One of my biggest weaknesses at this year's WSOP was my willingness to call somewhat light with value against an opponent who is repeatedly aggressive with a weak range. What I did to combat this in the hand described was to show aggression when there were scare cards to my hand that was so strong pre flop. Not saying this was right, simply describing the hand as I played it. Your point is well taken.

In all honesty, my thinking was that the way to respond to a player who loves to put you to the test with light holdings was to be even more aggressive than they are. Once there was a scare card, I didn't think let's let him do the betting for me and call it down. This was a leak in my game at the 2024 WSOP.

I think you are referencing the hand played in post #479. If so, yes I played that poorly. I was just coming off of something of a bad beat, and, really for the only time at the WSOP, I let my emotions get the better of me and I just jammed it all in with A-K. There is no argument I can make in my defense. My line was completely wrong.

2024 WSOP: June 6, 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack (Part 9 of 12)
Someone’sGrandma slows down the Fedor train … Someone’sGrandma proudly handles the color up … My focus worsens, I make a mistake and get bailed out by the flop … Fedor goes card dead, runs low on chips and gets bounced from the tourney

Level 8

600/1,200/1,200

Finally, some air conditioning. What were they waiting for?

The Fedor train finally goes off the rails. He has been pushing most of the table around extremely successfully. Then he crashes and burns when Someone’sGrandma has 5-5, flops a set and then turns a full house. Fedor loses a whole bunch of his stack this hand and is down to around 15,000 chips.

I get no playable cards this level, and the blinds eat away at my chips.

Someone’sGrandma is the table chip leader and is in charge of the color up. Everyone trades their 100 chips to her for bigger chips. Someone’sGrandma later says proudly, “I’ve never done the color up before.”

End of level 8: 37,500 chips.

We go on break. The surge of adrenaline from my pep talk to myself has come and gone. I am feeling so low on energy. I snack on some peanut butter pretzel bites in hopes that it will be a pick-me-up. I mentally urge myself not to punt away my chips in light of how out of it I feel. I vow to fight on. It is announced that the neighboring seniors tournament has reached the money. A cheer goes up.

Level 9

1,000/1,500/1,500

My focus is crashing, and I make a mistake. I am dealt J-Q suited and I open the betting to 2,500. I thought the big blind was 1,000 but that is the amount of the small blind. The big blind is 1,500. I have not made a legal raise. I am just allowed to call. The small and big blind come along. The flop sort of bails me out. It comes 9-10-x. I have flopped an open-ended straight draw. I bet and win the pot.

Fedor has obviously gone completely card dead. He is low on chips, and it is clear he desperately wants to get it in, but he is not getting any hands. He is wearing his frustration on his sleeve. He is no longer the confident force of nature he was earlier in the tournament. Down to 7,000 chips, he gets it in bad against Sooners but he sucks out and stays alive.

Soon thereafter it is Sooners versus Fedor II. Sooners has 5-5. Fedor has A-K. The flop brings a 5, and Fedor is out of the tournament.

I am dealt 8-8 in the small blind. I have something like 25 big blinds. Two people have already limped. Do I try to blow them off their hands? It seems like I have way too many big blinds remaining to try such a high risk move. I decide to just call and try to set mine. The big blind comes along and four of us see a flop, which is 3-6-Q. There is a bet, and I just fold. Should I have jammed pre flop? I am too mentally fatigued to try to remember my push fold charts. In reality, I have too many big blinds to consider an all-in bet. However, a healthy pre-flop raise was probably the right move, but I am not thinking straight and I never even considered that option.

End of level 9: 35,000 chips.

2024 WSOP: June 6, 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack (Part 10 of 12)
An avalanche of unplayable cards … folding my way to oblivion … I make a totally brain-dead decision

Level 10

1,000/2,000/2,000

I still have over 17 big blinds. I tell myself I can still be patient. My patience is tested because I do not get dealt a single pair, ace, paint of any kind, suited connector, suited one gappers, etc. I get dealt an avalanche of unplayable cards.

I master the art of folding.

End of level 10: 25,000 chips.

Level 11

1,500/3,000/3,000

If this were deuce to seven triple draw, I would have been printing money this level.

2-7, 3-6, 4-7, 2-6, 3-7. Just a tsunami of the worst starting hands in no-limit hold ’em. I have no choice but to keep folding. I get one piece of paint during the entire level. Q-4 off suit in a hand where there is an UTG bet and UTG+1 raise. I continue to fold my way to oblivion.

And then it happens. Remember a couple of previous A-9 hands of mine this tournament where I wrote that this specific hand will eventually become very important? Well, we’ve reached that point in the story.

I am dealt A-9. It is the moment where rppoker goes completely brain dead. I have 17,500 chips left. Just under six big blinds. This is the best hand I have had in eons. I need to get it in. I am prepared to get it in. Especially when NYC goes all-in with a short stack after a moment earlier donking off a ton of chips in an ill-fated bluff gone haywire. I know I am ahead of his range, which might be any two cards. Then, however, the player next to me with a healthy stack goes all-in. RelativelyNewGuy doesn’t have a nickname because I am running on fumes and have stopped issuing nicknames to new players. This is the first hand he has played since joining the table a level or two ago.

So now my thinking is that while NYC doesn’t scare me, this additional all-in may have me crushed with an ace and a better kicker. This may make sense in an earlier stage of the tournament when I have a bunch of chips, but it is flawed thinking given my deteriorating chip stack. I can’t afford to wait until I know I am almost certainly ahead of everyone’s range. I have to risk not being sure-thing ahead because this is the best hand I’ve had in a long, long, long time, the blinds are about to decimate me, and, if I win the hand, I will have a playable stack. If I lose, so be it.

Instead, I go into autopilot mode where A-9 is something you fold to two shoves ahead of you when you have plenty of chips.

As I am pushing my cards into the muck, it is an out-of-body experience in which I hear screaming from the furthest reaches of my brain, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON’T FOLD!! MAKE THE DAMN CALL!!!!!!”

I fold. I immediately know I have screwed up. I feel even worse when I see the other two players’ holdings. NYC has 3-5 suited. RelativelyNewGuy has K-9. I would have been ahead. I am a complete F%#*-ing moron. But wait, it gets worse. There is an ace on the flop. But wait, it gets even worse. There is another ace on the turn. I would have tripled up to around 50,000 chips. Almost 17 big blinds.

After folding, I’m still alive. But just barely. It’s just a formality now. Someone should perform last rites on me. I can see my future and it says, “Cause of death: Stupidity.”

I have committed poker malpractice. I don’t belong at a poker table. I don’t deserve to be at a poker table. Someone please put me out of my misery.

End of level 11: 17,500 chips

Totally feel the struggle -- I think the heat in the Normandy Room (it was like that the week after, too) probably contributed to the wall. Hope you keep powering through despite the bit of foreshadowing about your holdings...

Here's my unsolicited poker advice, because, I suspect like many readers, I'm invested in your success and building upon your cash for next year: Focus on playing a short-stack, 20bbs and less. There's a ton of play there beyond push-fold charts. The AK hand you acknowledge was bad, but I also think the TT jam in early position was just as problematic. The results of running into AA are irrelevant -- you're gonna call off anyway when that happens. But the problem with jamming there is you let your opponents play perfectly -- calling when you are behind or at best flipping, and folding out worse hands. When you open 2bbs with your whole range, you will get people jamming A5s and worse pairs to try to make you fold, giving you a great chance be way ahead with TT and double up instead of just taking the blinds. Think about the guy who folded 88 to your AK jam -- that's a disaster when you do have a bigger pair.

Also, I think the A9o fold was fine. Don't worry about the results. If he turns over ATo instead of K9 (suited?) it shouldn't affect whether the decision was correct or not.

Just my two cents from a reader and fan of this highly entertaining and detailed report.

Hi Pucks, thanks for the advice. I will eventually have a post listing the areas of my game that I recognize need work after playing in the 2024 WSOP. It's a long (and probably incomplete) list.

2024 WSOP: June 6, 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack (Part 11 of 12)
All-in with two lousy but both live and suited cards

Level 12

2,000/4,000/4,000

I only have 17,500 chips. The blinds are coming my way and will pretty much decimate me. I have to get it in, at worst when I am in the big blind, in order to have something barely workable if by some miracle I win my all-in.

Two hands from me being in the big blind, I look down at 2c-8s. I fold.

One hand from the big blind, I look down at 2h-7c. Seriously? I fold.

I am in the big blind. I pretty much need to get it in with any two cards. Sooners bets. I look at my cards. Indeed, I have "any two cards." I put the last of my chips in.

Sooners says, “You caught me.” She has Q-9 off suit.

I say, “No I didn’t.” I turn over 6c-10c. Hey, it’s suited. And both my cards are live. On the flop, Sooners pairs her queen. But on the turn, I have a flush draw. I have nine outs to the flush. What an injustice it would be if I get there. The river comes and …

… I don’t get there. I am out of the tournament. I get up from the table, and I head out. On the one hand, busting out of a tournament is never good. On the other hand, I feel kind of relieved. I have not felt like playing most of today’s tournament, even when I was running hotter than the sun early on.

2024 WSOP: June 6, 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack (Part 12 of 12)
My mind and my body are telling me they have had enough … I wander around in a fog and unexpectedly run into PinkyRing on the rail of a high roller WSOP tournament in the Paris poker ballroom

What I do next is both familiar and foreign. I start to wander between the Horseshoe and the Paris. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. In a fog.

It is familiar, because this is what I would do at the 2019 WSOP when I suffered bad beat after bad beat, feeling gutted, trying to have it all make sense.

It is foreign, because in this 2024 WSOP I have taken bad beats like a champion. I have taken disappointment with a grain of salt. Not so today, although what I am feeling has nothing to do with a bad beat or disappointment. It feels like something I experienced in college when I was playing on my school’s ultimate frisbee team. During one spring break, nine of us drove down to Florida where we barnstormed through the state playing something like nine different college opponents in seven days in the southern heat with only enough players to have lonely two substitutes on our sideline. Then we drove back, stopping part-way home where we rejoined the rest of our team in Ohio for a tournament. It was very, very cold in Ohio and all of us who had been in sun-drenched Florida lasted no more than half of the first game before our bodies started to break down (the muscles in my legs completely locking up/cramping up) and the Florida nine had to give it up and let the rest of the team finish out the Ohio tourney. That is what I think I experienced today physically and mentally.

All of my wandering brought me to the Paris ballroom on the rail of a high roller tournament not really paying attention. In a mental fog. Then I noticed I was standing next to PinkyRing from today’s tournament. We started chatting.

Then PinkyRing asked me what I had in the big hand we had against each other in which the flop was 3-4-8 and he folded because he thought I had kings. I said, “I was just pushing you around. I had jacks. What did you have?” PinkyRing says he had 8-10 for top pair. He seems relieved that he folded the inferior hand.

PinkyRing is frustrated. He says every time he has a strong hand he loses, and the only time he wins is when he plays rags and he flops big. He says, “You are a good player. Do you have any advice?”

I say I’m not sure I’m that good of a player. But he asked for advice so … I say playing bad cards and hoping to flop big with any frequency seems like a recipe for disaster over the long haul. I talk about how much more aggressive players are today. PinkyRing eagerly agrees with this. I say, “I think you have to do the opposite of what the table is doing. If it is overly aggressive tighten up. If it is overly passive, you have to loosen up and play more aggressive. The problem with this is, I never really played at a table since I’ve been here that was too passive. There are a lot of aggressive players these days.”

I sense that PinkyRing is disappointed I don’t have a better answer, a magic elixir to help him solve the WSOP conundrum. We are just a couple of glassy-eyed guys engaged in the futile effort of trying to decipher the WSOP code. A couple of guys searching for answers we will not find on this day. I tell PinkyRing that I am worn out and I am going to head back to my hotel. We fist bump, and knowing from conversation at the poker table that I have one more day left in Las Vegas he asks, “Are you going to play in tomorrow’s Daily Deepstack?”

I respond glumly, “I don’t think so. I think I’m done.”

The truth is, I don’t just think I’m done. I know I’m done.

I have given it my all at the WSOP. I don’t have anything else left to give.

I'm flying back in for the high roller seniors on Wednesday. Are you playing?

No, I won't be playing in that for four reasons:

1) From the beginning I said I was not going to play in seniors events because I wanted to do battle with the young guns to get the full WSOP experience and to challenge myself to the fullest. I don't see anything wrong with seniors events, it just didn't fit my agenda. I hope you run well in it.

2) As my last post concluded, "I have given it my all at the WSOP. I don’t have anything else left to give." I'm done for the 2024 WSOP.

3) The date of that high roller seniors tournament conflicts with the birthday plans of Mrs. rppoker. That's really poor game selection from a marital perspective.

4) A $5,000 buy-in does not fit my poker roadmap. I preferred to play in $500-$1,000 buy-ins so I could play in as many events as possible given my poker bankroll. In 2019, I think $1,500 was the most expensive buy-in I played. In both 2019 and 2024, I wanted as much volume as possible for my bankroll.

2024 WSOP: June 6, later that night
Las Vegas hands out one last bad beat to me

I work on typing up my rough draft of today’s tournament shipwreck for my 2+2 trip report. After a while I am hungry. I decide to take a walk over to the MGM Grand, which is the sister property to my hotel the Signature. Despite the fact that I am still feeling some weakness in my leg which has bothered me all trip, there is a moving walkway that connects the two properties.

My intended destination is Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House named after renowned chef Emeril Lagasse. I am sure it has something worthwhile for dinner. The main reason I am making the trek, though, is dessert. I have heard great things about the banana cream pie they serve. I love banana cream pie.

As I take the moving walkway just a little before 10:00 p.m., I see a sign promoting the MGM Grand’s Summer Poker Festival. I could not be less interested. I could not be less tempted. The only thing that I desire at the MGM is Emeril’s banana cream pie.

I get to Emeril’s. There is a sign.

It says, “Sorry, We’re Closed.”

I’m ready to go home.

Hey, it only took post #512 for me to figure out how to add an avatar.

I take both points. I think the critical factor is position. If he's betting OOP, let him. If you're OOP, bet aggressively (for value), until maybe the river, then ck-call. Not that I'm a master at any of this, but this position-dependent line seems to work well for me.

2024 WSOP: June 7, my final full day in Las Vegas (part 1 of 2)
107 degrees outside … I get my piece of banana cream pie


My last day in Las Vegas. I was going to make it a pool day, but it’s 107 degrees outside. My hotel window view is of two of the property’s swimming pools. People are actually in the pools and/or laying out by the pools. These people are insane!

Do I actually go play in the Daily Deepstack?



I am reminded of the famous poker story from 1949 when Nick the Greek and Johnny Moss played in a public, five-months-long poker duel for millions of dollars. The battle finally concluded when Nick the Greek conceded defeat by saying, “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”

So, do I play in the Daily Deepstack today? I do not.

WSOP, I have to let you go.

Instead, I finally get my piece of banana cream pie at Emeril’s. It is huge and it is very tasty. Worth the effort. Worth the wait. 10/10.



I’ve got the day to figure out what to do. By phone, Mrs. rppoker suggests I go to a show. I’m not goin’ to no stinkin’ show. Instead, I embark on an interesting poker study …

2024 WSOP: June 7, my final full day in Las Vegas (part 2 of 2)
All of my tournaments by the numbers

Since I’m not goin’ to no stinkin’ show, I decide to study something that has been gnawing away at me. It seems to me that I got phenomenal cards the first 4-5 levels of the tournaments I played in, but then went absolutely card dead in levels 8-12 when the blinds started becoming bothersome. I was consistently getting to levels 11 or 12 or 13 but with the exception of my one min cash I was not getting over the hump at these levels.

Was this a valid analysis? Did I consistently hit the level 11-to-13 wall because of a lack of cards, or am I not taking accountability? I decide to analyze every premium hand I was dealt in the WSOP. I have the data in my notebooks.

I log all of the premium hands I was dealt by tournament and by level. I define premium hands as 10-10+ and A-Q+, and I create a chart. It’s the old sports writer in me looking at the play-by-play sheets to analyze what happened.

Let’s start with the basics. The number of levels I lasted in each tournament:

18, 8, 13, 3, 13, 11, 11, 12

I realize there are no participation trophies for lasting a long time but not cashing, but lasting double-digit levels in six-of-the-eight tournaments I played seems pretty good given my poker inexperience. Plus, I got my min cash to put me on the board (hellooooo Hendon Mob). Of the original nine players at my starting table, those double-digit levels meant I typically outlasted all but one or two of the starting combatants, and sometimes I was last (original) man standing. Again, I know that doesn’t earn me anything.

I have no complaints as to the number of premium hands I received. I am pretty sure I was dealt far more premium hands in my 2024 WSOP than in my 2019 WSOP. In 2024, my premium hands in 8 tournaments were as follows:

-- A-A: 6 times
-- K-K: 5 times
-- Q-Q: 8 times
-- J-J: 4 times
-- 10-10: 5 times
-- A-K: 10 times
-- A-Q: 14 times

I can’t complain about the quantity of premium hands. What was unfortunate was the timing of my big hands. They overwhelmingly took place in early levels when you are likely to win small to medium pots. I didn’t receive many of them in later levels when people are more willing to play a big pot because the blinds are becoming an issue. What follows are the levels I received premium hands (pay particular attention to aces and kings):

A-A: 1, 6, 8, 5, 2, 3
K-K: 2, 4, 4, 2, 7
Q-Q: 3, 3, 2, 1, 11, 13, 4, 7
J-J: 5, 7, 13, 5
10-10: 7, 8, 10, 12, 5
A-K: 2, 13, 2, 10, 1, 4, 11, 3, 7, 11
A-Q: 2, 2, 3, 13, 16, 3, 5, 13, 3, 2, 6, 10, 8, 8

Now let’s go tournament bullet-by-bullet to observe how, for the most part, my premium hands were front-loaded:

Event 3 ($500 NLHE freezeout): I received seven premium hands during the first three levels, including A-A once and Q-Q twice. Then during the next nine card-dead levels (4-12), I received only one premium hand, and that was 10-10 during level 7. The lack of playable cards was soul crushing. In level 13, I received two premium hands. Then I went card dead again the last five levels (14-18), receiving just one premium (A-Q). Somehow, I min cashed.

Event 5A ($1,000 NLHE Mystery Millions): I received five premium hands in eight levels, including the latest levels I received A-A when I was dealt them in levels 6 and 8. Unfortunately, my aces got cracked in level 8, knocking me out.

Event 5B ($1,000 NLHE Mystery Millions): This was the one tournament I received cards consistently. I received six premium hands the first eight levels, and they were nicely spread out. Then I kept getting premium hands. Two premiums in Level 10, one premium in level 11, one premium in level 12, and three premiums in level 13. This was the tournament in which I flopped a set of jacks only to run into two players whose 10-Q flopped the nut straight. If the board had paired on the river, I would have been the tournament chip leader at the time based upon what WSOP had listed as the top chip count at the time (I realize it is possible some unknown player had more somewhere in the field). I coulda been a contender.

Event 5C ($1,000 NLHE Mystery Millions): I got knocked out in level 3 when I paired my ace and ran into quads, so there aren’t enough numbers to crunch.

Event 5D ($1,000 NLHE Mystery Millions): I received seven premium hands in the first six levels, including K-K an astonishing three times in the first four levels. I then received only two premium hands (A-Q and A-K) in my final seven levels of play.

Event 14 ($1,000 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty): I received four premium hands the first eight levels. I didn’t get any premiums my last three levels, a problem that is magnified when it is a super turbo.

Event 17 ($800 NLHE Deepstack): This was the one tournament where I didn’t get much in the early stages, receiving just two premium hands in the first nine levels. I received three premiums in the last two levels (but two of them were only 10-10, the last of which ran into A-A).

$250 NLHE Daily Deepstack: On fire early, I received six premium hands the first seven levels, including A-A twice, K-K twice, Q-Q once and J-J once. During levels 8-12 I did not receive a single premium hand, and I wasn’t even getting playable hands like suited connectors, medium pairs or even bottom pairs. Five levels of pure garbage hands.

Outrageous, mathematically improbable suckouts after all the money was in the pot: I broke even. My queens cracked kings once. My aces got cracked by kings once. I am not counting my Q-J beating A-A as a suckout, because my opponent massively slow played the hand on multiple streets and let me “get there” at which point I had two pair, with almost all of the chips going into the middle only after I was ahead.

Coin flips: I started getting tired, so I didn’t go back and check, but my sense is that I ran OK on these. I don’t think I ran terrible or great. Probably break even or maybe slightly better than break even.

Critical 2-to-1 pre-flop percentage hands in which I was ahead and my opponent was all-in: Going from memory, I went 0-for-2 on these hands (i.e. my K-Q versus an opponent’s J-10) during crucial late stage hands.

I don’t have any clever ending sentence for this report. I am too worn out for that. I simply stop writing.

Thanks again for the great TR!

Oh yeah, nice avatar too!

Thanks.

There's a little bit left to the TR.

something to consider
-
in earlier levels you're more likely to be short handed and people are less likely to tank so you get more hands per level. more hands per level equals more premium hands per level.

of course in the short term it's definitely possibly to randomly just get deal premiums a higher percentage of hands in early levels.

I think you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to remember how many premiums you’ve gotten, and whether you’re “due” or not, but you do you.

On my Day 2 of the Monster, my table had some very aggressive guys. They were doing a fair amount of raising just for grins. I think my jams would've been called a lot more if they were not so aggressive. About half of my 15 bigs jams were after a raise. I couldn't afford to wait for a clear field because I was not running very well at all.

I wonder if I could get a printed version of that to keep in my pocket. I'm unable to use a touch screen.

June 8, 2024: Flying home, parting thoughts (Part 1 of 10)
An overview of my WSOP experience … I felt more comfortable in 2024 than in 2019 … Dealing with bad beats … The timing of premium hands … Going on tilt

I am up in the sky. Flying home. So many thoughts running through my head. Parting thoughts.

I try to put my overall 2024 WSOP thoughts into writing:

I am going to kind of go stream-of-consciousness here rather than elegant writing.

Quick version first of the overall experience: It was everything I hoped it would be. I got to face some name pros. I got to face a lot of pros whose names I did not know. I got my first cash (have I mentioned that I cashed?). While I only cashed once, I did not get steam rolled by the competition. While I certainly made mistakes, I also consistently reached double-digit levels of the tournaments I played in. I played in a massive hand for a tournament chip lead with a ton of outs, which was electrifying even though I did not “get there.” I got to play in the most prestigious poker series in the world – I just played in poker Wimbledon. I took bad beats and coolers like a seasoned pro in 2024, which is not how I responded in my 2019 WSOP trip. I had fun. I learned a lot. I learned that I’ve got a lot to learn. I got to compete, which I loved more than anything. I loved the competition. I thoroughly enjoyed the vast array of characters at the tables. Everyone was nice to me. I found stories everywhere. Yes, the WSOP wore me down at the very end, but 90% of it was exhilarating. Even if I got good enough for it to be profitable (stop laughing at me), I could not do this for a living full time. The swings, the variance, the coolers, the coin flips, the lifestyle are not something I could handle 52 weeks a year. But for 12 days it was intoxicating. In the business world I do not get the adrenaline rush that I get at the WSOP. I have had some extremely big wins as an investor, but it doesn’t get the blood pumping like you experience when you hit a miracle card on the poker felt. With only one min cash, my trip was not profitable financially, but it was enormously profitable as a life experience. If I spent the same amount of money to go on vacation anywhere in the world, I would not have anywhere near the stories and memories that I got at the 2024 WSOP. It might not have been bankroll profitable, but if was life experience profitable.

The second time around: I had a sense of belonging in the 2024 WSOP that I didn’t feel in the 2019 WSOP. Not a sense of belonging in terms of belonging with the best of the best. I mean a sense of belonging like I’ve been here before and I’m not some wide-eyed newbie with no idea what is in store for him. In 2019 I had no idea how anything worked. Heck, I didn’t realize back then that when the blinds are, say, 100/200 if I threw in a single 500 chip that meant call and not raise unless I said “500.” I didn’t know where anything was. And on and on. This time around I felt comfortable in my skin at the tables. This is very similar to when I covered my first Super Bowl back in my sports writing days. That first Super Bowl that I covered back in the day was mildly uncomfortable. Everywhere I turned there were sportswriters who had double digit Super Bowls under their belt. I really didn’t know anybody other than by reputation. Plus, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know how media availability was handled. I didn’t know the rhythms of the bigger-than-life event. I didn’t know anything. When I covered the following year’s Super Bowl I felt completely at ease. I now had a baseline, a frame of reference. While hardly a veteran, I now had some experience. That’s what I felt during the 2024 WSOP. The difference between your first WSOP and your second is like night and day. Just a massive difference.

The ability to take a punch: Dealing with bad beats this time around was completely different. In 2019 these bad beats crushed my spirit, practically brought me to my knees in anguish. In 2024 I did not spend a second of despair when my aces got cracked for heaps of chips. I simply wrote it off as, “That’s poker” and moved on to the next tournament. I think that is poker growth. I am surprised by my ability to shrug a hand like this off. It wasn’t something I went into the 2024 WSOP vowing to be better at. I just was better at it. With one exception, I did not let unfortunate runouts of cards impact me negatively.

Going double-digit levels deep numerous times: I never really got short and then went on a rush. When I would start to get low on chips, I would go very card dead. Over and over, I’d see players who were getting very little going in a tournament win an all-in hand for a small amount, then win a coin flip, then get aces versus something strong and in a single orbit they were already up with the table chip leader. That never happened to me. I never went on a late poker rush like that.

Timing is everything: It felt like most of my premium hands came in early levels when you can’t win huge pots for the most part. During the middle stages of tournaments when people are more willing to play big pots, I just wasn’t getting enough good hands. Don’t get me wrong, I got plenty of premium hands. Unfortunately, they came in the early levels way, way more than in the later levels.

Times I went on mild, internal tilt for a very brief period of time: 1.

Times I went on major, external tilt: 0.

Favorite opponents: DoubleVodka, Chess, FrenchPro, Ben Yu

Thank you for the great TR. This one, and others, have me strongly considering playing my first ever WSOP next summer!

This tr has been fantastic. In the future you should get rid of playing backwards poker, where you bomb when only better hands will call and then check where you should be building pots with big hands. Ie. You make a top set with 99 to 985 or something board that should hit bb defend range.

You stack players when you cooler someone or when they have a board advantage and decide rep It while you have it yourself.

Hoping for a repeat 2025 with more deep runs.