Short update because I’m sick and busy and don’t feel like writing a lot. Suffice it to say yesterday was a roller coaster. I peaked at 377k in chips, which is a ton. Over 200 big blinds at the time. But after dinner, everything that could go wrong did. I ended up busting level 13, 15 minutes before the end of the night. After that, I jumped in line with Julius at the main cage to retrieve my wired funds and set up a tournament buy-in account. This allows me to register for events online (for a $3 fee) and print out the ticket at one of many kiosks, so I can skip the lines. I signed some paperwork and they said I was all set. This morning, late registration for flight 1D (which sold out) opened at 11am. I hung out with some people by one of the kiosks as we all tried to register, but the site was incredibly slow due to it being overloaded with traffic. Miraculously, I was able to successfully register as my new buddies were not. But when I tried to print the ticket, it didn’t show up in the kiosk system. I chalked this up to the Bravo system having troubles and tried again every 5 minutes for a while. But then people started showing up and successfully printing their tickets, and I suspected something was wrong. Currently I’m in line to verify my ID for the FasTrac system, even though the people at the cage last night said there weren’t any further steps I needed to take. Hopefully that fixes the problem, I can print my ticket, and not be too far behind in the alternate line. Should get a seat by 1 or 2 at the latest by my estimation. Here we go again!

Yesterday was crazy. Day 1c of the main event last year was nothing compared to the zoo that was the Rio yesterday. Day 2A of the Big 50 had already been rescheduled from 2pm restart to 5pm due to space issues, and it got pushed back even further to 6:15 because day 1B players were hogging all the tables. People waited hours to reenter. Not only to buy their seat, but to actually have a seat to sit in. I would guess there were upwards of 10,000 people in there at one point. As for the poker, it was an up and down day as usual. I made a bunch of good hands, and got paid on some of them. On the flip side, I was a bit of a payoff wizard myself, calling people down in ok spots only to get shown the winner multiple times. One key hand was in level 10, where I got all in against a shorter stack with 88 vs A7ss on a Qd8s5s board for a 100k pot. The turn was the Ks and the river was the 6s and he won with his flush, knocking me down to 70k. I was about a 70% favorite on the flop, but that’s poker. I later busted in level 11 after climbing back to 110k when I had turned trips against a flopped flush. He led into me small twice and I raised all in for protection/value, and for the second time in two levels I couldn’t hit one of my 10 outs on the river.

Luckily I managed to buy a seat for today before they sold out. I’ll be there at 10am to do it all over again. In other news, I think I’m catching a cold. Stress + lack of sleep are killer. At least I got a solid 8 hours last night.

Yesterday was a long day of travel. Not a minute after my mom dropped me off at the airport, a torrential downpour began that lasted about 15 minutes, complete with lightning and thunder. This brief burst of bad weather was enough to delay my 5pm flight to 7pm. Once we finally did get on the plane, which was stopping in Buffalo before going on to Las Vegas, the pilot made an announcement: they didn’t know where the Vegas-bound luggage was. Then, around 7:35, he announced that they had found our luggage, but due to all the weather-diverted flights arriving at once, they didn’t have the manpower to load it just yet. Another 20 minutes later, the situation was back to them not knowing where the bags were, but they had decided to leave anyway. The thinking was that they had gotten on an earlier Vegas flight. So we finally took off around 8:15, and I ended up getting to Vegas at 11:45 local time, 3 hours later than scheduled. I immediately went down to the Southwest lost luggage counter and explained what happened, and they went to check if my bag had come in already. Nope. I wanted to file a report since they flat out told us in Baltimore that they didn’t know where our bags were, but policy dictated that we had to wait until the bags came off my flight. Lo and behold, after five minutes of waiting, around came my bag on the carousel! I was relieved not to have to deal with the lost bag process, especially in my tired state. The rest of the night went smoothly: I got my rental car, registered for flight B of the big 50 (and avoided lines by using the STT registration area – thanks Twitter), and got into my airbnb. Unfortunately by that time it was close to 2am, and between jet lag and anticipation I wasn’t able to sleep past 7 this morning. Hopefully those five hours of sleep are enough for me today! I’m off to the grocery store now to get breakfast supplies, and soon will be headed to the Rio.

After getting my feet wet at my first WSOP last Summer, I knew I’d be going back for more this year. There’s no poker experience quite like it. Players from all over the world flock to the frigid Rio convention center with the dream of winning a coveted gold bracelet. The diverse fields are composed of top pros, fishy amateurs, and everything in between. The 89 events in the span of 48 days are something you can’t find at any other tournament series, making the WSOP a true marathon grind for those who stay the whole summer. The large prize pools (1st place is always over 100k, often by a long shot) and more challenging level of play are particularly enticing to me. Obviously I don’t mind the generally weak play found in my local small/mid stakes tournaments, as it means I should have a higher ROI. But there’s something to be said for playing against tougher competition. The decisions are less clear-cut most of the time, and that makes the game a lot more fun. It could also help me play better, since tougher opponents make for a higher level of mental arousal. See the chart below:

Even though I only played two WSOP events last Summer, I learned a lot from that experience. I went in knowing the structures would be some of the slowest I’d ever played, but knowing that is different from actually experiencing it. Now I have a better feel for the pacing of 1 hour blind levels, and how that should affect my strategy. I also went in knowing the level of play would be different from what I was accustomed to, but I wasn’t sure specifically how. Now that I’ve played a few events, I have a better idea of how to navigate a diverse field of good regs and weaker amateurs, as well as how to label players appropriately. I made some calling mistakes and some folding mistakes due to incorrectly assessing my opponents, and that’s something I’ve been focusing on improving over this past year. I also learned that sometimes it’s just time to die. You can’t play a tournament afraid of busting or getting coolered, and you can’t fold hands near the top of your range without very specific reads. If they have you beat, then good game, onto the next one. That’s just the nature of poker. Plus, calling off your stack in good spots is a great way to accumulate chips, and a great way to exploit your opponents for over-bluffing a particular spot. In the interim since last Summer, I’ve tried to be much more consistent with getting to the felt. So far in 2019 I’ve played close to every weekend, and although I don’t have a great result to show for it, I think my play has improved significantly. I’ve also been studying off the felt by using PioSolver, watching training videos, and discussing hands with friends. Finally, I’ve improved my diet over the past few months and I’ve meditated before bed many nights. Being fit and mentally strong are both very important for enduring the 12 hour grinds in tournament poker without getting overly exhausted or tilted. With all that in mind, I can’t help feeling like I’m gonna crush. Hopefully the cards cooperate and I bring home a nice score.

Level 9 was not a kind one. The 200 ante being 1/6 the size of the big blind meant my stack would dwindle faster, and added extra incentive to be a little more aggressive preflop. Early in the level there was a hand where it folded all the way to the cutoff, who put in a raise to 2.8k. I looked down at 33 on the button and decided this would be a good candidate to three bet as a bluff. It’s a bit too weak to profitably call the cutoff’s raise, and he should have a lot of hands he’ll raise/fold from late position. Also my stack size of 33k made it such that he wouldn’t be able to four bet bluff me without committing himself, and thus decreased the likelihood of that happening. So I reraised to 8k and action folded back around to him. After a short tank, he moved all in and I was forced to fold. Even though we would often be flipping (meaning he has two big cards like AK), that isn’t really a spot where I want to commit my stack. It’s just unfortunate that he was at the top of his range and had a value hand to four bet jam. This brought me down to 25k or 21bbs, a perfectly workable stack still. The problem was that I didn’t encounter any good spots after that point. I was completely card dead. The big antes and blinds continued to eat away at my stack. Twice I defended my big blind vs a single raiser getting great odds (with A7o and 98o), but flopped no equity whatsoever and had to check/fold. Once I raised QJo in middle position off a stack of 16 big blinds, hoping to steal the blinds or play a small pot, but I got three bet and was forced to fold. My opponent showed AJ suited, so I was in bad shape. QJ is a perfectly good raise/fold candidate, though. Eventually, with just 12k remaining, I picked up 87 suited in middle position. It folded to me and I jammed my remaining 10 big blinds. It might seem crazy shoving 8 high, but the hand is a very profitable jam from that position on that stack size given my ability to make everyone fold and my high equity when called on average. Unfortunately, the small blind woke up with TT, and I was in awful shape. The AJ2 flop gave me no immediate outs, I’d need to hit running cards. The 6 turn sealed the deal and I was eliminated from this year’s main event.

But not all is lost. I had a good time, talked to some interesting people, and may have even learned a little bit during my almost two days of play here. I hope to return one day and play again, as I’m sure I’m profitable in this field. My opponents were making lots of small mistakes today, I just didn’t have the chips to mix it up and take advantage. I ran into many strong hands over the two days and never really got much going; sometimes it just isn’t your tournament. That’s just the nature of the beast. Thanks everyone for investing and I’m sorry I couldn’t make you any profit this time around.

I came back from dinner break to find myself having several close decisions preflop of whether to jam (go all in) or fold, back to back to back no less. The first hand I held 66 on the button vs. an open raise from the third player to act. This is a profitable three bet jam spot, but it’s somewhat marginal and I just got bad vibes that hand and decided to wait for a higher equity spot. Even with only 16 big blinds to start the hand, the slow structure and relatively small antes on that particular level afforded me some time. The very next hand, a more solid player open raised under the gun and I had 77 in the cutoff. Given that he raised as the first player to act, he should have a relatively strong range of hands, and 77 is in all likelihood a profitable jam there but again I expect it to be marginal. Next hand, I had ATo in the hijack vs a middle position open raise. This player seemed rather nitty to me and AT is a less profitable jam than the pairs I folded before, so after a short tank I decided to let it go once again. He had AJ and I would have been out of the tournament had I shoved. Finally, facing a middle position open and 2 callers, I looked down at AKo in the small blind and went all in for my final 15 big blinds. The initial raiser folded, the first caller shoved over the top to isolate me, and the second caller folded. I was in great shape up against A3dd, and the QcTh2h flop didn’t improve him. Not even a single diamond for a sweat! The Js fell on the turn to seal the deal and I doubled up with some extra thrown in there too from the callers of the initial raise. I have about 34k heading to the 200/600/1.2k big ante level, and will continue to play the short stack game with 28 big blinds.

I played a key hand last level that didn’t go my way. After chipping up to 49k, an active under the gun player open raised, and the player on my right moved all in for 24 big blinds from the cutoff. I looked down at TT, making this a close spot. I thought the player on my rifht would three bet smaller with a premium hand like AA, KK, or QQ, and would three bet all in with JJ-88 and maybe 77 too, as well as AK/AQ some percentage of the time. I also think UTG is raising with a high enough frequency that I don’t have to worry too much about him having AA-QQ, and if he has a hand like AQ or AJ that’s good because he may remove potential outs from the all in player who could have a hand like AK. All this being said, I decided to move all in over the top, and the blinds and UTG folded. Unfortunately the all in player had QQ, a hand I thought he may go for a smaller three bet with, and he held up. He did confirm my other thoughts though, when he said he would three bet small with AA-KK and would jam 88 there (I didn’t ask about 77). I have 18.7k at dinner, and the antes/blinds will be 100/500/1k afterwards.

After playing a few small pots early on, I looked down at AcJs facing a raise of 2.1k from a middle position player. This seems like a big raise when the big blind is 600, but he had done it twice before so I believed it was his standard open raise size (plus I had three bet him once with AA and he snap folded). I had 15.5k to start the hand and elected to call with my 26 big blind stack. Everyone else folded and we went to a flop of JcTc3s and my opponent continued for 5k into a pot of 6k. With a hand this strong and my stack as short as it was, I can never fold. If I elected to call I would have 7.7k left and the pot would be 16k, so I would appear committed anyway. Therefore I choose to move all in for 12.7k total, as my opponent could easily call the remainder with a worse hand. After a while he tossed the chips in and showed 5c5s. The board ran out 2h 7d and I doubled to 32k! Not long after, I faced an under the gun open raise and looked down at KsKd under the gun plus 1 (to his immediate left). There were still some short stacks at my table, and if I three bet here it’s clear I have a very strong hand, so I chose to just flat call as a trap and for deception. Unfortunately everyone else folded, and with 4.3k in the middle we went to a flop of KcJd6h. My opponent checked, I bet 1.5k, and he called. The turn came a Ts, not my favorite card as it completed a straight for AQ, but I believed he would bet that hand on the flop. He checked again, I bet 3.1k into 7.3k, and he called again. The river came a 5d and my opponent checked once more. I should probably be betting small here as I don’t have too many bluffs, but opted to go for 8k into 13.5k and my opponent went into the tank. “I have all the AQ blockers,” he said, meaning it would be hard for me to have the nut straight in terms of card combinations. He eventually made the call with what he said was AA, making me very pleased with my pre flop flat call, and propelling me up to 45k in chips. It’s currently break and I have 40k going into the 100/400/800 level, good for 50 big blinds. Hopefully I can continue to run good and spin it up!

My stack after the AJ double

As most of you may have realized, today was a rest day for me while the Day 1A/B players played their Day 2.  I slept in, worked a normal day from “home”, and headed to the Rio in spite of not having to be there to kill some time in the evening.  I went to the Amazon Room’s feature table area where there is seating room for spectators and hung out as the players did their thing.  While there, I chatted with several other players who were also killing time before playing Day 2C tomorrow.  One was a business owner from Louisiana, who I talked to for a while about poker and about life.  Later on, Jason Koon ended up on the secondary feature table along with Matt Berkey.  Koon is one of my favorite players, and Berkey had built a big stack early on day 1, so it was a treat to watch them from the rail as they played.  Koon is a very talkative guy and I was close enough to hear most of the conversation he was having with his table-mates; it was a cool experience for me.  I also brushed up on optimal 25 big blind strategy, as that will be the amount of chips I start the day with tomorrow.  I’m extremely comfortable with this stack size, having found myself short in many tournaments over the years as it is often impossible to keep up with the increasing blinds.  Going to get a nice 9 hours of sleep now and prepare to run it up!

Day 1 wrapped up a little under 2 hours ago, and I bagged 15.2k chips to bring forward into day 2. Not the greatest of day 1s to put it lightly. But with the big blind starting out at 600 on day 2, it’s still a very workable stack and I hope to be able to run it up. Level 4 went ok for me, I made about 10k chips on a hand where I called a flop bet, turned a flush, and got river value. That brought me from 27k to 37k, but my stack dwindled back down to around 30k again. I was card dead, not hitting flops, and even got cold 4bet when I tried to 3bet light. At the start of level 5 our table broke and I was moved into the Amazon room to a table where people were actually having conversations! That was a refreshing shift from my first table of quiet grinders (not all of whom had the best English, in their defense). The downside of moving, however, was that I had no information about my opponents’ tendencies. Early on in the level I played a pivotal pot: the hijack open raised to 1.2k, the button called, the small blind called, and I came along in the big blind with QcTd. This is a hand that’s often dominated and thus wants to avoid multi-way pots when possible, but my odds on a call were too good and I know not to go crazy with one pair. The flop came AhQdJd and after the small blind and I checked, the pre flop raiser continued with a bet of 2.5k into 5.5k. The button folded and the small blind called, and I decided to call as well. A king would give me the nut straight and a queen would probably also give me the best hand, and although neither of these cards would be disguised I was still getting the right odds to call. Holding the ten of diamonds should also increase my desire to call, as sometimes the turn and river will both come diamonds and I’ll win with a flush. As it so happened, the turn was the 9d and this time after the small blind and I checked, the aggressor checked back. The river brought the 9h and the small blind checked again. With the aggressor checking back turn, he should never have a flush, and with the small blind checking river, he should also never have a flush. I don’t believe my pair of queens is the best hand and there’s 13k in the middle for the taking. I can have plenty of flushes in my range since I would call basically any suited cards in the big blind preflop given the great odds I was getting. I also hold the Td, which is good because it means my opponents can’t hold the Td and thus will be slightly less likely to hero call me, since they can’t have a hand like AsTd which blocks some of my potential flushes. All these factors made me decide to turn my pair of queens into a bluff and bet 7k, thinking any one pair hand would have to fold. Unfortunately the prior aggressor pretty quickly made a raise to 24k, and after the small blind folded I followed suit. At the end of the day, he told me that he had A9, a full house. Sometimes when trying to bluff you just run into a good hand, but that doesn’t make it a bad bluff. In retrospect, I still like how I played it and would do the same thing, except maybe bet more like 8.5k on the river. That’s just how my day has gone, running into good hands. That brought me down to 17k and after some more minor ups and downs the day was over. I’m pretty pleased with the day in spite of my stack. I made a questionable calldown early on in the but played quite solid afterwards, losing less than I should have in some situations and not being afraid to pull the trigger on bluffs in others (which did work in some smaller pots). Let’s hope the cards aren’t complete assholes on day 2 like they were today, and I’ll be in fine shape. Oh by the way, the field this year is the second largest main event field ever at over 7800 entrants. 8.8 million up top for first.

Here’s my meager 15.2k

With dinner break shortened to an hour this year, I barely had time to leave the Rio, order and eat my food, and get back in time, let alone post an update. In fact, I missed the first two hands after dinner, but that’s no big deal. I currently have 30k (starting stack is 50k) after a rough first 60% of the day. Early on I lost a sizeable pot after I flopped a set and my opponent turned a flush. I didn’t have much info on him and a set is one of the stronger hands I’ll have in that situation, so I decided to call him down. I worked my way back up to 42k after that, but dwindled down slowly as nothing seemed to go my way. At 36k I found myself with KK on the button facing an UTG raise to 700 and middle position call. I popped it up to 2800, a standard 4x sizing facing a raise and caller. Both of them came along to a Qd4h3d flop, and only UTG called my 1/3 pot continuation bet. The turn brought a 9d completing the flush draw, and when my opponent checked I decided to check back for pot control, planning to value bet any non-ace non-diamond river if checked to again. I expect my opponent to mostly have suited hands here pre-flop, so I wasn’t worried about protecting my hand against a 4th diamond unless he had a JJ-77 type holding. The river rolled off an Ah and went check check, and my opponent rolled over AdTd for a turned flush that he got a bit tricky with on the river. The flushes haven’t been kind to me today. Hopefully I can get something going here in level 4, this could be a pivotal level for me with the antes and blinds increasing to 50/200/400. I’ll continue to be patient and pick good spots, but I need a little cooperation from the cards too.

As a side note, there are no recognizable pros at my table but no marked amateurs either. Everyone seems to be playing quite solid and not making many significant mistakes. Hopefully I can battle and chip up a bit and pull a softer table for day 2 on Friday.

The largest room, normally used for cash games and satellite tournaments, has been repurposed today for the main event. What’s pictured is about an eighth of the total size of the room.

After arriving last night, retrieving my luggage and rental car, and getting acclimated at my airbnb, I headed to the Rio around 11:30 local time to buy in and get my seat for today. I figured there’d be a small line and I’d be in and out in 30ish minutes. Nope. The line completely filled the registration waiting area and resumed on the other side of the hallway. It was quite a sight. But I knew it wouldn’t be any better today, even early in the morning, so I had to stick it out. After just under 2 hours of chatting with my neighbors and browsing reddit, it was finally my turn to hand in $10,000 and get my seat for today (pictured below). I got about 7 hours of solid sleep, slightly less than I would have liked (thanks brain) but I feel fresh and ready to crush. I’ll try to post a short update during dinner break, along with a picture of my (hopefully increased) stack.

The beginning of my blog picks up where my last Vegas trip left off, late on day 2 of the WSOP Millionaire Maker.  That tournament run is what rebooted my dormant dream of one day playing in the renowned WSOP Main Event, as it further reinforced what I already knew – that I have the ability to succeed on the highest level and the biggest stage of poker.  There’s nothing quite like the WSOP.

I didn’t really want to leave Vegas, but I didn’t think I’d be going back so soon.  Credit to my manager Michael for inspiring me to try to get enough backers to support a Main Event buy-in.  When I casually mentioned my desire in a team meeting on my first day back from that trip, he casually said “sure, just find a handful of people to give you $500 and you’re in.”  Could it really be that simple?  Turns out I have a very supportive network of people around me, and thanks to family and friends I’ll be playing in my first ever WSOP Main Event in a little under two weeks.  I definitely didn’t think I’d get to experience one until I was much older, but I feel extremely well prepared.  Now it’s just up to the cards to cooperate a bit.

I plan on posting updates at least daily when I’m out there, so for information on my chip stack and maybe even some hand reviews, check in regularly!  See you July 4th!