The tournament was being held in the Pavilion Room in the Rio, from the hotel to the event, I had to pass through many long and wide corridors. On both sides of the walls, posters of each main event champion were there for everybody to see. Every time I passed that corridor, I dreamt of having my picture posted there as well.

When the WSOP event is not in being held on that pavilion room, it is normally an exhibition room. But now as the main venue of the tournament, the room was full with around 200 poker tables, all occupied by players and the only sound you can hear are the voices of the chips rustling between players hands. Beside the Pavilion Room is the Amazon Room which is another place where the WSOP live broadcast is held. If you want to meet poker celebrities, you should come here; you will meet any star you like.

The event I participated was Event #54: No-Limit Hold-Em $1,000 buy-in, total entries were around 3800, which created a prize pool of more than $3,500,000!!

Blind levels increased once per hour and we started with 3000 in chips, the table where I was seated had good action particularly because of an old American gentleman who played the tournament as a complete gamble. The first two hours were relatively smooth and my cards were pretty decent although I did not win any large pots, but my chips steadily increased to more than 4000. The table of Georgeyang who is the other Dafapoker sponsored player said all players were very tight and his table is very hard.

One particular hand I had - Ad7d on the button, a middle position player raised and I called. The old man was in the big blind and he called three players to the flop, which is 2d, 4d, 7c. The old man checked , middle position bet and I called, the old man immediately went ALL IN, middle position player fold, I think about it for a while, the old man had more chips than me, he may have a set or two pairs, normally in any cash game I will call, but this was a decision for my tournament life, I didn't want to gamble, I came a long way from China to the U.S and I didn't want it to end here, I chose to fold for safety. The old man showed his card 3c, 5s to show his semi bluff (I wish I called now!). Another hand I had 7,7 flop 7,8,8, my opponent had an over pair and called me down three times my chips now increased to 6000.

Then we changed tables, for the next 3 - 4 hours the game slowed down and at the end of 4 hours I am still in the same position. Then an opportunity presents itself to me, all players before me folded and I was in the small bind with Ad,6d. I raised and the big blind called. Flop was 2d, Td, Js I bet again and the big blind called, the turn was 5d, I now have the Nut Flush and continue to bet. Once again the big blind called, the river was Jc and I bet a third time, the big blind immediately moved all in. I was deep in thought, if he had a full house, why when the flop had a flush draw he did not raise? It didn't look like a full house but more like three of a kind, a lower flush, or an over pair, I then called and he had 8, to and was simply trying to bluff me. After this hand, my chips increased to 12,000. Now that I have more chips, I am not worried about facing players with small chip stacks, when I face big chip players, there is now a good chance to double up, I started to play loose and aggressive. I did a lot of blind stealing and bluffing, in the last hour of the day, which is level 9, my chips reached 17,000. However shortly after that my AK lost me almost 7000 chips. At the end of day1 my chip count was around 10,000 with the average chips being around 25,000.

I was not being dealt any cards at that time and was eaten by the blinds until I only had 6 BB remaining, the only thing I can do is to try and steal the blinds I finally go all in with Kh,Qh when I was on the button, this might be my last chance, UTG position middle chip player AKo raise to 2.5bb, i was all in , big blind big stack player then moved all in with JJ. UTG thought for a while and folded A,Ko due to two players now being all in, the community cards were 6h7h9c2dKd, and at last my chips went back to 16bb around 13,000. I was so grateful to the big blind big chips player for forcing the player with A,K to fold, I know how lucky I was! Later I had A,K VS 9,9 and doubled up. It was at this point I heard the words that I really wanted to hear!!! the broadcast said “congratulations all players are in money” all players are on their feet in ovation. When I was in money I changed my strategy, since there is no big difference from 396th – 100th place, I'd rather play aggressive to get a better place than to play stable and get the general prize. In my last hand I had 7,7 and was against A,J my pair did not hold up and I finished game in 317th place receiving over $2000!!.