I was having a pleasant dream this morning...until Back in Black began shrieking from the radio. Time to get up, hit the gym, and head to work. For tax accountants, Sundays are just like Mondays and Tuesdays and...well, you get the idea.

I haven't used the rowing machine in years. My gym has a couple of them, so I decided to end my workout with 20 minutes of rowing. I have a feeling I'll be noticing it tomorrow.

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PokerStars and FullTilt have started their satellites for the World Series of Poker. I logged on briefly at PokerStars last night (one of my clients paid me through Stars). There are currently 342 people registered for Stars' $650 Main Event Qualifier (at 3pm PST). Assuming the normal growth in entries, let's assume there are 500 runners. Of the $650, $615 goes to the prize pool. For every $11,000 in the prize pool, a seat is awarded. That's 27 seats. Let's assume that each week they hold other events (double shootouts, FPP qualifiers, etc.) that result in an additional 50 seats. That's 77 seats/week.

Let's further assume that Stars runs the satellites through mid-June, or another 15 weeks (16 including this week). That would result in 1232 qualifiers from Stars. Now, let's double that so that we can include the FullTilt people, and we have about 2500 qualifiers from US facing sites. Let's add half that (1250) from non-US facing sites (eg Party), and that's 3750 online qualifiers.

If you finally assume that online qualifiers are half the field, that means there will be 7500 entrants in this year's WSOP.

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There's one problem with this, of course: how do the online sites get the money to Harrah's? Harrah's, under pressure from Nevada gaming regulators, will not allow the sites to directly buy-in for their entrants. Stars only says they will ensure that people who have bought in/won seats will get in. Most likely, Stars will hire a firm to buy Rio chips; that firm will distribute the chips to Stars' entrants in a conference room at the Rio; then the entrants will be walked down the hallway (a very long hallway) to the cashier to buy-in for the event itself.

There are other scenarios, too, that could be used, but the one I've envisioned seems doable.

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Of course, further regulations/government action between now and July could cause major headaches to Stars (and FullTilt), leaving their entrants high and dry. (Or forcing Stars to add $11,000 to each winners' account.) It will be interesting to see which way the winds blow.

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So after writing (which I did) that the main event would be lucky to get 5,000 players (and then lowering the number to 3,000), are you now changing your mind and making it 7,500?

That's a good question. If there is no further government action between now and July 1, I think 7,500 is about right. If the government acts, then 3,000 will be correct. Harrah's would much prefer the online sites to bring their throngs in, but they can't say that out loud (because of the regulators). The sites would like to bring the throngs in. Will the DOJ allow it?

Ask me in August and I can give you a correct answer. Ask me today and all I can do is speculate. However, I'm not using a "Messenger of Doom" icon for this post, so I'm a bit more hopeful this morning.

See, scottro, Sundays aren't all bad....