While I didn't cash in this event, I got full value from the $1k PLO WSOP Event 21 last week. I was seated in a murderer's row of very accomplished tournament players. At various points of the day, seated were:

Seat 1: John Holley, a poker pro from FL. Friendly guy who knew EVERYONE. I looked him up after he told me his name when the table broke, and saw he had $2.25 million in live tourney earnings.
Seat 2: unknown pro from Memphis area who said he plays cash games regularly with Chris Moneymaker. He busted not long after he sat down.
Seat 3: Shaun Deeb. Came in hot, firing pot-sized bets and taking down pots . Friendly guy who, after my buddy from back home in MD asked me to ask Deeb how his weight loss bet was going (I wasn't aware of any of this), typed back to my friend on my phone: "Down 37 lbs so far. It's going well; no workouts during WSOP yet but they'll come soon."
Seat 4: tourney novice from Maryland
Seat 5: Chino Rheem
Seat 6: JNandez. I played 5/5/10 rock PLO @ Aria last month very briefly with this guy I knew as "Fernando" and recognized him from dinner at the same restaurant a couple days prior. I introduce myself when we sat down and he seemed nice enough. Then a few other people come by to wish him luck or congratulate him on his 2nd place finish in the PLO/NLHE $5k event a few days earlier, for $330k. Another player commented how sick this table was, and mentioned JNandez. So I Google that name, and lo and behold, this dude wrote a literal book on beating PLO and has a training series!
Seat 7: Ken Po. This dude seemed very familiar with everyone, so figured he must also be a touring tourney pro. Yup, he's got like $350k in tourney earnings, and clearly knew what he was doing bc he was always spot on in calculating pot sizes. Might have also been multi-tabling in an online tourney, as he was on his laptop the whole time.
Seat 8: Danny Dang. I looked him up, and learned he has the record for the most WSOP final tables (12) without a bracelet!

So, my expectations to outlast this field were tempered, and I just wanted to stick around to have some good stories. I have four I feel are worth sharing.

(1) Chino Rheem sits down and right away starts blasting away. I'm to his immediate right, so not in the best spot, and fold a couple of times in marginal spots. But it was time to make a stand...I wanted to check raise him at any reasonable opportunity. I have KKQJ (suits irrelevant to the hand) and i see a flop by calling Chino's pot sized open of 700 preflop. Flop is JT4. I check, Chino pots for 2400, other opponent folds, and I check-pot to 9600 (with like 10,000 behind). Chino tanks briefly before shipping his stack in. I snap call.

Chino: Do you have a set?
Me: Nope
Chino: Do you have a wrap?
Me; Nope

I show my hand (overpair and open ended), and Chino says in an annoyed tone, "You waited to go bananas with that hand?!?!" lol. Chino had KJT8 for top two and gutter.

I get there with an Ace on the river. Chino gets up disgustedly, but I tell him he has me covered.

The very next hand, I call Chino's raise again, with T98x and hit gin, with a JT7 flop. I check, Chino shoves for his remaining 1200 or so, and I snap call again. His J7 doesn't improve, and he storms off to re-enter.

(2) I raise with AAKx from the button, and JNandez defends from BB. Flop is A23cc. JNandez checks to me, I peek to see I have the Kc and check behind. A PokerNews reporter is watching us now, and I don't know if that influenced his action, but JNandez leads out for a pot-sized bet on the turn...when the case A peeled off to give me quads. I call rather quickly. The river is an inconsequential 7, and JNandez leads out for another pot-sized bet! I wait maybe 8 seconds before shoving, and he instafolds.

(3) After I commented how it was worrisome that all of my table-mates seemed to know each other, Shaud Deeb nods and comments that this was, indeed, not a good table for me to be at, lol.

(4) During dinner break, I go back to the same restaurant I'd seen JNandez at earlier in the week. I'm with another poker buddy from Maryland, and I call JNandez over. When he comes, my buddy tells him that our friend back in Maryland has lost $80k since he signed up for JNandez's course....but that he probably would have lost a lot more, so it's all good. JNandez pretends to laugh and tries to go back to his dinner, but we coerce him into taking a photo with us so we can send to our friend.

Good times. Oh, our table broke, and I ended up donking off my chips to some no-name players at my new table, shortly before the bubble.

Always wondered why guys like this bother with live poker if they have the skill to take down big games online. Better to multitable and print stacks then wait on OMCs to get in 15 hours per hand. Makes you wonder

rheem seems like as big of a dbag as expected.

Yeah, there was quite a stark contrast between how the other pros carried themselves and with Chino. Might have caught him in a bad moment?

nice story, bro

This was a nice read, thank you for sharing. Sounds like you had a good time.

First time in a while I've enjoyed hand stories. Thanks for posting this

table full of pros at a $1K buyin? no money in MTT's, everyone is solid.

that super sihtty you got THAT table out of al tables in a wsop event thats non sub100 entrants lol

but sounds like you legit held your own so grats!

what was the restaurant you and jnandez kept going to lol

Lol, it was the Medford (?) by Martha Stewart in the Paris casino. Just a short walk away from the WSOP area and their staff is competent enough to get us in and out during dinner breaks. Kinda steep prices but seems all of Vegas does now.

how did Chino have a gut shot on J104 flop with KJ108?

Don't need to wonder, barely anyone makes any real money playing online anymore.

Dont recall ever being more disappointed from a post after reading the title of it.

He got an atrocious table draw for sure

Because Chino is a losing player. Hes only a "pro" because he plays a lot of events and is known for dbag antics. Pro is very loose term even though he seems to play for a living.

Thanks for this fun post. Enjoyed reading about your experiences.

I called Chino a pussy to his face last weekend. He just sheepishly looked at me and kept it moving. Tough table draw for you lol

Seems like you chipped up a bit .. hopefully I can have the same experience during the 1500 PLO Bounty in early July.

I think Deeb has definitely chilled over the last couple of years, but Chino is still a bit chippy if you don't play the way he wants you to play, win or lose. Lots of Pros are chippy with Players and some never get out of that mode. Josh Arieh was pretty ruthless at the table, but now he wants you to use Poker Stake. David Williams also still carries the attitude he had 'back in the day'. You just never know what you're going to get.

It's long been speculated that DNegs used to be very pointed behind the scenes and occasionally you can see a bit of it in the vlogs. But more than likely he's rolling in the dough with GG and as I said earlier when you're not totally reliant on poker for income (and age/mature with time) your attitude should chill a bit.

Deeb's kids are older and may/may not see how Dad acts on social media. Plus I think he's fairly successful outside of poker so the 'Pro' thing is not as big a burden as it used to be.

As with any good poker Player, you pick the best games to play in. Online is tough, but JN also wants to sell his support site and take advantage of supposed weaker Players in these fields. He's also finally through his spat with Bart Hansen's site so perhaps he'll be a little more present than just on YouTube. GL

normalize people posting these TRs tbh

Sorry, tried to edit but was too late. Chino had a 9 (not 8) or didn’t have a gutshot.

John Holley = friendly?? Perhaps you misspelled "arrogant", "condescending", and "know-it-all"...

Well, he was running well at this table. I can concede he may have acted differently if he was losing.

The hand I played best vs him:

600/1200 level. I'm in the BB and look down at AAKx. Holley raises small in cutoff to 3000, it's folded around to me. I just call bc we are about 100k deep. Flop is K76. I check call 5000. Turn pairs the 6, which I think is a great card for me. It checks around. River 2. I check call 10,000. Holley had KK6x. I show my hand, and Holley is pissed he didn't win more ("you were supposed to go broke that hand").

Agree with your assessments completely. Deeb mentioned he has two kids like 8/9 years old.

I did double up early through JNandez (I was risking my tourney life with JJ9x for overpair, gutshot, and straight flush draw on Td7d3x flop; JNandez had a monster with T987 but 2d on river saved me).

Nice dodge on the hand. Glad you had a good time, and enjoyed the report.

Speak for yourself. I have turned my daily free 25 cent or 55 cent or 1 dollar on GLOBAL POKER into 150 dollar in the past month. I played jackpot spin and go and hit the jackpot twice. I got 3rd in both of those to get me 20 and 100 dollar. I turned the 20 dollar into 50 dollar and withdrew into my bank account. 150 dollar total.