*** TJ's 2024 WSOP Trip! ...That Might Turn Into A Move?
“They all know me as a small-timer. But that’s about to change.”
It’s that time of year again!
This will be my 5th long trip to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. You can read about my trip last year, plus a couple bonus Harrah’s Cherokee trips, right here.
This will also be my longest trip yet, a massive 18 days! I’ll be in town June 14 - July 2. On the agenda: some WSOP bracelet events, lots of low stakes NLHE and PLO cash games, great food, and as much poker as I can possibly handle!
Tournaments I’m definitely playing:
6/15 $1,500 Monster Stack (Flight B)
6/19 $340 8-Game Mix, at the Golden Nugget
6/25 $600 Pokernews Deepstack Championship
6/28 $400 …Up to several bullets in the Colossus
Tournaments I’m possibly playing:
6/21 $1,500 Millionaire Maker (depending on how the Monster Stack, and my first week, goes)
6/18 $1,000 WSOP PLO event (If I bag, I’ll pass on the 8-game tournament)
6/26 $600 WSOP Deepstack Event (If I don’t bag in the Pokernews Deepstack Championship)
…And the Daily Deepstack Tournaments at the WSOP are always an option.
On my last two trips, I stayed at an Airbnb in the Arts District. This year, I’ll be staying at an Airbnb downtown. The factors that are most important to me are: walkable food options, on-site laundry facilities, and affordable cost. This year, a 1 bedroom studio condo downtown wins on all three, coming in at just under $84 a night, after all fees. I’ll be able to walk to Fremont Street, and the uncapped games at the Golden Nugget!
For cash games, I’ll be playing 1-3, 2-5, and 1-2-5 PLO in rooms around town. I’ve played in all the marquee, flagship Vegas card rooms, and that’s where I expect to spend most of my cash game hours. However, I’ve never been to Mandalay Bay, South Point, or the Orleans, so it’d be nice to pick up a chip for my collection.
In all likelihood, I’ll also do a bit of eating, while I’m in town. ‘Tis the season for Vegas trip reports, and we’ve got a lot of great ones going right now. If we want to cross the streams, combine our powers, and get a fantastic meal together, PM me! Here’s what I wrote last year, updated to be current for this year:
Virgil Kane is the name ...
I thought his name was Dalton
Spoiler
Spoiler
Back home safe.
Eh, I lost, but pleased I made a good quit after getting stacked when I wasn’t feeling it, and didn’t go any deeper to lose everything I brought.
Me and 4 other stacks were around 1k+ all night, with the other three seats being a rotating group of min buyin donators. The other big stacks and I played a fairly tight/passive game vs each other, and we steadily accumulated as random shortstack fish took their shot at us, busted, then left.
After about 3.5 hours of observing my opponents, I got involved in a big pot with one of the other deep stacks.
I started with a strong, coordinated hand. We saw a dynamic flop texture, and got a dry runout. I incorporated live tells, and drew on my observations of my opponent’s game that I’d seen.
I listened to my instincts, and trusted my gut.
…And I was dead wrong, in the highest leverage decision of the whole session.
7 handed, I’m in the UTG straddle for $10, playing about 1100. Family pot limps to the straddle, and I look down at KKQT double suited. I pot it to $70, 3 calls and 3 folds.
Pot is about 300, I’m first on a Jc Tc 5s flop, and my suits are red. Overpair with open ended, first to act in what looks like a big pot brewing.
I lead 125, which is simultaneously a very large and also a smallish cbet. One opponent who has me covered calls.
Turn is a brick, the 3d. I check, he thinks a bit, and bets 300. I think my overpair could be good, and obviously my open ender is to the nuts both ways. I call.
Clubs miss, and the river pairs the 5. I check, he shoves fairly quickly for 700, and I go into the tank.
He starts staring me down, and looking away when I look back up at him, then resumes staring at me when I don’t meet his gaze. I interpret that as a sign of weakness, like he’s trying to will me to fold.
Clubs missed, ALL the straight draw wraps missed (including mine, obviously). I’m also beating JT now. Being this deep, I thought it likely he’d raise his flopped monsters from the flop, in position.
And he’s still staring at me.
I mull it over some more. If he HAD clubs and some broadway possibilities, in position, this is the only way he could win the hand.
So like I said, I incorporated my reads, trusted my gut, and acted decisively.
I call.
…Yes, actually, in fact, jacks full is a pretty good hand. Oops. Nh, gg, and gl everyone.
So -1200 on the session.
The drive home is definitely closer to an hour and a half, rather than just an hour, like I initially thought.
Of course, that gave me more than enough time to overthink and over analyze my thought processes in that hand.
I was seduced by a nut draw that ended up missing, and got married to an overpair, in a 4-card game. That guy had been playing a tight/passive, nitty nut-peddling game all night. It was WAY more likely that he’d flat top set on the flop in position, rather than go crazy with his busted draws to try to make me fold an overpair (with some other stuff) that was fairly face up.
Must improve upon that.
Anyway, some closing thoughts on Caesar’s Virginia:
Nice enough place. Lots of people there for the grand opening. The 5/5 PLO game never got off the ground, but the 2/2 game had lots of action, and plays plenty big anyways. I wonder what the traffic (and the stakes) would look like on a busy weekend.
The dealers were VERY inexperienced. It was plainly obvious that this was their first night in the box for many of them. Lots of floor calls. Slow, inefficient drink service. If you plan on going in the next few weeks, pack your patience.
I must have bumped into 7 or 8 card players I recognized from games around here. The Triangle area poker scene (what we call the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area around these parts), was clearly well represented. I can definitely see Danville cutting into Cherokee traffic in a big way.
There’s talk of Virginia getting a WSOP Circuit stop in 2025.
Didn’t get the results I wanted… but I’ll definitely be back.
Anyway, some closing thoughts on Caesar’s Virginia:
Nice enough place. Lots of people there for the grand opening. The 5/5 PLO game never got off the ground, but the 2/2 game had lots of action, and plays plenty big anyways. I wonder what the traffic (and the stakes) would look like on a busy weekend.
The dealers were VERY inexperienced. It was plainly obvious that this was their first night in the box for many of them. Lots of floor calls. Slow, inefficient drink service. If you plan on go
Looks like a nice casino! If I ever get tired of Las Vegas (highly unlikely), I should rent a car and drive around the US, stopping at casinos and card rooms along the way. Would be a fun TR too I guess 😀
Vegas is obviously still the GOAT, but with so many good options spread around the country I guess it doesn't have the allure that it had for people 10-20 years ago. It seems like many people have a casino or two within reasonable driving distance from their homes these days.
The begging question is "Where the nearest Waffle House at?" 😆
Nice report despite results. Those pics remind me of the way Inn of the Mountain Gods casino in Ruidoso NM is laid out. As you mentioned, it'll be interesting to see how the action holds up moving forward.
Keep us posted!
Is that the real ceasar's palace?
Nice read TJ! Will you be playing in the WSOP Main next year?
It’s on my lifetime bucket list, but probably not this year.
I’m at a place in my life where if I won a 10k satty to the main, it would be more responsible of me to take the cash. I’m looking to buy my first home next year… that’s been the end goal for my working lifetime of savings, investments, and poker money.
I try to take a 2 or 3 week WSOP trip every year, comfortably within my savings and my roll, and give myself lots of chances to bink 5, 6, or maybe even 7 figures.
If I ever do, then you can BET I’ll be firing the Main that year.
But not until I do.
Fair enough, hope you bink a big score so you can play next year! Look out for the Scottish guy wearing a bunnet and come say hi :p
I know lots of people reading this forum will all be in Vegas around the same time.
It’d be cool to combine all our trip reports, and get a nice meal in Vegas together somewhere.
Win the satellite, win the main, show up at closing with a suitcase full of Benjamins, saying, "you guys take cash, right?"
Very brief politics derail:
I saw not one, but two large Confederate battle flags alongside I-40 driving back through Western North Carolina.
I think the recent election results have emboldened the wrong kinds of people,
And things are about to get much worse in that regard.
I hope I’m wrong about that, but I don’t think I will be.
It's a free country. Or supposed to be, at least.
The South shall rise again!
-Cartman
