In a purely pokercentric world you are 100% correct. If I were single I would play a lot more poker than I do. If I want to get much better, I need to spend a lot more time at the poker tables.

However, I am married. Happily married. And I'd like to keep it that way.

During the past year, consider the things I have done with Mrs. rppoker's support and understanding. I have University of Michigan football season tickets with my college roommate NextDoorLou even though I live in a suburb of Chicago. I went to four regular season games, spending the entire weekend in Ann Arbor. At the last second I went to the Big Ten title game. I also went to the national championship game with IlliniArt. On top of that I spent 12 days in Las Vegas playing in the WSOP.

Mrs. rppoker was OK with all of that. Not one word of complaint. I don't want to take advantage of her support and understanding. I don't want to abuse the privilege.

The WSOP circuit makes a bunch of stops throughout the year somewhat near me at the Hammond Horseshoe and Grand Victoria Casino, so maybe I'll go play in a single event or two. If I do, I will share my experiences on 2+2.

But given the choice between becoming a more accomplished/experienced poker player or a happily married poker hobbyist, I'll choose the latter. Not the best decision from a LVL TR point of view, not the best decision in terms of poker ROI, but the best decision in every other way for my lifestyle.

Makes total sense. The money isn't gonna change your life and it doesn't even make sense economically. If you play 10 or 20k worth of events and put in a **** ton of hours studying and increase your ROI by even say 30 percent you're trading tons of hours of time you want to do other things with for 3-6k in return. Have fun with it, put in some work and enjoy your next wsop trip.

July 19, 2024
Contemplating the WSOP circuit schedule, letting my imagination run wild regarding international stops

OK, based upon the 2023/2024 WSOP circuit schedule, it appears there will probably be four separate stops in easily drivable casinos for me over the next 12 months. Two stops at the Hammond Horseshoe and two stops at the Grand Victoria Casino seem likely. If I just dip my toe into some of those stops it probably won't bother Mrs. rppoker. The locations are Elgin, IL and Hammond, IN. Not exactly tourist destinations. I'm guessing you go to the casino with no real reason to venture outside.

Looking at the destinations of greater United States distances, I don't really see any locations that would tie into locations Mrs. rppoker and I have interest in taking trips to, so that is out.

This gets me thinking on a grander scale. I let my imagination run wild. I am good at letting my imagination run wild. While I will never fully retire, there are changes in my future. I will always need to be involved in my investments, but I am probably 1-3 years away from not having to be involved in day-to-day operations of the real estate that I own/manage. At that point Mrs. rppoker and I are talking about possibly spending winters away from Chicago, maybe having a vacation home somewhere someday, traveling, etc.

This leads to me looking at past international WSOP circuit stops. Maybe someday Mrs. rppoker and I airbnb it for a month in some exotic place tied to a circuit stop where maybe I play in 2-3 small tournaments and otherwise we are tourists.

I see that Canada is a possibility for WSOP circuit events, but that doesn't excite me. Nothing against Canada, but that feels to a Chicagoan like driving to Wisconsin only you keep going a bit farther.

Sanremo, Italy has been on the schedule past and present and that sounds thrilling. Brazil has been a past spot which sounds fascinating. In 2023 the Brazil circuit end date was one month away from the start of Carnival, which would be an amazing combination.

In 2022 there were stops in Cannes, France and Gold Coast, Australia, both of which reside in countries I know Mrs. rppoker wants to go to someday. I think this idea could work. I am not a fan of long-distance travel, but Mrs. rppoker wants to go everywhere. I have told her in the past I will go anywhere she wants to be a good sport and make her happy, but my travel bucket list is empty. I may have stumbled onto a way that travel can excite both of us.

Gray-Haired Poker Goes Global is not actionable for the time being. I've got to execute some of the significant changes I am working on for my business/portfolio. But the germ of an idea has been planted.

The WSOP dream may require a passport someday.

"OK, based upon the 2023/2024 WSOP circuit schedule, it appears there will probably be four separate stops in easily drivable casinos for me over the next 12 months. Two stops at the Hammond Horseshoe and two stops at the Grand Victoria Casino seem likely. If I just dip my toe into some of those stops it probably won't bother Mrs. rppoker. The locations are Elgin, IL and Hammond, IN. Not exactly tourist destinations. I'm guessing you go to the casino with no real reason to venture outside."

Those sounds like reasonable options. Probably not worth chasing the foreign choices until you retire

Theres also a lot of other stops like MSPTs (good for a weekend), WPTs, casinos host their own series sometimes, moneymaker tour.

I'm also from Chicago and frequent the 4 circuit stops but also go to iowa, michigan, ohio for other tournaments.

My latest poker road map

OK, we are now just starting on the next 10 months of working on my game to prepare for the 2025 WSOP.

I have added a new tool to my poker toolbox. I have started using GTO Wizard. I will admit to previously being intimidated to try something like this in terms of the setup for what information to input to be able to go into the lab at a site like this.

What changed this for me was I was watching a video by Matt Affleck on the poker website pokercoaching.com I subscribe to. In the video, Affleck showed how to use GTO Wizard and I had a couple of thoughts: 1) That doesn't look so complicated, and 2) I still need work on preflop hand ranges to play and doing so with GTO Wizard looks like a lot more fun than trying the rote memorization route of simply studying charts.

I mean, there are charts as part of GTO Wizard hand decisions, but there is so much more. I programmed it for nine-handed and I get dealt hand after hand after hand in which there are not only preflop decisions but also decisions on every street thereafter. And those decisions are more than just check, bet or fold. If you bet, then you have to decide on sizing. At the end of each hand you can look up every decision you made and whether it was correct, sort of correct, somewhat wrong or atrociously wrong. And there is a chart to view associated with each decision. This is way more interesting than just memorizing charts. The one thing GTO Wizard does not appear to account for is table/player dynamics. In other words, the program seems to assume everyone is playing GTO sound strategy and does not account for if there is a maniac at the table or if villain is TAG or LAG. Still this beats simply watching more videos. This sounds fun.

I'm not going to abandon pokercoaching.com. I think my game plan for a while will be to put in volume in GTO Wizard in which I let the software dictate what position I am in on each hand. After I have done that for a while then I will get more specific. For example, I think I needed work on my WSOP decisions when I was in the big blind preflop. So I will program GTO Wizard to put me in the big blind, and I'll put in volume there. After a while I will go back to pokercoaching.com and do a search for videos dealing with big blind play

Then I'll go back to GTO Wizard and work on a different aspect of my game (i.e. BTN play). Then I will go to pokercoaching.com and search for videos on BTN play. And so on and so on. This road map is way more interesting to me than just studying charts or just watching videos only.

As for my ability to play in some live tournaments, here is what I am looking at:

-- The most geographically desirable casinos in my general vicinity do not do tournaments (Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, IL; American Place in Waukegan, IL and Potowatami in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) as best I can tell. They just offer cash games. I don't want to play cash. I am tourneys only.

-- There is a MSPT tourney in East Chicago, Indiana that runs August 27 through September 2. It's kind of a haul, but it's doable. The tourneys that interest me are the one-day $200 epic stack events, but the negative on that is they start at 7 p.m. Maybe I do one of them.

-- There is a WSOP circuit stop in Hammond, Indiana in September and another in Elgin, IL in November. The problem with that is it is smack dab in the middle of college football season. I have season tickets to University of Michigan football games, and I plan to go to four games this Fall in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It isn't fair to Mrs. rppoker for me to go to all those games and also spend several days at WSOP circuit events. Maybe I'll fire a single one-day tourney on a week day in which I take a day off of work.

-- In October Mrs. rppoker, my mom and one of my daughters are going on a four-day trip out of town. If I can convince my other daughter (assuming she will be in town) to watch my dog Astro then I can embark on a buffet of regular casino tourneys (a Thursday 6pm at Horseshoe Hammond, a Friday 6pm at Grand Victoria Elgin and a Saturday 1pm at Hollywood Casino Aurora).

-- In the spring of 2025 the WSOP circuit again goes to Hammond, IN and Elgin, IL so maybe I play some events.

-- There are a couple of charitable poker organizations that run steady tourneys that are geographically desirable, but what I've read about them does not sound real exciting. To be determined if I will give them a shot.

Having read all 26 pages, I say a) Thanks so much, this took you a hundred hours, and ask b) what was the stock ticker?

I'm not positive what you are asking regarding the stock ticker. If you are asking what company I was an early stage investor in that went public, the stock ticker no longer exists because after going public it eventually got acquired by Oracle.

I can only speak for myself, but my philosophy towards learning is volume, volume, volume.

Experience can be a great teacher, so you want to put in the hours at the table and learn from the various situations you'll encounter.

If I were specifically training for a WSOP schedule then I would prioritize events which closely mirror the structure and player pool that I'd expect to encounter in my WSOP events. However, that doesn't mean you can't still learn lessons from other tournaments. I play lower stakes events at my local room a few times per year. The meta there can reinforce bad habits, but playing these tournaments is probably still a net positive because I still encounter spots that have broader application. As the WSOP is an especially eclectic series, gaining experience against all manner of opponents can be beneficial.

So I'd say maybe fire some MSPT and WSOPC events if they work for your schedule. Supplement that with other tournaments if you have the time and desire.

Ugh. After using the free version of GTO Wizard, which was incredibly easy to navigate, I purchased a more advanced pay version which is more complicated and more difficult to navigate (at least it is more difficult for technologically challenged me). I intend to soldier on nonetheless. I still think GTO Wizard will be worth the trouble, but the charts that were so easy to find/see on every street on the free version are more troublesome for me to locate on the pay version. I can find the charts, but you seem to have to go to a separate page to find it whereas on the free version it was more readily accessible. The solution is probably obvious, but I haven't figured it out yet.

You have hit the nail on the head, which is why I am reluctant to play in the charitable poker tournaments. I suspect the level of play there will not be that of the WSOP, so the applicable learning curve could be dubious. The non-circuit, non-MSPT casino tournaments probably won't be WSOP level, but I suspect that they will still be a higher level of play than the charitable events. I guess the only way to find out is to pull the trigger. Time will tell if I can fit them into my schedule, but at least I have targets of possible play.

Family support of my poker hobby

My family is stepping up in a big way to support my love of poker.

It all started when I recently asked my older daughter if she would watch my dog Astro for a few days in October when my wife, my other daughter and my mom will be taking a four-day trip together out of town. The idea is that if she can watch Astro I can hit three casinos in three days in which there are NLHE tournaments. My daughter is still looking into her schedule, but I am pretty certain she will come through for me if it is at all possible (she has a trip she wants to take of her own some time in October that she has to figure out first).

My wife overheard the locations of the three casinos I mentioned. The one that has tournaments on Saturday afternoons is in the same town in which one of her very best friends lives. Mrs. rppoker said if I want we can sometimes drive up together, I'll play in my tournament and she'll spend the day with her friend (who she went to college with). This is great!

A few days later my older daughter was over and we were chatting, and she asked why I am waiting until October to try to play in tournaments. I said that since I am going to four University of Michigan football weekends out of town in the Fall with the blessing of my wife/her mom, I didn't want to take advantage of her being so supportive. My daughter said I love poker and she was certain it would be OK for me to play some. She encouraged me to play more and, in her words, "work on your game to get better leading up to next year's Worlds Series of Poker."

I did not expect to receive this much support and encouragement from my family without even having to ask.

As for my ongoing poker studying, I am currently working extensively on big blind defense against a single open.

In GTO Wizard I have set up a drill for this so that I can practice a ton of hands in this situation over the past week or so. Tonight I also watched a Matt Affleck video titled "Big Blind Play in Tournaments Database Review" on the training site pokercoaching.com

The aggression Affleck employs and the check raises that he finds are eye-opening. On GTO Wizard on each hand I am dealt in the big blind with decisions when faced with an open, as well as all later streets, when I drill down and see the charts for what to do on every possible hand I am again floored by the aggression. It amazes me how light at times GTO seems to call for aggressive betting and calling. It isn't bat sh*t crazy aggression, but it is aggression that does not come naturally to me.

While I can see how this aggression can build up an early stack, I just don't see how you would avoid an eventual implosion when you eventually get caught/looked up by a big hand by an opponent.

While I saw some aggression like this at the WSOP in terms of small ball aggression (relentless betting on the small side both pre- and post-flop), I did not see as much willingness to play for a huge pot as light as I am seeing on the GTO charts on GTO Wizard or as I saw in the Affleck video I just watched.

I also have a difficult time putting chips in the middle when in the big blind. I know I was too tight defending my big blind at the 2024 WSOP. For example, here is a hand from GTO Wizard:

UTG bets 2 BBs. It folds to me in the big blind and I have Kh-7d. GTO Wizard says I should call. The flop comes 9s-8s-5s. GTO says I should check, UTG bets 1 BB, GTO Wizard says I should do the following with Kh-7d:

All-in 5.2% of the time
Raise to 3.65 BBs 11.1% of the time
Call 60% of the time
Fold 23.5% of the time

So I call with my gut shot. The turn is the 4d (by the way, both villain and I have 10.9 BBs remaining at this point in this particular simulation). GTO Wizard says I should check, so I do. Villains bets 2.55 BBs, and GTO Wizard says I should fold, which I do.

So, on a hand that my instincts tell me I should have folded pre-flop, I just voluntarily put 2 additional big blinds into the middle (1 with my pre-flop call, and 1 with my post-flop call).

GTO Wizard says I played the hand perfectly. My brain is rebelling and is telling me that if I do this enough times from the BB the losses will really start to add up. If you don't flop big at some point for a big blind special, all of these small losses would seemingly become problematic. I am having a difficult time getting my arms around why GTO thinks it's a good idea to keep bleeding away additional chips when in the BB with an unexciting starting hand.

My brain and my instincts are fighting the GTO process.

Stack size isn’t mentioned I don’t think?

I think that is a Check raise flop bomb turn spot from bb against utg given our range advantage.

But I’m neither GTO nor a wizard

I am surprised that GTO Wizard wants to take such aggressive action without a spade in the hand. But obviously the board is better for your range than the preflop raiser.

How do you like the tool in general, is it easy to use? I am strongly considering signing up and get a subscription.

I find GTO Wizard extremely easy to navigate. It didn't take me long to get comfortable using it. It helped that a Matt Affleck video I watched showed him setting up drills for himself, putting in information so he could see the charts for how a hand played out, etc.

I am not especially technologically savvy, so if I can get comfortable quickly using it, anyone should be able to figure it out with little difficulty.

I am finding it to be very useful/helpful.

Don't know if you've read much about Pluribus poker AI, but I find it fascinating.

This Article from science.org is about 6 max NL cash, but I think a lot of the concepts could be applied to tournament play.

There are also a number of YouTube videos that I found enlightening if you search Pluribus.

Thought you might find it interesting in your quest for poker dominance.

For starters, I am pretty sure my quest will not result in "poker dominance," but that certainly gives me something to shoot for.

That said, thank you for sharing.

Given that I am currently working on/studying my big blind defends when there is an opening bet, I just watched five Youtube videos of Pluribus titled, "Pluribus 3BET POTS from the Big Blind PART" 1-5. What is interesting is how Pluribus pretty much did the same thing every time, which was to 3bet huge when it decided to play back against the opening bettor. As in 3betting 5-6 times the amount of the opponent's 2bet. Pluribus did this with what appears to be its entire range whether it be 5-6 suited, A-A and everything in between. In almost every case the 3 bet took it down. When the opponent would call, Pluribus would be extremely aggressive post flop if the opponent showed any weakness/hesitation. If the opponent would 4bet preflop, Pluribus would fold except for the very upper end of its range (Pluribus did not seem to like being 4bet). If the original bettor put in a large sized preflop 2bet (i.e. 3-4 times the BB), Pluribus would still raise but would do so with a more traditional sizing.

While the videos show this approach to be extremely successful, they don't seem to show any adjustment on the part of opponents who kept raising the lower and middle portion of their opening range only to fold to a 3bet every time.

I would think Pluribus' approach that I saw on the videos would be pretty exploitable given it seemed to take the same tact every time (3bet huge with anything playable). I would think a savvy opponent would simply tighten up preflop when Pluribus was in the big blind, knowing it would get paid off big time since Pluribus would 3bet huge with lightish+ holdings. The videos didn't show any kind of adjustment like this on the part of opposing players.

Being that Pluribus is AI, I am sure it would make an adjustment to the adjustment I have proposed, but such an adjustment didn't seem necessary in the videos since Pluribus' opponents did not seem to tighten up in their 2betting range when hyper aggressive Pluribus was in the big blind.

Again, thanks for posting about Pluribus. I found the videos to be very interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if I check out other types of Pluribus approaches (i.e. button raises, small blind defense, etc.) once I move on from studying big blind defense.

BigWhale (and anyone else interested), here are some samples showing what you can do in GTO Wizard.

For starters, here is the dashboard which shows the big picture of options available. At the bottom are my scores on all of the training of done so far (not a lot, I just recently subscribed).



Next, there is a section where GTO Wizard has created a wide variety of practice options based upon position, betting, etc.



Next is the page in which you can customize the drills to the type of spot you are interested in working on. For example, I created specifications for defending the big blind. In another instance I created a drill in which I look for spots to bluff (I did this because these spots may not be GTO approved, but I wanted to see how they would work out).



The next two pictures show charts you can access if you want to really drill down on a decision and see what the GTO tree recommends in any specific player decision. The first picture is of hero's decision first to act on the river, while the second picture is the same hand in which hero has checked the river and is facing a bet from villain.





There is obviously a ton of information available, and I am quite certain I have barely scratched the surface. In any event, this should give you a very small idea of what is available on GTO Wizard.

I just received an e-mail from Caesars Rewards that is offering me two free nights at any Caesars Rewards resort in Las Vegas in a specific window of dates.

Does this mean I have officially arrived as a Las Vegas poker player?

Vegas or bust: A family man takes on the poker pros

Today, the leg pain that I dealt with during my 2024 WSOP is finally 100% better. FINALLY. It has been a tough nut to crack. Today will be my final visit to the chiropractor who will give me a clean bill of health. Before I make my way to the chiropractor’s office, I have a few other stops to make on a Friday late afternoon. First, I stop by the bank to deposit some checks. Then I go to the post office to send some envelopes certified mail to various government taxation locations.

My errands go quicker than expected, and I have some time to kill before my chiropractor appointment. I decide to visit an old friend that I have not seen in quite some time. I go to my hometown library. I have lived in the same town for 49 of my 62 years. I still live in the town I grew up in. As a kid, I loved the library. My mom took me there every other week, and I always left with a mountain of books, which I would read voraciously.

As an adult I have forgotten about my old friend the library, instead getting my new books at Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon.com. With 40 minutes to kill, for some reason I hear my hometown library calling out to me. It’s been a loooong time since my last visit. It is less than a mile from the chiropractor. I am curious to see how an old-school concept like a library is holding up in the face of brick-and-mortar as well as online competition.

As I go through row after row after row of stacks of books, I am curious how often books get checked out these days. In book after book I see the last date stamp as being from 2004. Over and over and over, the last date stamp is from 20 years ago. My god, I think, no one checks out books anymore. Twenty years since the last date stamps. This makes me sad.

Of course, I am sad for no reason. The reason the last date stamps are from 2004 is because that is when the library stopped stamping the required return date on the inside of the book and instead went to printout receipts telling you when the book had to be returned.

An announcement is made that the library is closing in 15 minutes. Seconds later I see it … a book that is screaming for me to pick it up. It is a book whose demographic is absolutely, undeniably, unequivocally … Me!

The book is titled: “Vegas or bust: A family man takes on the poker pros.” The author is Johnny Kampis. It appears to have been written in 2018.

If I were to write a book about my WSOP experiences, that is pretty much the title that would make sense.

I take the book and head to the checkout desk. My old library card has expired. I am no longer in the system. The library holds no grudge over the fact that I have strayed. The librarian signs me back up and gives me a new card. I am back in the library’s good graces.

I head over to the chiropractor, receive my clean bill of health on the leg that bothered me so much at WSOP 2024 and beyond, and then I head home. Dinner is with my wife, my mom, my older daughter and her boyfriend. We order from our favorite Mexican restaurant. Once everyone has eaten and then left, and once my wife goes to sleep, I dive into my poker book from the library. It’s only a 175-page book, so I finished it in one night.

The following excerpts resonate with me:

Excerpt:
“To appeal once again to the mainstream, he says, the game needs the return of colorful characters, ‘not the mathematicians and dry toast” who hide behind sunglasses and scarves and are afraid to move or speak for fear of giving away information to their opponents.”
My take:
This makes me think about some of the fun characters at my 2024 WSOP tables such as DoubleVodka, Chess and King Arthur. Personalities without being jerks. Guys that made the table fun to be at.

Excerpt:
“These days (James) McManus comes to the WSOP for a few weeks each summer, where he often doesn’t leave the Rio during that time. ‘I have a pretty normal, well-regulated life the rest of the year,’ he explains, ‘and I come out here to just play and play and play.’”
My take:
This is me in a nutshell. I have no desire to be a 52-weeks-a-year poker player. But when I am at the WSOP, poker is all that is on my mind. I am not enticed by any of the other Las Vegas distractions. I’m all poker all the time during the WSOP.

Excerpt:
The field had dropped to about 400 players.
“Maybe now I can pay my first three wives alimony,” he said.
“How far you got to go?” asked another player.
“The whooooole way,” he replied.
My take:
This has absolutely nothing to do with my life. I just found it to be amusing.

Excerpt:
As the book’s author makes a deep WSOP run, he writes, “I’d been posting updates on Facebook and on the WSOP.com chip-count page all day, and now friends and colleagues who didn’t even care about poker were glued to their screens for the latest news. One former classmate posted on my Facebook page, ‘I don’t know what any of this means, but I’m rooting for you!’ ”
My take:
This reminded me of my 2019 WSOP in which in response to my daily Facebook poker recaps, a college friend of mine posted, “I’ve enjoyed reading your accounts even though I don’t speak your language.”

My latest studying:

-- On PokerCoaching.com, I watched a four-part series by Jonathan Little titled "How to run deep in the WSOP Main Event," which was basically a series of hand reviews of his fairly deep run in the 2024 Main Event (316th place for $45,000). I enjoy this type of content where you get to observe the player's thought process in terms of the decisions he made. I especially like getting into the tall weeds where there are multiple decisions being made all at once (opponent's projected range, check/raise/fold, bet sizing, etc.)

-- Also on PokerCoaching.com I have watched the first three of a six-part series in which Chris Brewer and Justin Saliba take deep dives into a half-dozen of the most notable hands from the final couple of tables at the 2024 Main Event (i.e. Kristen Foxen's bold but unsuccessful bust-out hand, Niklas Astedt traps with QQ to stack Joe Serock).

-- I just started watching the online series "Inside the mind of a poker pro" from the 2019-2023 WSOP. There is a ton of content, and I have only just started watching. I am pretty sure I will end up watching all of the videos, which will be time consuming. I like the fact that they film a pro throughout various tourneys and have them discuss their thought process on a wide variety of hands. The series can be found at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...mnS7d1bsbBRQGn

-- I continue playing around with my recent subscription to GTO Wizard. Typically when I have a little time to kill I will choose a spot (i.e. full hand deep stack, full hand mid stack, full hand short stack, blind versus blind, BB defense, etc.). I go through these drills in which I make my decision, then check it against the program's GTO recommendation, and when I get it wrong I drill down into the rationale.

I don't have a disciplined syllabus as to what I am studying for the time being. With the 2025 WSOP so far into the distance, I am really just studying what entertains me and trying to keep it fun. I think this is far more likely to keep me engaged and motivated. If I were to strictly stick to a regimented study grind for the next nine months I think I would probably get bored and lose interest. Keeping it fun, while still incorporating quality content/study tools, is the best way to keep learning while maintaining my joy of the game.

How much is it?

One-time charge or monthly or yearly cost?

If you like to ski, consider the Tahoe Circuit event. When I lived in the Bay area, I really enjoyed playing in those.

You can pay either monthly ($39/month) or annually ($468) for the Starter level. I went with the annual charge at the Starter level. There is no savings by going annually, but I did so for the sheer convenience.

There is also a Premium level which is currently discounted from $99/month to $69/month.

A breakdown of the differences in levels can be found at https://gtowizard.com/pricing/

The Starter level has been plenty good for me so far.