by Michelle Willis

The chip leader from Day 1A, Ryan Collett, had a fantastic day off from playing today. He went snorkeling and swam with the sharks. When asked which was scarier, the real sharks or the poker sharks he played against yesterday here at Atlantis, Ryan smiled, shrugged, and said neither group scared him, but they were all exciting.

His father, Rob, is extremely proud of his 24 year old son who just graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering. Ryan's parents are both engineers, but his father says his son takes it to a whole new level. Ryan paid for his Masters degree with his online poker winnings. He's achieved Supernova status, and his goal for this year is to become a Supernova Elite.

Ryan has decided to take a year off from engineering to pursue poker and travel. He's very dedicated to his game.

Ryan broke his collar bone playing flag football the day before he left to play in the APPT Seoul. In spite of his injury, he fought through the pack and got knocked out just short of the money. He's studied poker like he's studied engineering. Ryan says he's read just about every poker book out there, including the books of many of his opponents here at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

One of the highlights of Ryan's PCA experience so far has been meeting Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu at the opening party. Ryan says he got a picture with Negreanu, and he can't wait to put it on Facebook.

During Day 1A, Ryan says he had a great seat. He was on the end, so he could see his family supporting him on the rail. You can tell it meant a lot to him to have them there. You can be sure they'll be here tomorrow when the action begins.

Ryan is very humble about his poker success so far. He says tomorrow he plans to try his best, just like yesterday, but he believes there are a lot of better players out there. If he does happen to win, though, he's already promised a cut to his younger brother, Matthew, who got him started playing poker.