The Summer Wind - A WSOP Trip Report …… and beyond!

Any chance of taking the family to Bahamas with you?

Just occurred to me. A small consideration, but not zero.

Going to the Bahamas means an additional trek through customs and immigration. I can't imagine it's too bad, but I've never been.

But USA#n+1 is so much more difficult to enter legally than almost every other western democracy, so that might actually push it the other way.

Yes that’s a possibility, although not without complications.

Excellent -- My vote was Bahamas!

Yes, despite my post above, I was on team Bahamas. Probably because I've never been, looking forward to see what you have to say.

It's taking the winter off, it's almost October. Especially as far north as Sacratomato is.

Catching up with the thread.

Congrats on the ring!

In a vacuum, I'd go to Wynn WPT over WSOP-P, but with the free seat in hand, Bahamas seems like a clear winner.

Your packages seemed to do well on PokerStake last summer and I think you'll be able to sell for WSOP-P if needed (unless you decide to play the $250k Triton ).

Enjoy the vacay and GL over there.

i discovered the vid of star betting two big blinds and spinning it into one bling ring has not hit the internet quite yet

amazing results, well played

I’m good for 5 percent 😀. Love this thread

I'm curious as to your thoughts on something I think about when it comes to tournament poker. As you contemplate whether this is what you are meant to be doing (and your great results certainly justify this life consideration), do you think tournament poker is beatable?

I ask this because of all the costs associated with trying to be profitable. You have to win quite a bit more than your buy-ins because of the costs of travel, housing, expensive food, etc.

I have seen articles about professional tennis players and golfers trying to work their way up the beginning rungs of their professional sports. Guys who are good enough to be on the circuit but aren't making a ton of prize money get slammed by the travel, housing and food costs. There are players who have to stop playing because of the crushing financial burden. There are stories of parents putting a mortgage (or a second mortgage) on their house to keep their child's dream alive. And unlike poker, professional golfers and tennis players don't have to pay an entry fee for every tournament they play in. This last point is the absolute killer for poker players and any hopes of being profitable.

All of that said, when you (tonysoprano9) make the money in tournaments you seem to go deep, which is the absolute key to making that life work. Min cashes don't get it done. Big scores seems necessary.

In any event, I am interested what your thoughts on these considerations are as you weigh the possibility of much more tournament action in your future.

I'm not trying to throw cold water on your aspirations. If you go for it, I will be rooting hard for you. But I'm just wondering what your thought process is.

Do you have other sources of income, like dividends, rental properties, etc? You might be different, but a lot of people underperform when they feel the pressure to pay the rent.

To answer the above questions by rppoker and pig4bill:

No I don't believe it is viable to make a living solely from tournament poker. Not to any decent standard anyway. The expenses are just too great. Maybe it's possible playing higher buy-in events regularly so the expenses aren't as big a chunk compared to the prizes.

To make a living as a poker player you have to play cash games (and be good at them) as well.

To give you an idea (not including this trip) since I started playing again I'm up $83k net from tournaments but have incurred $27k of related expenses. So the expenses have eaten up more than 30% of my profit leaving me only $56k after expenses.

(My expenses would be more than most as my flights are international and I don't share rooms. Most of the circuit grinders split hotel rooms or Airbnb's but at my age I value my privacy)

But if you add in cash games where I'm up $43k then I have $100k after expenses in 16 months which isn't bad.

As to my personal situation I do have other sources of income.

I have a couple of rental apartments free and clear in Medellin so the money from those pays most of the bills.
I also have income from booking bets although as I've started dedicating more time to poker and travelling a lot this has decreased as I'm just not personally around the places I need to be to see those guys on a regular basis. And if they don't see you they aint gonna pay you. So I basically shut off most of my credit customers and just have a handful of post-up guys now and I settle with them via bank transfer.
And lastly I have my own sports betting. I turn over around $1million per year with an expected ROI of 3-4% so that's another $30-$40k

I don't have an extravagant lifestyle and Colombia isn't so expensive. I'm looking for all of the above to add up to at least $100k per year and I can live happily ever after without needing a proper job. Not that there are any around for me anyway. When the US legalized sports betting a lot of the offshore books closed and the larger ones bought up all the small ones so now theres not many head of sportsbook / director of trading (which is what I used to do) jobs to go around. And I can't get a job in the US as they don't give work visas for those type of jobs.

WSOP-C Thunder Valley
Day Six - Wednesday October 1st

Still no sun but it’s nice having the pool all to myself, and thankfully it is heated.

Same lunch as yesterday before today’s PLO tournament.

Onto the tournament and I saw the biggest neck vein tell I’ve ever seen in one of the early levels.

With the board reading Q-J-T-4-4 including three clubs a guys bets into me for a good % of the pot. I don’t remember exactly, somewhere between 76% and full pot and his neck vein is visibly throbbing.

I call with just 8-9 for the bottom straight and am good obviously but first time I’ve ever seen it that blatant. I guess that’s why the NLH pros cover their necks.

In level 4 now playing 300 / 500 / 500

3 limpers and I check the BB with A379 with the 3 and 7 of hearts
Flop: 2-4-5 with two hearts
I bet 1,500 and get one caller
Turn: Ace of hearts bringing the flush, possible straight flush but i have the blocker with the 3 of hearts
I bet 2,500 and villain calls.
River: 10 of hearts
I bet 3,500. Villain raises to 13,500
How can he raise when I have the straight flush blocker? Doesn’t make sense.
I call and am good. Turns out he had the other straight flush blocker in the 6 of hearts lol.

End Level 4: 53,000

End Level 8: 90,000

3 table re-draw and I get Nick Pupillo on my immediate left which is not good news.

Level 12 1,500 / 3,000 / 3,000

19 left with 17 paid. There’s not that many chips on our table. I only have an average stack but I’m the biggest stack on the table as we near the money bubble = license to steal [emoji3]

Unfortunately someone gets knocked out on another table and after the two table re-draw I’m no longer the big daddy big stack as I get the same table as these two with monster stacks:

In the 1 seat is Scott Stewart, or Stu as he likes to be called, WPT World Championship winner from last December.
In the 2 seat is Jarod Minghini, 8th in the WSOP main this year.
They’re both chipped up, lit up on beer and whisky, needling each other relentlessly and playing fast and loose. This should be fun!

My key hand in the tournament is not against them though, it’s against someone else, and on the stone bubble.

Playing 3,000 / 6,000 / 6,000
I have 160k, villain has 75k
I open for 7k with 678Tds and get 3-bet to 25k
It’s obvious he has Aces but I want to play with someone when I know what half of his hand is. I can either hit my flop in which case he’ll probably stack off or bluff him on a flop with the right texture.
Flop: A-4-5
Hmmmn. So I hit my flop hit he also hit his.
I’m first to act and knowing I have to call anyway I bet out his last 50k. Maybe there’s a very small chance he has Kings and will fold.
He calls and it’s Aces of course.

I’m getting 2/1 on the 50k and I have 40% equity so it’s an easy bet or call whichever.
Turn: 8
Hold please
River: 4 [emoji30]

Why do I never hold in these spots? Now I’m one of the shorter stacks. [emoji30]

End Level 12: 90,000

Won a small one from Stu.

All the short stacks are on the other table. Stu doubled up the only short stack on our table.

The bubble eventually bursts on the other table.

Level 14: 3,000 / 5,000 / 5,000

I open to 12k with AJ75ds from the button. Stu 3-bets the BB to 30k (he could have anything he’s been bullying)
I call.
Flop: Q-T-7
He checks. I pot it which pretty much sets me in and he folds.

End Level 16: 70,000

Start the final table of 10 at 4k / 8k / 8k

I’ll copy past here from Mike Patrick from Poker.org who described this murderers row better than I could:

PLO final table is just ridiculous

We've saved the best for last of the three final tables here at Thunder Valley today, as the final ten in $600 Pot-Limit Omaha is just insanely talented.

Where shall we start...

Leading the way is eight-time Circuit ring winner and 2024 WPT World Champion, Scott Stewart. Stewart won two of those rings in the last series here in January.

Next up is Travis Fujisaka, who won his first Circuit ring earlier this year at nearby Graton and finished second earlier this series in the $400 one-day event.

In 3rd is WSOP bracelet and four-time Circuit ring winner Nick Pupillo. Pupillo won the Circuit Main Event here at Thunder Valley in 2017.

A bit further down the counts is Jaord Minghini, who is having a better day than most players have in an entire series.

He started the day with a 42nd-place finish in Day 2 of the Monster Stack, then made his way to his Day 2 seat in the 2-7 Triple Draw event, where he finished second to Randall Blankenship for $6,600. Before he finished up there, he max late-regged this event and now finds himself with his third cash and second final table of the day.

And with the short stack at the table, but more than capable of spinning it up, is this week's Omaha 8 or Better champion, David Tarbet, who also finished 10th in the $600 H.O.R.S.E.

It's a ridiculous final table and we'll be here for all of it.

To spin it up I would need a hand and unfortunately I wasn’t getting any. I ante’d away for two rounds and saw 3 other players get eliminated before I picked up bad Kings and made my stand.

Still playing 4k / 8k / 8k I only have 60k.
I open for 25k and the BB calls.
Flop: 2-K-3 with two spades.
I was pretty much committed regardless of the flop so i bet my last 35k but flopping top set is nice.
When he calls quickly I know he has spades.
Hold please [emoji120]

Nope. No waiting. Despite having 3 spades in his hand the turn completes his flush and there’s no boat on the river for me.

7th place good for $2,052

On Deck: It’s the main now with 3 starting flights the next 3 days. I’ll wait and play the last one on Saturday which will certainly have the most players and probably the most number of recs. So no tournaments for the next two days.

another day another cash

No tournament until Saturday and no good cash game here, so what am I doing today?

Let’s see if anyone can guess correctly.

Plopping down some bets on this dire looking TNF game?

San Fran or blackjack for comps.

That goes without saying but that’s not it.

I like the way you think. The game was in L.A. and I did consider that actually, but no.

WSOP-C Thunder Valley
Day Seven - Thursday October 2nd

So I was thinking yesterday what am I going to do for two days with no tournament or cash game to play, when I had an idea.

So I set my alarm bright and early to go here:

I know where there’s a cash game that I want to play! LFG! 2 days in Sin City and fly back Saturday morning for the main event.

The flight was cheap enough with Spirit and just over an hour later I touched down at Harry Reid and shortly after had checked into the MGM Grand.

Tonight I got comped through MGM Rewards but will have to pay for tomorrow. Standard twin room:

Not sure what’s going on with the baseball stadium construction. Looks like they’re just making sandcastles.

I just had enough time to shower and change before heading to the B for the $80 / $160 Mix which starts at 12pm.

Construction of the grandstands for the F1 race is underway. Allen Kessler is trying to get me to come in November as he’s having another Chainsaw Series at Planet Hollywood. To be fair it’s a good schedule, but it’s the same week as the F1 race and I don’t want to be anywhere near Vegas that week. I imagine it must be chaos with all the roads closed?

It’s the same 15 game mix as I played in the summer:

1. 5 Card Omaha Double Board Best High / Best Low
2. Badugi
3. Drawmaha 2-7
4. Stud 8
5. A-5 Triple Draw
6. Omaha Double Board High / High
7. Drawmaha High
8. 2-7 Triple Draw
9. Big O ($1,600 cap)
10. 2-7 Razz
11. Badacey
12. Ari
13. Omaha 8
14. Badeucey
15. PLO ($1,600 cap)

This is today’s lineup:

The only players I know and have played with before are Peter who is a really good player and Benjamin is Ben Miner who you might remember we tussled with at the final table of the Big O at Wynn back in May and is also a very good player.

It soon becomes clear that the other players who I dont know can all play pretty well, except maybe the Chinese lady in seat 4 who could be the table fish.

I make a mental note to play a little tighter than normal. If I spew chips in this line-up it’s going to be hard to get them back.

I didn’t really make any notes or play any really big pots. The Chinese did prove to be rather loose and dusted off 10k in 3 hours and then left. I get exactly zero of it. [emoji30] Peter and the Israeli guy on my right got the bulk of it.

I was however keeping my head above water and construction had begun on a new pyramid.

Sadly the game broke shortly before 5pm and construction had to be halted. When I racked up it turned out that I had won $1,400 in the 5 hours we played which was more than I thought.

I would have preferred to play longer but at least had booked a decent win and it was nearly dinner time and my stomach was rumbling.

Dinner at the bar in Prime. I normally always get a steak there so this time decided to try something different and went for the short rib which was pretty good.

And I still had room for dessert. Lemon merengue pie. Delicious.

La cuenta por favor.

All the while watching the game while I ate.

The Rams were -8.5 and I didn’t really have a strong opinion either way, nor about the total. I did not think they would lose outright though given how banged up the 49ers were.

There goes two of my Survivor entries. Not the big Circa one, I didn’t do that one. Just a $30 one that Betonline runs, but it still has a $1 million prize pool.

I did make some live bets and ended up betting both sides at various points at + money so I won a few grocery dollars that paid for dinner.

On deck for tomorrow: Play the $80 Mix again. Hopefully it’s a better lineup tomorrow and runs longer.

JLot posts on 2p2. Good luck in Vegas!

Good thing I didn’t say anything bad about him then [emoji23]

Jumping on a plane to Vegas to keep your thread going and entertain the masses. Wildly impressive. The rest of us have to step up our game in our trip reports if we hope to keep up.