As I watched the WSOP on ESPN, I caught a commercial for the Mighty River Poker League. It's a Louisiana based poker club that promises to send someone to the 2005 WSOP.
Of course, I had to check it out. It turns out there's a Baton Rouge league and a Lafayette league. You pay a membership fee ($50) and monthly dues ($15) to enter and receive 5000 points. You use those points to enter tournaments and the top 200 points winners at the end of the season get to play in a tournament for one seat in the 2005 WSOP.
I think it's a brilliant idea. Each tournament also has a separate prize pool for those who want to play for money as well (extra $25 entry fee, and 100% of entry fees are paid back out).
That's all the good news. The bad news is that the Lafayette tourneys are played on Thursday nights at 6:00pm, and I'm lucky if I'm out of work by 6:45pm. Still, I think I'll look into it. The first points tourney is on August 19th. Maybe by then, they'll push back their start times!