchair before rolling him out the door.

Heading into the WSOP, which begins this week, Obrestad has been honing her skills online. On Sunday, Obrestad won the PokerStars Sunday 500, and in the process, took home $87,000 that will be used for some of her buy-ins at the WSOP. Will she beat Phil Ivey who made the longest run through the Main Event of any pro player, landing at the final table. Ivey fell short of winning the top prize, however, and will be back again this year to try and rewrite history.

Poker is one of the few sports where men and women can compete on a totally equal footing. On the other hand women only tournaments do offer a less intimidating way for novice female players to gain card room experience and to give them the confidence to go on and play in mixed games. They also are great for encouraging women that might not have otherwise played poker to enter the game, so maybe there is a place for women only poker tournaments.

Joining him at the tables in November is Darvin Moon, Eric Buchman, Steven Begleiter, Jeff Schulman, Joseph Cada, Kevin Schaffel and Phil Ivey all of the US. The remaining two are Antoine Saout of France and James Arkenhead of the UK. So as in previous years we have an international interest for the 2009 WSOP fest which kicks off on November the 10th.

For the poker devotees, Shane is back at the tables in a prestigious event in South Africa in September, followed by an internationally televised 888 Poker Open in London in November. Freerolls and qualifiers for this event are running now at 888 Poker, so qualify now and join Shane on TV in the limited entry 888 Poker Open. For full information about how you can join Shane, log on to the 888 poker site now.

Notable celebrities who resumed play on Day 2A included actor and comedian Jason Alexander, world famous cricketer Shane Warne, actor and comedian Brad Garrett, and music manager Rene Angelil. Jason Alexander joins Shane Warne into day 3, so it may be some time before Warne joins his colleagues in the commentary team at the opening test match currently being played between England and Australia at Cardiff.

As we write the players are out there bagging and tagging their chips right now, no surprise for many was the fact that more players showed up today than any other and even more people will be playing tomorrow, the last of the Day 1′s. Big names currently sit at the top of the leader board and these include; Ariel Schneller, Jeff Lisandro, Justin Bonomo. Keep in contact and we will continue to keep you updated on the progress of the big boys at the 57th WSOP.