Gray-haired poker TRs: Living the WSOP dream
At the age of 62 (AARP members unite!), I have decided that I will write a trip report for my 2024 trek to the World Series of Poker. Not exactly “Stop the Presses” news, although maybe an old-man poker TR from a former sportswriter turned entrepreneur/investor is somewhat unique.
This trip report proclamation and five nickels will get me a quarter. I get it. Lots of people promise/start trip reports and then never follow through (blasted). You don’t know me, so there is no reason for you to believe I will actually deliver.
So, I will put some skin in the game to show I can be trusted to deliver on my promise. Before I start my 2024 trip report in this thread, I will do a trip report on my first ever 2019 12-day trip to the WSOP (when I was 57 years old and a bit less gray than I am today) based upon old notes I have kept and memories I recall (memory loss is not an issue for me so far, wait, did I already say that?).
I did not write a trip report at the time, so this is new content. Call my 2019 long-after-the-fact walk down memory lane on 2+2 a down payment from me in return for your anticipation of and attention to my 2024 trip report.
Hm. I wouldn't know Seattle. Not sure why he looked familiar.
Re: the banner pics. A few years back (WSOP still at Rio), was playing in the Senior's event. A while after we'd started, a guy comes in, gives the dealer his registration slip and player's card.
The dealer asks for a photo id. He points at a banner on the wall. It was Berry Johnston (1986 ME champ). We all got a good laugh out of that.
Some people have a look that seems familiar. I've run into it a number of times. Someone will ask me when I left Ohio. Never been to Ohio. They don't believe me and think I'm blowing them off. It troubles me to think some poor bastid out there looks so much like me.
Happened to a friend of mine in a very humorous way. We were in Pizza Hut and a biker guy walks by my friend and says "I never thought I'd see you in this town again". My friend says Huh? Turns out he's like a 90% match for a guy that infiltrated a biker gang and testified against them and sent a few to prison. Well, it was humorous to me anyway.
Breadcrumb: In Level 13 of the Mystery Millions Bounty Flight B with the blinds at 2000/4000 a hand like the absurd final poker scene from the movie Casino Royale takes place. There is a four way all-in including me for over 400,000 chips and the tournament chip lead at the time (WSOP.com had the chip leader at 365,000 at the time). Everyone has a monster hand and there remains a significant sweat after all the money gets into the middle.
Breadcrumb: Was at the same table as Ben Yu for a while.
You tease, you
I just want to know how many Dr Peppers you’ve had today.
I checked out the Horseshoe today when the Event #6 $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold-em Championship semifinals were going on (Artur Martirosian versus Darius Samual, and Faraz Jaka versus Nikolai Mamut). We always see the professional feed on TV, but I thought 2+2 might like to see what it looks like from a little farther back where you see the view from the TV production perspective:
Breadcrumb: With me holding A-Q, I finally make my hand with an ace on the river, and I run into ... quads.
Michael Rocco cameo in your Bechtel banner pic.
I think they keep Russ Hamilton's banner in mothballs or use it as an extra dish rag. Can't recall ever seeing it up.
Jesus is a strange case because he was a poker exile for many years, yet a frequent face around 2016-2019. I saw him a few times in the Rio my first time coming out for the WSOP, but now it seems like he has gone underground again. No Hendon cashes since the 2020 online WSOP.
Glad they don't have Russ up there - would be a travesty. I lost a lot of money in those 25-50 UB games after they activated the back door - 70K or so. Funny thing is I had dinner with him and a couple of other guys at the wsop that year just before the scandal came out. Needless to say he was very jovial at dinner.
From the cell phone camera of rpphotographer
Dueling Final Tables (5K Pot Limit Omaha and $1,500 Limit Hold'em)
Breadcrumbs: Erick Lindgren at my table to start the day ... A parade of professional poker players whose names I don't know file through my table (at one point there were five poker pros at my table at the same time).
I checked out the Horseshoe today when the Event #6 $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold-em Championship semifinals were going on (Artur Martirosian versus Darius Samual, and Faraz Jaka versus Nikolai Mamut). We always see the professional feed on TV, but I thought 2+2 might like to see what it looks like from a little farther back where you see the view from the TV production perspective:
We probably walked right past each other! I was sweating Jaka's semifinal at the feature table for quite awhile while giving the WSOP tour to friends who were also in town; they were quite amused by how much I was geeking out over the video production setup.
And let the record show that after exchanging hellos with Jeff Platt, I proceeded to go on a tear at the cash game I jumped into immediately thereafter for pretty much my only run-good of the whole trip. Either his powers are overrated or a wormhole has opened somewhere that's causing reverse effects on everything. Either seems equally plausible.
From the cell phone camera of rpphotographer:
The Sphere
I played the 8pm daily last Tuesday. I remember some guy saying he was a sports writer from Chicago. Wonder if it was you. It could have been another night. Shaun Deebs ended up walking in and playing the $200 Daily. Pretty funny.
I played the 8pm daily last Tuesday. I remember some guy saying he was a sports writer from Chicago. Wonder if it was you. It could have been another night. Shaun Deebs ended up walking in and playing the $200 Daily. Pretty funny.
Nope, that was not me. I have not played in an daily deepstacks.
From a fellow gray-hair, I can't tell you how pleased I am to have stumbled upon this thread. Looking forward to following your adventures. I say stumbled because I came to two plus two (and learned, as I was getting a new password, that I hadn't visited since 2012) to ask about the rather odd payout structure in the Mystery Bounty. As I was scrolling through the payouts to see how a friend was doing, I noticed that the Day 1 bubble boy, who placed 950th got $5,045. The guy who just busted 288 got $4500. I realize, of course, that if you made it to Day 2 you had automatic bounty potential EV. Also noticed that of the 949 Day 2ers there were close to a couple hundred sub10BB stacks, many under 5BBs. So I'm curious how others might think about this. I apologize if this is way off topic for the thread. Being a gray hair, I wasn't sure where to post it.
From a fellow gray-hair, I can't tell you how pleased I am to have stumbled upon this thread. Looking forward to following your adventures. I say stumbled because I came to two plus two (and learned, as I was getting a new password, that I hadn't visited since 2012) to ask about the rather odd payout structure in the Mystery Bounty. As I was scrolling through the payouts to see how a friend was doing, I noticed that the Day 1 bubble boy, who placed 950th got $5,045. The guy who just busted 288 g
I think I may have the answer to your question. People can make the money on Day 1 of a flight of the Mystery Millions but as long as you don't bag chips you can enter the next day's flight.
So for example, on Flight 5a, a person cashes but does not bag chips. They can enter flight 5b the next day and let's say they cash but don't bag chips. They can enter flight 5c the next day and let's say they cash but don't bag chips. They can enter flight 5d the next day and let's say they cash and do bag chips for Day 2. And on Day 2, they are the first person knocked. Because they min cashed during flights 5a, 5b, 5c and then get a bigger cash for 5d because they made it to day 2, even though they are the first person knocked out of day 2 they will have made more money during the event than someone who lasts longer on day 2 (who only played in one flight).
I hope that helps.
From the cell phone camera of rpphotographer
The hard to find WSOP Player of the Year banners
The WSOP Player of the Year banners are not easy to find. They are in a large, sterile poker room in the Horseshoe. In five days of tournaments, rppoker has yet to play in this room, which seems like it is where large tournament's overflow goes and at some point the tables get broken up as needed for the Paris ballroom, which seems like it is the main poker location.
I've had day ones that started in Paris and broke to the Horseshoe, and day ones that started in the Horseshoe and broke to Paris. I don't know if there's a set hierarchy or if it varies depending on space and schedule. The only time I played a day two in the new venue, we were actually in those Horseshoe sections.
One thing that seems consistent is that they seem to play out most of the ultra deep stages of tournaments in the Horseshoe events center, the same room where the TV tables are. Off to the sides in that room you will often find the final 50-100 of other tournaments playing down to the final table.
But, rptastemaker, when you multiply that by your millions of loyal 2+2 followers, crazy things happen. (No, you don't need to tap that link... Dr Pepper has somehow caught Pepsi as the #2 soda in the U.S.!)
