The (older) boys are back in town….. yet again

You may well know a few of us from previous Pulitzer winning trip reports such as “The Boys are Back in Town” and the creatively titled sequel “The Boys are Back in Town Again”. The third part of the trilogy, inspiringly titled “The (older) boys are back in town….. yet again”, our very own Return Of The Jedi if you will, is coming soon to a mobile device near you soon.

Guitarist, Watbri, Watbri Jr, Oscar, Ryan (unconfirmed) and myself will be lit up by the bright lights of Las Vegas next weekend for a few weeks. The intention is to steal from the whales whilst feeding the fishies. We’re self-styled poker eco-warriors really.

Oscar (the highlight provider from 2023 trip with his second place finish in the $10k 2-7 TD), arrives Thursday 30th May, Guitarist and myself on Sunday 2nd June, Watbri and Watbri Jr on 9th June and Ryan hoping for 5th June. When we’re coming from all corners of the globe (Australia, UK, Dubai and NorCal), it’s ain’t an easy diary alignment.

The plans are as usual - play a lot of poker, donk a few $$$ at the pai gow tables, and enjoy some great food which includes our annual trip to Craftsteak. No hookers and blow for us (I speak for myself there really) as the old ticker may not take that level excitement. We’ve got a good record in not doing a Blasted and between us, we’ll get a few pictures and stories added each day.

From a poker perspective, what can you expect? Well, Oscar has two runner up finishes in WSOP events, both in 2-7 TD. Third time lucky we all hope. And whilst Oscar and myself may be firing a couple of mixed game WSOP events, all of us play NLHE….. to varying standards of course. There should be everything from $1/$3 to $10/$25 being played between us so expect the notated hand histories to range from “that f###ing fish hit his f###ing three outer on the river” to “I had blockers to the back door flush draw and his range was super capped to one pair based on his small raise from mid position on the brick turn” or something suitably GTO inspired. Clearly those second insights won’t be coming from me.

With 9 days still to go before I board my 11 hour flight, it seems a little early to subject you to pictures of shoes and $3.50 subtly hidden in the shot. Suffice to say I’ll be rocking up with $15k (most of it courtesy of having 5% of Oscar’s $192k win for his aforementioned 2nd place in event #38 last year), a pre-completed FinCEN 105 form and hopes of fame and fortune. A couple of the others will have more, a couple of the group perhaps a bit less. But between us, we’re expecting a feeding frenzy akin to piranhas around a drowning sheep.

Hoping to catch up with as many of you as possible whilst there. For those that can’t make it to the 2024 WSOP, our wish is that this trip report allows you to, at least in part, vicariously share the experience.

Run good, be lucky, and see you at the felt.

Donk Dunc