TR: First WSOP! 6/29 - 7/3

After the tournament ends, I go buy some beer from Walgreens for the upcoming two days. Charged my phone a bit and decided to take one out walking north from the Flamingo. Walked over first to see the Mirage - I'm sure they have their reasons but the hotel seems nice, seems incredibly wasteful to demolish a perfectly fine looking hotel.

I then head over to see the Wynn - it's amazing what a 9.5% beer can do to put a pep in your step after a long and tiring day. I check the poker waitlist there and it's 37 people long for 1/3! While I wasn't interested in playing them, the other games were similarly long. Venetian had only 6 according to Bravo so I head over there and sign up for 1/3 since it's on the way back. I am seated quickly.

The table seems pretty friendly, with lots of chatter and a trio sitting all in a row from Michigan - brother, brother and father given what I could interpret? Many of the dealers made comments about the Lions as the dad was wearing a shirt and hat. Fair bit of limping and multiway when I sat down but not quite like the last cash game. From what I've heard, the Venetian attracts a lot of nitty regs due to its promos. The game was good, but people would not stop talking about the high hand bonus...

The poker gods decided to give me some pity from the Colossus beats with a ridiculous string of hands:
1. Raise $12 from MP, I look down at KK - nice! 3 bet to $35 in SB and Michigan brother 1 says nope and folds
2. Very next hand, Michigan brother 2 raises to 8 and I have AA! 3 bet to $25 and get a call. Flop comes A24 and he leads for $40 - it's going down. I raise to $100, he shoves, and I snap call to give AK the bad news... oof. I take down a big pot and he leaves without returning. I reveal to the table that I had KK the last hand.
3. One hand goes by, and then I get KK again!! A normal preflop raise pot, bet call flop, check check turn, I bet river and he folds. Normally I don't show cards unless necessary, but due to the absurdity I say, "Sorry, I have to show this". The table is all blown away, and I get jokes for a while about KK and AA every time I play going forward for a bit.

Michigan brother 1 is replaced by an action player who says he's from Hawaii but now lives in Vegas. He limps and I raise KJo to $10, and we go heads up. Flop contains a K, and he calls a $10 bet. Turn is a nice J, and I get a $15 call. River blank and he folds to a $25 bet while saying I got lucky (given the action, how?).

Not much later, Michigan brother 1 and action guy get tangled up all in on a turn, MB turns over JJ for an overpair, and a club to make 3 on the river gives action guy a flush with 35cc. After getting stacked, MB is suddenly not so nice and says "donkeys gonna donk" as the chips are counted and then "keep the change *******" as he is leaving. The dad gets up too. Quite the demeanor change, and some of the table **** talks him after he's gone.

Keeping this in mind, eventually action guy does a button straddle, and I have 88 UTG, which I raise to $20. The two of us go to the flop heads up: 553. I check, he bets $15, and I call. The turn 6 is checked through and I feel like I'm good. Then river is a blank 2 and he leads out overbets for $120. My instinct is to snap call, and I would probably do so without much thought online, but the 35 hand gives me some doubt and I get scared off and fold. He reveals J9o as he pulls in the chips. A girl who recently arrived to the table asks me, "Pocket pair?", to which I confirm. She then says, "gotta call that", which I agree but given the flush hand, who knows what he could have had? Still though, need to trust your gut sometimes.

Through the past shift, we had a great dealer named Ty that was super fast and had a number of great quips in response to table conversation, which was fun. In the final hand of note, UTG girl limps and I raise $10 with TT. The CO 3 bets, I fold, and she shoves a short $100 stack with AQ and manages to spike a river queen against AK. She says she planned to limp shove from the beginning against my open, which would have been an interesting spot for me. As it was, it was a fairly easy fold.

I bled off a bit of the big pot winnings after several pocket pairs went nowhere, but still cashed out +$104: now only -$6 for cash games, more or less what I tipped for drinks.

-$500 tourneys
-$6 cash
-$20 table games

I would switch up your beer strategy. Buy cheap beer at Walgreens and get the high ABV beers comped.

Or just not Corona.

Tough run at the tournament, nice play at cash. Thanks for the TR, patman!

nice job with the TR! I'm glad you are willing to share, I know it can be a daunting task for your first time playing live.

this is wild. he calls your substantial 3-bet with JTo. he checkraises and you call the flop. then he leads on the turn and you call.

the only hand any of that would make sense with is AA. and even then, you could legitimately have a 9 so he would still be behind after the turn. nice job reading him as none of his action makes logical sense

Don't typically drink this kind of stuff, but saw someone else have one at the table and it seemed like a good way to maintain some relative sobriety while keeping the buzz going. The last time I was here, most places only seemed to have Goose IPA as the "nicer" beer option.

Thanks - playing live is definitely an experience! My head was pumping with a ton of adrenaline yesterday during the big hands I won, and it was really difficult to maintain composure and stay still. Hopefully that subsides in the future. After a while it gets easier to go with the flow of the game.

As for this hand, I really had no idea what he was going to turn up with, but his range seemed wide enough that I would be ahead the whole way so I had to call down the aggression and maintain as much value as I could. Apparently my play was straightforward enough that the player on my left said that he put me on queens. Just really glad he didn't shove the river ace or the bluff would have gotten through.

I didn't end up making it to bed until 3am last night, so it felt good to sleep in without an alarm, and I woke up around 10:45. Generally hate sleeping in this late and wasting the day, but hey, I'm on vacation and it's Vegas! After all of yesterday, decide to take it easy and lounge around a bit and head to the pool. Needed food so headed downstairs, and the Mexican place within the Flamingo seemed like an easy option. Wasn't planning on drinking so early but eventually talked myself into it and got a tasty quesabirria too.

After that, I went to check out the nearby Go Pool. Needed a little bit of caffeine so ordered a whiskey diet, which at $32 was the most expensive one I'll hopefully ever have... not going to do that again either. Didn't stay too long as I didn't have any sunscreen, but felt good to get some sun. The water was freezing at first but felt great once you were in for a bit.

Going to try and find some early cash games to sit in, but the big rooms have huge waiting lists. Thinking about possibly registering for the 8pm daily deepstack too.

If you want a nightly tournament, I'd contemplate the Resorts World 7PM over the 8PM Daily Deepstack at Horseshoe. It's going to be a deeper/slower event.

Played both last week and had a better experience at Resorts. You do you though. Not trying to dictate your schedule. Just offering another option.

8PM will be good for convenience and a very fast structure. 7PM will be good if you want more of a serious tournament and don't mind making the trek to RW.

Don't mind at all - thanks for the suggestion! I totally missed this. That actually looks like a great option, the walk does not bother me. I think I might do this instead.

Cool. I found it to be a much better event. 25k starting chips and 30 minute levels vs. 20k starting chips and 20 minutes at the Shoe. Also probably better rake.

Those nightly daily deepstacks have very little play and are just flipping competitions. Not my favorite events.

I didn't realize the deepstacks had slightly different structures, seems like the 1pm is a little bit slower than the other two, which makes sense given the earlier start. I understand it's a part of tournaments, but really hate flipfests.

Resorts World is a great place to play, honestly the most comfortable room in Vegas. hope you have a good time!

Made the trek up to Resorts World, and arrived at 4 with a few hours to spare before the tournament. Was impressed, it is a pretty nice hotel and entertainment area. The poker room was indeed nice and comfortable as others have mentioned, and the dealers were great and very fast. The late tournament had a pretty decent structure, props to DogFace for the recommendation. The 1/3 list was over a dozen people long, so I sign up via Poker Atlas and wait for a bit. It's pretty clear after 15 minutes that the list is going to move slowly, so I decide to head over and see Circus Circus and Slots a Fun. They are both quite the atmosphere, but too much children for my liking.

I make it back to RW, and am only down to 6th on the list. Head over to the poker room just in time, they decide to open a new table and pretty much put everyone on it! After the first hand, it seems like it is going to be an action packed table: UTG+1 raises to $15, there is a $60 3 bet, and a $100 short stacker shoves and wins against the 3 bettor with QQ.

The game tightens up a bit after that and is just ok. The guy on my left is busy watching anime while playing, while the guy on my right is grinding some Old School Runescape. I get into a few hands with the most active player of the table, an Ebon Moss-Bachrach lookalike, but my top pair value winner hands get balanced out by some where my big draws miss. Then, I make a really poor fold in a single raised pot with AQ, where my $15 flop bet is raised to $60 on a 7Q9 flop. Played way too scared and thought he had something like Q9. Another player does call though, the turn is checked, and the raiser attacks the river for $120. The other player wins with KQ and he shows T8 for a busted open ender...

After that, it is about time for the tournament so I leave down -$95 to register. It does not get off to a good start (25k starting stack) when at the 200/400 level, I pick up AK and attack some limpers with a 1600 raise. Get two callers and go to the flop of Ax5s7s, and c bet for 1500. The guy to my right, fairly short, shoves for 6700 which is an easy call. I didn't realize the other player, a girl, is still behind but she folds after thinking for a little bit. The German guy says, I don't have anything just yet, and turns over 34 of spades. Interesting limp call but ok - he offers a fist bump and we have a small sweat. Turn gives me a fairly meaningless two pair with the K and then the 6 rolls off the river to give him a straight. I am down to 10k and am crippled.

However, that is no matter as I receive KK a short time after, which I raise a limper to 1600 and get 5 callers! The flop is a pretty bare 368 and I just shove. The player to my left looks me up with 99 (left my contacts at home so almost looked like 88 for the set at first), and I hold to get back to starting!

After the break, I add 9k to my stack when a short stacked girl reshoves after I open AA - she is crushed with AJ. I manage to keep up with the average stack as I reshove a girl who has checkraised multiple times with QQ on a T77 flop, and flop a set of 8s and get some value from someone trying to bluff a 4 straight board. Then a floor employee comes over and makes me move to a new table.

I am seated in the 5 seat, which is super weird at first as you are right in the middle of the table and can see everything. I have only been in 1-3 in every single table I've played so far. Another newbie live gaffe occurs when I misinterpret a raise as a limp and am forced to bump up the raise I attempted to make to the minimum. Hopefully those get better over time. The guy shoves on an ace high flop and I decide to fold my 99.

This turns out to be a disastrous table change when at 600/1200 UTG (seven handed) opens to 4500. It's a fairly big raise, but I see QQ and 3 bet on the button to 15k. He calls and we're headed for a big pot. A ten high flop is lead out for 12k, and since it would leave me with little left I shove. He calls and turn over KK... not again!? I miss my miracle outs and suddenly I am out.

I am a bit annoyed that this has busted me out of a tournament for the second day in a row, but that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Not sure if there's any way of getting away from that one occasionally or if you just have to grind through it. I'm not devastated or anything but am mildly annoyed.

Anyway, I head over to the Venetian to try and find a slice of pizza as while I'm not really hungry, I haven't eaten in almost 11 hours. When inside, I stop and have a nice cocktail at the Juliet Room. My Oak and Orange, while overpriced (what isn't in this town...) is pretty good: Woodford Double Oaked Bourbon, Blood Orange Puree, Cinnamon Syrup, and Ginger Beer. I also get a stromboli from the food court - my mom used to make them regularly for dinner a long time ago. This one isn't quite as good, but is still delicious.

Anyway, I don't feel like playing any more tonight so will head over to the Bellagio to catch the fountains and conservatory. Plan to take it easy tomorrow morning/afternoon, have a nicer sushi dinner somewhere, and then see Penn and Teller at the Rio. Will find some cash tomorrow night to cap off the trip and hopefully end in the black there.

glad you are enjoying your time. Thanks for sharing your adventures and hand histories and stories.

Sitting at the airport bar now, and it's time to bring this trip to a close. Yesterday was a pretty chill day, as I woke up late again and decided to head to brunch at Peppermill! I got the Beef Bulgogi Loco Moco, which was pretty good and a nice hearty breakfast (sourdough toast missing from pic).

I stopped by the Venetian on the way back to see if I could hop into a cash game, but it looked pretty dead. To kill time before dinner, I decided to check out Ellis Island, as reportedly it had $1 bubble craps with 3/4/5 multipliers. The place was a proper dive, and it was only 2x multipliers, but I managed to stay for almost 2 hours and lost $40 - the same amount I did at the Bellagio the previous night. Was up $30 at one point but ended up getting too greedy and ran that down to a loss. If you're looking to drink a bunch (opted not to this time) and gamble a small amount very slowly, this is the place to go.

After that, I popped into dinner at Zuma sushi in the Cosmo. Had a nice sidecar cocktail with Suntory Toki Whiskey, Dry Curacao, and Yuzu along with a few rolls of sushi which were all excellent. Really wanted the signature ribeye steak but didn't have the room in my stomach for it.

Got out of dinner slightly later than expected, and had to hoof it quickly over to the Rio for the show, which was an interesting walk along the highway and pretty deserted. Most people would probably uber but I'm weird like that and don't mind walking. The hotel was pretty nice, though I'm glad the WSOP is in a much more convenient location now. Wonder if they lost a ton of business due to that. The Penn and Teller show was fun, but not incredible or anything.

After the show I walked back and tried to get into Caesars, as I've never played there, but the waitlist is long and slow moving. I get impatient and head back to the Venetian, where I'm seated immediately. The game is decent, and I'm seated next to a cool guy who had played in the Colossus on the same day I did and made it to Day 2, where he managed to be seated next to Greg Raymer. He apparently wasn't wearing the dumb glasses, but still has his signature fossil with him. The guy says that the money bubble broke around midnight, so I could have made it with about two more hours of play.

The session does not get off to a great start where I suffer a beat after raising TT to $15 after limps and flopping a set on a JT4 flop, two diamonds. The table mark, who has busted and rebought a few times for $100 each, shoves his ~$100 short stack after a $15 c bet from me and a call behind from the player to my left. This may not have been the best play, but I simply flat the all in to try and keep the other guy in, as I am not sure of his hand strength and whether he would call a reshove. He calls and the turn is a diamond queen, bringing the flush draw in. I check and sigh internally as a flush draw is definitely in his range, and for the other guy as well. He checks back and the river is the 4th diamond, and now I'm sure I'm beat. I check again and he checks behind, showing KK without the suit. If I had predicted he was this strong, I would have certainly shoved the flop. It would have been much easier if I was on his left. While I have the ten of diamonds, unfortunately the short stack got there with the queen after hitting runner runner with his QJ top pair. He triples up.

I flop another set shortly after with TT but don't get any value past the flop. Lose a little more when I am unable to checkraise a JTX double diamond flop multiway with AQdd, hit top pair on the turn but the lose to the 89 straight after a $20 river bet. Triple up guy donates most of the money he was given, but then makes another suck out and flops a set with 33 vs QQ all in pre. I am down to just a little over $100, the game is dwindling players, and I think about leaving when the following hand happens: Raise KQcc to $15 pre and get four callers, then checkraise a c bet all in on a QJ3 board, one club. The c better calls, turns up AK, and we hold - back to $250!

He barely covers me by like $7 and goes all in blind and wins twice before finally busting. We are now down to 5 - a $15 raise goes out with 3 callers, and I have AQs in the bb. This seems like a good spot to iso 3 bet, and I raise up to a modest $50. Thankfully I chose a smaller size, as my left shoves and the yet again short stacked mark calls. Easy fold and I make the correct decision as the raiser has KK and busts the other guy. He racks up and the game breaks, which is fine by me as it is is almost 3:30am. Cash out -$135, which is tough but happy to claw back an extra 100 out of my earlier hole.

Ellis Island is a nice brewpub sorta thing, and a low-roller casino. Good beers on the cheap.

Agree with you about the walk to Rio. I'd done it several times over the years. While it's not a nice walk (really trashy/dirty), never had any troubles.

Many in various threads over the years seemed to make it out to be something you're lucky to get out of alive. Certainly not that.

Safe travels, thanks for the TR!