Hi BigWhale, thanks for the advice. I very much appreciate it. Here you have picked up on one of my biggest areas of weakness at this years WSOP, which is bet sizing when there are a decent amount of chips in the pot. Typically the dealer puts all of the chips into a messy pile. You can't really accurately count the chips this way (i.e. big chips may be hidden under a bunch of smaller chips). I don't think I was very adept at recreating/adding up the betting action in my head in real time and that led to instances where my bet sizing was not ideal. Something for me to work on.

2024 WSOP: June 5, Event 17 $800 NLHE Deep Stack (Part 5 of 8)
More manufacturing chips out of thin air by me … DoubleVodka is drinking double fisted … DoubleVodka busts a player with A-A versus K-K … “Why can’t he raise aces like a normal human being?” … DoubleVodka’s flush busts two pair … DoubleVodka flops a set and pulverizes K-K

Level 8

500/1,000/1,000

I am dealt A-Q UTG. I bet 3,000. Swinger calls. The flop is 2-4-6 rainbow. I bet, Swinger goes all-in, and I fold.

I have 8d-9s in the small blind and I call a bet. We are three-way to the flop, which comes Ah-8h-3h all hearts. It goes check-check-check. The 9h turn brings a fourth heart on the board. I have two pair but no hearts on a board with four hearts. I lead out with a smallish bet and get two folds. I’m not getting much in the way of premium starting hands and, when I have, I have missed the flops in recent levels, so I am trying to manufacture chips out of thin air when I can. I have 47,000 chips.

DoubleVodka yells, “Cocktail!” The last time the server came by, DoubleVodka ordered two cocktails, because he had convinced Sleepy to join him in a drink. But by the time the two cocktails arrived after a bit of a delay, Sleepy had been knocked out. No problem, DoubleVodka says, he’ll take both of them. So, this time when the server comes by, he asks DoubleVodka if he wants two drinks again, since he drank the last two so fast. DoubleVodka shrugs his shoulders and says, “Sure.”

Not much later, DoubleVodka busts a player at the other end of the table, not one of our table’s original nine. DoubleVodka has A-A. The other guy has K-K. But DoubleVodka played the hand unconventionally, and all of the money did not go into the middle until the river. BustoutGuy grumbles to the player next to him, “Why can’t he raise aces like a normal human being?” Once BustoutGuy leaves, his neighbor shares the comment with the table. Thereafter, this becomes a table running joke. Any time someone makes an unconventional bet, someone else says, “Why can’t you raise like a normal human being?”

A couple of hands later DoubleVodka busts another player when his flush draw gets there on the river against two pair.

I have A-10 on the button on an unopened pop and I bet. SergeantSchultz calls from the big blind. I whiff the flop, but I bet and take it down. I have 50,100 chips. Still having to manufacture chips with creativity as I am getting little in the way of premium hands.

DoubleVodka busts another player when his 5-5 flops a set and pulverizes K-K.

DoubleVodka the drinking machine has become DoubleVodka the killing machine. Anything in his way this level has been reduced to rubble.

I ask DoubleVodka how many chips he has. He says he doesn’t know, which is kind of believable, because his mountains of chips are kind of a mess. I estimate visually that he has 220,000 chips (he’d have more, but, he said to me after the A-A versus K-K hand, that he had previously “donked off some chips.”)

End of level 8: 50,100 chips.

We go on break.

Greg Raymer told me last night that Matusow needs it. Something like degenerative back issues, I think.

2024 WSOP: June 5, Event 17 $800 NLHE Deep Stack (Part 6 of 8)
I make a big, bold move on DoubleVodka …10-10 versus a player who is giving off vibes of a much bigger hand … Losing an important hand as a 2-to-1 favorite … I go on mini tilt very briefly

Level 9

600/1,200/1,200

I have 9s-10c in the big blind. We go three to a flop, which is 3-4-10 rainbow. DoubleVodka bets, I call, as does the other player in the hand. The turn is a 7. DoubleVodka bets 8,000. Now, at this point I just have top pair, mediocre kicker. I decide it is time to make a move. I go all-in, which is a huge over bet. I am not concerned about the other player in this hand, who has played it very passively. As for DoubleVodka, I am playing the man and the fact that the cards hit my big blind range pretty hard. I am also playing my table image. I know that DoubleVodka thinks I am on the tight side. I also know that he does not think I have this move in me. I am certain he is going to give me credit for having a much bigger hand than I actually possess. He and the other player both fold, and DoubleVodka says, “Your two pair are good.” A few minutes later he says, “Was my 10 no good?” I tell him to ask me if/when one of us (much more likely me) gets knocked out. I have 67,000 chips.

I defend my big blind with K-10 to a bet. I completely miss the flop and fold to a bet.

End of level 9: 63,000 chips.

Level 10

800/1,600/1,600

I am dealt 10-10 in middle position and bet to 4,000. A player that joined our table a couple of levels ago is in the small blind and starts stacking chips. He is coming across as powerful strong. I have not seen this look from him before. He raises to 8,000. I actually considered folding since my read was he had something huge, but I can’t see folding to a min raise, so I call and I’ll see what happens on the flop. The flop comes Q-4-3 and everything on his facial expression is telling me to run away. He bets and I fold. I have 55,000 chips.

A little bit later I think I may have had the blinds eat away a bit more to my stack, when a crushing hand occurs. Swinger is down to 14,000 chips and he gets it all-in against me. I have Kd-Qd. Swinger has an off suit 7-8. This is only for a quarter of my chips, but winning the hand will give me considerably more room to breathe, while losing it will lower me to closer to the mildly uncomfortable zone. This is the kind of hand I have consistently lost in these key stages. I am ahead. I am a 2-1 favorite, so I am aware that I should not win every time, but it feels like I win these almost none of the time. Swinger flops a 7, I don’t improve and I am down to 36,800 chips.

This is the first and only time during this WSOP that I get internally mad.

My thoughts immediately go to an eerily similar hand I had against MsPolkaDot in a previous tournament. In that instance, she was very low on chips. I had her covered but I was not exactly flush with chips at that time. She got it all-in with Q-J off suit against my A-K off suit. Again, I am a 2-1 favorite. The flop hits her, I don’t improve and I lose the hand.

Damn it! It’s hard enough to navigate these big blinds at these levels. It is crushing when negative variance keeps biting me in the ass. This is what I am thinking. For the first and only time I feel unproductive self-pity.

I whisper to DoubleVodka, “This keeps happening to me.” He empathizes.

The next hand I am dealt A-K. I have 23 big blinds, so maybe (probably/definitely) what I do is wrong. I go all-in. My thought process was, if I make a standard raise, get called and miss the flop, then what do I do? I say to myself by going all-in I ensure that I will have five cards to try to make a pair rather than just the flop. I tell myself that if I do get called, as long as I am not up against A-A or K-K it will be a coin flip, and, if I win, I now have a very solid stack. I tell myself if everyone folds and I just take the blinds that is not terrible given that A-K is not actually a made hand yet. Or maybe I was just steaming. Probably a little bit of all of the above. Mini tilt, albeit very quietly. No verbal outburst on my part, just poor poker judgment. No good reason to play A-K this big.

The guy (I have not given him a nickname at this point) from the hand where I had 10-10 and I bet, he raised, I called and then he bet me off the hand post-flop recently now goes into the tank regarding my 23 big blind sized bet. He takes a long time contemplating whether to make the call. Finally, he folds. I win the hand. He says he folded 8-8, and he asks if it was a good fold. I say nothing. He says, “It was probably a coin flip.”

Poor decision on my part, good outcome. Don’t be so results oriented I tell myself. OK, I need to get myself together.

I now have 42,300 chips. I give some back when I am in the blinds and fold to bets given my garbage cards.

End of level 10: 38,400 chips.

2024 WSOP: June 5, Event 17 $800 NLHE Deep Stack (Part 7 of 8)
My new best friend Ben Yu again joins my table … I embrace go big or go home

Level 11

1,000/2,000/2,000

Ben Yu joins our table with what appears to be a late reg stack. This is the second time we have shared a table this week. He sees me, his eyes light up in recognition, and he says hello to me. I say hello back.

Ben Yu “knows” me. This amazes me.

A few seconds later I get back to the growing concern that I now have only 19 big blinds.

I am UTG and get dealt 10-10. It’s a real hand, but I think it will be incredibly difficult to play postflop if I just make a regular bet, get called and then there are the likely over cards on the flop. I think it will be better to go all-in and make someone call than give them the opportunity to raise/shove a regular bet from me and then I have to call it off or fold. Given my stack size and the poor post-flop playability of 10-10 I think I just have to go for it all, and if I get called hope it is A-K for a coin flip. It’s a high variance move that can blow up in my face, but I’m not going to fold my way into the money. Over and over, I have seen late reg poker pros at my tables go the high variance route at around this level of the tournament to try to build a big, playable stack. I decide it’s time to roll the dice. For once I’m going big or going home. For once I do not take the patient, measured, safe route. For once I am going the impatient, overly aggressive, questionable percentage route, and I wrap my arms around variance in a gigantic bear hug. This is not me steaming from a bit earlier when my A-K lost to Q-J. I am even-keeled. Rightly or wrongly, in my mind I am simply choosing to push the envelope, to embrace variance in an attempt to spin it up.

A newish player at the table in late position with almost the same stack as me (but slightly more) puts all of his chips in the middle.

Is it a coin flip?

It is not. I have run into A-A. It’s a high variance move that has blown up in my face. There will be no miracle 10 for me, and I am out of the tournament. Go big or go home? I’m going home. That certainly didn’t go the way I hoped. I turn to DoubleVodka and tell him I hope he goes far in the tournament. He certainly has the mountain of chips to do some damage.

2024 WSOP: June 5, Event 17 $800 NLHE Deep Stack (Part 8 of 8)
A small window into Phil Hellmuth's celebrity ... Decisions have to be made after busting out of my tournament … All-in on the WSOP … I finally get to eat Beef Wellington and it is spectacular, thank you Gordon Ramsay

I leave the Paris ballroom and start walking toward the Horseshoe. I pass a poker player who is talking to someone on the phone, saying, “My opponent has a pair of threes and hits quads.” Threes are the hand of the WSOP. Whenever anyone else has this hand, they having been hitting a set and even quads. But me? My threes never improve. I am bitter about this.

Still walking to the Horseshoe, I see Phil Hellmuth walking in the other direction. As we pass one another, a fan comes racing up to Hellmuth. Phil seems slightly startled. The fan is talking a mile a minute. So excited. I would think that for celebrities, it must be a bit disconcerting to have a stranger bolt at them like this. To his credit, Hellmuth is gracious and gives the fan a moment of his time.

The reason I am walking to the Horseshoe has to do with what I will do during my last two full days of my trip. Originally, I said my options were: 1) all WSOP all the time, 2) a combination of WSOP, Wynn and Venetian, or 3) a buffet of all the Las Vegas strip tournament venues.

I have decided to go with all WSOP all the time. I just don’t have the energy to go to other properties and try to navigate my way around an unfamiliar venue. I have grown comfortable with the WSOP, so I will enter the early (1:00 p.m.) Daily Deepstack each of the next two days.

When I was leaving the Paris poker ballroom after getting knocked out, I saw what appeared to be a WSOP honcho in the hallway (I saw his nameplate on his suit jacket) and I asked him if I would register for the Daily Deepstack at the Paris cages or if I needed to go to the Horseshoe. He said the Horseshoe and told me where to go. I botched the directions, and I ended up at the area of the Horseshoe where Final Tables are played out. I found a WSOP official and asked for directions, and she told me how to get to the Normandy Ballroom for the Daily Deepstack registration. To get there I had to walk to the back of the Horseshoe casino, go past the deli and go up an escalator, get to the top of the escalator and turn right. By the time I followed all of these directions, I felt like if I were any further from the main action, I’d be playing in the parking lot.

A thought goes through my head. I am being sent down to the minors. The AAA minors, but the minors nonetheless. And I mean no insult to the people playing in “the poker minors.” I suspect they are better than me. Actually, I am certain they are better than me. It’s just that after playing so many tournaments against the big boys in the big venues, the difference of the Daily Deepstack location is jarring. This doesn’t make me change my decision. I will still enter the Daily Deepstack the next two days. It’s still the WSOP, which has cache.

I find the Normandy cage and the line is long. Before I get in this massive line, it would be nice to know if I will be able to register now for tomorrow’s tourney, or do I have to wait until tomorrow to do so? I see a security guard and ask him if he knows. He does not, but he says he can get me the answer. He goes to one of the cage windows and once the person being registered is done, he asks the person behind the cage if I can register for tomorrow’s tournament today. He is told I cannot register until the day of the tournament. I thank him for his help. I ask if I can tip him. For some reason I suspect this might not be allowed. He either says it is not allowed or it is not necessary. I thank him again for being so helpful.

It's 5:00 p.m., and I decide it is time to check a box on my trip to-do list. I have been wanting to eat Beef Wellington for some time on this trip. It is my favorite meal. I know that Gordon Ramsey Steak in the Paris has Beef Wellington on the menu. I have no reservation, but I think the early hour will mean I can sneak in. I go to the hostess stand, explain that I have no reservation and ask if I can get a table for one. She says I can go to the bar area and get served there.

I get a seat and am given a menu. The price for the Beef Wellington is of course Las Vegas overpriced. No matter, I have spent very little money on food this trip.

I place my order and wonder how Gordon Ramsey Steak will stack up to my mom’s Beef Wellington, which is fantastic. I have also ordered Beef Wellington at numerous restaurants through the years. My standards are high.

My order is brought to the table, and I am so excited that I forget to take a picture for 2+2. Well, let me tell you, the Beef Wellington at Gordon Ramsey Steak is the best I have ever had (please don’t tell my mom I said so).

After a tournament that concluded with poker disappointment, I end things on a culinary high note.

Glad you were able to salvage a tough day with the beef wellington.

Some commiserations on the TT hand:

It's early day 2 of the $600 Deepstack Championship in 2021. I have a modest stack of maybe 15BB. I get TT in early position and open small, probably 2-2.5x.

One caller in the BB. Flop brings at least one overcard. I end up getting blasted out of the pot. I tell myself, 'I should've just shoved pre-flop.'

Fast forward to a $400 online bracelet event in 2022. We're drifting towards the bubble. I get TT UTG with 19 BBs. This time I elect to jam.

Jon Turner snaps me from MP with KK and busts me. I tell myself, 'I should've just opened standard and reevaluated.'

Point being, TT is a tough hand to play on a borderline push-fold stack. All of the options are slightly unpleasant.

When I looked at the push-fold charts after my bustout in 2022, I think they had it as a shove UTG on 18BB, but not 20BB. That's how slim the margins are for the spot.

In hindsight, I do think it plays better as a standard open because we're deep enough to get away if things get ugly. When we shove and get called, we're typically either dominated or flipping, which is not great for us. We're risking a lot to win a little. It's certainly not some horrible punt though. On 10BB you're happy to pile in the chips. On 25BB, you likely need to see a flop. Between those poles, an argument can be made for either side. My guess is that shoving it UTG for 19BB will be a small winner in the long run. It's unlucky to run into a hand strong enough to call and doubly unlucky when it's something that has us almost dead like AA instead of the more likely AK/AQ.

TT UTG with 19 big blinds is the equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the movie designed to test the character of the Starfleet Academy cadets by placing them in a no-win scenario.

That is how 10-10 plays in this situation. No matter what you do, you find yourself in a no-win scenario (or something close to a no-win situation). At least that's what it feels like to me.

This 'deep' (19bb) I think we are better off raising and then fold if significant action comes behind.

Having said that, against a single 3-bet from a guy who is not an OMC I think we still need to go with the hand. I would only consider folding if two or more players start going crazy behind me. There are just so many more AK in the 3-bet range rather than pairs who crushes us.

2024 WSOP: June 6, 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack (Part 1 of 12)
Wandering through the Horseshoe Casino to kill time

This is my first non-bracelet event at the WSOP. I am playing in the 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack. I like the fact that I don’t have to be at the poker table at the godforsaken hour of 10:00 a.m. I love the fact that I get to sleep in.

Still, I arrive very early since I have no idea what registration lines are like. I show up a bit after 11:00 a.m., and there is no line at all for the Deepstack at this hour. I suspected as much and I figured I’d use the time I had to kill to wander the Horseshoe casino floor to see if I could find some stories to tell, and then I’d grab lunch.

My weather app says the temperature outside will get as high as 108 degrees. I assume the Normandy Room where I will be playing will have the air conditioning cranked up just like the other WSOP poker ballrooms. It’s a good day to be indoors.

There are escalators everywhere in this part of the Horseshoe. It kind of feels like a shopping mall.

I come across a tiny venue selling poker tchotchkes. There is a poker chip with my Michigan Wolverines block M on it in the school’s colors. I consider getting it to use as a card protector, but that feels like it will make me look like even more of a recreational player than I already am. I’ll pass.

I walk through the Horseshoe casino floor amidst the slot machines and I see player after player after player spending money on the slots while talking on or playing with their cell phones. The ADHD is real. Seemingly no one just does one thing at a time anymore.

I pass by a roulette table. There are lots of numbers on the board taken. There is also a bunch of money placed on black. The ball rolls around and settles into 5 red. No one has 5 or red. The house always wins.

I come across a craps table that is almost entirely electronic. All of the players are seated at an electronic monitor where they see a video of the dice toss. One person at a time gets a turn to roll the dice. They are brought up to the only live part of this gizmo, and they toss the dice for real. Everyone else sits in their seat and makes bets on their monitor. To my way of thinking, this setup lacks the elegance and excitement of a real craps table where everyone is standing at the table. The minimum bet at this electronic monstrosity is $5.

I walk around and eventually find a real craps table where players rub shoulders and interact with one another at the table. This feels better. The minimum bet is $25. You have to place big boy bets to get the human interaction. Every service has a cost in Las Vegas.

I make my way over to the high limit section. Toward the front there are a bunch of $1 slots. How does a dollar a pull qualify as high limit? At the real craps table, you have to make minimum bets of $25, but in the high limit area there are $1 slots? This makes no sense to me. The high limit area is completely empty except for one older lady at a leon-style machine. She is betting $15 a pop.

Venturing back into the main part of the casino, I pass a guy who is wearing a shirt that says “Big guys don’t cry. They rebuy!”

I decide I will go to lunch at the deli. When I asked the other day for directions for how to get to the Daily Deepstacks registration window, part of the directions was to go past the deli. The deli is called Nosh and I check out the menu. I don’t see any lox. I don’t see any corned beef. What kind of deli is this? It’s not like any deli I’ve ever been to. I’ll pass.

This calls for a chili cheese hot dog, so I head to the Horseshoe food court. I get to Nathan’s and place my order. The order taker asks if I’d like fries. No thanks. Would I like a drink? I say no thanks, because I have a Dr. Pepper in my backpack.

I finish my lunch, and I get a text from my younger daughter that says, “I love you and miss you.” Maybe five minutes later I get a text from my older daughter that says, “I hope you are having the best time!! I love you more than anything.”

Let’s see if we can put this good karma and vibes to work for me at the Daily Deepstack tournament.

I make my way toward the Normandy Ballroom. I pass one person with a shirt that says, “Retired. Don’t ask me to do ****.” Then I pass another person whose shirt says, “I’m just here for the pot” with the four playing card suits underneath.

I walk into the Normandy Room and see that a seniors poker tournament is already underway. There is a lot of laughter at the tables.

2024 WSOP: June 6, 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack (Part 2 of 12)
Introducing today’s initial combatants

I head to my table and meet today’s initial combatants:

Seat 1: A woman wearing a hat with a dinosaur on it. We’ll call her Dino (of Flintstones fame).

Seat 2: Someone’sGrandma (self-explanatory).

Seat 3: An older Euro wearing a blazing red soccer coaching sweat top along with a diamond pinky ring. We’ll call him PinkyRing.

Seat 4: Me.

Seat 5: KingOfFlips. He says he finished in the top 50 in the other day’s WSOP turbo bounty event. He says he won 12 straight flips before he finally lost a flip and got knocked out.

Seat 6; RedBull because of his drink. Doesn’t last long and gets replaced by DirtyBlonde for the color of her hair.

Seat 7: Sooners because she is wearing an Oklahoma Sooners shirt.

Seat 8: Fedor because he is a German player wearing a hoodie with the Feder Holz training site logo on it.

Seat 9: FormerPunkKid because he says quite some time ago he was up against a famous female poker pro who apparently referred to him as a “punk kid” when describing how he called her bluff light. He actually turns out to be a very nice, but now older, guy. FormerPunkKid tells the name of the well-known female poker pro in this story, but I’m not naming her since I wasn’t present when it took place.

Seat 10: NiagaraFalls. The hometown of this OMC type.

2024 WSOP: June 6, 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack (Part 3 of 12)
Dino misreads the 1,000 chips for 100 chips … The deck hits me hard early … Fedor is pushing around the table … I’m having trouble focusing

Level 1 (25,000 chips)

100/100/100

I am dealt A-3 in the big blind. There is a bet and I call. I miss the flop. I fold to a bet.

Dino is the original raiser in a pot. She raises 3,000, misreading the 1,000 chips for 100 chips. Everyone folds and the table has a good laugh.

End of level 1: 24,200 chips.

Level 2:

100/200/200

I get dealt A-A. Dino bets 600. I pop it to $1,800. She calls.

The flop is 4-6-7.

She checks. I check, hoping this will get her to bet the turn.

The turn is another 7. She checks. I bet 1,800. She folds.

Soon after, I am dealt Kh-Kd. I bet 600. KingOfFlips and Fedor both call. The flop is 3-7-9 two diamonds. I bet 1,300. KingOfFlops calls. Fedor folds.

The turn is a third diamond. Check-check.

The river is a fourth diamond. I have the king of diamonds. I check, hoping to induce, but KingOfFlops just checks back. He sees my king of diamonds and mucks. I have 28,800 chips.

Fedor hits a straight on the river to beat Dino’s top pair. The dealer then starts to push the pot erroneously toward Dino. KingOfFlips and I both start saying, “Stop, stop, stop.” We get it sorted out.

Fedor is relentless pushing the action and is building a very healthy stack as other players keep backing down.

I am having some trouble focusing on the action. This has never happened to me at the poker table before.

End of level 2: 28,800 chips.

I played several of the deepstacks and enjoyed them, but the chip color scheme is definitely a little rough. I saw more than one misclick.

I can name that in 2 notes. Annie Duke

2024 WSOP: June 6, 1:00 p.m. $250 Daily Deepstack (Part 4 of 12)
The deck continues to hit me hard … Sooners doles out a bad beat … Fedor is keeping his distance from me, but he is going after everyone else

Level 3

200/300/300

I am dealt A-A again. I get Niagara Falls to call my bets on every street of action. He mucks when he is shown my aces.

An absolutely crucial hand occurs next. Dino has Q-Q. Sooners has 10-10. They get it all-in on the turn. At this point the board contains all under cards. Sooners needs a two outer to survive. Of course, the river is a 10. Dino is out, and Sooners has heaps. This is crucial because, saved by a lucky two-outer, Sooners will eventually build up a monster stack.

A little bit later, Sooners comments, “I think it is ironic that we are in the Normandy Room on D-Day.” It’s D-Day? I had no idea. I don’t even know what day of the week it is after so many days of playing poker.

The KingOfFlips then crashes out of the tournament on a bluff gone awry when Sooners has A-K and Someone’sGrandma has J-J. The jacks hold, and Someone’sGrandma now has a ton of chips.

The seat left open by the KingOfFlips exit gets filled by a guy wearing a poker t-shirt that says, “I don’t even fold my laundry,” so we’ll call him Laundry.

I am dealt 9-9. Man am I getting good cards. I bet 900. Sooners and Fedor call. The flop is the incredible 9-7-2. I slow play it, and it goes check-check-check. Not what I’d hoped for, especially considering how aggressively Fedor has been going after every pot. The turn is a J. I bet. Sooners calls and Fedor folds. For some reason Fedor is keeping his distance from me.

The river is an ace. I bet 3,500. Sooners calls and sees the bad news.

End of level 3: 41,600 chips.