WSOP 2009 Trip Report: Part 1

Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Just before takeoff, the pilot announces that we are scheduled to arrive at about 11PM local, at which time the temperature will be 104 degrees. For the fourth year in a row, I’m spending the middle of the summer in the middle of the desert, braving the blistering hot sun to compete in the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

It’s surreal to think that three years ago, I was a young kid, barely out of college, who took a flyer on a qualifying tournament on the internet. Though even then I was earning a modest living at poker, I rarely wagered more than $200 at a time. I was more than thrilled when, with an investment of just a few hundred dollars, I won a seat in the $10,000 buy-in Main Event of the World Series of Poker. Though more than a little intimidated by the stakes and the competition, I was lucky enough to finish 279th place, winning almost $40,000 for my trouble. I’ve been back every year since, and remarkably, I’ve managed to win something every year, most recently finishing 35th in the 2008 tournament and winning nearly $200,000.

At my fourth World Series of Poker, I feel like a grizzled veteran. The stakes aren’t nearly so intimidating- I’ve won and lost more on a single hand- and in the last three years I’ve developed a haughty disdain for the competition, including most of the so-called pros you may have seen on TV. It’s still important to me that I do well, though.

The truth is that despite the hefty entry fee, the WSOP Main Event is hands-down the most profitable spot most poker professionals can expect to encounter all year. The prestige and excitement that surround the tournament entice all manner of amateurs, even a few who have never played the game before, to wager big money on their fledgling poker skills. A few get lucky- some have even won millions and the title of world champion- but most make big mistakes and spew off their chips in short order to seasoned professionals. I am not exaggerating when I say that tougher competition can be found in the average online poker tournament where the stakes are 1/100th of what they are at the WSOP. In short, this is the most profitable opportunity of the year for me, and I don’t want to blow it.
year!”

Stud/8

I am far from the world’s best Stud/8 player. It’s a game I enjoy and that I play at modest stakes with some success from time to time. I think I have a pretty solid theoretical understanding of the game, but I am not very experienced. In particular, I had never played it in a live setting before, and I quickly noticed some big differences from playing online.

For one thing, it is very difficult to pay attention to everything that is going on. There are eight people at the table, but unlike in a game like Texas Hold ‘Em, even the people who fold are important. As soon as the first three cards are dealt, it is vital to look at everyone’s face-up card. Knowing that three people folded 5’s on 3rd street is important if I later find myself needing to catch a 5 to make a straight.

There are some Rainmen out there who can remember every card that was dealt on every street. I am nowhere near that good, and I don’t try to be. My goal is just to take note of the small cards and notice if a lot of cards of any one suit are out.

Unfortunately, I was so busy scrambling to count the face-up cards before they were folded that I didn’t have much time to study the reactions of my opponents.

Despite these challenges, the tournament was actually quite a lot of fun. I felt I was playing pretty well, catching some good cards, and finding myself in some interesting situations. My table was reasonably tough, but there were a couple of very weak players, and everyone was friendly and having a good time.

Naturally, as the tournament progressed, it got tougher. The weaker players at the table were eliminated, and the players who replaced them were generally far more difficult and included a few pros, most notably Marcel Luske. Back when I was just a poker fanboy watching the WSOP on TV, he was one of my favorite players, so it was definitely neat to sit at the same table with him five years later.

Neat, and costly. I was in good shape, sitting on about 10,000 in chips when the stakes were 400-800. About half of the table folded, and it was my turn to act. I had an 8 showing, and a 7 and a 2 face-down. This is not a particularly strong hand, especially not with four players left to act behind me. Although I do have three cards to a low, I do not have an Ace, nor do I have much in the way of straight or flush potential. In other words, this is primarily a one-way hand, and not even a very good one at that.

That said, 872 is a playable hand when you think you have a good chance of stealing the pot on 3rd Street. Looking at the players behind me, I saw that no one had a very good card showing. Two players had a Queen, Marcel had a Jack, and the last player had an 8. Even if one of the guys with a face card had a pair, that wouldn’t be a terribly strong hand, and it was far from a guarantee that they would. So, I went for my steal raise.

Marcel called me with his Jack, and everyone else folded. There are very few playable hands that include a Jack, so at this point I thought he probably had a pair of Jacks or maybe something like TJQ.

On 4th Street, the dealer threw me an Ace and Marcel a 4. This was probably the best card I could have caught, as it both improved my low draw, gave me some high potential, and was likely scary for my opponent. Even if he had the pair of Jacks, he had to worry that I may have just made a pair of Aces. I bet, and Marcel called.

On 5th Street, I got a useless Ten, while Marcel caught a 3. Usually, little cards are good cards, but I didn’t figure Marcel for a low draw, because as I said, there aren’t really any playable low hands that include a Jack. I thought he was just being stubborn with a pair of Jacks.

6th Street brought me another 8 and Marcel a 2. The pair helped me a little, but not much. If Marcel had Jacks, he was still ahead, but now I could either make a low on the river or pair any of my cards to make two pair. Plus, Marcel had to worry that I had a pair of 8s and just made three of a kind. Between all of the cards that could improve me on 7th Street and the reasons why Marcel ought to be afraid of my hand, I felt I had to keep betting, so I bet again.

To my shock and dismay, the Dutchman raised me! That was entirely unexpected and forced me to reevaluate the whole hand. It just didn’t make sense, but I also didn’t think he could be bluffing here. I’d shown nothing but strength, betting or raising at every opportunity and catching some pretty strong cards. This would be an insane spot for a bluff.

I looked at Marcel’s cards again: J432. The only thing I could figure was that he had a suited A5J, was playing rolled up Jacks very strangely, or had made trips with something like J(22). Folding here might actually be the best play, but I called, bricked the river, and check-folded. Another player at the table called Marcel’s hand as a suited AJ5, so he showed his hold cards. They were indeed an A5, but only the 5 was suited to the J.

Based on my limited understanding of the game, it seemed like a loose call on 3rd. I was a bit irritated that he’d made runner runner runner perfect to scoop the pot. I later asked a more knowledgeable friend about the hand, though, and he told me that although Luske is not particularly good at Stud/8, his play in this hand was defensible. If he puts me on a steal on 3rd, then he can call with his weakish holding with the intention of stealing the pot on a later street. My friend compared it to floating the flop against a likely continuation bet in no-limit hold ’em.

Not long after that hand, I got moved to a new table. It seemed a little softer, and I managed to get the last of my money in good with ….

The 6-Handed Tournament

Poker, of course, pre-dates the internet by at least a few centuries. The advent of internet poker, though, has changed the way people play the game even in a live setting. One of the most significant of these changes is the introduction of short-handed games, where there are fewer people to contend with at any given table.

Ordinarily, if you were playing Texas Hold ‘Em in a casino, you’d be at a table with nine other people. From the casino’s perspective, this is the most efficient use of its personnel and floor space.

From a player’s perspective, this is boring. When there are more players at the table, you generally need better cards to win the pot and thus cannot play as many hands. That means you spend most of your time not playing poker but waiting to play poker, waiting for a hand that has a good enough chance of holding up versus nine other hands.

Online, personnel and floor space are non-issues. Thus, internet poker rooms began offering games where you can play with 6 or even just 2 people at a table. This is my preferred style of play: it’s faster-paced and more rewarding to the skilled player. Anyone can win with a good hand. When there are fewer people at the table, you have to be able to win pots with hands that aren’t so strong, and that requires a lot more skill.

Once internet players like myself began invading brick and mortar casinos, we wanted to play the short-handed games that we enjoyed online in a live setting as well. They still aren’t easy to find, but the WSOP has begun offering a few 6-handed and even heads up (2-handed) tournaments.

On Tuesday, I played a $5000 6-Handed event. Like the main event, that buy-in is a strain on the bankroll, but I justified it to myself on the grounds that a) there aren’t that many opportunities to play a live 6-handed game; and b) I’m going to be a lot more comfortable at a 6-handed table than a lot of my opponents are.

I don’t think it was a bad decision, but it did go terribly for me. About half an hour into the tournament, I got what the poker world colorfully calls “cold decked”. I was dealt an incredibly strong hand, the second best possible hand in fact, which was easily worth all of my chips. Unfortunately, another player at the table happened to have the only hand that could beat me. So not only did I not win anything, but I didn’t even get to enjoy the experience as I did with the Stud/8 tournament, where my buy-in at least bought me a full day of play.

Cash Game Cassanova

After cursing my luck and sulking in my room for a bit, I decided to check out the cash games. Although the WSOP is a series of poker tournaments, there are plenty of live-action, or cash, games going on on the side. These are your traditional poker games, where you buy-in for whatever amount you choose (within the constraints of the game- all have a minimum and most have a maximum), play as long as you want, and leave whenever you choose with whatever amount you’ve managed to win or not lose.

I only played for about two largely uneventful hours, so I won’t bore you with the details. There was one colorful character at my table, though, who’s worth mentioning. He was a wealthy, heavy-set Texan in his mid-fifties. I don’t think he was actually an oilman, but he had an air of tycoon about him. He was wearing jeans, a blazer, and a Stetson and speaking with a broad grin and a heavy Texas drawl.

When I first sat down, he was on his cell phone placing a long list of sports bets. That’s always a good sign. Though it’s possible to make money sports betting, it’s a good guess that anyone who makes a lot of sports bets is a guy who likes to gamble even when the odds are not in his favor. Usually that means they’ll take some bad-odds gambles against me at the poker table as well.

I overheard the Texan make two more calls as well. The first was to a woman named “Becky” whom he seemed to select somewhat arbitrarily from his address book. He hadn’t seen her in a few months but it turns out she was available for dinner on a few hours’ notice. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about what was going on there.

On his next call, he left a voicemail that I’ll attempt to transcribe to the best of my memory: “Hey Jimmy, this is Dicky. Happy 20th birthday. That’s a big one. I’m sorry I won’t be able to make it for your party tonight, I’m going to be tied up. I’ve got a little present for you, though— it’s $50- your mother will have that for you. You’re growing into a fine young man. Hope you have fun. Bye.”

Gearing Up for the Main Event

All in all, it’s been a frustrating few days. I’ve lost money at poker (and thankfully I’m disciplined enough not to play anything else in the casino) every day I’ve been here, often in especially frustrating ways. I also haven’t been able to hang out with as many people as I was hoping I would if I arrived in Vegas a few days early. As it happens, most of my acquaintances in the poker world are very good players who have been too busy tearing it up at the tables to grab dinner or a drink.

Actually, on the day of the $5K tournament, I did manage to barge in on dinner with a remote acquaintance of mine and a few of his friends. The three of them are all better tournament players than I am and were all coming onto their dinner break in fantastically good shape in the same event that had put me on ice in the space of half an hour. They were all giddy and swapping stories about hands they’d played and big pots they’d won, talking about how it was “so easy” to outplay everyone at their tables. I was thinking how easy it would be jab a dinner fork into their tracheae.

On Wednesday night, though, I finally got what I badly needed: a very enjoyable night out with a great group of friends new and old. Technically, it was a meet-up for Poker Savvy Plus, a video training site with which I work. Several times a month, I and a few other successful poker players record ourselves playing poker online, along with commentary about what we are doing and why. Subscribers to Poker Savvy then have access to all of our training videos so that they can see how successful players handle certain situations and think about the game. For me, it’s a very nice amalgamation of my poker skill and my interest in education.

I ended up getting dinner and drinks, and later playing cards, with the owner of the site, two of the other instructors, and one of the instructor’s friends. We had a fantastic meal (compliments of Poker Savvy!) and some great conversation as well. It was the pick-me-up I needed, and though I woke up a bit tired and hung yesterday morning, I’m feeling more energized for the main event than I’ve been in weeks. Play starts in a few hours- wish me luck!

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