Poker champ relies heavily on research, notes

                    

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Paul Wasicka is sitting in front of a pair of computers in the corner of his quaint hotel room searching for a pen. It wouldn't be so hard to find if he wasn't sharing the room with two of his friends and there weren't suitcases and clothes sprawled everywhere, but he is and it's making it hard to find anything in these cramped quarters.

"I'm just going to type up my notes," he says. "I'm not going find anything here."

After winning more than $6 million for his second-place finish in last year's World Series of Poker, you might think Wasicka would spring for a palatial suite, but he's playing in the Los Angeles Poker Classic this week at the Commerce Casino, a place that isn't exactly known for its Rain Man suites or fine dining.

"The food at Commerce is free, but I really think that's because no one would actually pay money for it," he says. "Last week I choked down the worst nachos I've ever eaten, which says a lot because I consider nachos to be the fifth food group."

Culinary deficiencies aside, the Los Angeles Poker Classic is one of the biggest events on the poker calendar with nearly 800 players playing for a shot at the $2.4 million first prize. In fact, the top 54 players this year will make the money in a prize pool worth nearly $8 million, making this year's Classic the largest $10,000 buy-in event in the history of the World Poker Tour.

The high stakes has Wasicka doing his homework as his friends lay in their beds hours before the second day of the tournament begins. While he peruses various poker Web sites he finds out what table he will be sitting at today and who he'll be playing against. As he discovers each of the other eight players who will be seated at his table, he does some research on them and types a few notes about his opponent on a separate computer.

Under one name he types, "Idolizes me, seems fairly snobbish, asked me for advice about sponsorships." Under another he writes, "Obviously tight." A smile, a rarity for Wasicka, comes over his face when he sees the name William Lin as he types, "Maniac, Mr. A7 in WPT." Wasicka then recalls the story of how Lin continued to raise him during the World Poker Tour last season before he finally went all in on a pot worth more than $1 million. "He had an Ace-7 and I had an Ace-8 and my hand held up. I'll never forget that. It'll be interesting playing with him again."

Wasicka not only studies his opponents and their tendencies, but as he grabs his coat and heads downstairs to grab a slice of pizza he takes out a mini spiral notebook and starts replaying nearly every hand he played during the first day, which took nearly 12 hours to complete.

"I really feel that I can only beat myself," he says. "No one else can beat me."

He's so confident that he not only replays and critiques his hands to himself but also types them up in his blog for others, even his opponents, to see.