Bracelet Hunting - A WSOP 2026 Trip Report

Day 22
Tuesday June 16th

Slept well. The bed is comfy and the AC pretty silent. First time staying here and pleasantly surprised so far. View from my room:

Now time to check out the pool. It’s a decent size but unfortunately the usual music and they have the base turned all the way up which actually starts to give me a headache so I don’t stay as long as I normally would.

It worked out nice though as I arrived at Bellagio just in time to grab the last seat in a new $80 Mix must move at noon.

It’s not a great game and when I get to the main game it’s even worse. In fact it’s the worst game I’ve played in this summer.

I’m winning $500 and decide there’s no point flogging a dead horse in this lineup and am racking up to leave when we play the following hand in NL 2-7 SD.

There’s an early position open for 15 chips. The button calls and I look down at 97522 in the big blind and decide YOLO and cap it for 80 chips.

I really only have to get past the opener as If the button was strong he would surely have 3-bet.

We get two folds and leave at the end of the round booking a $1,100 win after 6 hours.

As it’s still early I decide to head over to Paris and check out the cash action there.

I put my name on my list for the $50-$100 O.E. and we’re able to start a game soon after.

The benefit of playing cash at Paris is you get tournament players who have just busted and may be on tilt, although I’m not sure Jon Kyte and Hal Rotholz we’re quite the type of players I had in mind, but they both join us.

I’ve played with Hal before but it’s my first time playing with Jon who’s very talkative and playing a lot of hands. He’s Norwegian so we talk about the soccer after Norway’s win today which I’m sure our own BigWhale is also very happy about.

I scoop a very nice 3-way O8 pot making nut-nut on the river when I get a low heart to complete both draws.

Feeling hungry I decide to call it a night and have a decent meal before the restaurants close as we’re back on the tournament trail tomorrow where it will be harder to eat well.

Our new go to - Caramella, where the bar area is surprisingly virtually empty late on this Tuesday night.

I’m between the branzino and salmon so flip a coin. Salmon it is.

10/10 as usual.

After dinner I head back to the hotel for an early night to be well rested as two big tournaments coming up.

On Deck Tomorrow: #52 $3,000 Nine Game

Lovely day - well done

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The difference between me and you? You make an 8 perfect and scope a massive cash pot. I make 8 perfect and bust the $500 dollar golden nugget 8 game before dinner break. 😉

QFT

Agree, I like the vibe here at NYNY also. Although not sure if I have the same affection for my first which was Jackie Gaughan's Plaza way back in the day.

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Let's get that thread title changed to Bracelet Winning today, eh?

Day 23
Wednesday June 17th

Caught up with some things on the computer in the morning, then was going to go to Eataly for lunch but saw this place first and thought I’d give it a try. Roast beef sandwiches are their speciality.

I’ll be the judge of that.

Actually pretty good. We then head to Paris to watch the first half of England vs Croatia.

The sportsbook is pretty full and I’d say it’s about a 50/50 split between England and Croatia fans.

I didn’t have any real action on the game, just a small England and Colombia parlay. It was a good first half which finished 2-2. England would go on to win 4-2 but we had to go and play the tournament.

Our opening table looked like this once it filled up. Watbri and Dunc not with us this year but here we find their buddy Oscar.

36k on 1st break from 40k starting, but that doesn’t begin to tell the full story.

Was down to only 20k after the 1st level. Bad rivers twice in limit holdem and once in PLO.

Then was all-in in NLH in level 3:

Playing 200/400/600

I 3-bet an 800 open to 2,700 from the small blind with T-T and the opener calls.

Flop: 2-5-2

I lead out for 4,000 and villain calls.

Turn: A

Not really the card we wanted to see but he’s an aggressive player. He doesn’t necessarily have an Ace here.

We shove for about 13k.

He goes into the tank and stares us down……… and eventually folds.

Things didn’t improve though after the break. We got short again after a bad Razz round and find ourselves all-in in PLO with top set on a T-9-6 board with an 8 blocker as well but villain had the straight and it doesn’t pair up.

There is one re-entry allowed but if I were to make day two of this it creates a schedule conflict with the $10k HORSE. That would have been okay on 1 bullet but I’d rather fire the HORSE tomorrow than another bullet here.

So over to the B we go.

I really like their new conservatory display. Will intermingle photos of it here and in the coming days.

Unfortunately we couldn’t strike like a tiger in the cash game today and gave up trying after 6 hours for a -$1,400 loss.

On Deck Tomorrow: $10k HORSE

Oof. Surely there’s a charmed mtt run coming soon??

Keep your spirits up mate

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Didn’t I see you in the Horse satty?

Day 24
Thursday June 18th

Usual pool time late morning for a couple of hours.

Didn’t reg on time for the HORSE as these $10k’s are always slow for entries at the start.

The tournament started with only 13 entries. We jumped in after an hour when there were about 50 and by the first break it was nearer 100.

This was my table after it had settled a bit as players were high carded off to open new tables.

We started slowly. Very card dead. Only vpip’d once, buried QQ in Stud, had flush draw as well on 5th but couldn’t make the flush or a 2nd pair and had to fold on 7th when Brandon led out. So we literally did not win a hand in the first hour.

We did manage to win some pots after the break and recover to a starting stack again.

But the 3rd session was a pure downward spiral. Few playable hands and the ones that we did get we either bricked out or ended up 2nd best.

So really frustrating at the moment the tournaments. It will turn, I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.

It really does sound frustrating. I think the only update I saw was the jack high flush to Brandon's king high flush.

Yea, they didn’t put my other cards in the HH. I had the low draw as well.

You did. Forgot to mention it in the write up for yesterday. Must have been tired. Had the 15k up to 50k but then lost a couple of hands at 3k - 6k.

Have some World Cup bets today. All Asian handicap:

Aussies +1
Morocco -0.5
Haiti +2.5
Turkey -0.5

Some of the starting tables in that $10k HORSE...yeesh. Talk about max difficulty. That has to be one of the hardest tournaments someone can play at the WSOP. The rushes will come eventually and the lineups should have more soft spots in some of your upcoming events. Better days ahead.

Day 25
Friday June 19th

Played an overnight session (as had no tournament today) that finished around 4am and won $1,100. Nothing really interesting to report.

When I woke up I had to change hotels again. My original plan had me going back to Excalibur today for 9 nights but a friend that lives here and gets good rates got me the Paris for only $100 more than I was going to pay at Excalibur so that was a no brainer.

Twin room in the Bordeaux Tower.

After I got settled in I headed over to Bellagio and didn’t have to wait long before we started a must move.

Long story short I played 12 hours for a -$2,400 loss. Was stuck $4k, got back to even then started losing again due to some pretty sick beats that I won’t go into, so called it quits as I was tired and the game was no longer good. It was actually a good game for most of the day but I couldn’t get in front.

Sesame chicken from Noodles.

The soccer was also rough. I went 1 and 3.

On Deck Tomorrow: $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw

Maybe if you are good at mixed games they are low variance and obviously slower but I never hear you being stuck more than a rack or two. I can be stuck 2 racks in an hour in LHE pretty easily.

Gl going forward, hoping this is the bottom!

I think all the split pot games reduce the variance a lot, but I could be wrong.

FYI -you may have noticed that the mini-bar takes up half the space on the too-small desk. I use two laptops, so that wouldn't do. If you ask very nicely of the check-in desk, they'll let you move the mini-bar off the desk and not charge you. No guarantee that the regular check-in people will be as nice as the Diamond people though. If you happen to be in a CET place during a tier credit multiplier period, it's well worth the hour it would take to make Diamond, especially as often as you go. There was actually a 10x multiplier at the end of May. MGM often has tier level matching sometimes, so you even get value at MGM places. Same with Venetian.

Yes, when I look over at the $80-$160 limit hold’em table their chip towers puts my efforts to shame. I would say it plays about twice as big as our mix game.

Ah ok, so me playing 40/80 LHE is the same as you playing 80/160 mixed 😀

80-160 limit game seemed like it was popping at bellagio, 4 games running this afternoon. So many giant chip racks and stacks. Floor had to come over to get a guy to quit leaning to one side, people complaining about room. Not much to be had with all the chips

Day 26
Saturday June 20th

2-7 Triple Draw. Basically my day went like this. Had lots of wheel draws, made 8-7 on most of them which was always 2nd best. Like here, started 2347 and caught an 8 right away which villain beat on 3rd draw. Rinse and repeat.

And when I finally did make a 7, #3 no less, villain made #2. This was my all-in hand on the 2nd bullet. This **** is getting old now.

Only a glass of wine and a nice steak could make me feel better so hit up Caramella again to try the steak there this time.

Bone-in Ribeye was pretty good and I’m glad I tried it but I think I’ll stick to the pasta and fish here going forward.

Had enough points to cover it.

No tournament on my schedule now until Tuesday’s Mystery Millions. I’ll see how I feel if I want to add one, just play cash or take a day off.