SIDE NOTE: I've postponed our monthly Saturday tournament, again. Sorry about that!
My Vegas Trip Report
I was very excited to go to the WSOP for the third time. I wrote a little bit about my previous WSOP trips at the end of this trip report.
First off, I have to say I really enjoyed the steps structure Chris set up for this satellite. It was a great reason to go play poker in almost a weekly basis as Pepper Street is generally the only game I have time to play.
Having won the opportunity to represent Pepper Street again was very exciting for me as I have so much respect for the players at Pepper Street. I really didn’t want to disappoint them.
So I decided to go play the $1500 event on Father’s Day weekend. I was later informed that that was the weekend of the Electric Daisy Carnival. Fortunately that didn’t affect the trip that much. Maybe it took an extra 30 minutes to drive to Vegas, but not terrible. I will say that I was wondering why this stripper was going to a room in our hotel in the middle of the morning when I realized she was dressed for the EDC.
I’d attach a picture of the costumes from the EDC, but perhaps not appropriate for this blog? (I’ll let Chris decide.) You can see some of the costumes, which several were wearing, click here.
We stayed at the Signature Hotel at the MGM Grand which are condos/suites associated with the MGM Grand, which meant we had access to the MGM facilities. The kids really enjoyed the lazy river there, but it was ridonkulously hot so they couldn’t play for too long. Yes, the whole family went. It was a little Summer family vacation for us. It was nice having the kids around for Father’s Day.
OK… enough about the travel stuff.. What about the pokers?
When we got to Vegas on Friday, I dropped the family off on the hotel and headed to the RIO to register. If you haven’t seen this hilarious Doug Polk video, check it out. It’s exactly where I parked and exactly how hot it was.
Here is a screenshot of the temperature.
Here is the view from my car. This was a long walk in that heat.
So I got my players card and registered.
When I got back to the hotel, we walked (hot!) to the Planet Hollywood next door to go to Gordon Ramsay’s Burgers. The kids really like Master Chef Jr., so we thought it would be a nice surprise. After a 30 minute wait, we got our table. Just as I suspected, we ended up spending tons of money on food that was too nice for kids who are happy with just In-n-out. It was fine food. The Oreo milkshake topped with Creme Brulee was amazing.
Oh right! The pokers.
So after spending time in the heat and being disgustingly full (I helped the kids finish their burgers, shakes, fries, and onion rings), I was in no mood to go hit the tables. The family crashed pretty quickly, so I downloaded WSOP.com on my laptop, deposited some money and played some real money poker online for the first time since 2011.
I plated in a $5 Rebuy/Add-on tourney with 177 players. I paid one bullet and one add-on. I got 29th, and that was because I started shoving so I could go to bed. A nice $13 profit for me. A good omen?
The next day, I say good-bye to the family and take a Lyft to the Rio with my backpack of snacks, baseball cap, and jacket.
I get to my table, and I start sizing everyone up. For the most part they were very solid players. Definitely not pure casual players. They were talkative and smiled so they were there to have fun but also to do well.
One of my plans for the game was not to wait around to enter pots. I raised and called in position several pots without having anything much more than a suited ace or suited connectors, and doing so, my stack went up and down.
I made it to the first break with pretty much starting stack, but was fine with my play. Shortly after the first break, I was moved to a new table in the same room (the Pavilion). This table was gold. The players at this table folded extremely easily, and I was able to build my stack up to 16K without risking too many chips. When the table broke, I was bummed. We were moved into the Amazon room. It was fun bagging my chips since at the time I had a decent stack.
I love it when I change tables, and I have a great stack. You can see the defeat in the other players. Conversely, I hate changing tables where I can hold all my chips in one hand. No intimidation there.
I was moved into the Amazon room with some OK players, and a few really good players who loved to attack weakness. They were very good a sniffing out my bluff calling with third pair. I almost got ATo to fold the Axx flop on the turn, and if I had the balls to fire the third bullet, he said he would have folded putting me on AK or AQ. Oh well.
So, after missing sets and losing bluffs, my stack dwindled to 6275. I was not giving up though. I remember Eric being down to 1500 chips at one point. Also, the blind structure in the event was small enough where I still had 20 bigs (from what I remember).
I hit a set, and get someone to go all-in on me because I made myself look like I gave up on the pot, and I got a double up to 11K.
My stack started dwindling again, and by dinner break I had 8050 chips. I made it to the dinner break, which was further than the last time I played. Similar to Eric, the dinner break was one of my goals. I don’t remember the blinds when I came back from dinner break, but I tweeted that it was shove time, so they must have been consequential.
Side note: I have to say, I love having antes in the pot. The action is so much better and makes the games so much more fun.
I eventually 3-bet all-in with AJs, and I got called by JJ. Of course I hit my flush, because that’s how I roll, and I was at 16K, which took me out of shove mode. I believe the average stack at this point was 25K.
I later was moved to my fourth table. I ending up sitting next to Pratyush Buddiga who is one of Doug Polk’s poker instructors from Upswing Poker and who has over $6M in tournament cashes. He’s on my right, so I wasn’t too worried. I just knew that it would be hard to out play him so I should be careful. I mentioned I had seen a recent video of his, and he asked me my name and shook my hand. Really nice guy.
I did have this exchange with Pratyush (the pro).
With the blinds at 400/800/100 and having only 10,000 chips (or less), I shoved with AJo (again) and was called by KK. Right in the door was a K and also an ace and a deuce (AK2 rainbow). I figure I’m pretty much drawing dead. I am trying to will a Queen or a Ten on the turn, but it’s just a deuce. I’m figuring that it was nice to play in the WSOP, and it was a fun run. Then an ace came on the river giving me a higher full house. Took a second for me to see it since I was already resigned to being knocked out. I was in shock that I survived that. My stack was at 25K now.
I keep getting involved, and I build my stack up to 31K.
I then lose two mid-sized pots. I forget the details, but I’m sure I played correctly. :)
The evening was winding down, and I had to make a few decisions. Do I just shove with a mathematically correct shove, or do I ensure that I make it to day 2? I decided making day 2 would be a great accomplishment, and I shut down. It’s not like I was getting premium hands, but if I had a bigger stack I definitely would have been involved in more pots. With the short stack, I started playing very suboptimally tight. Folding when I shouldn’t have. I just wanted to make Day 2. Even the dealer chastised me for not going all in once.
I ended the day with a little more than 10,000 in chips. I bag and tagged my chips (great feeling), and headed back to the hotel around 12:30am. I spent half of the night second guessing myself about my decision to just hold on.
The next morning, Christie and the kids gave me breakfast in bed and some really nice cards and gifts for Father’s Day. We dropped by Sonic and grabbed a burger and headed to Day 2 to play with my paltry stack.
After having second guessed myself about my tight play, and instant messaged Chris and got his opinions about playing “correctly” or just hanging on to cash. In the end we both agreed that I was already a winner, and I should just go with my gut.
Pokernews.com published online the table draws for Day 2. I took a look, and I added up all their winnings from the Hendon Mob Poker DB. Total winnings: 10,750,230 with three over a million in prizes. If you include my winnings according to Hendon Mob, it's 10,751,230. Some big time pros were at the table include Max Pescatori. My stack size was so small it didn’t really matter strategy wise.
So I luck out at start Day 2 on the button. First hand there’s a raiser, and I look down at A5o. I think I’m supposed to shove here, (600/1200/200), but I know I have zero fold equity, and I fold. Two hands later, the other short stack at the table goes all-in from the button with A5o as well. He gets called by two paint cards and is busted out 20 from the bubble. He seemed to be a recreational player like me.
Later on, I’m in mid position with AQo, and we are still about 20 from the bubble. I decided that was just too darn strong to fold and I shove. Everyone folds to the BB, who thinks for a long time about calling me. I figure I am dominating his ace, and I was torn whether or not I wanted a call. He eventually folded showing the ace, and I was fine with that. Even if he called and I won that hand, I still wouldn’t have had many chips. In this position, I’m happy with the fold.
I am keeping a close eye on the number of players in the tourney just waiting for a premium hand or a lot of bust outs. Meanwhile, I get to see a lot of great hands played by these pros. One pro told another that he thought that cashing must be important to the other pro and does an all-in bluff on the river to take a giant pot.
At any rate, I make it to hand-to-hand play when there are just two more to go. That goes for two hands, and I make the money. I can’t tell you what a relief that was after fretting about my tight play the previous night. It felt great.
A few hands later in the BB, I look down and see QJo, and I shove my remaining 5500 into the pot not caring if I won the pot or not because I already cashed, and I was going to need a lot of luck to go much further. A pair of Kings calls me. A Jack on the flop gave me some outs, but I ended up busting out on that hand.
I cashed out, and grabbed a pint ($18?) to decompress. The family was at Glow Zone and was finishing up. They came at got me shortly afterwards and we drove home. Leaving Vegas a winner is such a great feeling, and it made the 4.5 hour drive home much more pleasant.
The whole experience was like playing basketball with the pros, or I guess against professional golfers, and hanging in there. It was a great experience, and of course, it just makes me want to play even more. I know I got lucky in several spots, but I was pretty happy with my play.
Thanks to my wonderful wife Christie and the kids for supporting me on this adventure. I can’t stress how much that meant to me. To know that know matter what, I could play the game without worrying about what was going on outside the game. Thanks to my friends on Twitter and Facebook who cheered me on. A ginormous thanks to Chris and the gang at Pepper Street for elevating our games but still keeping it a very social, fun game.
So, when’s the next WSOP satellite?
My Previous WSOP Trips
The first time I went to the WSOP was when I won a Freeroll on Bodog that was sponsored by CardPlayer’s The Circuit podcast at the time. I played heads up against the podcast host Scott Huff after outlasting a few thousand players. My prize was a free trip and hotel stay in Vegas and an entry into a $1000 satellite for the Main Event. I think I finished in the top 40% at the time, but it was a great first experience (particularly the entirely free trip part).
The second time I went was to represent Pepper Street. You read all about that experience here: http://www.pepperstreetpoker.com/2013/08/wsop-2013-tldr-super-ultra-mega-epic.html.
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Once again - well done my man Jeff! So all you poor people who missed out on the avalanche of money this year - yes, we cashed TWICE out of the two times we sent a representative - have no fear, we will start a new WSOP series again soon. This time perhaps for the Main Event in 2018.
Stay tuned!
