WSOP TR: Third Time's the Charm! 6/11-6/15

Out on a flip right after the break, 44 < AKo for 13BB. Table was a bit soft but no real remarkable hands here other than stealing some blinds and an uncalled jam over an open with AKs.

Didn't last too long but glad I gave it a shot. It was nice meeting and then talking to BigWhale over the break. Going to check into the castle now, find something to eat, and plan my next move.

Since we're here, might as well hit up the outdoor food court by the Horseshoe. Forgot who but someone around LVL recommended it so stopped by Chilangro Tacos:

Was decent if you don't want to make the trek north to Tacos El Pastor/Gordo. $27 for the tacos, chips/salsa, and drink.

They made you eat in the bathroom, or was that your choice?

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Nice meeting you! I am still in, short but there is a chance. 149 left, 109 pay.

Gogogo!

I gave up on WSOP 2026 and went home.

I walk my luggage to Excalibur and feel a twinge of sadness as I go in, missing the Aria already. What are we going to do? Go right back immediately of course!

Am able to get in right away for a 1/2 PLO game. The table is merely ok, and we can't really get much in the way of hands. Have some nice draws that all ended up bricking out and bleed down rather quickly. The bomb pots there are $20 a piece which add up too. Eventually I'm not feeling it anymore and leave down -$493.

Grab a Sierra Nevada hazy from CVS for the walk back and am a bit happier once I get back to the hotel. It is only just after midnight and there is an open seat at $3 video blackjack so I finish my beer there. Am down a bit early and make a nice comeback, only to have the virtual dealer go on a big run to put me back -$130. A drink lady came along and ended up bringing me back the world's tiniest old fashioned, which was laughable:

Anyway not a particularly great day, worst of the trip, hopefully tomorrow will be better. We will be trekking off Strip for my first time at the Orleans, the $300 100k guarantee!

Good morning from Nawlins! Turns out the Excal is actually in a strategic location and I am able to join the locals on the 201 Tropicana bus to get to the Orleans in about 5 minutes for just $2. Not bad at all.

It's our last day today so gotta try and make it count. Should be a decent crowd for the tournament given the 100k guarantee and being a Sunday. If I bust out early enough, will give the $250 WSOP deepstack another try.

Doing all right in the tournament, rolling into the dinner break and end of late reg with 84k, 2k/3k blinds coming up.

We start at a relatively tough table for the event, with a very aggro, full tatted guy two to my left, a local younger semi pro, and a Spanish "Winamax creator" patch Euro type. Fair amount of 3 betting and squeezing and not too many hands to fight back with.

At the 200/400 level, we go 4 ways with JT of clubs to a flop of J9xcc, and lead out 2k when checked to. Get two callers, and are excited to see the 3 of clubs come out on the turn to make our flush. But then, the OMC next to me leads out for 10k: oh no! Wouldn't fold against anyone else but just have to let it go here I think.

On 300/600, the table has an AA vs AA all in showdown. Shortly after I correctly fold JJ to a strong 4 bet vs aces. Next level, 400/800, there is an open, we call 66, and BB calls. The flop is 568ss, bet 1600 and get check raised by the original opener to 5k. Jam and get it all in against a weird J7s, but managed to fade all the outs and pair the river! This was vs a tight player so seemed oddly out of line for him to open that.

At 600/1200, we finally get a premium in aces, albeit UTG and only the BB calls the open. The flop is 877 and our c bet gets check raised. Hope not up against a 7 but can't fold yet. Get lead into 4500 on the turn and call, but then he gives up river and folds once all in.

The biggest hand so far happened at 1k/2k: down to 20ish big blinds, we raise AJ of spades and get 3 callers. The BB (semi pro local) thinks about it for a fair bit. Not a bad flop of 752ss, and will get in if need be. Lead for 4k, two calls, and the BB puts in a large raise. Time to gamble! We shove all in to commit and are up against... 84o!? Can win with just ace high but we dodge the straight and pair outs and hit the flush for good measure. That puts me up to just over 100k!!

Our table gets broken shortly after and I am glad to be moving on. Seated to a nice English gentleman on my right who has shown down some good hands so far. Most seemingly dangerous/aggressive player is also a guy from Chicago across from me. Hoping to keep going strong and end with at least a min cash!

And we're out, pretty quickly after the break. Get short down to 15BB after a double barrel on a dynamic board gets shoved on. Then there is a limp from the CO and we shove AKo 13BB on the button. Same guy from before rejams 22 in the blinds and we're off to the races but can't get there. Would have been a long way to go to the money so oh well. Sucks to go 0-fer in tournaments but may donk around in a daily or 1/3 tonight. Going to have a nice cocktail at Aria and unwind first.

Flips happen, nice run!!

Took a car back to the Aria so I could have a drink at the Alibi cocktail lounge, which looked nice before. However, forgot that the White House UFC event was tonight and the place was fully packed. Decided to grab a quick bite of pizza and a beer at Moneyline instead to use my Aria comps. TonySoprano had mentioned betting on Sweden's WC game and a guy at the bar said something about it too, so I decided to follow suit and put $100 on them for -119. On the way out the hotel, I realized I had another hundred in my wallet and almost went back to put even more down, but they were already up 1-0 at that point so not worth it. They won easily and spanked Tunisia. Glad to finally get a small, but much needed W for the trip.

Doing one last hurrah at Caesar's for their 9pm $160 nightly. I've always kinda looked down on these given the lack of meaningful prize money but we're here to just relax and have fun tonight.

GL in the Caesars tourney. I know what you mean about those small ones. A bit goofy, but they look like fun.

Glad you got a dub on the soccer pitch.

Well, our luck turned around a bit last night but not how I envisioned. The tournament got 37 runners and (as expected) the level of play was definitely the lowest out of all of them this trip. On the very first hand we win 50BB by value betting KJo on a king high board vs two people. This was sorely needed because I went card dead mostly after that and the blinds went up super quick. Flopped top set at 400/800 but couldn't get any takers.

My big blind is coming up at 1k/2k and I realize we've still been playing at the previous level for several minutes. Don't say anything because it's too late and doesn't matter, but the dealer does notice and comments when I post the correct amount next hand. Shortly after a player is on their phone and he says, "Technically, you're not supposed to be on your phone during a hand, but it's ok, we don't give a ****".

With 13 blinds left, we get shoved on and win with AJo vs KQs! Get moved right after as we consolidate into three tables. Two players next to each other have repeated warnings to stop speaking Spanish at the table, and their friends sweating the tournament behind kept being asked to move back away. Had a nice stack but it doesn't last long with the rapid blind increases. With 6BB left UTG I have to shove 89s and lose vs AJo, but still have enough to post exactly the big blind and ante. T7o is not a terrible hand to be all in blind with but run it into jacks and we are out for good this trip. Given what type of event this is, I am not at all mad about the result or how I played.

It is past midnight and I have to be up for work at 7:30 the next morning, but I am not quite ready to be done for the night yet. Didn't realize I had requested off though so I could have just slept in. On the walk back to Excalibur, we stop in NYNY to cash the Sweden ticket, and I have the urge to play some bubble craps as I haven't yet this trip. There are two surprisingly long rolls, and turn $60 into $100. We're sufficiently warmed up now, and I cash out to try and up the stakes and play on a real table! I have not done so before.

On the way over though, I pass a $15 min Ultimate Texas Holdem table that catches my eye. I don't know how much this still holds true in 2026, but Bart Hanson occasionally talks about how the game can be profitable due to dealer mistakes and being able to share cards with other players. I've been meaning to try it and have practiced with online simulators for whenever the time is right, which is now! No dealer mistakes were needed as I almost won every hand, going up $215 in 15 minutes! They did prevent me and the other two from outright showing cards at the table, but other than repeatedly saying "one player per hand" did nothing about sharing vocally. The pit boss breaks the table so the dealers can go home and being 2:15am it is a good time to sleep. Between all that and the soccer bet, we are up a little bit on non-poker gambling for the trip!

Didn't feel like doing much today so slept in some more after a morning call and went to the airport early after another Earl of Sandwich lunch. Stopped by the WSOP store to see if I could maybe get a small gift for a friend who hosts our bi-weekly home game, but there was nothing special. Was looking at the Copag deck booth too and while they are nice cards, he already has some and these did not have any special WSOP branding or anything like that.

Breeze right through TSA Pre and get set up in the lounge as my flight isn't for another 3 hours. They are doing some sort of fun random Mexican promotion there and giving out elote with a special cocktail:

Anyway, wrapping up, have to say the trip was a little bit of a bust. I went 0/7 in tournament bullets (-$2460) and down a buyin in cash (-$500). Recouped $180 of that in general gambling though. However, it's not really about the money as I generally expect to lose if there's not a big score involved. There was something about this series that just wasn't all that... fun.

There was a discussion in another thread about how tourism is down, and while the city had plenty of energy it wasn't as packed as past years. It seemed the Colossus got plenty of entries, but the tables didn't seem to be as full as when I played the last two years. Other than a couple of people from the UK basically every foreigner I played with was a pro of some sort. There were a number of people with 6 and 7 figure earnings and the level of play from other casual players like me was a lot higher than usual for the most part. Had some great table banter at Colossus Day 1 and MGM but otherwise it was pretty flat.

I wasn't particularly happy with my play overall either, but went card dead for long periods of time a lot. I had a goal to try and be a little more aggressive and do some more 3 betting (and succeeded a little), but there weren't that many good spots. Oftentimes I was beaten to the punch by someone else first. I think I got off to a bad mood after Friday and let it affect me the rest of the trip.

But at the end of the day, it was nice to have time off work and while it would be nice to have back, losing $3k doesn't really affect my life at all, and that is a blessing. Going to take some time off for the summer and come back to improve in the fall/winter. See you next year!

Appreciate the TR and your thoughts. Safe travels!

Sorry the trip didn’t go well poker wise. It’s such a short period of time we’re all here for and particularly with tournaments there are so many ways to run bad. But it’s impossible not to feel flat when you leave town with no results

I’m sure next time will be different

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On the plus side, it's nice that other LVL reporters like you and DogFace are making some deep runs, good luck!

Exactly my thoughts. Seven bullets is not enough to guarantee a run no matter how good someone is, so that's the risk we take coming out here for brief windows and firing tournaments. I enjoyed the TR and hope you had fun with the trip overall.

I feel like LV had good vibes over the weekend and was sufficiently crowded, but the weekdays definitely felt slow at times. For me, the WSOP electricity was a little lacking this year and I didn't love playing the Colossus either, which might be why I only blasted one bullet at it. Maybe something was in the water this year or maybe it's a more personal issue since I might have fatigue from playing many of those huge field WSOP NLHE tournaments across the last several years.

Great TR and nice UTH hit.

"With 6BB left UTG I have to shove 89s and lose vs AJo"

with antes its right on the cusp but a low/mid SC isnt my favorite for going all in UTG. Id much rather have a Kx, Ax holding.

https://www.mypokercoaching.com/push-fold-chart/

Definitely, it certainly isn't mine either, I thought about it for a sec and considered folding. Felt like I had to go with it due to the turbo structure of the event and needing to keep up with a while to go until the bubble. The other players definitely will be calling wider than they should in theory - I wonder how much that affects overall equity with a hand like that.

Yeah definitely a close spot and situational! If its the start of the level I usually find a fold but if the next level is a hand or two away I dont think its awful to go with the hand.

Enjoyed the trip Patman - especially the food. Love Carbone and some of the other spots you visited. Seems like you played well and made some runs, but just couldn't get enough heat or action to make it over the hump - story for many of the summer. Best of luck, safe travels and thanks for sharing.