*** 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:
Nice run TJ!
After I busted the tourney, I went back to the poker room to play some more 5/5 PLO, and I got some revenge.
It started early, the second hand I played, when I won a 4way preflop all in with AA63 with one suit. Somehow, the aces held up the whole way. This shirt runs SO pure.
From there I accumulated some more. Got it in on a flop with a nut flush draw and overpair, and binked. Then I lost one where I flopped trips, turned a boat, and he called me down on a paired board with JUST an open ended straight flush draw, which made the super nuts on the river.
Then the game got really deep, with me and 5 other stacks over 3k. Maybe it’s because of all the poker I’ve played over the last three days, but I was feeling unfocused, and not really looking to make tough, big money stressful decisions.
So I didn’t heroically try to break the game, and go 10k+ or bust. I picked up at +2300, and that closes the book on pokering for this trip.
I didn’t think to snap a chip porn pic, and I really should have, because I could have showed y’all the lovely purple chip I won. But trust me, it was good.
Then I went upstairs, to have the victorious Italian dinner of the righteous, at Brio. Unfortunately, they were on an hour wait, so I said eff it, and went to the Gordon Ramsay food court instead.
Got the fish and chips with shrimp, with the southwestern ranch and the sriracha aioli for my dipping sauces. It was $26, which I was able to cover with my player’s card, so thanks, Caesar’s.
Good discipline to rack up when you sensed you weren't 100% in it mentally. Nice win too!
Thanks 😀
As always, the all in grand total for how I did:
Drove here with 40 bills. Driving home tomorrow with 63. It’s been a great, fun weekend!
Next up: the GRAND OPENING for Caesar’s Virginia in Danville on December 12th!
I’ve already exchanged emails with the new poker room manager, and joined the Caesar’s Virginia mixed game WhatsApp.
nice weekend TJ, thanks for vicariously sharing it with us.
63 > 40. That seems like a nice outcome.
Congratulations on the winning, safe travel back. Thanks as always for your great TRs.
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.
Just checking in TJ to say I've enjoyed your last two trip reports. Havent been on here much but loved following them. I'm a tourney player so always good when people do these
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.
I'm afraid you are right
The Grand Opening for Caesar’s Virginia got pushed back a week, to December 17th.
I work that day, but I’m off the next day so I think I’ll head there straight from work after I get done.
Greg Raymer’s hosting a 10/20 limit dealer’s choice game, so I might sit with a WORLD CHAMPION for awhile, to say that I have!
How was the drive overall, TJ? You drove roundtrip? How long was it??
Haven’t had a chance to go through the thread but thanks for doing this! Always super appreciated by the community I’m sure
Drive by Los Ángeles or Orange County sometime
A wild RTP appears!
It’s about 4 hours from my place just outside Raleigh to Cherokee.
Super pretty drive once you get to the mountains, too.
Welcome to the Grand Opening for Caesar’s Virginia, in the heart of the downtown cosmopolitan metropolis that is Danville, VA!
Took me about an hour 20 to get here straight from work. Pretty boring drive through farmland on a mostly 2 lane road.
It’s my first time (obviously), so I did a little walkabout, and snapped some pics.
They’ve got ol’ JC going on right when you walk in:
Seems like a pretty nice place, and full of people, for a Tuesday.
Gordon Ramsay has a nice looking restaurant and lounge just next to the hotel check in.
And there’s a spa and fitness center, if you plan on staying a while:
Over towards the casino, there’s the 500 block, where you can get pizza, a burger, or barbecue.
Out back, they have a little park, and walking area, with the three stacks… and these rather avant-garde monument-looking things going on:
Arriving at night, it reminds me of the statue graveyard from the Bond movie Goldeneye where we first meet the villain, the two-faced Janus.
Of course, anytime you have a casino, ya HAVE to put the sports book next to the poker room.
There’s also a tavern next door to the sports book, called The Three Stacks (evidently a nod to whatever it is outside) where you can get sports bar food.
Probably a pretty cool place to spend a football weekend.
And, of course, the reason I’m here, the poker room.
Seems a bit small compared to the big rooms in Vegas, or even Cherokee.
21 tables, no smoking, and USB ports at every seat.
I got to say hi to Greg Raymer! The dealer’s choice mixed game he wanted to host never got off the ground, so he was slumming it with The People at 1/3.
For now, I’m 9th on the list for 2/2 PLO ($200 - 1k, 2 tables running), and 4th on the interest list for 5/5 PLO ($500 - 2k, 0 games going).
Looks pretty busy, guess we’ll see how long it takes to get a seat.
Met the poker room manager George, and his brother Pete who’s a floor supervisor.
Got bored of waiting, so I sat in a 1/3 NL game.
I like the aesthetics of the chips! They remind me of Resorts World’s chips.
Six edge spots on a redbird. I thought that was reserved for purples and up.
They’re so new, they’re a bit sticky, and don’t shuffle well.
The dealers seem inexperienced. I’m sure it’s their first night dealing, for most of them.
-100 in 20 minutes of 1/3… then I get called for PLO.
Let’s spin!
run it up towards the sun tj
and stop just before your wings melt
Overheard at the table from a local,
The three stacks are a nod to the original three smokestacks of the textile mill that once stood on this site, and employed 11,000 of Danville’s finest citizens, at one time.
That’s what they named the tavern outside the sports book, and the three stacks are on the insert for every chip denomination.
Pretty cool.
