WSOP trip report 6/18-6/23

The best one i saw this year was “In dog beers I’ve only had one”

Day 2 - Wed June 19

Second days in Vegas are the best for us Easterners. I wake up around 5:30 and take a jog down to the Venetian and back, followed by a workout in the fitness room. Im playing Day 1B in the Seniors event and determined not to let those old farts get me again.

Continuing with humor at Seniors’ expense (we can make fun of our own), they actually make announcements before every break to “take a picture of your table number before you go on break so you wont get lost” lol. Its like what’s next? Warning us about giving out our SS# to strangers we meet in the restroom?

Today goes much better than yesterday, boosted by two consecutive hands at the 200/400 level. Im sitting on about 23k, just over the 20k starting stack. I raise QQ from middle position to 1000, am 3 bet by small blind to 4000. With 40bbs to start hand we are obviously playing for stacks and so I jam. He calls with AK, we hold, and now have a little over 100bbs. Very next hand I get QQ again (!) and once more open to 1000. I am 3 bet once more but this time by a bigger stack. He makes it 3600 and I four bet to 12k. He shoves all in and I say “well its a rebuy” and call it off. He unfortunately for me has KK but unfortunately for him the river is a Queen. So in two hands we go from 23k to over 100k.

We end day 1 with 194k chips, good for 148th out of 1558. We get a glass of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at Cosmo Bond bar and call it a day.

Day 3 - Thursday June 20

1198 pay and man we blitz through the players- I think we make the money in the second level. I start strong and get stack over 300k but simply dont get dealt anything all day. I open on the button with QJs and am shoved on for 11bbs from SB. I call and we lose to 10Js. Later we open JJ and lose AIPF to A10. Finally with just 8 bbs we shove KJ from the cutoff and lose to 66.

Out in 648th for a 2270 payday. So at this point our tourney buy ins are 3000 and we’ve pulled 2270 back. Have played a bit of pit games but am even there and so the trip isnt going too badly.

Dinner tonight is at Zuma at Cosmo where the chefs choice sushi is really outstanding.

The night isnt over yet however as 1/2 plo at Bellagio is calling our name. Its a good game as the buy-in is up to 1000 and you can open as high as 15 preflop. I buy in for 1000, take this pic after a little profit, and eventually cash out 1960. Thus we have eeked into poker profitability after 3 days.

Day 4 - Friday June 21

After a great breakfast at the Henry in Cosmo (fried eggs, sausage, hash browns) while watching the Euros at the bar we head over to Aria for their 1600 Mystery Bounty. The field is huge and even though its a 250 or 300k guarantee there ends up with a prizepool over 500k. Out of 595 entries, 72 will make the money and come back for Day 2 where bounties will begin. Two bounties are 50k and there are four 25ks and so I really want to build a stack and come back Saturday to pull bounty envelopes.

Run up a stack is what I do, as I bag 470k from a 25 or 30k start and so will enter day two 14th out of 72 and feeling great. We played from 11am until just before midnight with no dinner breaks, and so after I walk back to Cosmo and at the Henry get their tomato soup and grilled cheese, of course paired with red wine. I go bed with plans Sat that include making a final table and pulling some big bounties.

Day 5 - Saturday June 22

The excitement of pulling bounties wanes as I simply am not dealt anything on day 2. I never had two face cards or a pair over 2.5 forty minute levels and lost chips every hand I played. I finally shoved 12bbs from the SB with Q9 and was called by the BB with AJ. Game over, no bounties. We finish 48th for 2303,
so a 703 profit. Ive cashed half of my entries and still a small loser (4600 buy ins and 4573 in winnings) - you simply cant survive playing tournies with just mincashes.

So with that we cab to the Wynn - its about 2:30 and late reg is open until 4:30 for their 1100 NL - we get there asap and get seated. This one doesnt go our way and we are out within about an hour. Now, tired and kind of worn out from nonstop poker all week the thought is to get a great dinner (Im starving) and get some sleep for tonorrows travel back to Georgia. We are now 5700 in buy-ins and 4573 in winnings so -1127 in tournies, +960 plo cash.

Day 5 will conclude later, and things get interesting.

this was pretty funny

After dinner break on 1A we had the inevitable follow up announcement - “does anyone recognize this man - he doesn’t know what table he’s at”

Day 5 - Saturday June 22 (continued)

Having eaten an early breakfast I am really hungry, but its only 3:45 or so and nothing opens at Cosmo until 5:00 or 5:30, so I decide to walk over to Allegro at the Wynn which is open basically all day. I sit at bar and have rigatoni and meatballs and end up conversing with NBA star Pat Beverly and his wife. He was very nice and much different than his on-court persona. I didnt let on that I knew who he was but googled his wife to confirm it was them. After feeling burned out on poker I drank enough (3 glasses of chianti) to give me the kind of small buzz needed to convince myself that the 6 pm 1100 Turbo was a good idea. This is the same event Pardo final tabled the night before.

I so love a turbo, for nitting it up and folding isnt in my DNA. I particularly like a rebuy turbo and planned to take advantage of every spot I could (real or imaginary). We get an early opportunity at 200/400 with about 25k as we three bet AK and get shoved on by both the BB (20bbs) and the original raiser (he has us covered). Its a turbo and a rebuy and so this is a snap call - at least for me. We are shown 1010 and QQ what a great spot. We flop a King and almost triple up early.

The tourney gets 254 entries and pays 31 spots - 2368 for a mincash and 50,925 up top. Having a bigger stack most of the way makes navigating down to and past the bubble rather easy, and we are on about 35 blinds when the bubble bursts. These turbos play very shallow, and so we’ll need to make things happen to go deep.

As players start to melt away I really begin to focus on the final table payouts which include about 5300 for 9th. The top four pay around 50, 36, 25 and 20k and so thats really what Im shooting for. It is with about 27 left that I have my first pre-flop flip since that 3-way hand early. With about 16 blinds I shove K10 over a hijack open and am called by 88. The flop and turn bring no help and I rise from chair, pull at backpack and say “ok” and sigh. A gorgeous 10 hits the river and the table needles me for using the stand-up tactic to perfection.

Players continue to melt away and in not that much time we are at the final table. First 9, then 8, then 7, 6, 5 and now 4. At this point we have 20k locked up. A young Euro has all the chips, myself and another are about even, and young pro Jeremy Becker is a shorter stack. Becker, who has been on a short stack since the bubble but playing it well, gets chopped down in a hand and has to open shove like 5bbs. The SB is a Euro with all the chips and he calls, and I call in the BB with 54 and one spade. The big stack and I check it all the way and on a 4 spade board I win with a flush to knock out Jeremy and get us down to 3 handed, 26k locked up.

Now is where it gets interesting for we are at 50k/100k and there are 6.2 million chips in play. The Euro on my right has about 3.2m, I have about 2m and the guy on my left has about 1m. With this dynamic the big stack is counting on me to think about ICM and wait on the shorter stack to fold. First is 50k, second 35k and third is 26k. I want the whole 50 however and so soon we get a key hand. The short stack is down to about 8bbs, me maybe 22bbs and big stack 32bbs. Short stack folds button and big stack Euro shoves all in from SB. Now I know what he is thinking and while yes I am incentivized to play very tight I dont want to be chopped down and get short myself while waiting on this guy to maybe bust, and Im playing to win. So, when I look down at A6hh I tell myself that Im miles ahead of his range and its time to win this tourney.

I call his all-in and he sheepishly turns over 44. He sees my hand and cries “why, why - he is short!” I say yeah but I want all the chips. We make a flush to take the huge 5m+ pot and two hands later we knock him out and are heads up with a 6-1 chip advantage. We cant lose this one - this is our time. That was the last hand of 500/100 and now we are going to 75/125k heads up.

With my huge chip lead, HU only lasts about 5 hands. The final hand he has about 5bbs and I shove K5o and he calls with AQ. Two Kings on the flop and we win the damn thing for just over $50k and a Wynn trophy. Good times.

lol

During Day 2 we had the inevitable “is there a doctor in the house!” as a guy was having what appeared to be a heart attack. He was thankfully okay. I was making jokes of course the entire time that survival in this tournament would be literal as well as figurative.

awesome job arcdog! congrats on the win, the trophy and the money 🤑💰

Fantastic! Great job going for and getting the win at the Wynn.

Yep i was there for that too, a few tables away. When everyone starting clapping 20 mins later someone at my table asked why and I said “because he’s still alive”.

Congrats on the score!

Great job!

Always good to see a fellow DGD doing well

Thanks guys appreciate it.

Congrats!

Insane run! I especially love seeing someone play for the win at the FT and not the ladder ups.

I don't know if you watched any of Nick Schulman's bracelet win from earlier this summer, but basically he opened up a huge chip lead by winning a massive flip against the co-chip leader and then just bulldozed everybody, shoving all sorts of trash and getting lots and lots of folds, even from hands as good as Ax when they were highly likely to be ahead. Nobody wanted to gamble with him and play for the win.

Love that you went for it here instead of nitting it up for the next spot.

That's why you get a trophy and a picture (and a whole lot of money).

Yeah let me get abused over and over to your benefit. lol ****ing poker players

congrats!

awesome stuff

"NBA star Pat Beverly?"

Congrats! As a fellow Cosmo homer it would have been nice to meet up if our trips overlapped.

Nice write-up, thank you for sharing.

Congratulations on the big score!

Great job! Congrats!