Jeff Gore - anewscafe’s brainiac poker writer, and son of Jim and Darcie Gore, this site’s techie Elk Grove brain team - is a participant in one of the most renowned high-stakes gambles of all: The World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas.

Apparently, Jeff’s lucky break came when he bumped someone named Phil Hellmuth, an 11-time WSOP winner.

Jeff’s a Redding native, a Shasta High grad, a recent Chico State graduate, and I’ve known him since he was a baby.

Baby, look at him now!

Darcie’s written all about it in her My Time of Life blog here on anewscafe.com. She started at the beginning, when Jeff first entered the tournament, complete with Jeff’s explanation (in a jargon-rich language that will only appeal to dedicated poker players) of the hows and whys of his journey to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The tournament began Monday with something like 2,700 players, and like a high-stress, high-roller game of musical chairs, the poker players have dropped off continuously ever since. Each time, Jeff remained.

Throughout the day Darcie sent updates: 2,700 players whittled down to 1,000 players, then to 600 players, and finally, at the day’s end, the numbers had dropped to 500-something players.

We’re happy to report that Jeff is still in, and scheduled to play again Tuesday.

Jeff, we’re cheering you on and sending you the best of luck.

(Darcie says we can follow the progress here on this link, with updates written by a poker correspondent, but it made no sense to me.)