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
Man... woke up today hoping to hear good news! Great run, the bracelet's coming.
WSOP
Day 13 - Friday June 20th
A truely hard fought day. I’m worn out from battling primarily against Ben Yu, who was on my right, and Chris Klodnicki who was on my left. Lots of pots against those two. Lots of 3-bets, lots of trapping, check-raising, bluffs and hero calls. Above the rim poker by all 3 of us.
Congratulations on a fantastic result. I thoroughly enjoyed the writeup.
Having played against Ben Yu in two separate events at †he 2024 WSOP, I concur that he is someone you don't want at your table. I say that because, while he seemed like a very nice guy, he is one tough player. Both times he fairly quickly and steadily built chips without having to turn over cards much at showdown.
Great run. I was following it by checking the app periodically yesterday. The table draws in these mixed events look very daunting. Sounds like you more than held your own against the wizards and outlasted the great majority of them. I foresee more deep runs on the horizon.
Good game. I also enjoyed the write-up. Carmela and the kids will be proud, I'm sure.
Notables still in are Benny Glaser, Chino Reem, David Bakes Baker, James Woods, Johanes Becker and Yuval Bronshtein.
The actor?
WSOP
Day 14 - Saturday June 21st
After two 12+ hour days and finishes after 1am I was still pretty tired when I woke up this morning so decided not to play the 9-game tournament today and take the day off instead.
It was also time to change hotels again. Se we said au revoir (but not goodbye) to the MGM Grand and bonjour to the Paris.
I had selected the luck of the draw option (which was the cheapest) when I booked and this is what I got. A Bordeaux tower twin room which is perfectly fine and even has a mini fridge.
After we got settled in it was time to check out the pool.
Just the one pool, but it’s a good size and has plenty of free sun beds around it, but it just felt a little soul-less, don’t know why.
Spent most of the afternoon there. Think I actually dozed off at one point. It was quite windy out today.
For dinner we opted for the Mayfair Supper Club in Belagio.
Dinner with entertainment. How did these places ever go out of fashion? I really enjoyed it.
The branzino was delicious, although not sure why they serve it upside down.
Turns out the bar is a good place to sit.
Liquid dessert. A chocolate martini.
After dinner, nah, supper we wandered the strip a little and found a band playing outside NYNY
And finished off the night inside at the piano bar.
On deck for tomorrow
$1,100 5-card PLO at Wynn
Back to playing poker in luxurious surroundings and a normal temperature. I love the Wynn.
Hello time traveler. Can you kindly provide tomorrow's lottery numbers? TY.
WSOP
Day 15 - Sunday June 22nd
We binked the last tournament we played here:
Todays’s tournament was 5-card PLO. Having seen some pretty bad play in the regular 4 card PLO the last time I played that tournament here I was wondering how bad it would be today with an extra card.
To be honest it wasn’t really that bad, or maybe it was just my table, although I’m not sure how someone can call off a pot sized bet on the turn on a board of 3-5-5-7 with just Aces which is what happened to our first bullet.
The 2nd bullet we were card dead and anything marginal that we chose to play we completely whiffed the flop so it was an early bath for us today.
Chicken parm for dinner in Allegro. I extracted the pasta from underneath the chicken for a better pic this time.
Today was also game 7 of the NBA finals. I watched the start while eating at Allegro. I didn’t really have any strong opinion pre-game and wanted to see how it started.
I’d just finished my meal when Tyrese Haliburton went down injured and had to be carried off.
Unfortunately one area where the Wynn comes up short is in the sportsbook department.
They’re still stuck in the dark ages with no kiosks or live betting, so off I went as fast as my legs would carry me in search of somewhere that had live betting.
I could probably have gone into Venetian but wasn’t sure if they had live betting and also didn’t know where the sports book was in there so we went for the first Caesars casino we came to which was Harrahs.
Lines when I got there were OKC -10.5 and a total of 208.5. I went for the Under. There was a line at the counter and only 1 teller so It had to be the kiosk. I was able to get down for $1,500 before the line changed.
Pretty much a no sweat winner which was good as it’s the first winning sports bet I’ve had this trip. Not had that many, a couple of soccer losers and Tommy Fleetwood let me down in the golf today.
I then continued back down the strip to Paris looking for a cash game. When I got there I was surprised to find it was unusually quiet with no 50-100 O.E. or Stud 8 running. At least one of those games has been running pretty much everyday so far.
We did start a 5-5-10 Big O short handed with 4 players which lasted a couple of hours, but when no-one else joined and one of the players got up the game broke. We were able to show a small profit of +$200 in the 2 hours it lasted.
The early finish did allow me to meet BringBackMo and his wife for a drink and a chat in the Bedford which was enjoyable.
On deck for tomorrow
WSOP #63 - $1,500 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw
2024 Stats:
Champion: Aaron Cummings
1st Prize: $146,516
Entries: 574
Paid: 87
Starting Chips: 25,000
Players Remaining EOD: 157
Avg. Chips EOD: 91,400
Avg. Chips ITM: 164,900
Having worked hard on 2-7 over the past year it’s become one of my better games and certainly one of my favorites. The hard work has paid off with some good results in this format. In 6 tournaments played we’ve won one and had two 3rd place finishes so let’s hope we can run good tomorrow.
It can be a very swingy game however, and we will have a 2nd bullet in the chamber ready to fire just in case.
WSOP
Day 16 - Monday June 23rd
Woke up late but there was still time to catch some rays and have a swim. The beauty of staying at Paris is I can go from my room to my seat in the tournament in less than 10 minutes.
Yellow section again in Paris ballroom. Seems to be colder by the day. It really is unpleasant to play in. Add to that the fact that there’s no good food options and it’s a truely miserable playing experience.
My table was interesting. Had someone 5 bet cap me after the 2nd draw then check fold after we went pat - pat on the 3rd draw.
I increased the 25k starting stack to 35k but after that did not draw a useful card for 3 hours and eventually busted.
The 2nd bullet didn’t start off brilliantly either but I got kick started when I got dealt 77778 and snowed it all the way. Villain drew one on the last draw. If he would have called I would only have had 8k left.
Get dealt 77778 3-bet it and stand pat fire every street and it gets through
Our high point was 65k on the last break of the night which was only 10k below average but we we’re unable to find a bag as we went back to drawing only pairs and paint and bust in the last level.
Having not eaten all day I was starving and on the recommendation of a local went here:
Went for the biggest steak on the menu which was the ribeye. Absolutely delicious. 10x better than the ribeye I had in Jean George’s last week and half the price.
Not sure how healthy it is eating that at 1am but at least I can go to bed with my stomach full and happy.
When you were 5 bet capped was there a 3rd person in the hand or are tournaments different than cash where once it's hu there's no cap? Never played a limit tournament I guess. Thanks for all the detailed writeups, super enjoyable.
WSOP
Day 17 - Tuesday June 24th
Our little sortie at le Paris has come to an end. Au revoir mon cheri.
And hello old friend.
The studio parlour suite has never let me down. We’ll be at Vdara for 6 nights. Only took about 40 minutes total to change hotels and no early check-in fee with MGM.
Then it was over to The Orleans for their $600 Omaha 8 tournament which drew a very respectable 229 entries.
The good: Finally able to play poker in just my t-shirt in a comfortable temperature and the food court right next to the poker room is handy.
The bad: Really smokey.
The nitty bad: They only have 10 black (100) chips in the 30k starting stack which causes problems with having to make change too often. And we’re playing 9 handed.
But we set aside our nit-picking and made the best of it, increasing to 72k at the 2nd break, before ultimately regressing to 31k at dinner break and the end of late reg.
At least we made it through on one bullet. Been firing far too many 2nd bullets on this trip for my liking.
Then some post-dinner run good brought to you today courtesy of Sbarro.
215k at the next break.
Which was unfortunately our high point. Lost a big one straight after the break with AA25 on a 23779 board. Looks hard to get scooped in a heads up pot there right? Well our opponent had just the hand to do it in A347
After that we started whiffing flops or getting the right price to call down for lows that never came.
With 30 places paid we did manage to limp into the money and cashed for $1,372.
Was also able to cash a couple of baseball bets which made it a decent day.
View from my room at Vdara.
On deck for tomorrow
WSOP #69 - $1,500 Stud 8
2024 Stats:
Champion: Nikolay Fai
1st Prize: $153,730
Entries: 611
Paid: 92
Starting Chips: 25,000
Players Remaining EOD: 157
Avg. Chips EOD: 97,000
Avg. Chips ITM: 166,000
Love the Vdara. Gym and pool aren’t huge but it’s such a civilised place for a longish stay and so we’ll located
So nice to come back to a clean and quiet place after the chaos of Vegas. Vdara giving you those calm rungood vibes already!
what's the deal with the check from Herbs & Rye? They seem to be giving you a discount and then nah.
WSOP
Day 18 - Wednesday June 25th
Although I can use the pool at Aria I thought I’d give Vdara’s a try today.
It’s obviously much smaller than the pools at Aria but it’s nice and cosy and there weren’t that many people so it was good.
Also the free sun loungers have a little cushioning so are really comfy.
For lunch I opted for a chicken parm sandwich from this place in the food court at Aria.
It was decent. I checked in with GolfPro who was also at Aria playing a tournament before heading over to Paris.
What a luxury, we’re playing in the balmy conditions of the Purple section today, and not the Siberia Yellow section.
Started steady enough. Increased the 25k starting stack to 30k on 1st break and 41k on 2nd break before regressing to 20k on 3rd break and the end of late reg after two hours of catching nothing but bricks.
I’d built back up to 40k when I played the following hand at the 2,500 - 5,000 level.
A 3 is the bring-in in seat 2. Seat 6 completes with an Ace up. I have 2-A | 6 and raise. Only seat 6 calls and we’re heads up.
4th street:
Villain: ?-? | A-6
Hero: 2-A | 6-2
He checks, we bet, he calls.
5th street:
Villain: ?-? | A-6-6
Hero: 2-A | 6-2-K
He bets, we call.
6th street:
Villain: ?-? | A-6-6-K
Hero: 2-A | 6-2-K-2
He bets, we raise, he thinks for a while, almost folds but does eventually call.
7th street:
Villain: ?-? | A-6-6-K | ?
Hero: 2-A | 6-2-K-2 | T
He checks, we bet, he calls.
Our trip two’s are no good. He’d been on a wing and a prayer with Q-J in the hole but caught a miracle one outer on 7th to make trip sixes.
That left us with crumbs which we dusted off soon after.
I’ve been pretty calm and level headed with run bad and bad beats so far this trip, not letting anything bother me, but this one really stuck the knife in, and twisted it to boot.
Instead of having an above average 70k stack and being right in the tournament, we’re walking out head down, thoroughly dejected and hating life.
In other news Medellin got a creditable draw in Bogota against Santa Fe in the 1st leg of the Colombian soccer final last night so it’s all to play for in Medellin on Sunday.
I can’t miss it so booked a flight to go back on Saturday. I did book a return as it was only $100 more than the one-way but the way I feel right now I’m not sure if I’ll come back to finish out the trip.
Cash games have dried up also. No 5-5-10 Big O or 50-100 O.E. I did have a look at the 5-5-10 PLO as there was a seat open but it looked like the worst line up imaginable, full of aggro Asians all sitting on big stacks.
So sorry for the run-bad. Really can put a damper on Vegas. Football is life, though, and worth going back for! Safe travels.
I think you should make the return trip. Also, PLO is always good somewhere -- we found great games at Wynncore. Even the 1/2/5 can be profitable in the thousands, which is worth it for me 😉
