Welcome to the Jungle: A WSOP TR 5/30-6/14

Greetings LVL, it’s time for another (incomplete) WSOP trip report. In 2013 I spent 2 weeks in Vegas playing poker and wrote a trip report . My posts were pretty lengthy and detailed and took a long time to write up, I kinda gave up after one week because I ran out of free time in the mornings to write when my buddy came to town for the 2nd half of the trip. So this year it’ll probably be a mix of longer, detailed posts and short updates, hopefully with lots of pictures. I hope not to leave another unfinished report for you.

Since that TR I’ve been playing a lot of mid-stakes (30/60) limit hold ‘em. And I started writing a blog on 2+2 describing my experiences with that game. MY B&M home is the Ameristar in Black Hawk, Colorado.

First things first: the title of this TR reflects that my time in Vegas coincides with Guns N’ Roses playing The Joint at Hard Rock. I love GNR! Like me, this band is well past its prime, but this is the music I grew up with, and I still want to rock out with them. I’m targeting the June 4th date but am somewhat flexible, based on my tournament success, or lack thereof. If anyone is interested in going, or has an extra ticket, please PM me.

What to expect

Poker, and lots of it! Last year I played every single day and will likely repeat that this year, with the possible exception of when my friend from LA comes to town for a few days (he doesn’t play). I ended up playing a lot of 2/5 NLHE last year, mixed in with some 15/30 Omaha8 at the Venetian. Only a couple of small tournaments, I cashed in a PLO8 event at the Nugget. This year I want to play a few more tournaments:

$600 PLO/8 (Venetian DSE) on Friday, May 30
$1500 NLHE (WSOP Millionaire Maker) on Saturday, May 31
$2500 O8/Stud8 (WSOP) on Tuesday, June 10

The Millionaire Maker obviously depends on me busting out of the PLO8 event, so I hope not to play it for that reason. I’m not committed to that one either way, seems to me to be a $1500 lottery ticket, and I’ve not played a NLHE tournament in a few years so it’s really not my best game. I have a few other tournaments in mind ($1500 O8 WSOP/$600 O8 DSE/etc) and may also try to play some of the daily deep stacks at the Rio just to mix up a bit.

I’m really a cash game player, and I still anticipate playing a lot of that this year. As I write this up I see that the cash games are already running at the WSOP. This year I plan to play:

20/40-75/150 O8/Stud8 (Rio)
1/2-5/5 BigO/PLO8 (Rio/Venetian)
20/40-80/160 LHE or Mixed Games (Bellagio/Rio)
2/5-5/10 NLHE (Venetian/Bellagio/Aria)

I know, it’s quite a mess! But here in Colorado, there is no real no limit, all spread limit. And no O8 at all except 2/5-100 spread, which is a great game but often nitty reg infested while the 30/60 LHE is often bad reg infested. So I’m mostly looking to play games that I don’t have much opportunity to play at home.

Food porn-Holsteins/Hash House/Tacos el Gordo/Oyshi/ always interested in new and interesting places to eat
Greyhound porn-nuff said
Keno at Bally’s-Lawzag and Mumph, this one’s for you my fellow Coloradans! I will go to Frankie’s in your honor as well if I can find someone to go with!
World Cup soccer-only towards the end of the trip, but I’m sure the Brazilians will be fun to watch with
Other random **** TBD

What Not to Expect

Hookers and Blow
Nightclubs/Dayclubs/Poolside Cabanas-really just not my thing, I’m too old for that scene
Pit/slot degening, although I have been teaching myself how to play blackjack and video poker and may try to play a bit this trip to get some comps

I arrive Friday afternoon, pick up rental car, then 2 nights at Flamingo, followed by 7 at Orleans, then 5 at South Point. Last year I spent two weeks at Orleans, I decided to mix it up a bit this time.

I can’t wait to get on the plane and gogogo!

I’ll be wearing some selection of these shoes, my quad 9s watch, and of course my run-good boxers.


See you soon Vegas!

Subbed

1st to post! Gl OP!

Almost.

OP, Vegas is a crappy place to go for LHE. You should squeeze in a day to take a 1 hour flight to L.A. or San Jose.

Close. Following yours as well, see you at the final table of the MM

Ya, but it's also a bad place for O8 most of the year and it improves lots during the WSOP. Is it the same for LHE? I know Commerce in LA has good LHE but where in San Jose? And I'm very flexible, I'll play any game that's good.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion, but that's not happening on this trip, I'm close enough to both of those areas (and have friends in both of them) to go for a weekend or two.

Bus to airport in a few hours, already antsy...

gl OP!!

Same boat man, primarily a cash game player but have at least 3 tournies lined up this trip. I'll see you out there!

good luck, bring some of that money back to the Ameristar!!

jealous you're gonna be out there for so long (i'm going for the weekend), but maybe i'll see you tomorrow. playing in the milly maker as well. i'll PM you and maybe we can grab a beer after we both bag and tag heaps of chips...

Game on!

Flight is on time so far, hopefully the weather in Denver cooperates for another hour or so

Bay 101 in San Jose. It may or may not have the best LHE in the SF Bay area, but it is very close to the San Jose airport (couple miles) so you won't have to worry about a car.

Lets get this party started!

Edit: ingur fix

30 minutes in, I've not yet won even half a pot. Run-good greyhound required!

And I got imgur figured out I hope

Southwest salad for dinner.

Running okay, above chip average half way through level 6. 105 entries 75 left

Get 'em!

Guy on my left is wearing these boots, he's a riot.

Halfway through level 10 and short, and tired...

Busted out of the PLO8 tournament around 2 AM, Level 10 or so. 105 entries. 12 got paid, I was 30th or so. Pretty card/flop dead, I made the most out of the few strong hands I had. I didn’t win a single hand until the very last one of Level 1:

I open the hijack to 300 (blinds 50/100) with JJ23, button and SB both call, BB folds. Flop is A46. I bet 700, button folds, SB calls. Turn 9, I bet 2000, SB calls. River 9, I bet 6400, he calls. I show my hand and he mucks.

Another nice hand for me, can’t recall the level (6 maybe?): I open A24T from middle position and get called by button, blinds fold. Flop is T76. I ck/call 2000, thought about c/ring but decide to wait. Turn is A. I ck, intending to c/r but he checks back. River Jd, I bet 6000 and he tanks-shoves an additional 2750 with AKK2, I scoop.

There was some weird delay for what was called a “chip discrepancy” that took ~45 minutes to resolve. It ended with them counting down everyone’s chips and then continuing. Don’t know if they were worried someone was trying to sneak chips into this one (why would you, only $16K up top?) or taking them out (for use in some bigger tournament, that would make more sense).

My bustout hand was AKJ9ds, I was down to ~5 BBs and shoved over a raise when I had the button. SB called so I had a chance to triple up but low came on the turn and I ended up with just a single pair. Felt like I played pretty well, no real big mistakes.

I was exhausted when I left, too tired to even stop for a drink. However, I did cruise through the Quad on my way back to the Flamingo and scoped out the TAG bar (thanks DollarStoreBaller, I think it was your TR that pointed this out!) with it’s delicious looking selection of Belgians and other good stuff (Dale’s Pale on draft, one of my go-to beers in Colorado).

Let’s see a couple other things:

I barely avoided my first bad beat while turning from Tropicana to Koval with the rental car when the guy behind me almost rear-ended me, people drive like **** in this town. Woulda sucked to have an accident in a rental car.

Tried the $20 trick for the first time ever, I got a high-floor (21) room with a view of the pools/gardens, but not really an upgrade. Am I supposed to ask for something specific, like a Go room? Anyway, the room is decent, just surprised there’s no carpeting.

Rode the exercise bike at the fitness center (decent, not enough bikes but pretty empty today). Gonna eat something now then head over to the Rio and play some cash until Flight 1B of the Millionaire Maker!

Come by and give me a sup bro!

Gonna play some 50/100 stud8 for a bit

Still alive halfway through level 5 in MM, sitting on around 6000. Saw DocSwag from the Ameristar, he played the morning flight and bagged up a nice amount. If I make it to day 2 I'll be playing until 330 or so, with no dinner break!

Stud8 was pretty interesting, never played that live before except as part of a mix, and 50/100 is also the biggest I've played live in a casino, the split pot nature of it can mitigate the stakes a bit. I didn't win a hand for the first half hour but ran pretty good later and won $400 in 2.5 hrs before MM started

Day 2! Around 21000

**** I'm tired

Nice!!

Play well and run well Q!

Tyty! Now if only I could sleep well. Went to bed at 5 and have been up since 8. I didn't even eat anything, good thing I ate a ton at brunch yesterday. Got a late check out at 5 AM this morning by chatting up the girl at the desk, she was also from Colorado and took pity on me. Gonna hit the fitness center then maybe I can nap before 2 PM restart.

Chorizo hash at Hash House at Rio, everybody at the bar was playing the MM at 2. Ended up sitting next to a guy from my first table yesterday and he's on 30k, nice guy

3 hours of sleep, 35 minutes on the exercise bike, and a pile of food and coffee, restart in 15 minutes, run good needed now!

JC Tran directly to my right, he has me covered

looks like you can double through him! go go go