The Summer Wind - A WSOP Trip Report …… and beyond!
Don’t ask me why I chose the title of an old Sinatra song to be the title for this year’s trip report, i have no idea, i
Tony-do you have any of your surefire sports bets that I can piggyback on while I’m in Vegas through Sunday?
Tony-do you have any of your surefire sports bets that I can piggyback on while I’m in Vegas through Sunday?
If only such a thing as a sure-fire sports bet existed.
The Wynn had a soft line for the Champions League final on Saturday that I liked.
PSG to lift the trophy at -145
Should be more like -165. Not sure if they still have it or not but worth a play if they do.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I didn’t manage to squeeze him in. Lots of good players, and with a $200 budget it’s pretty hard. So many different strategies or ways you could go.
This is the team I came up with:
Alex Livingston $81
Chris Brewer $70
Jake Schwartz $31
Renji Mao $9
Cherish Andrews $3
Mustapha Kanit $2
Dong Chen $1
Toby Lewis $1
Shawn Daniels Bonus
I also have 1% of Donnie Peter’s and Mickey Doft’s Team DPMD in the main $25k one.
Not sure I agree with their draft strategy though. $141 for Jeremy Ausmus is too much for any player.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Oopsy
I feel you. I did the freeroll thing through PokerOrg. My team is:
Phil Ivey $95
Tyler Brown $26
Viktor Blom $22
Adam Friedman $13
Maksim Pisarenko $12
John Hennigan $11
Jeff Madsen $11
David Prociak $5
For my bonus player I was torn between Daniel Strelitz, David Williams, and Nick Marchington. Went with Marchington because he is an elite large field NLHE player and one of the favorites in something like the Monster Stack, Milly Maker, or Main Event.
Now Strelitz is top 5 in chips in the Mystery Millions with 20 remaining. Oopsy.
I guess it's too early to have buyer's remorse. Lots of events left.
WSOP
Pregame - Friday June 6th
Just about 36 hours now until we get underway for the WSOP trip proper. Anticipation is building and I’m sat here clicking refresh on the PokerNews live updates like a madman.
Really happy for Ryan Hoenig who just took down the $10k Dealer’s Choice for his first bracelet.
As expected, I haven’t played any poker while I’ve been home, opting instead to relax and fully charge the batteries for a trip that would even put the energizer bunny to the test.
Spent some time with the family at a finca hotel in San Jerónimo which is about 40 minutes outside of Medellin. You might say that my final WSOP prep went swimmingly? [emoji23] ……. I’ll see myself out. [emoji30]
I won’t have a home base for this trip. Instead I’ll be hotel hopping to take advantage of various comp nights here and there to keep the expenses down. (Credit to BigWhale for giving me the idea)
Yes it will be a pain in the ass changing hotels frequently but it will be a substantial cost saving over staying in the same place for the whole trip.
I’ll be staying at Vdara, MGM Grand, Excalibur, NYNY, Paris and Harrahs.
I purposely omitted Flamingo this time as it looks like they’ve reduced their pool area (or certainly the swimming part) in the remodel and are going for an even more day-club vibe which I want absolutely no part of.
Tournament wise we’re potentially looking at up to 25 tournaments in 35 days. A lot of them will be 2pm starts and after midnight finishes so will need to be self aware and if fatigue starts to creep in don’t be afraid to take a day off to reset.
The amount of cash games hours we play will depend greatly on how the tournaments go. Hopefully it will be a light cash game trip.
I dont expect as many sports bets as last year when we had the Euros and Copa America, but it looks like the NBA Finals could be a competitive series and the US Open golf is coming up.
Travel route will be the tried and trusted one via Panama with Copa. I put in a low bid for a business class upgrade and to my surprise it was successful so we’ll be rolling at the front end of the plane for once.
I don’t expect any issues with customs this time.
How much cash are you carrying?
About tree fiddy officer. [emoji23]
Let’s Go!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I won’t have a home base for this trip. Instead I’ll be hotel hopping to take advantage of various comp nights here and there to keep the expenses down. (Credit to BigWhale for giving me the idea)Yes it will be a pain in the ass changing hotels frequently but it will be a substantial cost saving over staying in the same place for the whole trip.I’ll be staying at Vdara, MGM Gra
Appreciate the shoutout, but with long and grueling tournament days (since you always bag), I would find it to be a bit of a hassle to having to change hotels that often. Can only imagine the pain of bagging chips at 2am or something, and then having to be out of the hotel at 11am + get all that sorted before going to play a day 2.
Appreciate the shoutout, but with long and grueling tournament days (since you always bag), I would find it to be a bit of a hassle to having to change hotels that often. Can only imagine the pain of bagging chips at 2am or something, and then having to be out of the hotel at 11am + get all that sorted before going to play a day 2.
If you bag at 2 am you would likely request a late checkout. Most of the time it’s complimentary if you just ask, and if not worst case it’s $50 and on weekdays they usually let you stay until 2pm.
But then again it depends on when the day 2 starts too.
WSOP
Pregame - Friday June 6th
I don’t expect any issues with customs this time.
How much cash are you carrying?
About tree fiddy officer. [emoji23]
Let’s Go!
Shoes/Bankroll looks legit and Customs Approved.
Looking forward to the final table shenanigans!
Try the $20 trick and a smile for late/early checkout/checkin!
WSOP
Day 1 - Sunday June 8th
I was walking. Now I’m travellin’ In style.
The hardest part of these trips is leaving my furry ones. My kids understand and I video call them everyday, but my four legged friends don’t understand and give me dirty looks when they see the suitcases come out.
It’s a beautiful morning at Jose María Cordoba airport in Medellin.
1 hour hop to Panama, 3 hours lay-over, then the 6.5 hour flight to Vegas.
Travellin’ in style.
Business class makes a huge difference. Plenty of room, nice meal, couple of glasses of wine, watch a movie, relax. Before I know it we’ve arrived.
And are soon in our room at MGM Grand, and it’s a newly refurbished one at that. Very nice.
Grand Tower, 2 Queen.
On deck for tomorrow
WSOP #31 - No Limit Hold’em Deepstack (8 handed)
2024 Stats:
Champion: Timothy Murphy
1st Prize: $368,977
Entries: 4,732
Paid: 710
Starting Chips: 40,000
Avg. Chips ITM: 266,592
Players remaining EOD: 310
Avg. Chips EOD: 610,581
Luckily I pulled these stats for all the bracelet events I’ll be playing off the old website before GG absolutely butchered it.
Gives me some idea of how I’m doing and where I need to be.
Hasta mañana.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
WSOP
Day 2 - Monday June 9th
Woke up at 5am. Not good, but managed to get back to sleep until 7:30am.
Usual pool time in the morning and to my surprise I discovered another pool that I didn’t know existed. I think they were doing work on it and had it walled off when I was here in March.
Then headed to Paris. Exactly 20 minutes walk. The gold and blue color scheme this year really pops.
Signed up for the tournament on the app during the first break and was a little surprised to see this:
But they were opening new tables and it didn’t take long to get a seat. Although the new tables were all new late reg players. They should really mix with existing players brought from other tables.
The 1 seat is like a cheat mode as you can see all the info on the dealers iPad. So even if players are using an alias in the app (which I don’t think should be allowed) you can see the real names on the dealers screen.
I thought we were going to get an easy double-up early on. All-in pre KK vs TT but the board runs out A2345 for a chop.
Nevertheless we steadily chipped up without being at risk to be on 115k on 1 bullet at the end of late reg.
But then went card dead and ante’d away for a few orbits before doubling up a short stack with AQ < JJ to leave me short.
Got my last 9 bb in with K7 on a button steal called by Q8s in the big blind. Looked good when I flopped two pair but runner-runner flush meant GG.
Met rppoker in person and we had a good chat over dinner at mon ami gabi.
Filet mignon for me.
After which I went looking for a cash game. There was a $50-$100 O.E. running that I wanted to play but a seat never opened up so I played $5-$5-$10 Big O instead.
It was a decent game but I didn’t make any hands. Missed nut low, nut flush draws a couple of times but lost the minimum.
In for $2,000, out for $1,300. -$700 after 4 hours.
On deck for tomorrow
$1,100 TORSE at the Orleans
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Today, TORSE takedown. LFG.
Man, that KK vs TT board was dirty. Good luck today!
WSOP
Day 3 - Tuesday June 10th
No time for the morning swim today as the TORSE tournament at the Orleans started at 11am. I went a little early as I needed to get a players card first.
There was a good turnout with 161 entries but I couldn’t make much headway, although I did fight it out for as long as I could. I must have survived for at least 6 hours with between 3 and 5 big bets but eventually succumbed.
After that I headed to Encore to pick up my tournament winnings from the Big O, then walked to Paris and deposited most of it in my tournament account.
I then checked out the cash games. The 50-100 O.E. was running and full again. No one ever gets up from that game! There was also a 50-100 just Stud 8 with a seat so sat down in that.
Won a nice pot early starting 5-5 | 4 and catching another 5 on 4th street. It was 3 ways to the end. We didn’t improve but still ended up scooping against a missed low draw and two pair.
After that we were up $1,200 but that turned out to be the only real hand we won. We dwindled down as the game got short and started to feel tired so called it a night with a profit of $300 after 3 hours.
It’s good that these cash games are running daily though. They’re good games and I feel comfortable in them.
We did run good at getting propositioned though!
Hit a quick fire double walking out of Paris. One at the bar and one outside. The 2nd one was cute but I’m not even sure I had enough energy left for the walk back to MGM, let alone anything else. Playing tournament poker all day is one thing, but playing short stacked tournament poker all day is twice as taxing.
On deck for tomorrow
WSOP #39 - $1,500 HORSE
2024 Stats:
Champion: Phillip Hui
1st Prize: $193,545
Entries: 835
Paid: 126
Starting Chips: 25,000
Players remaining EOD: 210
Avg. Chips EOD: 99,405
Avg. Chips ITM: 165,675
So one of our favorites tomorrow, but it will be a long day and won’t even get close to the money.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
WSOP
Day 4 - Wednesday June 11th
First order of business today was to change hotels. Checked out of MGM on the app and took the monorail to Harrah’s which will be our next temporary home.
Only took about 30 minutes to go from MGM and get checked-in at Harrahs so it was relatively painless, except for the $50 early check-in fee. [emoji30]
Requested a quiet room so they gave me a Valley Tower twin.
Wasn’t sure I’d get any pool time today but as the hotel change didn’t take long we were able to get some rays and have a swim.
The Harrahs pool isn’t all that big but at least they had normal music at an acceptable volume.
No free sun-beds around the pool though. You have to go to this area above the pool.
No time for a proper lunch so we had Dave’s hot chicken for the first (and certainly not the last) time this trip.
We made an on time arrival for the HORSE tournament in the hope of a fast start.
We didn’t start fast, but rather steady, which was okay. Starting with 25k we had 30k at the first break and increased to 40k in the next session before losing a big Razz hand with 6-4 against a wheel to record 27k at the 2nd break.
Steady again in the 3rd session to sit on 45k at the end of late reg. When I got back from the break I saw a new chip stack in the previously vacant 1 seat so had a nosey at the dealers iPad to see who it would be:
Just the 17 time bracelet winner to join the other bracelet winners who were already at the table in seats 2 and 3.
I did tangle with him a few times:
I opened in O8 with AA58 and he 3-bet me with A2xx and we ended up chopping.
I then opened in Razz with 2-6 | 4 and he called with a ?-? | 6. 4th street he catches a 6 and we get a 2. We both pair but he doesn’t know that we’ve paired. We bet and he stares us down before mucking.
Then we win a big one off him in Stud. Don’t remember the exact cards but it went like this:
We have buried Kings and he’s the bring in.
We bet 3rd and 4th with him calling before he catches an Ace on 5th. He bets, we call.
He checks 6th so we bet and he calls.
7th we go check - check and our unimproved Kings are good.
He’s eliminated soon after and politely wishes everyone good luck. No blow-ups, he was on his best behavior tonight.
We’re up to 84k on the last break of the night.
Just 3 more levels left to play tonight and we’re looking to kick-on and finish strong, but instead we lose the first 2 pots we play after the break to drop back down to 45k.
We have to use the whip to get running right again and we use it liberally to start picking up pots with some well timed aggression.
Bagged and tagged above average.
Our table for tomorrow:
1. Nikolay Ponomarev
2. Nicholas Blumenthal
3. Vaughan Machado
4. Pierre-Jean Roche
5. TonySoprano9
6. Darren Taylor
7. Elias Hourani
8. Vincent Kolly
If someone has time and wants to do the homework on these players for me it would be much appreciated.
Re-start tomorrow at 1pm
Hitting the hay [emoji237]
They're all fish. Take em down.
The key to victory is to see your enemy (Phil Hellmuth) before you, bathe in his blood, and hear the lamentations of his women.
Gl on Day 2!!
