Right now I’m sitting in the hotel room at the Vineyard Inn in Leelanau.

This morning, Ron and I left the house at 4:00am and drove up here to Traverse Bay to play in the Heartland Poker Tours satellite tournaments. The first one was at 10:00am. It was a $75 buy-in. 1st and 2nd place win entries into one of the 4 qualifying tournaments on Friday or Saturday.

First satellite, I won. I’m playing in a $330 buy-in qualifying tourney tomorrow at 10:00am. The top 20% of that tourney wins a buy-in to the main event tourney on Sunday.

So here’s how it works:
Wednesday and Thursday:
$40 10 person sit-n-go satellite tournaments. 1st place gets a buy-in for the $330.00 qualifier tourney.
$75 10 person sint-n-go satelittle tournaments. 1st and 2nd place win a buy-in for a $330.00 qualifier tourney.
Friday and Saturday:
$330.00 Qualifier games. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. The top 20% of these tourneys win an entry into the main event on Sunday.
Sunday:
Main Event:
Top 30 spots pay.

The top payout is anywhere from 20-70 grand, depending on the amount of participants. So you could make it all the way to the big game on $40 provided you win one 10 person satellite, and then get in top 20% of the next.

So far, I’ve won the first round, and I’m in the $330.00 tournament for $40.

Good times.