Upcoming events

So this Sunday is the big end-of-the-month tournaments for most of the sites. They all run large Sunday tournaments but several of them run bigger ones at the end of the month. In particular Pokerstars, beginning this year, has begun running a quarterly tournament that's even bigger. Each Sunday's tournament is a $1 million guaranteed prize pool, but the regular Sundays are a $200+15 buyin, the monthlies are a $500+30, and the quarterly is a whopping $1000+50. What this boils down to is that most weeks you see between 4000-6000 runners; the monthly tends to attract 3000-4000; and the last quarterly took in just over 2000. A smaller field is always better for variance's sake, but it'll still be tough.
I've been trying to satellite into the tournament but with no success so far. I don't really like satellites, but I don't want to drop the full buy-in either. If worst comes to worst I'll try to play enough cash games to justify dropping a buy-in. (I've been having good results at Bodog 3/6 and 5/10 NL full ring and Party 3/6 6-max, so it's doable).
Of course I'll hit the big Party tournaments as well; I'm not sure which other ones run specifically large monthly tournaments but I plan to play all the Sundays anyway.

After that, my attention turns to the World Series of Poker. The main event doesn't start until July 28, but my goal is to arrive on July 9. Stars is covering my ME entry and the hotel for that time (guaranteed through August 4 and all the way further if I still have chips then); I still need somewhere to stay before then. I'm hoping to find an affordable hotel or possibly crash in a house with some 2+2ers until then. I want to play some live games and some of the earlier bracelet events. Here's the schedule of the ones I want to play:

10-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 17 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $1,000.00
13-Jul-06 Thursday 12 noon 21 No-Limit Hold'em- Short handed 6/table (3 day event) $2,500.00
14-Jul-06 Friday 12 noon 22 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $2,000.00
16-Jul-06 Sunday 12 noon 25 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout (3 day event) $2,000.00
17-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 26 Pot-Limit Omaha (2 day event) $1,500.00
18-Jul-06 Tuesday 12 noon 27 No-Limit Hold'em (2 day event) $1,500.00
20-Jul-06 Thursday 12 noon 30 No-Limit Hold'em- Short handed 6/table (3 day event) $5,000.00
21-Jul-06 Friday 12 noon 31 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $2,000.00
22-Jul-06 Saturday 2:00 PM 33 Seven Card Razz (2 day event) $1,500.00
24-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 35 Seven Card Hi Low Split (2 day event) $1,000.00
25-Jul-06 Tuesday 12 noon 37 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $1,500.00
28-Jul-06 Friday 39 No-Limit Texas Hold'em World Championship Event $10,000.00

Clearly I don't have the bankroll to buy in directly to everything. I'm hoping some combination of satellites and cash game winnings both before and during the Series will cover it. I already have won $1,500 in WSOP entry chips through Full Tilt; I'm trying to win more. I'm hoping my recent cash play is a good indicator that I can be a winning player; if that's the case I'll play more online until I get there and I'll play a lot live when I am there (I hear the games are quite good around tourney time).

I love playing live, more than I do playing online, and so I'm really excited for this trip. A real adventure, a chance to see how well I do on the big stage.
The main event ends the 10th of August. Whether or not I'm still in it, I plan to stay that long, either for the second-chance tournaments, the cash games, or the Whole Experience.