*** 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:
Not sure how much you had behind here, but I believe pot size is 7500 on the turn. I think 2700 is way too small here, and doesn't accomplish anything besides building up the pot a bit if you hit. Maybe you can get a Tx to fold from the player stuck in the middle here, but that's about it.
Anything from 7k-10k seems like a good turn size, and then just give up river unimproved. Definitely not a tournament expect, but we should try to put Kx in a tough spot here on this street with all our equity.
I think this really highlights the difference between cash game and tournament mindsets: the adjustment made for bet sizing.
In cash games, when everyone has 100, 300 big blinds or more in front of them, it’s basically never correct to bet less than 50-75% pot.
But in tournaments, 30-50 big blinds is actually quite a lot. I think I of bet sizing in tournaments as, do I want to set up this spot to get stacks in, or not?
There’s also the point Harrington and Miller first made… every chip you lose hurts you MORE than every chip you gain helps you. I think this is why you see such small preflop raises, and half pot or less cbets.
Still, I think your point is a good one. If my bets are close to 1/3 pot, even in a big pot, that’s too attractive a price for almost any holding that gets to the turn this way.
something something Euro Rounders, congrats!
happy for you man.
That's like riding out of town one step ahead of the posse!
Yee haaaaa!!!
I think this really highlights the difference between cash game and tournament mindsets: the adjustment made for bet sizing.
In cash games, when everyone has 100, 300 big blinds or more in front of them, it’s basically never correct to bet less than 50-75% pot.
But in tournaments, 30-50 big blinds is actually quite a lot. I think I of bet sizing in tournaments as, do I want to set up this spot to get stacks in, or not?
There’s also the point Harrington and Miller first made… every chip you lose hu
Yes, I know what you mean. I am not diligent enough either in taking these big sizings that I know can be effective. However, a lot of that has to do with being handcuffed by stack sizes in tournaments. There is often not enough room for a big bet without making myself too short and/or too committed.
Well done on getting unstuck 😀
Well done, TJ! Safe travels ack home.
I want to quit my job, and become a double board bomb pot pro.
Since we last spoke, I found a GREAT card game here in town. I knew a bunch of underground card games in Atlanta, where I’m from, but I didn’t know any in Raleigh.
An acquaintance I met in a bar through DJing got me into this club. It’s a pretty professional operation. They run tourneys and cash games, and play 5 nights a week. The cash game is 1/3, sometimes alternating rounds of NL with PLO.
And, crucially, a PLO double board bomb pot on dealer changes every half hour.
The rake is pretty steep, plus a drop for goofy high hand promos I’d rather not have. There’s probably $200 an hour coming off the tables in that room when they have two games going. But there’s plenty of gamble, with bad players making CATASTROPHIC mistakes, in completely standard PLO and DBBP spots.
I’ve played 7 sessions so far at this club. Six wins, one loss, and currently up about $4.2k. Better than $100/hr. Sustainable?
Plus, I’m still playing in the online private 2/4 PLO game, when it runs. And that one has no rake!
So I’ve been keeping busy, and my live reads sharp, in between casino trips. The next WSOP Circuit stop comes to Cherokee after Thanksgiving.
The Econo Lodge is already booked. I’ll be there!
absolutely no reason for you to swerve off a monumental heat check
keep pounding every edge the table offers
Between this live game I found here in town, and the online private game I’ve been playing in, 2024 is now my best year in poker yet.
Including before Black Friday, when I was Supernova on Stars grinding 20k-50k hands per month at NL100.
I’m sooooo stoked for the WSOP Circuit event in Cherokee in a few weeks.
And then a brand new room at Caesar’s Virginia is opening next month. It’s only an hour from me here. If the action is good, I could be there practically every weekend.
Somewhat wistfully, this means my impetus to move to Las Vegas is greatly diminished. Now that I can find games and action here, it’s arguably better here anyway. Vegas will always be there for WSOP in the summer.
My investments and retirement accounts have never looked better. I’ll even be able to buy a house for the first time, which has always been a just slightly out of reach dream for me.
Feels good, man.
awesome to hear TJ!
Yeah, good news for you.
I thought you were near Augusta though? Some place in VA is ~ 1 hour away?
(Of course, don't expose your location if you're not comfortable, I'm probably thinking of somebody else).
I think you’re thinking of arcdog. He and I are both DGD’s (Damn Good [Georgia Bull]Dawgs)!
I’m from Atlanta, live just outside Raleigh.
Ah, wish I'd realized that last summer. Woulda given you a shout for lunch or a beer.
C H E R O K E E !!!
PS. I suck at PEEHS
Looking forward to updates!
Spoiler
What do you get when you combine human DNA with sheep DNA?
Spoiler
Kicked out of the petting zoo
I hope everyone has had a safe and happy thanksgiving.
I know we did!
My amazing sister and her boyfriend hosted the 9 of us. We had a 19 pound bird that was brined overnight and in the oven for about 5 hours, and it came out perfect.
Everything was perfect.
Then I made the 4 hour drive to Cherokee, to play the $400 mini-main this weekend!
Arrived safely, and checked in to the trusty Econo Lodge. Went with the double bed this time, even though it’s just me.
They’ve made some tweaks to the structure. We start with 30k chips now, when it was 20k back in August.
There are four starting flights, two tomorrow and two Saturday, at 10 and 4. Interestingly, the 10 am flights has 30 minute levels, and the 4 pm flights only has 25 minute levels… I guess to fit all of Day 1 into one day. It’s 45 minute levels on Day 2.
I’m expecting over 3000 entries, and about $130k up top. I’m willing to fire up to 4 bullets, to try and find that Day 2 bag!
So now, sleep, and let’s make it a long, great day tomorrow!
That's a tasty looking spread! Go get'em and get that bag!
Go go go. Run good.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Slept great, got a shower, and hit the Waffle House for breakfast.
I am nothing if not a creature of habit.
Bought into the tournament pretty early, and got table 1, seat 1. A good sign? At least that should mean my table’s never breaking all day.
Got a good, high protein breakfast for what’ll hopefully be a very long day in here:
We’re playing 20 levels, or down to 5% of the field for this flight.
Let’s gooooo!
And I lost definitely AM wearing the lucky day 1 shirt that found two bags in Vegas over the summer 
First break, in fine shape on about 70k from the 30k starting stack.
Played small ball and steadily chipped up slowly the first two levels, then fireworks in levels 3 and 4. I stacked the fishiest player at the table when I flopped trips, turned quads. Actually, he pretty much stacked himself, and I find myself on about 105k.
Then I pick up AA from the small blind, facing 4 limpers. I 7x it, get three calls, and I’m first to see a Tc 9c 3d flop, not holding the Ac. The effective stack was about 18k, so I bet 8.5k, telling myself I’m calling if anyone shoves. The joke is on me, when all three players shove, and it’s a huge pot with me priced in, but no longer feeling great about my one pair.
I call it off, for the odds, but mostly because I know I couldn’t emotionally handle it if I laid down AA there and it somehow held up. I’m up against the nut flush draw, a non nut flush draw, and top set, which scoops.
Very next hand, I pick up QQ, and isolate a tight/passive limper, who check/raises my value cbet on an 8h 4d 3d flop, playing about 20k. I shrug and get it in, up against a combo draw of 9d8d, and she drills the deuce of diamonds on the turn. Guess I’m due to win my next flip.
So swonging all over the place there, but I’m feeling patient, and focused, and serene, sitting on a great stack for this point in the tournament. Nobody at my table has impressed me, so let’s make it another great 4 levels!
GL TJ, hope the runbad is small in scope.
Second break, 65k coming back to 1k/1.5k. No big spots, no tough decisions, just peacefully grinding.
Snapped off a GTO wizard playmaster in a button vs blinds spot, when the story he was telling just didn’t make sense. Then I got a bit overconfident, and made a light 3bet squeeze that was inadvisable, in retrospect.
The spot was probably fine, if I had fold equity. Turned out I didn’t… so that’s a spot I should just pass up.
Black chips are out of play, so I predict major chip consolidation the next 4 levels. Still feeling good and playing good.
Busto bullet number 1, in level 11.
I got moderately unlucky, when KQo > AJo all in preflop for a little over half my stack.
That put me down into pushbotting mode, and it went splat when I got my last 11 bb in over an EP raise with A5s, but I couldn’t run down JJ.
At least the timing worked out great, on to bullet number 2 in Flight B, which is just about to start!
in retrospect do you think your actions swerved outside the lanes of 'peaceful grinding' at any time
is your strategy to wait and pounce like a cat ore just mine the chips others dig for you
Honestly I’m just trying to be mindful of my emotional state and be stoic. To have success playing as long as I do, it’s important to be very focused on my mental state, because I can get loose and impetuous when I become impatient and try to force things.
First break of Flight B, on 36k. Found one great spot, all in pre 3 way with AKo, up against KQo and AQs, but he flopped a flush. I still made money on the side pot, though.
This table is playing tighter than my first table of Flight A. Still feeling good, and being selective when I apply pressure.
