Twitter platform engineer Ian Chan (@chanian), a poker enthusaist but far from a pro, bought in along with 3,221 other hopefuls on July 1 with the plan to live tweet his experience out to his followers.
It turned out to be a lot more than he bargained for when he made it all the way to Day 3 and the top 15.
Chan, who codes the "cards" used for extended tweets, eventually busted out in 14th for just over $22k.
Along the way, he also gave his Twiiter co-workers and followers - including Twitter CEO Dick Costolo - an amazing real-time look into the World Series of Poker.
Check out his full tweet report here; some highiights below:
I'll be live tweeting my status at the WSOP tomorrow, follow along if you like poker or want to see tweets/pics of me losing money. #wsop
— Ian Chan (@chanian) June 30, 2012My office for the next 3 days, $2,500,000 on the line. WSOP let's do this... twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 1, 2012First pot win, bluffed $450 into a missed flush on the river. Scooped $550 #progress (hope opponent isn't reading this)
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 1, 2012With late entries, there's a total of 3,138 players . A $3,138,000 pot, by far the biggest poker game of my life ;-D #wsop
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 1, 2012Moving to new table, escorted to my new seat with chips sealed in a bag twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 1, 2012Bleeding chips, down to $5.5k and getting bullied by the king/bad guy from the Hunger Games twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012First A-A in 9 hours of play, scary 4-way but I scoop another 2K. Now at $10,325 - less than 950 players remain.
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012Just flopped a Royale Flush draw against chip leader, bet each street, made nut straight on river. I win 10K more.
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012Holy shit, very next hand, 2 people just went all in in front of me, I look down a this: #runningHot #allin twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012There are 9.6 million chips in play, I have 33k. The top 320 of the 3,221 entrants get some of the $3Million, depending on how they place.
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012IN THE MONEY! *the room erupts with applause*
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012Bagged and tagged, $70,200! Play resumes at 1pm tomorrow, and the fight for $3,000,000! #wsopDreams twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012And Day2 begins. Looks just as messy as my desk at work #wsopDreams twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012Guy at my table has $180k, I'm getting pushed around, now at $83K, need to be more patient. (138 remain)
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012Observation: many players at the table here at the #WSOP are glued to their phones reading tweets. Just like a dinner out in SF with techies
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012Tips for live tweeting a 72hour poker tournament: external battery pack #wsop twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 2, 2012Gotta stop tweeting unexposed hands, just saw a guy across the room reading my timeline. Hah!
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012And this, friends, is what $250,000 chips looks like. #funsies #gogogo twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012No matter what happens, sharing this experience realtime has been as incredible as playing it. I owe it all to Twitter twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012I suppose calling in sick for work tomorrow might not work...[cc @dickc] jk I'm wfh.
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012If you are one of the other 38 players remaining in this WSOP, and you are reading this: I have pocket Aces. #TweetBluff
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012Also, there are 3 players at my table tweeting. Lol, they look like pros, so probably to private accounts.
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012For anyone interested, I started playing poker in 2002, played every day in University, that might explain why my code always breaks twitter
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012Made it through day 2.Time for some sleep, thanks all for following along and for all the support!15 remain.
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012And here we go again. Wish me luck folks! #wsopDreams twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012@chanian good luck, have fun & remember to throw a massive tantrum at some point because those always end up on TV #thingsilearnedfromespn
— dick costolo (@dickc) July 3, 2012Player at table: *looks at table full of players reading tweets, looks at my twitter shirt* "<jokingly> Look what you've done to the game!"
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012When you are the short stack, seeing the Big Blind come around is like watching the grim reaper moving around the table. #intense
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012His Queens hold up.Busted out folks. 14th place of 3,221#wsopDreams
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012Hell of a run people! Thanks to all those who followed and cheered me on!An incredible adventure, so glad you all could tag along.
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012And now, I enter tax hell as the casino tries to figure out how to tax a resident alien who is a Canadian citizen #ExtremeFirstWorld :-)
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 3, 2012Flying home, end to an awesome + hilarious #chanian2012 WSOP Vegas trip. /w @chenosaurus @nolanbrown @Abel @Abbott twitter.com/chanian/status…
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 4, 2012Visit www.pokerlistings.com