Thanks!

I had complained earlier in this TR about running bad.

Can't complain about that last night. I got every big hand in the deck, most of them numerous times. AA finally arrived and secured me a crucial double out of the BB when I was short. I had KK and QQ a couple times each. Won a nice one with JJ. Won a big pot with TT > 22 aipf. If I had 99, the flop was coming 8 high. I must've had AK 5 or 6 times, including one hand where I busted a guy with AQ. The one idiotic play I made (shoving KT in the BB vs. a BTN AQ open) got there on the river. The few times I made desperation shoves on the short stack, nobody called me. I did have a couple moments of bad luck and even had to make a couple decent folds, but mostly I just got smashed by the deck.

Going out AT < A6 was not fun, but I had been very lucky just to get to that point.

After playing exclusively in Paris the last few days, it was nice to experience a different venue. Aria run a pretty tight ship. I especially have to give a shoutout to their table servers, who made frequent visits all day and kept the beverages flowing. One of the big issues with the player experience at the WSOP this year is nonexistent table service, so it was a refreshing change to see a server every 10 minutes instead of every hour.

On a nub on the dinner break of this $1k freezeout.

Pulled off a ballsy river bluff shove with high card AQ to get a fold from Jx on a J high board earlier in the day (he showed a J when he folded). That brought me up to 28k from 20k starting. Since then just been dwindling down with no good spots.

Highly likely to be felted or double within the next orbit. We'll find out in about an hour.

On the plus side, lasted long enough from a Paris starting flight to earn the walk to Bally's. First time playing in Bally's. I like the low ceilings and bright lights, but the rumors of the room being a little too hot are true.

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Well, that was quick. First hand back get a beautiful AhQh in the BB. LP raises. I shove. I win flip vs. 55 to get to 30k (20 BB).

Three hands later I get AhQh again. Folds to me. Open to a little over 2x. BB calls. J high flop with two hearts. BB checks. I fire a c-bet. BB raises. I'm going nowhere on this board. I shove for a couple K more and he calls me with a raggedy middle pair + lower heart draw. I brick my numerous outs.

Happy with my decisions today, but this is a shallow tournament and I never really made hands. Onward.

Will try to track down a nice dinner tonight and then rest up for tomorrow. Used the Aria money to buy my ticket for Monster Stack flight 1a. I have a date with Bally's blue at 10 am.

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enjoying the report. stay safe and have fun! I hope you can find some more run-good

I'm a cheapskate, but I splurged for Bacchanal tonight at Caesar's and tried to crush enough plates to at least somewhat justify the $90 price tag. Ate enough food for 2-3 meals. Should help me charge up for the stretch run of this trip.

Plus side of busting the tourney early was catching some sweet views on the walk over.

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Thanks buddy.

My big fear was bricking everything and being in the hole for the full budget, so now that we've avoided that grim fate I'm at peace with any outcome.

Still have a few bullets to fire though. Hopefully we're not done cashing just yet.

On the first break of the monster.

The good news is that my table is very stationy and bad.

The bad news is that I didn't win a single hand in two hours.

Down to 31k from 50k starting.

Oof. Torture. Hope we can get dealt something.

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OUT already. That was pretty awful. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

Made a couple suspect decisions, but also ran like hot trash. Horrible runouts every time I came into a pot.

If I had medium showdown value, I was getting put to a big river decision every time.

Just not a fun day at the office.

Not sure if I will fire flight 1B or split the entry fee among some cheaper stuff the next two days. TBD.

For today, will probably just relax and watch the Warriors game.

New plan: Firing this $400 turbo nightly at Paris. If we cash it, we play 1B of the monster stack tomorrow. If not, we downsize to something in the $200-400 dollar range.

Volume is the antidote to running bad.

Now if only I could find the cure for playing bad.

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That $400 is a silly tournament tbh.

230ish runners. Flipped coins for about 4 hours before busting maybe 30 spots shy of the cash. Get it in bad and win. Get it in good and lose. Poker 101.

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Got a good night's sleep after a bumpy day yesterday.

I built this trip around the idea of playing either the monster stack or milly maker. Playing my first $1.5k ever and then proceeding to run the worst I've ever run in a live MTT was not a very fun experience. The long structure almost made it more excruciating, as it was just drawn out punishment for those few hours. Disappointing, but that's the nature of NLHE sometimes. You can sit there and get three huge hands in the same orbit or you can not win a hand for two hours. I think there's a lot of value in the monster stack. There were numerous weak players at my starting table, but it just wasn't my time to make any hands and I didn't want to fire a second big bullet with the negative vibes in my mind. I won't be in flight 1B, which kicked off about an hour ago.

Instead I'll be with the other shoe clerks and crumb bums in today's $250 at Paris. On this trip we're 1/1 for cashes at outside venues and 0/6 at everything WSOP-adjacent (0/7 if you count the STT). I never had a run this cold at the Rio. If I corner Jack Effel and threaten him with Lake Havasu blackmail, do you he'd be willing to move today's $250 to the pavilion room? Kidding, but so far the mojo at the new rooms has not been with me. Hoping for a turnaround today.

Played solid in the $250 for about 5 hours. Didn't get many good spots, but treaded water.

Down to about 200 players from 600 starting and 90ish places paid.

Had about 14 BB with the next blind level imminent.

The most active player at the table opens from the HJ and I shove KTo from the BTN. Run into AK and don't suck out.

Not sure if a total punt or just bad luck. Maybe a bit of both? I would never jam this hand against a tight player, but he was the loosest at the table and had been opening a lot of pots. I thought he could be in there with a lot of random crap like weak Ax, any two paint, stuff like Q9s, J9s, lower connectors, low pairs, etc. Instead I ran into a monster.

May have overestimated how loose he was from the middle seats though. I think maybe it's a jam against his BTN opens, but perhaps a fold against his MP opens. He had been raising my BB a lot, but this was not the same situation. Leaning towards it being a moderate punt, but open to feedback.

At any rate, we are OUT. Took one big chance all day and got burned for it.

One more full day left on the trip. Can play the $800 WSOP tomorrow and still be within budget even if I torch it. Alternatively, could downsize and take one last shot at the Paris $250 or try my luck at the Aria $400 again. Lots of options, but probably leaning WSOP since the opportunity to play these events is so rare. Wouldn't mind a sun run one time instead of having to be Mr. Patience on the nub in so many of these events.

I am arriving today and thinking of late regging the 800 at like level 8 to start with 40 bigs (plenty) and try to bag it up - looks like a nice event packed into 2 days and it only allows for 1 re-entry which I like - sick of these unlimited rebuys


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Sorry to hear about the frustrations with how you’re running in WSOP tourneys.

Not for nothing, but your TR has been a great and fun read, despite the run bad. Hope you release the kracken of run good in the last tournament.

Appreciate it. Have made a couple questionable plays in some of these events, but am also convinced that I've been on the low end of card distribution this trip. It's not something I've typically complained about that much in past TRs. I've just had a lot of trouble stringing together multiple good levels this year. When you look at the sample size and stakes, it doesn't even qualify as a downswing. Tournaments are absurdly swingy. At least I got one moderate score in there to compensate a little bit. That prevents the level of stuck-ness from being soul-crushing. Instead it's just a moderate disappointment.

After weighing my options today, I decided to try something a little different for my last MTT of the trip.



I'll be chasing a bracelet this evening from the comfort of my hotel room.

I haven't played on WSOP.com yet, so it will be a new experience that also takes me back to my online roots.

If you want to sweat the event tonight, my screen name on there is ZippyChippy, which functions both as an ode to a famous race horse that went winless in 100 attempts and as a nod to my nitty play style (i.e. fast chips). If I win this bracelet, I will dedicate it to Zippy's memory.

OUT a couple hundred spots shy of the money after 5.5 hours.

Jammed TT UTG for about 20 BB and ran into KK. Did not suck out.

It's a spot where I can just min-raise and reevaluate, so maybe a bit punty.

However, it's also very unlucky to run into one of the 4 hands that has us crushed.

Chart I looked at after suggests it's probably not a shove, but looks like the definition of borderline. They have it as a shove at 19BB and lower, but not at 20.

Annoying spot. Can't get a much thinner than that. Oh well.

Played well overall, made some strong calls, and correctly laid down JJ vs. KK vs. AA aipf a short time earlier.

Tough way to go out, but par for the course.

That's probably me done with poker for this trip. We finish stuck $3.5k, which is on the high end of what I was willing to lose, but not catastrophic. When your ABI is $555, I don't think it even qualifies as a downswing. Tournaments are so all-or-nothing. It's probably about what I should've expected without a sun run. The big inflection point was the Aria run. I got it in with AT vs. A6 for a lot of chips just a few spots away from the final table and lost the 75 percenter to bust the event. A few eliminations later, the remaining players chopped for $5-12k each. Of course I had some luck just to reach that point, but you can basically distill my trip down to that single moment.

"Coulda been a contender" but instead I limp home a lot lighter in the wallet.

Did I play perfectly on this trip? No, of course not. I had some punty jams and also could've navigated some of the thin post-flop spots better. Overall I think I played my B game in most events and experienced D grade card distribution and variance. That's not a recipe for a lot of glory. But again, the margin is as thin as one or two hands. That's how stupid tournament poker is.

I'm not done with the WSOP forever, but I have some thoughts moving forward:

- The large field NLHE events are basically a pure lottery. Obviously it's awesome for those few lucky souls who make FT and flirt with life-changing dollar amounts, but generally it's just a min-cash or bust. I played with one guy in the $1k freezeout who was very proud of himself for cashing three straight WSOP tournaments. Thing is, all those scores combined only netted him like $4-5k profit. That illustrates why I'm starting to become leery of these things. All the money is in the top few slots, and it's nigh impossible to touch those places if you aren't some godly wizard. You almost have to look at the buy-ins as a write off, and I'm not really that rich. The payouts aren't as sexy in smaller fields, but you're a lot more likely to actually sniff the real money, and that matters if your bankroll isn't unlimited.

- My biggest regret is probably messing around with the turbo stuff. I dusted off nearly $1k between the STT shot and the nightly 20 minute turbos. There's a healthy edge in these if your push-fold game is solid, but there's so little actual play that the variance is going to be immense. Basically you need to be dealt the deck and/or run like god in your all-ins, because that's all these events are. I actually like all the major decisions I made in my turbos on this trip, but I still walked away with nothing. They are an almost total luckfest, to an even greater extent than your typical 1-day NLHE donkament.

- 8 nights is probably a bit too long of a stay in Vegas for me. I think I like shorter chunks. After a few days, I feel like it's a case of diminishing enjoyment returns. Also, living expenses are a big money bleed. With the poker stuff, you know you are going to get a lot of it back eventually. Even if you are a losing player, you are going to have some scores. The travel is a pure write off though, and Vegas isn't cheap. A shorter stay equates to less opportunity to put in volume, but also a lot less overhead on food/hotels. That's the real slow killer of making these trips year after year. If you're a local, it's not a problem. As a tourist, it's pretty brutal.

So what does all that mean? When I come back next year, I'll probably opt for a shorter stay (maybe 4-5 nights). I'll plan to mostly play mid-stakes stuff off-site ($300-600) and then maybe set aside $1.5k to play something special at the WSOP. The 6-max NLHE that I chickened out of this year looms as a curiosity, but maybe I'll branch out into something entirely different like stud, 8-game, HORSE, razz, or 2-7 to get outside the massive field NLHE universe for a change of pace.

I'll be out of my hotel room tomorrow morning, but I have nearly a full day to kill before my plane departs, so this TR isn't quite over yet, even if I'm likely done at the card tables. As much as I want to punt off another $1.5k to degen tomorrow's shootout, I'll likely find something to do elsewhere and then settle down to watch the basketball game before I hit the airport. I'll try to maybe post some pictures and alternative content besides me whining about losing.

I said I'd give some thoughts on the new venue and player experience, so here's that promise fulfilled:

- There's a lot more space, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. More tables and more breathing room is a positive. However, the sense of being right in the middle of the poker universe was slightly stronger at the Rio since all the rooms were basically stacked right on top of each other. Not a big deal, but I do think the Rio had a slightly more "epic" atmosphere. The limited space made everything more concentrated.

- Bathroom situation is much-improved. Huge number of stalls. Fast churn time.

- As expected, the central strip location is a big plus. Better food options, albeit still overpriced. I hit Giordano's numerous times on this trip. It's not mind-blowing, but convenient and not outrageously expensive. I never had to wait for a seat at the bar. Dave's Hot Chicken was a winner for me. Many decent fast food options are walkable (In-N-Out, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A). They've built up that area across from Rio and Gold Coast in the last few years, but still it's an island compared to the options here.

- I didn't get the sense that a lot of randoms were walking off the strip and plunking down money to blast off in an MTT though. Strange as this may sound, the games actually felt a bit tougher to me this year than any of the Rio years, and there was perhaps less pure dead money in most of my events. You'd think it would be the opposite, since it's hard for a person to just randomly find themselves in the convention center of the Rio. Could just be table draws though.

- With that said, the quality of concessions on-site continues to be shameful, particularly in conjunction with the price. Was in a desperate spot on a break last night, so I hit the WSOP cafe for a banana. I nearly burst out laughing when the cashier told me it was $5. They are stuck in the 80s with their concessions quality, but the quality does not justify paying any kind of a premium. It's possible to exploit your customers while also giving them a satisfying product. Right now they are just purely gouging us.

- I think the WSOP dropped the ball this year by not extending the vax/mask mandates. I know some people feel strongly about the personal choice angle and I don't want to get into a big debate about it, but ultimately I think it would've been the right move to protect their player base from themselves. The 'Rona is making its presence felt here this year, which could've been minimized with more precautions. You may lose a few participants that way, but the overall player experience would have been improved. If you will be coming out later this summer, I would suggest masking up and being responsible because 95% of people in Vegas are operating as if COVID is over while players keep testing positive here.

- I'm not usually one to comment on dealers, but I had the worst dealer I've ever seen here this year, and a couple other really bad ones. Most of them are great and I appreciate the work that they do, but the staff is so big and the demand is so high that you can roll a snake eyes and get an orbit-killer. Our dealer in the first 3-4 levels of the $600 deep stack was moving at half speed. I had another one that was a blackjack dealer learning poker on the fly. Be alert, because they can make mistakes.

- Registration was not a problem for me this year. I often saw lines snaking outside the door at peak hours, but I really think a lot of that is on those individuals for waiting until the last minute. If you know you are going to play an event, get to the cage the night before and get your ticket. Fast. Easy. Will save you a lot of stress.

Great recap write-up. I would venture to guess that most of us frequent Vegas trippers have had the occasional trip where we’ve just gotten annihilated at the tables. I know I have. You seem to have approached it the right way, by downshifting your buy-ins and trying to slow down.

Beauty of Vegas is that there are so many non-gambling activities to take your mind off the frustrating results. Hope you have a fun last day and leave with a smile on your face.

I’m heading out there from 6/22-6/26, primarily for the WSOP (Colossus) experience, but also because I love being in Vegas. Will definitely keep some of your tips in mind. Thanks again!

You said it best. All you need to know about tournament poker.

Great read. The pill tastes a little bitter right now, but by next year you'll be champing at the bit to get back in action.

I'm also trying to learn mix-games right now as I'm always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to lose money.

Looking forward to your next TR!

Busy day so far. Walked over to Bellagio and explored some parts of the property that I hadn't seen. Then took advantage of it "only" being in the 90s outside to make the trek from Bally's to Lotus of Siam for lunch. That's a long mile. The Thai iced tea hit the spot though.

Looked at poker options and decided to squeeze in one last sweat. I'll be firing this 3 pm HORSE, which looks super fast. Structure suggests it will be ITM well before my 10 pm flight. A fun chance to splash around in some different variants at a low price point.

Hopefully we get at least a couple hours of play before I settle in and watch the Warriors beat Boston. Then we're out of here.

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Love this one because it feels like I could've written it myself - from the background to the poker style/itinerary to stuffing my face at Giordano's. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks boss. Wish it had gone better from a results standpoint, but that's tournament poker for you.

If it wasn't obvious, I didn't cash that HORSE on Monday. Did have quite a bit of fun with it though. Per usual, made a semi-deep run and busted with roughly 30% of the field left. Treaded water for several hours. Got moved to a new table, couldn't scoop anything, and was eventually put in some thin O8 spots where I didn't really know what to do. Ultimately bricked out the high and low on my last hand. That tournament moves very, very fast. From zero to the money in probably 6-7 hours. At some point you need to pick a hand and go with it.

Playing all those new games was a cool change of pace though. Felt most comfortable in stud and razz (and of course LHE). O8 is a lot of information to process when you are typically a NLHE player because you have the four card aspect, but also the high-low aspect. It's a lot to wrap your head around when you aren't used to it. For similar reasons, also felt a little lost in some of the stud 8 spots. If I hit the books in the next 12 months then I can see myself trying to play the $1.5k basic stud event in 2022 though. I find there to be a lot of overlap with NLHE thinking because of card removal, counting outs, and also trying to assess what hands your opponents are working with. As with hold 'em, there's a mixture of complete and incomplete information with the up cards and down cards. Feels like it could be a good game for me.

Too bad you didn't get an 8 dollar Dirt Dog from the Bally's bazaar.

It sounds like my experience was similar to yours. I had planned on hitting the first week for Housekeeping and then Monster if I hit something, and then again the 3rd week or so for the Colossal. But I was playing mediocre so I didn't see the point in going back for the third week. It used to be that I could be sitting at the table for awhile and say, "I play better than that guy, that guy, and that guy". This trip I can't say I played better than anyone at most of the tables. Part of it might be that everyone got better since last November when I played the WSOP then, but that seems unlikely. I think it's that I haven't played any poker since November. I used to go to Vegas every 2 or 3 months, and play a little. I hardly go to Vegas at all now.

That situation is unlikely to improve for me, combined with Eldorado getting stingier with comps, makes me doubtful I'll return next year. I did have some rungood, with a small daily deepstack cash, and binked a $125 STT. Which got me into the Housewarming and a $600 deepstack bracelet event. I don't want to WSOP without being Diamond though, so I'll have to see how that goes.

WRT requiring a jab, I'm glad they didn't. People can be pigs though, hacking up wet coughs without covering their mouths. I'm "vulnerable" so I wore a mask. I wouldn't want to require anyone else to though. If a mask is good enough to work on someone else, it'll work on me.

Thanks for the detailed TR and your observations!

I share your reservations about whether tournament poker is a viable option for a visitor:

1) The events' prize structures are so top-heavy that they reward luck more than skill. You beat 80% of your opponents and bust out, you receive nothing. You beat 90% of your opponents and bust out, you receive your entry fee back. You don't get a decent payday until you're in the top 2% or so. This, of course, is deliberate, so that they can advertise a huge first prize.
2) Vegas always has been expensive; the Strip has always been hideously expensive; the Vegas Strip is now insanely, ludicrously expensive. All those fees and charges and surcharges and taxes add up, and when slathered onto already high prices for everything...well, it just makes it very difficult to score a net profit. And never mind the cost of travel (shudder).
3) It rarely comes up on boards like these and other discussion venues, but the casinos take BIG chunks out of the entry fees, and some of them slice off mandatory toke money as well. You're losing about 10-15% of the total prize money to that, which means that objectively speaking, you're playing a game with worse equity than a slot machine. Players like to pooh-pooh this factor by saying "there's so much dead money" or some such tommyrot, but the sad fact is that the dead money...might be you.
4) I find the gougefest demoralizing. The $5 banana and the $5 Coke. The jacked-up prices at all the eateries. Room rates everywhere at record levels because hey, WSOP. Plus resort fees...

What happens in Vegas shows up on your credit card statement next month. I don't think it's really worth it. Not any more.