WSOP Day 6

Now, those of you who know me may find this tough to believe, but after spending the week in Vegas I was tired.  I had mentioned to my sister that if things did not go well for me, would think about renting a car and driving to Phoenix (5-6 hours) for the weekend.  Don and I had a short discussion Friday morning and decided to pack up and leave.  We drove to Phoenix, had a great time visiting my mom and sister.  I caught a plane last night (Sunday) back to Vegas, checked into hotel and am now waiting for the shuttle to the airport.  Fun trip, definitely could have played more poker, but not stuck too bad (flight was covered with frequent flyer points) and avoided the weekend hotel at the Rio cost.

WSOP Day 5

So, day 5 we decide to change things up, driving to IHOP for breakfast.  Those buffets can get mighty tiring I must say.  So, rather than play in a deepstack (they had been cancelled due to overwhelming demand for the $1M guarantee superdeepstack that added 3 additional flights over 7800 players), we wandered over to the Mirage for the 11:00 tournament.  Don outlasted me, but neither of us cashed.  In the meantime, I played some 1/2 NL and chalked up a mini-win of $12.

We then took a cab over to the MGM for the $80 buy-in tournament.  It did not go well for me, but Don chopped 4 ways for $600 and repaid me the entry fee per our agreement.  While waiting for Don, I played some 1/2 NL, buying in for $150 and cashing out for $243.  A profitable day for both of us.

We got back to the Rio late, checked out the action at the WSOP.  They were just breaking for dinner, so it was a madhouse.  Called it a day and went to bed.

WSOP Day 4

This is a great place to spot the poker celebrities.  Who is that in the elevator with Don's wife, Penny?  Why it is former WSOP Main event champion Joe Cada.  Who is that standing at the urinal next to Don?  Why it is bracelet winner Phil Helmuth.  Crazy place.

Don and I decided to make this a relaxation day.  He hung out at the pool, I went to the Venetian to play some 4/8 Omaha.  They were in the late stages of their own deepstack,  $1100 buy-in event with over a thousand players.  They were down to the hundred level in the money.  First prize was $114,000.

The Omaha did not treat me well, dropped $200, but met some funny guys and had a good time swapping poker stories.  One guy was from Madison Wisconsin and good friends with one of Hellmuth's friends.  He had played poker with him several times.  Gave one player my "business card" and promised to write about some of the stories for my blog.  I  left to meet Don & Penny for dinner.  Had some awesome ribs at the Rio.  Below is a picture of the Rio, just impossible to show how busy it really was.  They have about 80 tables, and they were all full with waiting lists.  I had to wait an hour for my seat.

wsop day 3 (Tues.)

First of all, an apology for not updating more.  Yesterday would have been a good day to catch up, but just didn't access the web with my netbook.  First, a couple of pictures, my giant tenderloin (already had cut off most of the excess), and a picture of a dealer at the deepstack.

Tuesday I decided to "warm up" for the 3 p.m. deepstack  by playing the 11:00 Mirage $65 tournament.  This has been one of my favorites, with around 30-40 players, 20 min. blinds and 8K starting chips.  I have cashed in it 5 out of the last 6 times played, so looks like easy money.  Sure enough, ended chopping 4 ways for only $227 because of very light entry (17).  But glad to get a win under my belt and win a portion of the $235 deepstack buy-in.    Sorry to report that I had very similar results to the last deepstack.  Went out around 200th at 10 p.m. (out of 1250 players), my last hand was AQ vs. AA.  A giant stack had moved to our table and had raised 3 hands in a row.  I decided to call bullshit on him with my AQ and moved all in for 45K on his 15K bet.  Problem was, another player came over the top for all of his chips with AA, and the big stack folded 4/4.  I hit my hand on the turn with a queen, but dealer could not find another one to crack the aces.  The ironic part was that the aces were only still in because he had cracked aces with......4/4.  Further irony was provided when the original raiser hit his 4 on my river, which would have eliminated the aces (and me) had he called the overshove.  My phone died shortly afterward, so lost my hotspot to update.  Now fixed but my netbook is acting very erratic, so hope I can continue.

WSOP Day 2

Woke up early and walked across the street to the Gold Coast Casino for buffet breakfast.  It is a great value at $5.99, besides Rio is way overpriced, not open for breakfast.  We then registered for the 3 p.m. deepstack tournament with $235 buy-in.  This is a great tournament with 15K in starting chips and 30 minute blinds.  There were around 1200 entries (includes re-entries).  First prize was about $40,000 with around 120 players making money.  I played o.k., not making too many errors, but raising in late position with K/10 (that was a mistake) late in the tournament, I was called in two places.  The flop was 8 high with 3 spades and I had the king of spades.  A player bet out, was re-raised all-in by a big stack, and I decided to run with my draw.  Had more outs than I thought when the first bet folded and the other player tabled 9/9.  Yikes, how do you miss that many outs?  Finished under 200th place (they do not update stats frequently until the bubble) at around 9:00.

I hung around for a while and watched the $50K buy-in player's championship tournament.  Literally all the poker superstars were there:  Brunsons, Ivey, Juanda, Hellmuth, Lindgren, Hachem, etc.  Said hi to Umberto Brenes (shark guy), and Barry Greenstein strolls by.  Hi Barry.  Had some great pictures to post, but my phone died last night.  Will add them later.  Got some positive stuff to give you on tomorrow's post.   

Vegas WSOP Day 1

This really doesn't count because I just arrived at around 10 p.m.  I was met by my buddy Don (if you're not early you're late) Yarbrough.  We drove over to the Rio and packed my bags up to his room.  Penny was already in bed.  We wandered around the WSOP rooms to check out the action and pick up information for tomorrow's tournaments.  We decided to play the $220 buy-in 3 P.M. deepstack, it was still going strong at midnight, and first prize was over $30,000 with over 800 entrants.  Railbirding the $1000 bracelet event, we spotted several pros, including Dennis Phillips.  He was pretty short stacked and would not survive the night. To me, spotting the celebrity pros is kind of a fun thing.  Will mention others I saw on next post.

Crowdfunding WSOP

After hitting up my buddy Geoff for the $1500 entry fee for a WSOP bracelet event, I came up with the idea of crowdfunding.  This was used by the folks leasing my business property to start their bakery, and they raised $10,000.  So, here is my "deal".  I will split winnings 50/50 with any of my crowdfunders based on your contribution.  So, a $15. "investment", would earn you 1% of the ultimate winnings.  Keep in mind, I went pretty deep in the event last year with horrible awful card dead holdings.  I finished around 430th out of 2300 players (roughly).  The payout was over $500,000 for first place.  Had I won that using the above crowdfunding technique, a $15 investment would have returned 50% of $500,000 = $250,000/100 = $2500!!!!  And, $150 would have gotten you $25,000. Nice work if you can get it!

O.K., reality demands to consider the "what if" I had merely cashed in the event. I believe that the minimum cash was around $3500 for 250th place.  So, 50% would be $1,750. and 1% would be $17.50, a tidy $2.50 profit, or 14% return on invested capital (ROIC) of $15.00.  Try to get that kind of return at your local savings & loan!!!!

Anyway, it may be too late to organize this for 2014 WSOP, but there is always next year.  I am thinking of leaving everyone's options open on this however, and to "sweeten" the pot, will provide a free World Series of Poker souvenir for any pledges.  Remember, if I do not achieve my goal of $1500 then there is no committment.  How much are you in for?