Furthermore, we played from 115 down to 9 while two of the more unusual WSOP events started: the Seniors Event and the Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split. Essentially, there was no reason for anyone aged 22-49 to be in the Amazon Room, unless they paid $50,000 to play the HORSE. I'll tell you one thing: it probably made for some interesting cigarette-break gatherings.

I've been taking notes the last two days and my previous pair of entries covered many of the Sunday entries. I'll complete those sometime. There's far less interesting stuff from Monday - I'm not going to bore you with hand descriptions, even if I feel I played great.

Here are the highlights:

1. We spent an hour playing hand-for-hand. They paid 63 spots and started hand-for-hand at 65. I eliminated number 64. I had 33,000 when we started H4H and 52,000 when we made it into the money, so I guess I can't complain.

2. I spent time playing with Adam from the Rounders poker radio show/podcast; Phil Gordon; Jeffrey Lisandro; and J.C. Tran. I actually do have a few anecdotes, so I'll put those in another blog when I'm more coherent. Nearly all the notes are of a nature of "8:33 PM - NLHE 1k-2k/90.5k [+2k BB]" so I'll give you a very abridged version of the action on Monday.

3. I did see some guy walk back to his seat in the Seniors Event from the dinner break carrying a neck-strap margarita.

4. I made some mistakes - Phil Gordon has asked me to call him on the phone in a couple days, presumably so he can scold me about one of them - but I played very smart and got more active as the night went on.

5. We spent almost 2 hours 10-handed. I went from 241,000 to 338,000 during this period, so I can't complain.

6. The blinds/bets are really, really high, especially in limit hold 'em. I'm looking forward to the final table and I think I have an excellent chance to do well, notwithstanding that good or bad cards - even one hand at these levels - can disproportionately determine the outcome. Here is why:

a. I have a lot of chips. Several of us are bunched close together but I think only one player has more than me.

b. The chip leader, if I got the counts right, is to my immediate right.

c. I've been very active, especially the last few hours. I don't think any of the players with a fair amount of chips has overall gotten the better of me. I don't think they're going to play a big pot with me without a big hand, and I have a huge advantage if that's the case.

d. I think I'm the best limit hold 'em player at the final table.

e. I've played a bunch with every one of these players and feel pretty comfortable with their styles.

We start at 3 PM. Try to keep up on Pokerwire.com of if, shame on them, they don't have good enough updates, on one of the other sites. No matter how it goes, I'm going back to Scottsdale after for a couple days, and I'll write about all the things that happened that I missed in these summaries.

This is pretty exciting stuff.

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(editor's note: Michael also had a blog before his Day 2 that did not get posted on PokerWire.  You can read it here.)