WSOP Experience

I awoke at 4am, 3 weeks after winning a $3000 WSOP package with PKR. The alarm wasn't due to go off for another hour yet but clearly my first trip to Las Vegas had me buzzing in anticipation. Mrs Mak, was making the trip out with me, she's got no interest in poker but wasn't going to miss out on a holiday to Las Vegas.

We arrived mid afternoon and it was hot, crazy hot, I can't stress that enough, it’s hot in Las Vegas. After a quick taxi ride we got checked into the Palazzo which is like the newer half of the Venetian hotel (you know the one with the gondolas) and headed up through the casino to our room. Although it was 4pm in Vegas, it would have been midnight back in the UK and having been awake since 4am, we just wanted to go to sleep. I have to say I was pretty envious of Mrs Mak at this point, while she got to relax in our lovely hotel suite, I was faced with heading back out for the PKR Welcome Party. While I would like to think I'm an affable kinda guy but after a day of travelling, I really just wanted to go to bed.

I found myself back in the casino on my way to the bar. Everything is Vegas revolves around the casino floor, wherever you go, the casino is at the heart of it. I wandered on through the resort not really sure where I was going until I saw the familiar colours of the PKR. The bar had already filled with players from across the world. I always think these kind of things are a bit odd, I didn't know anyone but no-one knows anyone, and yet everyone's chatting away, how do you join in? Mingling was probably aided by the non-stop supply of free flowing drinks, everyone was friendly and if you were ever worried about fitting in, there's no need to be because all the guys and girls I've met in any of these types of things have been great company. I thought a lot of the players would have flown out on the same day I did but apparently not, everyone I spoke to had been out for at least a few days if not longer, so it seemed I had some catching up to do!

But that would have to wait, because after a being awake for over 24 hours; having only eaten airline food and then enjoying the benefits of a free bar for hours, it was time to call it a day and get some sleep, and ready myself for the World Series of Poker!

I woke up early with nervous excitement. The big day had finally arrived, my first World Series of Poker event! I would like to believe the idea that I'm too cool, calm and collected for such behaviour, that it was just another poker tournament, it was "only" a $1000 buy-in event and that I wasn't that fussed but I couldn't convince myself of that, so I would just have to see if I could fool anyone else into believing it instead.

Grand entrance!

The WSOP is held round the back of the Rio at the convention centre, which is a banal beige box of a building. They tried to jazz it up a bit with a red carpet leading from the taxi drop off to the entrance but it's hard to believe it's the home of the biggest tournaments in the world. Inside was a little more surreal. It was still a fairly underwhelming combination of beige and brown, nice enough but nothing special, only it was special! It was the Rio, home of the WSOP, as seen on TV! I headed down the somehow familiar concourse to the registration desk. It was about 10:30am, the tournament started at noon, while there was a short queue at the desk, generally the place was pretty empty, I had expected it to be a lot busier. It wasn't long before it was my turn to register, seat 6, table 68, red section, Brasilia room, here we go!

Well not quite yet...

With well over an hour to go until the tournament was set to start, the doors for the Brasilia room were still closed. I wasn't hungry but thought it best to have something to eat, in preparation for what would hopefully be a long day at the tables, although I could have probably run off adrenalin the whole day anyways. As we got closer to the starting time, the Rio began to fill up, the buzz started to build and adrenaline was really kicking in. Finally the Brasilia room doors open and in we go!

Rows and rows of tables, for hundreds of players, all neatly aligned with a stage at the front of the room, and a podium in front of the 8ft high illuminated letters 'WSOP'. The dealer, a lovely old lady, welcomed me at my otherwise empty table. She checked my ticket and ID, then we shared a few awkward moments alone. As the rest of the room filled up, I was beginning to think I could have the table to myself. It might not be in the spirit of the game but I would have happily spent a couple of hours chipping away at the stacks of empty chairs.

The dream table draw!

Alas, five minutes before the tournament was due to begin, my dream table was ruined by the arrival of a guy wearing a neon pink hoodie and a big set of 'Beats' headphones. During the welcome party, a well-seasoned player had told me about his WSOP table from the week before being a mix of soft players and internet pros, I asked him how could you tell who the internet pros were, he said it was easy; they were all early 20s, wearing hoodies and big headphones, that described not only Pinky but the next 3 players to sit down as well. As the players checked in with the dealer some guy in a suit had started mumbling at the podium on stage, as much as I tried, I couldn't make out what he was saying until he uttered the immortal line, "Shuffle up and deal!"

With 3000 starting stacks, 1 hour blinds starting at 25/25, kicking things off 6 handed, my table started like this;
Seat 1 - clean cut young guy in resplendent in pink hoodie
Seat 2 - a small guy almost drowned under his large grey hoodie, I only learned he had headphones on later when he would have to delve his hand deep inside the hood to prize them off his head anytime he wanted to hear something
Seat 3 - another young guy in a hoodie, and headphones who was totally lacking any other distinguishing features
Seat 4 & 5 - empty
Seat 6 - yours truly
Seat 7 - another young guy, another hoodie, another set of 'Beats' headphones. This guy at least had the decency to make himself distinguishable by wearing a pretty cool pair of chrome silver sunglasses
Seat 8 - empty
Seat 9 - The only guy at the table, apart from me, without headphones and a hoodie, the elder statesmen of the table at what I was guessing was the grand old age of about 35. I don't know if he was French, he never spoke, not even once but he I think he had a French site's logo on his t-shirt, and he kinda looked like a French guy.

I had nothing but junk for the first couple of orbits which I didn't mind too much as it gave me a chance to suss out the table. Pinky, Seat 3 and Silver Shades seemed to be vying for the role of table captain, every hand saw a combination of at least two of them. I'm sure Pinky took the early lead but after the first half an hour passed everyone was pretty much back to their starting stacks. I had dabbled in a few pots, won a couple of small ones, lost a couple of small ones and was just under the starting 3k when I got involved in my first big pot of the game.

Seat 3 opened for 125 in the cut-off and I called from the button with [9s] [Js], the blinds got out the way and we saw a flop of [5d] [6c] [2s]. Seat 3 cbet 100, he had been one of the most active players, so I figured he had a fairly wide range, and with a weak cbet, I was happy to call in position with a couple of overcards but mostly I was floating him. The turn was [Jd] BINGO! Seat 3 bet 200 into the 450 pot. Another less than half pot bet but another bet nonetheless. I was pretty sure top pair was good a fair amount of the time, although it didn't quite make sense to me what he was betting on the flop that he was happy to bet again on the turn, I'm obviously not folding but thought if I reraised I'm probably only getting action if I'm behind, so I decided to call. The river was the [4h], this time he fired 550 into the 950 pot, I didn't like it. He had barreled every street but from what I had seen so far, he was more than capable bluffing his way through the hand too. After tanking for a while, I made the call and he table [7h][8h] for the rivered nut straight, ggrraaAAAAHH! bollocks. While it was playing out, it didn't seem like a big pot but that mistake just cost me a third of my stack, great. I tried to shake it off, "no need to panic" I convinced myself, I was still deepstacked.

At that point we were joined by a rough looking guy who was clearly in no state of panic but he certainly was in some state. Sitting down in seat 8, he had managed to order a can of Red Bull from a passing waiter before being dealt his first hand. Clearly hungover, he'd managed to miss most of the first level. About 10 minutes later a big pot was brewing between Pinky and Seat 3, a mix of tanking and big bets all the focus was to my right until the dealer declared "no sleeping at the table, you have to wake up sir!", everyone turns to see hungover guy lifting his head off the felt, what a WSOP he was having! Mind you, had more chips than me...

Loving it!

I thought I was set to change that though in my next big pot. I picked up [As][Qd] middle position, raised pre and was called by Silver Shades. Flop came [2s][7h][Qc] and I cbet 2/3 pot, Silver Shades called, the turn was the [8h], I bet again and was called again. The river was the [Ac], excellent, I bet two third of the pot again, getting the majority of my stack in. Shades mulled it over for a few moments, then called. I confidently tabled the winning hand, only to see he had AQ as well, chopped pot, GAH! Not everyone loves a chop pot.

The blinds increased to 25/50 on the hour and some late reg'ing slob joined the table to my immediate right. Again, another young guy, in a hoodie, with headphones except this lump made the hungover guy look like James Bond. For the next hour the dealer had to tell him "no phones at the table" every single hand she dealt. He was too busy playing with his phone to play any hands though so all his presence at the table did was annoy me. I was card dead, spot dead and I was struggling to get anything going at all. Typical of this, when I got down to about 20 big blinds, I was dealt pocket jacks in the big blind, excellent, perhaps an ideal spot to squeeze will come up? No? A raise to come over the top of? Nope. A walk? Why yes, the first and only time I saw anyone get a walk in the big blind the entire time I played, and it's easily the best hand of my whole tournament *sigh*

With only four minutes until level 3, I picked up [As][10c] UTG+1. Checking the clock again, looking down at my 16bb stack, it looked like after the break I would be down to a 8 big blinds with the blinds going through me, not ideal by any means, so I felt like I was forced to shove but got instantly called by hungover guy with AK. The board pretty much bricks, I was teased by a potential chop on the turn, no such luck and I was out. I wish the table luck and hit the rail.

I bumped into a couple of the other PKR qualifiers who had already hit the rail, everyone has a badbeat or cold deck story, except me. I was done. Dejected and disappointed, I walked back to the hotel from the Rio, although I wouldn't recommend that, it's far too hot. I needed to walk the whole thing off, give me a chance to think things through, a chance to clear my head.

View from the rail

I never really got out the blocks, I think I played alright but I keep going over the [9s][Js] and [As][10c] hands and wondering if I should have played them differently. I also feel let down by the tournament structure, after just two hours of play that starting stack has dropped down to 30bbs worth of chips. On my exit hand, minutes from level 3, a guy joined my table having late registered; I found it amazing that someone would spend $1000 to buy in to a tournament with only a 30xbb starting stack. He managed to outlast me of course, so maybe he knew what he was doing after-all. $1000 seems like a lot of money to me for such little wiggle room. That realisation further confounded my disappointment.

Everything had led up to the WSOP, years of playing, grinding satellites, dreaming the dream but it ended in a whimper. What an anti-climax. What a let-down.

Back at the hotel, Mrs Mak didn't sympathize. Apparently I should have been happy to have played in the World Series of Poker, happy to a week long holiday in Las Vegas but I wasn't, I was in a huff. 

I am the worst winner.