Mike cashes early this year at the World Series of Poker

Mike has already played well and cashed in just the fifth event at this years WSOP. With 824 players putting up the $2,500 buy-in for the first short handed (6 players per table) No Limit event, $475,000 was waiting for the winner of this event.

Mike (as mentioned earlier) was playing well and put himself in a good spot to head to the final table. Unfortunately, he took a bad beat here and there and ultimately left the event in 33rd place, earning $8,528 for his efforts. It certainly wasn't about the money though and I'm sure Mike is replaying hand after hand as he prepares to play again this week.

It is worth noting that Russ "Dutch" Boyd won this event marking a helluva comeback from mental health issues and personal problems. For those of you that don't know, Dutch has publicly talked about his mental health issues (depression, bi-polar disorder) and his battle to overcome them. He's also well known as a dot-com era "thief" who alledegly made off with hundreds of players money in a poker-room site that went belly up. A few years ago there were rumors of players waiting in the wings for Dutch to cash out so that they could "reclaim" their bankrolls that vanished when the website did. No word on whether anyone was around to collect this time...

It's never too early to prepare for the 2007 WSOP, I'd suggest starting at the same place where the last three champs came from.