Tomorrow I’m driving to Vegas to watch the final table of the WPT. It might be the sickest final table I’ve ever seen.

1. Joanne “J.J.” Liu – $3,630,000 (seat 4)
2. Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken – $3,510,000 (seat 1)
3. Rehne Pedersen – $3,225,000 (seat 3)
4. Phil “Unabomber” Laak – $2,505,000 (seat 5)
5. Doyle Brunson – $2,025,000 (seat 6)
6. Patrik Antonius – $1,755,000 (seat 2)
I actually know four of these players personally. Darrell Dicken is of course Gigabet. He’s one of the best online players. For those of you that read this site thinking I am one of the best online players, I don’t hold a candle to this guy. I have had the fortune of learning a lot from him personally, and even spent a week in Vegas with him just playing online. Darrell is an absolute master, and I will be there rooting for him to win every hand.

Patrick Antonius is a member of the Circle of Outlaws, a group that Marcel Luske started to help young players like Patrick, Noah, “Exclusive” Boeken, Eric and Robert Mizrachi, Isabelle Mercier, and a couple of other young players. Patrick is a high stakes cash game player, both online and live, and is very very good.

I’m sure you all know who Phil Laak is. I had the pleasure of playing with this guy in London and Aruba. He’s always extremely entertaining. Check out his interview at http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-tournaments/event.php?id=2910&screen=video&video_id=540. I’m one of the kids under 21 in Aruba that he mentions. Hazards21, Ozzy 87, and I tore up the 25/50 NL game while we were there.

Joanna “J.J.” Liu comes off as a nice older woman, but she’s a monster at the poker table in disguise. I played with her a lot in Paris and London during my last trip there. I talked a lot with her, and she certainly doesn’t have a typical poker player’s personality. She’s just a really nice lady, but don’t let it fool you, because she’ll bust you before you realize what’s happening.

Rounding out the lineup are Doyle Brunson and Rehne Pederson. I’ve never personally met either of them, but I’m sure everyone reading this knows of the legendary Brunson, and I’ve seen Rehne around at some of the European tournaments, so I can only assume he’s also a strong player.

No matter what happens, this is definitely going to be an entertaining final table to watch.

Unfortunately my entire Friday will be taken up, so I won’t be able to play the TLB, but Saturday will be a big tournament day for me. The $600+40 million guaranteed on Party and the $1,000 buyin Poker Room tournament are two of my favorite tournaments. I’ll be playing these from my Bellagio Hotel room with Ozzy 87 (the prodigy formerly known as Bigsick789) and his manager Nat Arem (N82 of pscrew and pokerdb fame). I have nothing but respect for Oz’s game, so I’m looking forward to playing these tournaments side by side with him. He’s another guy that I’ve learned a lot from.

I got an email from BDubs today saying that it’s finals week for him, so he might not be able to play any more tournaments this week, so it looks like I have the week clinched. However, I did some research, and it turns out the highest weekly TLB score ever is 2893 points by Holdem_NL, so I’m going to have to try and break that. The real goal, however, is to be the first person to break 3,000 points, and since I have 2800 already, I don’t think it will be a problem unless I get deep in the tournaments on Saturday and am unable to play on Stars.

After Vegas, I’m gong to take Oz and Nat back with me to LA to show these guys what they are missing. LA is really a “love it or hate it” city, and I’m definitely in the “love it” crowd. I may spend the rest of my life here.

That’s it for now.