So Full Tilt's fear that they'd be out of pocked on the guaranted tournament was - as expected - a load of nonsense. There were 3,050 entrants making 127 seats to be awarded! They're making a cool $106,750 in entry fees from this tournament alone.
I also just checked at PokerStars who were having a 150 guaranteed seat satellite today - with 7,377 players they are awarding 234 seats! Blimey, that'll go on until the wee hours and then some.... The self proclaimed largest satellite in the world ever, and it's very hard to argue. I didn't even realise their software could cope with such a big field - usually it's capped at 3600 or some such number.
I got back a bit earlier than I thought I would and I've already seen myself rollercoaster.
[00:13] Real Me: how are we doing?
[00:14] Fake Me: 5500
[00:14] Fake Me: make that 9200
[00:14] Fake Me: AA just held up
[00:19] Fake Me: in 50th place
[00:24] Fake Me: 11595 chips
At that point we were in 37th place and I'd finally got settled, microwaved myself a chicken burger (surprisingly good, and ready in just 55 seconds) and pulled up the table on screen to watch.
Then it all went a little pear shaped. The first hand I saw with AQs turned into the nut flush draw vs two overpairs (88 and JJ on a 7-high board) and we got no love from the poker gods. I decided to stop watching for a while - clearly it's bad luck to observe yourself from afar, with likely side effects ranging from mild itching to a variety of natural disasters.
But by the time I was brave enough to peak again we were back down to just over 5000, and the average had overtaken us. It's now the second break, and after a steal with 66 (so I'm told) we have 5,785 with 250/500 blinds and a 50 ante. 1090 players remain and the average stack is 8394.
