I made the trip out with Joe Cada, Dennis Phillips, and my agent, Dan Frank. As for the tourney, I made the final two tables, but no cash for me. Too bad. I was really looking forward to adding that to my Hendon Mob stats (lol).

After Wichita it was off to Las Vegas to cheer on my good friend Grinder at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Grinder, who I had a small piece of, ended up going out fifth: gg,Grinder. PokerStars had a good showing there, as usual, with Duhamel flying our flag and taking home another championship bracelet to Stars.

I was impressed with Duhamel's play overall. So many past world champions have made some goofy play or gotten really overtly lucky to win the thing, and to be honest, I don't think I saw Duhamel make a bad play since he busted Matt Affleck before the final table.

After that it was off to a PokerStars event - NAPT Los Angeles! I played three events there - the $5k Main Event, the $5k Heads up, and the $5k Bounty Shootout. In the heads up, I won my first match, but against my second opponent, it was probably the worst heads-up match of my life. I didn't last too long.

For the main event, I ran into a super-cooler to knock me out, and it was a bummer because I had a decent amount of chips! With three hours left at the end of day one, I was cruising along nicely with about average chips. The blinds were 200-400, and I had about
35,000. Action folded around to the cut-off who made a min-raise to 800. The small blind called, and I called in the big blind with [As][8s].

The flop came down A-A-T. The small blind checked, I checked to play in flow, and to let the original raiser take a shot at a continuation bet. But he didn't. He checked as well. It might have looked suspicious if I were not so strong myself.

The turn came an 8, and also put a flush draw on board, but what did I care, I just boated up. The small blind checked, and I checked again, hoping he could now fire as it had been checked around twice. This time he did bet, 2,200 into a pot of about 3,000. But then something weird happens - the small blind makes it 7,100.

At this point, I know the SB has an ace for sure, and the only hand
that's beating me on the entire planet is A-T. Pocket eights are also possible, but not all that likely. I re-pop because I want to make sure I can get the money in now before a bad card comes on the river that might make him want to get away from his big ace. I raise, and basically commit my stack. He puts me all in, I call, and yup - A-T. What a cooler!

The $5k Bounty Shootout was pretty fun as well It was a winner take all event, with$1k bounty bonuses on anyone you knock out, so you have to play it a little faster than a normal tournament. I had basically what you would call an internet table, with only a few live pros present, one of them being Hassan Habib on my left. I busted the first three players at the
table, and then somehow went out with five players left.

I just happened to tangle with the only other player with a lot of chips. I ended up getting all my money in with Q-J on a Q-J-9 board, but unfortunately, my opponent had flopped the joint with K-T and that crippled me.

From Los Angeles, I went home to play in the USA Coop, which is PokerStars' new tournament series open only to US Residents. There were great overlays on all the events, and since I cashed in three out of the eight I played (and broke even), I considered it to be a success.

The USA Coop had much softer fields than the Sunday Million. I should have done better, but didn't.

Coming up, I'll be playing a charity event in NY to benefit research for Muscular Distrophy. I won't travel at all during Christmas,because I love Christmas in New York. There is no place in the world I would rather be. Times Square. The Rockettes. Rockefeller Center. It's amazing and incredible - and I love New York!

During the holidays, I'll be resting up in order to get prepared for the PokerStars marquee event of the year: The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

I'll be playing the big four events there: the $5k shoot out, the $25k High-Roller, $5k Horse - and, of course, the $10k main event. I had a decent showing there the last four years, so let's see if I can go deeper this year.

Happy Holidays!

I was really looking forward to the month of September. You've got the WCOOP on PokerStars, and things usually tend to finally cool off just a bit here in New York City. I was all set to take all the things I had learned about online poker this year, and apply them to the WCOOP, when a bit of tragedy struck.

For many years I worked with a fellow named George who was in charge of a lot of my building construction for the various properties I own and manage in New York. We eventually became very good friends. Within the past few years, George took what money he had and decided to move to Florida to try to make a better life for himself and try some real estate speculation of his own. To make a long story short, he lost everything in the recent real estate failure in Florida, got frustrated, and last month he took his own life.

Not only was I upset to hear the news, and for the loss of my friends, I was also very upset I wasn't there for him in the end to talk to him. I was out of the country at the time, and I don't know that my input would have made any difference, but I can't help but feel awful about the fact that I wasn't there.

This led to me being a bit distracted at the WCOOP began just after I heard the news. I would say I'm ok with my performance, especially given the circumstances. I lost about $12k overall, which I consider to be a victory considering my mental state and the fact that I spent way more than that amount in buy-ins. I only had two cashes, but I was lucky enough to satellite into a lot of events, and that kept my overhead low as well. Considering I played some of the bigger events, and especially the re-buy events, I'm totally ok with this figure. I played 18 events total including the Main Event, several second chances, and the $2200 HORSE.

I found a particular hand from the WCOOP Main Event to be pretty interesting, and I'd like to share it with you.

For the Main Event, you get a lot of chips. So I was playing in what I like to call my "Deepstack Mode." For me, this means I try not to go broke in the early levels in marginal spots. I will still push my edges, but before I do, I want to make sure I've given myself the biggest edge possible. I broke away from that strategy in the hand crippled me.

Blinds were at 250/500 and I had about 60,000 in chips. 40,000 was about average, and I had over 100 big blinds. As you know, this is a glorious sized stack to have, and something I should have been working hard to protect. I was in middle position with pocket kings. My standard raise had been to 1200. It was folded to me, so that's what I made it. I had three callers so already I was a bit on edge.

The flop came K-5-4 with two spades. I led out into the three opponents. One player called, and the player on the button raised. A big raise. There was about 4k in the pot, and I had led out for 3100, so with the caller, there was about 10k in the pot. The player on the button made it 13k to go. There's no way I can be beat in this spot (yet), so the only conclusion I can come to is that he's on a flush draw. This is where "deepstack mode" comes into play. A lot of players would love to push their edges here and let the guy stack off on a flush draw, but for me, I prefer to let the turn come off. If it's not a spade, I'll then push an edge twice as big, and if it is, I can decide to either get away from it, or try to get a cheap river and maybe boat up.

I didn't follow my own strategy, and I ended up jamming there on the flop. Well, as it turns out, I really didn't have much of an edge at all, as he was holding 8s-7s, and we were basically a coinflip considering he had so many outs. This is not my style of play, and of course the turn came a blank and the river came a spade. If I had followed my original strategy, I would have been able to get him off his hand (probably) when the blank hit the turn. If I had shipped the turn instead, the pot would have been laying him for worse odds. I'm not beating myself up too bad, since I got it in with a set, but I'm just upset that I didn't listen to myself. Good poker players correct their own mistakes and this is the second blog in as many months where I went against my own style and I regretted it.

On a personal note, I started going to Bikram Yoga. For those of you who don't know, Bikram Yoga is yoga done in a room where the keep the temperate at well over a hundred degrees. You sweat your ____ off, and it brings all the toxins out of your body. I'm not going to lie - some of the views in the room ain't bad either. It sounds crazy, but the whole thing makes you feel really good and energized. I'll probably start doing it twice a week soon. Here's a word of advice though: if you start to feel dizzy or lightheaded, do not close your eyes. Let's just say I may know this from experience. And let's just say that I also know from experience that being revived by a yoga instructor, while pleasant, is somewhat embarrassing.

Other than that, I'm really looking forward to NAPT Los Angeles in November, and thoroughly enjoying the PokerStars.net Big Game on FOX. It comes on around 2am, but if you don't get it in your neighborhood, you can always watch it online. Really great cash game action. If you can't make it out for the NAPT, I'll be playing on PokerStars every Sunday from now until the foreseeable future. I play at least four tourneys a week on there - The Sunday Million, The Quarter Million, The Daily Nightly Grand, and the $100 Rebuy. Come say hello!

Talk to you soon!

On the poker-for-profit front, I made it to day two of the PokerStars.net NAPT Venetian, but unfortunately I didn't make it any further. I got it all in with two kings on a jack-high board and was called by pocket sevens. A seven came on the turn, and that was it for me.

The good news is that I did satellite in through PokerStars, and I've already won my seat for the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun. That makes my two for two for satellites to NAPT events.  You can satellite in for as little as a few dollars on PokerStars, so I'm basically free-rolling.  I'll take it.

I did want to share one hand that I played online with you guys though. I was playing in the PokerStars Sunday 500 one weekend.  I am really starting to enjoy playing online, and it's become even more enjoyable now that I've realized a) how easy it is to tilt people and b) how badly they want to give you their chips.

I was deep in the event when I decided to open ship with two Aces under the gun. The Villain whom I had beaten in a few pots already practically beat me into the pot (for 100k) in the cut-off.  I expected to see no worse than Ace-King, so I was shocked whe he turned over [10h][9h]. 

This is basically a suicide play, based on steam, and tilt.  Villain has to know that he's not ahead of anything with that hand, and he's calling purely to try to get lucky.  Best case scenario, he's up against a smaller pair, and then he's flipping a coin at best.

Well, this kamikaze attack did work in this case, and the USS Ramdin was sunk.  Even though the play ended up working out for him, this is a prime example of why emotion can be so dangerous. 

When it comes to poker, it's ok to take a punch without necessarily having to punch back. 

Sunday night I chopped the $100 rebuy on PokerStars, splitting about $80,000 in prize money, so that was a pretty good score.  This score has got me oh so fired up for the upcoming SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) on PokerStars!

Things went pretty well for me there, so I feel like this is going to be a big year. No, I didn't win the main event at the PCA. In fact, I only min cashed. But any other tournament pro can tell you: you can do a lot worse than starting off the year with a cash.

I did very well in some of the side action as well. Sure, there were the $1k Sit 'N' Goes, of which I won three, and cashed in three others, but I'm talking about the real side action.
ThePokerStars event in the Bahamas is held at the Atlantis Resort, and there's always plenty of fun and games going on off the felt as well. I went 0-2, in heads-up matches racing down the waterslides - losing to both Hevad Kahn and Joe Cada. We (Noah Boeken, Chad Brown, and myself) also narrowly lost the sandcastle-building competition when we were rivered by Vanessa Rousso and Gavin Griffin's last-minute addition of a two-car garage.

Overall, I was very happy with the way I played the event, and I was especially pleased with the cash considering I should have gone broke on day one: very early in the event, I raised under the gun with pocket queens. So much of poker is situational, and about paying attention to your opponents, and I had noticed that there was one fellow at the table who hadn't played very many hands at all. When he did, they were very strong hands. I also noticed he was wearing headphones.

When action came around to him, he tossed out some chips, and then seemed surprised when his action was declared a call. He had not noticed my raise! He also failed to announce "raise" on his end, so instead, he only called my bet. In poker, you have to use everything you can to your advantage, so I already had more information about this guy than I should have.

The flop came an ace with two rags, but also two spades. I already didn't like it, considering I knew he wanted to raise pre-flop. I didn't want to get raised, so I checked. At this point, he bet something very, very small, so I hung around to see if I could peel a queen off on the turn. Sure enough, I turned a set of queens. Now I check again, hoping to check-raise. Only this time, he does not bet small. He bets the entire pot. In any other situation, when I turn a set of queens, I'm going to use this as a way to get all of his chips in, right now. But now, I'm a little suspicious. Is it possible that he has a set of aces? Is he trying to protect his set from the spade flush coming out on the river? I can't raise, but I can't really bring myself to fold either.

Luckily for me, the river was an action killer - another spade. I check again, and "Headphones" makes another small bet on the river that I have to call. As I suspected, he had three aces. I lost about 50% of my stack on that hand, but I think a lot of other people go broke there. I was able to fade that big hit early on, and still cash in the event. I'm hoping I can continue making good, educated decisions for the rest of the year.

After the PCA, I played in 2009 November Niner Steve Begleiter's charity event to benefit the Fallen Heroes of 9/11 aboard the USS Intrepid. The place was full of cutthroat, mathematical geniuses. No, not poker players. Stockbrokers. Some of the best in the world. The event was a blast, and we raised a lot for charity. A win-win. I was joined by friends Dennis Phillips, Kevin Schaffel, and Dan Frank (my agent).

And, even though it's February, I thought I would share with you my New Year's Resolution: play more online poker! I know, it sounds crazy, but I feel like I've finally figured out how to start winning a bit online, and I'm going to put it to the test. If you want a hint: I've already told you - play more. No, not necessarily more often, though practice makes perfect. I've just realized that I can't only play one game at a time. I get too bored. Now, I play at least 3-5 tournaments at a time, and I find that it keeps my adrenaline pumping enough that I can actually focus and not get bored.

I decided I'll be playing all the Sunday tournaments on PokerStars at least three out of the four weekends of every month. This means at least 36 Sunday Millions this year. PokerStars has such great structures, and if I can start winning without ever having to leave the house - fantastic!

I think I've finally broken through online. I'm still learning, but it's a great experience. For the first time in my life, I made it to the TLB for the month of February, and I've set a goal for myself that I'd like to be on there for at least six months out of the year. That means logging a LOT more hours online. Look for me, and say hello!

If you want to say hi in person, after playing the NAPT Venetian this week I'll be at the next NAPT stop at Mohegan Sun. I'm really excited for this new tour. "By poker players, for poker players" - sounds great to me.

Ramdin was playing in the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic this weekend and found himself in a tough spot. It had nothing to do with his ultra-tough opponents. Much to their surprise, Ramdin stood up in the middle of the tournament, announced he was otherwise engaged, and walked out of the tournament room.

As it happened, Ramdin was scheduled to play in two VIP Club matches on PokerStars. Each one of the players in the matches had spent 15,000 Frequent Player Points to play against Ramdin. Ramdin had spent $15,000 to get into the Five-Diamond. To Ramdin, there was no question at all. He estimated it would cost him no less than 20,000 chips in the live (not to mention anything he might actually earn in the meantime) if he went upstairs and played.

"It's important that you treat your fans with respect," he said.

And so to his computer he went, leaving his blinds to be nicked and his chips to be scattered among his opponents. Unlike some pros with a fan responsibility, Ramdin not only showed up, he played hard.

"I played my heart out," he said. "I didn't just shove my chips in."

His reward? A bad beat in each event to send him back to the Five-Diamond. Well, not only that. Because of his dedication to the PokerStars VIP Club members, the World Poker Tour named him the Blue Diamond Almond Bold Player of the Day. For that honor, Ramdin will get a can of Blue Diamond Almonds delivered to his house every week for a year. He may never want for the nuts again.

Ramdin went on to cash in the Five-Diamond, busting out late last night in 61st place for $23,420.

"I did what I had to do and I'm happy with that," he said.

In other Five Diamond news Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes also made it to the money, and Barry Greenestein is still alive going into Day 4.

“It’s my lucky genie,” he told his table. “I’m very superstitious.”

How lucky? Midway through the first level of the day he saw a raise and an all-in re-raise before he looked down at two black kings in his small blind.

“Call,” he said, his genie hanging just over his shoulder.

The first raiser smelled something funny and mucked his hand, leaving the re-stealing all-in player to sheepishly turn up Js7s. He was drawing dead by the turn.

“Sure, people just hand you their chips,” said a brash player a couple of seats to Ramdin’s left.

Ramdin pointed to his genie. “It’s the massage,” he said.

Ramdin is more focused than I’ve seen him in recent years. He’s alternately grinding and playing huge pots. What’s more, he’s kept the same massage therapist-- a big, muscular man--near his back at nearly all times. The therapist is not quite Tiger Woods’ caddy, but at times it seems like it.

Even when the genie is away, Ramdin is winning. On a board of 4d5hAh-Qc-Qd, Ramdin checked and watched his opponent throw out 65,000 in chips. Ramdin tanked while the ever-present ESPN cameras swarmed. He finally threw in his call and watched his opponent muck without showing. Forced to show his own hand, Ramdin turned up A2.

He stacked his chips without a word--laser focus that only makes way for some fun table chit-chat between hands. ESPN seems to love him. The producers have made Ramdin their feature table player twice, and had cameras at the ready any time he is in a hand.

Last night, as he sat on the side feature table, he leaned back to shake my hand. In just a few short minutes, without really trying, he cemented my impression of him.

“My son starts school tomorrow,” he said.

Not even August yet, I wondered why. Ramdin explained his son has some exceptional talent in a wide variety of disciplines, including boxing and chess. Ramdin found a summer program for gifted kids, and in went his son. While Ramdin toils in Las Vegas, he’s making sure his family is well taken care of.

That’s Ramdin. He’s a strategist, he’s a provider, he’s a fighter.

“Why don’t you have a woman masseuse?” someone wondered aloud.

Ramdin said the females are fine, but they sometimes don’t have the strength to get to the deep tissue.

“You’re a fruitcake,” said the mouthy player from before.

Ramdin’s lips drew into a line, but he didn’t say a word. Instead, his genie spoke for him.

“Have you seen his wife?”

Later, Ramdin remembered the guy in not-too-fond terms.

“The guy called me a fruit,” he said.

From nowhere appeared the genie. “That guy was uneducated,” he said.

“Wish he’d said it to be outside,” Ramdin mused. Then he looked to his therapist-caddy-genie and said, “We’re going to have a session at the dinner break.”

***

Ramdin looks to go into that break with more than 600,000 in chips.

Here’s a video blog recorded earlier today when Ramdin was having a rougher time of it.

Watch WSOP 08: Victor Ramdin Day 4 Catch Up on PokerStars.tv

Editor's note: After publishing this article, we were made aware Ramdin actually has two genies in the field. Rob Marriott is the one featured in the article. Morgan Hildreth is the other. Both seem to be good luck for Ramdin and are a credit to the growing number of male therapists in the room.

This may have been the first time all week I haven’t seen Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin getting a massage. On Victor’s day one, it seems he required a constant pummelling to ease himself back into contention, and before that in the $1,500 HORSE the situation was the same. It must have worked though – Victor made the final of that event, finishing sixth.

But perhaps Victor is not as tense right now, and who can blame him? Sat as he is with 250,000 he owns the table. Besides, the massage therapy wouldn’t have been able to penetrate his leather jacket.
The board reads 8-A-5-5.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin

The baby-faced seat two player had been getting busy with some pre-flop raises for the few hands I’d been watching. The two of them danced their way to the river on an ace-high board...

“I got an ace.”

This made Victor pause a second; he did too but didn’t want to show his hand first. Ace-nine against ace-nine - a split pot.

Curiously when Victor is in control it’s as the hands taking place are irrelevant to the actual process of gaining chips. It’s around day two or three that you start to get a better understanding of how things are shaping up, a clearer vantage point from which to judge who’s doing well, who’s trying to do well and who is hanging on as best they can.

It’s no surprise that the leaders on day one, like Kellen Hunter, soon start pulling away, increasing their stacks even more. If you wait for cards you’re doomed, your advantage comes from knowing more than the other guy.

This is where Victor comes in. A quarter of a million in chips, not really playing hands, more just working the table, picking up what he can when he can. Coffee arrives.

Another hand, Victor in the cut off, it’s folded to him and he raises. The blinds fold and Victor picks up a grand or two. He gets his headphones out.

A flop of 8sTdAd, checked by two players, one of them Victor. The fourth street jack sees Victor raise 5,600 which prompts his opponent to take off his shades and re-raise. This time Victor mucks. He does the same after a pre-flop raise on the next hand, forced out by a re-raise.

Betting all the way to the turn on the next hand, an Ad4d7s2d board. The seat seven player made it 7,500 – he’d tangled with Victor before. Victor called and checked the king on the river, then another bet of 12K.

Now Victor pulled his headphones off, like you would if you suspected the table were talking about you, and with a slight shake of his head he reluctantly counted out the call. Holding the chips high and at arm’s length, grimacing all the way, he dropped in the call.

At that moment his opponent mucked. Victor didn’t even have to show his hand. With a sigh to suggest he’d been put through a trauma for no reason he started stacking his chips. Not to worry, Victor up to over 260K.

Meanwhile the PokerStars video blog team caught up with PokerStars qualifier Adam York...

Watch WSOP 08: Adam York on PokerStars.tv

I’ve seen various characters in the crowded Amazon Room and beyond this afternoon. Men walking the halls chomping on foot long Churchill cigars; I’ve seen the spitting image of Stan Laurel complete with bowler; several players sporting Mohicans, a young player in bee glasses, a crazy guy crashing symbols, a UFC fighter with face bulging black and blue (he apparently won last night) and a man playing whilst keeping a stuffed toy penguin on his knee. I think everyone will need a rest after Day 1D.

But whilst this is the fourth day of the main event, as far as this new wave of players are concerned – and it’s by far the biggest of the four opening days – it all starts today. What happened yesterday, the day before, and the day before that, is none of their concern. This is the day of their gunfight in the desert - high noon Sunday.

Except if you’re Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin - in which case it starts at half-past high noon.

A dealer with a good arm will cost you a few rounds of blinds in half an hour, but nothing to seriously hamper your chances. In fact ten minutes after arriving any deficit Victor started with was promptly overturned to the tune of five thousand. Late? No, that 30 minutes was intentional.

A few years ago at the World Series I talked to Victor about his WPT win at Foxwoods. We were talking about his background, his life in the Bronx and the shops he owns in New York City. Thinking I might catch him out I asked him how much he charged for a half gallon of milk. He knew immediately (whilst I forgot). I figured then he was the kind of man who was always on top of his own affairs.

Whether it’s a poker game, how much he sells milk for or how much money it takes Guyana Watch, the charity he supports, to fly a child from his home country to hospital for a life saving heart operation.

This latter point came to many people’s attention after he won the WPT in Foxwoods back in 2006. He decided then to give the organization a large chunk of his winnings, effectively helping to save the lives of several children.

Whether or not the players knew who was due to fill in the empty seat at their table they should by now know he’s a player to be wary of.

After Foxwoods he ran good at the WPT Championship a few weeks later, picking up an additional $146,460 for 11th place. Then three World Series cashes in 2006, one in 2007 and three more this year, not to mention 12 other WPT and EPT cashes in between. I checked all this online. Victor cashes a lot.

So yes, the half hour was intentional. He immediately got stuck into a massage, nodding hello at me (probably unable to speak) rocking to and fro as a massage therapist worked without mercy on his external abdominal obliques. A good position to be in at the start.

Half an hour late, five grand up. This is the last of the day ones. It’s incredible what a break can do.

The $50K HORSE obviously made greater headlines that the $1500 version, but one other thing it did was to spark interest in the HORSE method itself – the five disciplines of poker that offer something new to the casual spectator used to the dominance of Texas hold’em on TV screens everywhere. What was this Omaha 8-or-better thing? And is Razz really a case of the worst hand wins?

All that was on display again today and the record field serves as a demonstration of just how popular HORSE has become. 803 started and now, after two and a bit long days, the last eight has been reached.

It happened as afternoon became evening and evening edged towards dinner. When just nine players remained tournament organisers sat seated the last nine around one table, intending to use community cards for Stud rounds if they found it necessarily. But just ten minutes later, with another bust out, the final eight was reached. Play stopped. Players took a break, and the preparations for the final, which currently involves a biographical questionnaire, were administered.

Well, we’re pleased to report that Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin is among that last few. His stack may not be the greatest, resting as it does on 78K (seventh in order of size) but few doubt Victor’s ability and motivation – he intends to put claim to his first World Series bracelet tonight.

The line up:

Seat 1 - James Schaaf - 392,000
Seat 2 - Matt Grapenthien - 46,000
Seat 3 - Sam Silverman - 310,000
Seat 4 - Phil Hellmuth - 400,000
Seat 5 - Jason Dollinger - 346,000
Seat 6 - Tommy Hang - 680,000
Seat 7 - Victor Ramdin - 78,000
Seat 8 - Esther Rossi - 166,000

As we discovered earlier this week in the larger HORSE event these things can take time so we’ll have an update on Victor’s progress later this evening. It’s sure to be as tense as any other final we’ve witnessed, and be a precursor to yet another surge in this popular form of the game.

One player who knows full well how it is to compete at the highest levels of HORSE competition is Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater, who caught up with the PokerStars video bloggers today to talk about the Vegas experience and being able to talk poker with her man.

Watch WSOP 08: Katja Thater Interview on PokerStars.tv

See, for a lot of the people coming in town for the Main Event, being able to claim one World Series cash in 2008 would be enough. Victor Ramdin already has two cashes this year, but he's not the least bit happy about them. Why? Well, he's stuck.

"Stuck fifty dimes," he said yesterday. "I need to work really hard and I'm hoping I go far."

It's one of those things that happens in a long Series. One tournament turns into another tournament which turns into a cash game. Before long, you're shooting pool with a crazy Scotsman and hoping for the best. Or at least, that's what Ramdin is doing.

He could get it all back with interest today. Ramdin is one of the leaders in the final 21 players of the $1,500 HORSE event. Ramdin has already watched former Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem and Chad Brown cash in the event for $6,686. He played late into last night and will come back late today to shoot for his first World Series bracelet. To get unstuck for the Series, he will have to make the final table. If he wins, it will make for a decent summer and $256,000 first prize.

Ramdin and the other 20 players left in his event will come back at 3pm today and play all the way down to a bracelet. That is something that could take no small amount of time. We'll be keeping an eye on him and let you know how it turns out.

Good luck today, Victor.

As you might remember, Williams had a banner day at the 2007 World Series of Poker. For a period of time during Day 1, Williams held the chip lead and the attention of everybody in the Rio Amazon Ballroom. During the Ante Up For Africa charity tournament, Wiilliams ended up chatting with Ramdin. After a brief Chat, Williams busted Ramdin out of the event. While the game was over, their friendship remained. It took them all the way to Wall Street.

Williams and Ramdin met on Wall Street yesteday to close the NASDAQ and promote the Montel Williams MS Foundation's Gala and Pro Celebrity Poker Challenge on Thursday, March 13th at 5:30pm ET. Ramdin and Williams will both be playing in the event in an effort to raise money for the study of Multiple Sclerosis. For more information on the event, visit the MS Foundation website.