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LAS VEGAS - Last March,
Josh Baer sat before a glowing computer screen in his apartment in
Bloomfield, N.J., and let tears roll down his cheeks. For a $160 buy-in, and
after three hours of carefully calculated mouse clicks, Baer, a theater
major from Montclair State University, had achieved a dream: He had defeated
80 other online players in no-limit Texas Holdem, earning a trip to Las
Vegas and a seat worth $10,000 in the main event of the 36th annual World
Series of Poker.
As Baer, 26, shuffled into the Rio Hotel and Casino on Saturday with the
headphones of his iPod draped around his neck and a backpack loaded with
Gummy Worms and Raisinets, he was focused on his mission to play smart,
survive 15 hours of
Texas Holdem
poker and advance
out of the first round. It was too early to think about reaching the
tournament's final table on Friday, with its $1 million guarantee and $7.5
million first-place check.
As he took his seat at Table 142 amid a symphony of riffling chips, however,
Baer was thunderstruck by the odds he faced even before a single card had
hit the felt. He was one of 5,600 players hoping to rake in a life-changing
pot this weekend and wear the coveted gold bracelet given to the winner of
the World Series of Poker.
"I feel so small," he said.
He was not alone. Baer and 1,149 other
Texas Holdem
players will see
chips ebb and flow as their imagined fortunes rise and fall at the turn of a
single card.
While 300 players in the record-breaking field were professionals, the rest
looked like a cross-section of America. They included the celebrated -- like
the actors Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Tilly and the golfer Rocco Mediate --
and the everyday people -- truck drivers, housewives and college students.
Like Baer, nearly half had won their seats for far less than the $10,000
buy-in at tournaments on Internet poker sites, which last year surpassed
more than $1 billion in total revenue.
Every player has visions of becoming the next Greg Raymer, the Connecticut
patent lawyer who won the 2004 championship and the $5 million that came
with it after gaining entry into the World Series by winning the same online
tournament as Baer.
Their patron saint, however, is Chris Moneymaker, 29, who, in 2003 was an
accountant and amateur poker player who parlayed a $40-online entry fee into
a $2.5 million windfall.
"I am the poster child for online poker," said Moneymaker, who was
eliminated in the second round on Sunday.
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