*** TJ's 2024 WSOP Trip! ...That Might Turn Into A Move?
“They all know me as a small-timer. But that’s about to change.”
It’s that time of year again!
This will be my 5th long trip to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. You can read about my trip last year, plus a couple bonus Harrah’s Cherokee trips, right here.
This will also be my longest trip yet, a massive 18 days! I’ll be in town June 14 - July 2. On the agenda: some WSOP bracelet events, lots of low stakes NLHE and PLO cash games, great food, and as much poker as I can possibly handle!
Tournaments I’m definitely playing:
6/15 $1,500 Monster Stack (Flight B)
6/19 $340 8-Game Mix, at the Golden Nugget
6/25 $600 Pokernews Deepstack Championship
6/28 $400 …Up to several bullets in the Colossus
Tournaments I’m possibly playing:
6/21 $1,500 Millionaire Maker (depending on how the Monster Stack, and my first week, goes)
6/18 $1,000 WSOP PLO event (If I bag, I’ll pass on the 8-game tournament)
6/26 $600 WSOP Deepstack Event (If I don’t bag in the Pokernews Deepstack Championship)
…And the Daily Deepstack Tournaments at the WSOP are always an option.
On my last two trips, I stayed at an Airbnb in the Arts District. This year, I’ll be staying at an Airbnb downtown. The factors that are most important to me are: walkable food options, on-site laundry facilities, and affordable cost. This year, a 1 bedroom studio condo downtown wins on all three, coming in at just under $84 a night, after all fees. I’ll be able to walk to Fremont Street, and the uncapped games at the Golden Nugget!
For cash games, I’ll be playing 1-3, 2-5, and 1-2-5 PLO in rooms around town. I’ve played in all the marquee, flagship Vegas card rooms, and that’s where I expect to spend most of my cash game hours. However, I’ve never been to Mandalay Bay, South Point, or the Orleans, so it’d be nice to pick up a chip for my collection.
In all likelihood, I’ll also do a bit of eating, while I’m in town. ‘Tis the season for Vegas trip reports, and we’ve got a lot of great ones going right now. If we want to cross the streams, combine our powers, and get a fantastic meal together, PM me! Here’s what I wrote last year, updated to be current for this year:
GL!!!
Not that I’m scoreboard watching this early, but if I finish 80th or better, I officially get unstuck for the trip!
And a finish of 539th or better gets me a new largest ever recorded live tourney cash.
Something to aim for.
Shuffle up and deal!
Very first hand, a shortstack (that still covers me) shoves UTG, and I’m next, with AKo.
Welp, I waited all weekend for this hand, so let’s go. All in preflop with AKo is about as good as I could have hoped for, with 6.5 big blinds.
“Do you have a pair already?”
“Yep.”
Ah well, let’s flip then.
Up against 33. Flop all blanks,
Turn K!
River A.
Let’s GO.
Fold through my blinds, then open Kd6d from the button to 24k, playing about 170k. The big blind has me covered, and 3bets to 65k.
A bit on the small side, and no gamble, no future, so I call, with the plan to shove any K, diamonds, or maybe a 6.
Flop Qh-Qd-Td, he downbets 20k. I shove, and he snap folds.
292k now, average 404k, let’s ****ing GO.
1900 players left now, and the blinds just went up to 8k/16k.
Let's go! Love the first hand double up
Great start!
Nice move on the second one, run it up!
It's time to dream big!
GO GO GADGET!!!
GL TJ!!!
Around these TR parts, we strive to be goal-oriented. It’s one of the habits of highly effective people.
Starting the day with 6.5 big blinds. Our goal for the first three levels is to amass a workable stack (>20 bb) by the first break
Setting an ambitious goal, and not fully realizing it, does NOT make it a failure.
Just making the first break is an accomplishment on its own, considering where I started.
On the first break with 363k, coming back to 10k/25k. We’re racing off the yellow 1k chips, which I think is another new achievement unlocked for me. The blue 100k chips are about to come into play, let’s get some!
So better than 14bb. I can minraise, I can resteal, and I can defend blinds. I have some reads, and there’s plenty of chips on my table to get after.
1300something players left.
Next goal: three more great levels, and one MILLION chips!
one Million...
Chips!
/Austin powers
Second break, 465k coming back to 25k/50k
With 9 big blinds, I’m under the gun with black 7’s. I should note here that I absolutely HATE having to shove ANYTHING from under the gun. 8 other people have cards, and haven’t acted on their hand yet. I feel like shoving UTG gives them chances to play perfectly vs my range when I’m crushed, and fold when I’m crushing.
I actually draw the line there at 77. I really can and do fold 22-66 UTG in this spot. Still, shoving seems better than minraising, which is better than calling or folding, so I stick it in there.
Get called by the hijack, up against: AsJs. Sir, that is well behind my UTG open ship range, not that I expect you to know, or care.
7 in the flop, and I win the flip. That’s why they call them pocket luckies!
Other than that, folded mostly. Don’t think I went to a showdown in either of the following two levels, after that.
Which isn’t to say it hasn’t been uneventful. In a hand I’m not involved, it folds to the small blind, who raises. Big blind ships, and the small blind snaps with KK. Up against AhJh,
…And the flop is Kh-Qh-Th. …well, that’ll do. Of course, the table goes wild, for the flopped royal,
…We almost miss that the river is another King.
Bedlam. Pandemonium. Everyone pulls out their phones. PokerNews comes over and writes it down.
A once-in-ten-lifetimes hand,
And I didn’t even get a table share of a BBJ! Ah well.
One other interesting spot. Martin Kabrhel (sp?), who apparently is poker-famous, ships under the gun for 6 bb, MP2 reships for 11 bb, I look down at black 8’s from the big blind. It would be for about 85% of my chips.
Sigh.
I guess I fold.
Kabrhel has 3’s, other guy has jacks, and holds to score the knockout. Good fold by me.
Under 650 players left. Let’s make it three more good levels, then dinner at Battista’s.
Yes! So Martin Kabrhel was to your direct left? Was he annoying the piss out of you with all of the chatter?
If you live by the flip, you die by the flip.
565th place, out of over 19,300 players, which is good for $1,650.
With just under 7 big blinds left, I see AJo from UTG+1. See above, how much I hate shoving ANYTHING from early position. But with the blinds coming up soon, I didn’t see it getting much better.
Called by TT, and the flop was promising, J-9-8. But the queen on the turn sealed my fate.
Still, I won two flips for stacks about 1600 knockouts ago, to get even this far.
I was only one pay jump away from setting a new best ever live cash!
Well, it’s been real, y’all. Guess I can make my flight tomorrow night after all.
Thanks to everyone for all the support, and thanks Brian, for those push/fold ranges!
Bummer/congrats
I'm proud of you TJ !!! You gave it your best, played sharp/focused poker. That's all you can do in #MTTLyfe
Nice run! These are the bittersweet ones. You're thrilled to get so deep, but left to wonder what could've been.
Seems like all of your decisions were sound. Wasn't your turn for the miracle mega bink. Nothing you could've done differently.
Max Kruse (royal flush) is a relatively famous soccer player in Germany. Borderline "All-Star" level. Also a frequent WSOP hobbyist.
Martin Kabrhel is infamous for his table antics. A very sharp and dangerous player though.
Yes! So Martin Kabrhel was to your direct left? Was he annoying the piss out of you with all of the chatter?
Yes, he’s definitely… eccentric.
He started talking to me right when I got moved over to the table. He asked me what the A on my hat stood for, and I told him it’s the Atlanta Braves, a baseball team. He asks if I’m from Atlanta, and I say yes.
Then he asks if I’ve been to the Georgia Aquarium, which naturally I have, and I’m quite proud of, for my city. I told him the otters were my favorite exhibit, because they were always up to stuff.
This confused him, because he wasn’t familiar with the English word for “otter.” I pull up Google images on my phone, and show him pictures of otters. Then he takes my phone to look at it, and holds it for an almost uncomfortably long time, like 3 literal minutes. Then he gives it back.
Not knowing (or caring) who he is, I ask him where he’s from, and he says Austria. I say “Oh, I hear you have great architecture, and really cool libraries. The Hapsburgs didn’t do ANYTHING small.”
This gets him really excited, and he asks if I’ve ever been to Austria. I say no, but I read about it.
He agrees, and says I look like the kind of guy who reads a lot.
Uh, thanks? …I guess?
So yeah, a little weird all the way around.
Max Kruse (royal flush) is a relatively famous soccer player in Germany. Borderline "All-Star" level. Also a frequent WSOP hobbyist.
I think I actually know that name! He is/was on the German national soccer team, right? I think I’ve played as him when I play FIFA, lol.
He was talking to his table mate in German. I politely asked them to speak English, then they would obviously continue talking about the hands that were just played in German.
The dealers were all inexperienced, culturally timid Asian ladies, so I knew I couldn’t count on them to enforce the rules.
It’s whatever, I didn’t rat them out to the floor, but I could have.
Great run. Congratulations. Thanks for taking us along.
PLO is decidedly less fun when your big hands don’t hold up. Top set on the flop lost twice, and in between I got quartered in a bomb pot, when I had the nuts on one board, and nothing going on the other. Gotta play both boards in that game!
I DID keep it under 4 hours, though. Eh, -1200 to turn around an otherwise strong day.
Don’t feel like playing more tonight, so I’ll head back, and be ready to check out by 11.
Then I’ll be playing out of my suitcase, giving PLO one last shot, until I head to the airport tomorrow night.
I think I actually know that name! He is/was on the German national soccer team, right? I think I’ve played as him when I play FIFA, lol.
Max Kruse have a couple of national team games yes, 14 games and 4 goals according to Wikipedia.
Must have been an experience to play with Martin Kabrhel, who by the way is from Czech Republic originally and not Austria. But I can imagine him being quite annoying to have at the table.
Agree with you that it sucks to push from UTG, which is why I think you can do a lot of raise-folding from that position. That said, once you get under 10 bb it becomes very difficult to do so.
Nice run, congratulations on the cash. Thanks again for such a good TR!
I think I actually know that name! He is/was on the German national soccer team, right? I think I’ve played as him when I play FIFA, lol.
He was talking to his table mate in German. I politely asked them to speak English, then they would obviously continue talking about the hands that were just played in German.
The dealers were all inexperienced, culturally timid Asian ladies, so I knew I couldn’t count on them to enforce the rules.
It’s whatever, I didn’t rat them out to the floor, but I could
You are probably thinking of the great German midfielder Tony Kroos who is just now finishing up his career. Great play in the tournament you outlasted a trillion people.
