Gray-haired poker TRs: Living the WSOP dream
At the age of 62 (AARP members unite!), I have decided that I will write a trip report for my 2024 trek to the World Ser
In Langdon's current trip report, golddog commented, "Resorts World, got tacos, but didn't go to Tacos El Gordo? Seems like a strat problem."
This leads me to a question I have been wanting to ask Las Vegas veterans for some time.
I believe Tacos El Gordo only uses corn tortillas. I hate corn tortillas. I am a flour tortillas guy. Corn tortillas are a deal breaker for me. Does anyone know if flour tortillas are an option at Tacos El Gordo?
I just read a couple of articles on poker.org that really hit come as far as what my approach needs to be at the upcoming WSOP.
The first article is a Q&A with Chris Moneymaker (
Q: How does the Main Event play differently from other events?
Moneymaker: "The Main Event is different because not only do you have weaker players, you have many players that are there for a bucket list experience. Players in this event value their tournament life more than in any other tournament. That can be exploited and you are able to get away with so many bluffs against these players. The hard part is identifying who is scared money vs. just bag players."
Application to rppoker: Although I am not going to play the Main Event, Moneymaker's quote hits my biggest leak. When I play in the WSOP, I'm not thinking about winning a tournament or making a final table. It would be great if that happens, but that's not my focus. I am really good about playing one hand at a time and staying in the moment. I just love being at the poker table for six, eight, 10 hours at a time. When I get knocked out, I'm not that bummed about missing the money. I'm not bummed that the fantasy of winning the tournament is over. What I am totally bummed about is I don't get to play any more poker that day. The value of my tournament life is too important to me. I think my desire to avoid getting knocked out makes me too exploitable. That's why I am excited at the prospect of re-entering if I get knocked out before the re-entry deadline passes at this year's WSOP. I think this will allow me to pick spots to be more aggressive and bluff more. I'm not going to go bat s*%t crazy, but a willingness to die should allow me to be more aggressive than I've been in the past. Will I punt a tournament with this approach? It's possible, but I'm hoping that there will be other tournaments where I can accumulate a strong stack. It's a new approach for me, so I'm sure I may get myself in trouble at times, but I'm excited to try it out and see what happens knowing I have the safety net of being able to re-enter. My bankroll for this WSOP allows me to re-enter pretty much every tournament if necessary. I've never re-entered a WSOP event before, but re-entry is very much a tool in my toolbox for WSOP 2025.
The next article is an interview with Jonathan Little, which can be found at
Jonathan Little: "Figure out your actual goal. Many people just go to Vegas with $10,000 in their pocket to play some poker and hope to win. But do you care if you lose whatever money you go to Vegas with? Some people do, and some people don't, right? You might go out there to win a bracelet. But at the same time, you don't want to lose your money because that's all you've got. Well, that's not going to work out so well for you. You're going to be very distraught most of the time because usually you're going to lose in tournaments."
More Jonathan Little: "In my summer at the WSOP, I could easily lose every tournament I play. Because they're all 1,000-person poker tournaments, right? And that's normal. So as long as you're cool with that being normal, you'll be fine."
Application to rppoker: I think I am good on this. I am bankrolled so that I can fail to cash in every tourney I play and it won't hurt. Do I want that to occur? Of course not. But I am bringing what I can afford to lose, which means if I don't cash it won't impact my quality of life. I think it is important to play for entry fees where the money does not matter to me. If I were to play too big, I suspect I would be very exploitable. Playing too big would make me play scared, which bigger rolled players would sniff out and take advantage of. This aspect I have under control. Cashing in a WSOP tournament for me is more about the sense of accomplishment than it is about the possibility of massive money. I will be shocked if the money has any impact on the decisions I make at the table. If by some miracle I were to win a tournament, the poker accomplishment will mean more to me than the money.
I went to the bank today with my WSOP buy-ins in mind. It may seem a bit early for me to do so, but I remember that last year when I went to the bank to get my stack of $100 bills for the WSOP, they informed me that they don't keep cash like that lying around. They had to order the hundreds and it took something like a week to get in. Which seemed odd since I needed money for the thrifty aisle of WSOP buy-ins. I wasn't exactly playing in high rollers.
So starting today, I figured I'd ask for a smaller amount of hundreds in the first of three or four trips instead.
It turns out that on this day they do have cash like that lying around. The teller goes into the back to get my money, and I am thinking that I will need to tally the hundreds to make sure the count is right. I figure it won't be a quick count since I don't count money with the speed of this old school fella:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FBiFKtb...
It's almost as if the teller has read my mind, because in addition to a stack of hundreds he also brings out ... a money counting machine. He runs the hundreds through the machine and it is a blur of glorious, green motion.
It makes me feel kind of gangster. It makes me feel something like this:
Bank day can be an interesting experience. I don't play what I consider to be very high stakes and I don't think I've ever withdrawn more than $2-3k at once, but certainly even these amounts can elicit eyebrow raises and queries from the tellers. It's an example of how money in poker and money in real life are different. A $200 tournament that represents some of the lowest live stakes available in Vegas is also an amount of $$$ that someone who isn't desensitized to gambling might balk at risking.
As for the re-entry point, I think volume is a crucial element of realizing our true results in tournaments. It's very, very easy to make good decisions and bust events for days on end. The more events we play, the less we can blame our outcomes on chance and luck. Re-entry can be part of the equation. Nightlies can be part of the equation. "Try again tomorrow" can be part of the equation. I just know that as a tournament player, I am going to play, play, and play some more when I am in Vegas. If I bust one thing, I'm going to play something else. That's one of the big advantages of Vegas, particularly in summer. There is always something to play. It's hard for all the shots to miss.
Having those second bullets at your disposal may liberate you to take spots you might otherwise shy away from. An irony is that making what we believe to be the best play in a given situation (even if very volatile) is probably the best long-term strategy to maximize our table time. Some of the most volatile plays I've witnessed have come from some of the most accomplished players, which is not to say that craziness itself pays, but only that one must be willing to go crazy when circumstances demand it.
I've inquired down the line of withdrawal size and needing them to get extra money. I was told anything under $10K should be ok.
I don't think I've ever gotten more than $5-7 in cash, so "money on hand" hasn't been a problem so far.
I wonder if you had an account with a national bank who has branches in Vegas, if it would be easier. I'd guess Vegas much more of a cash economy than most places, but I don't know that.
As I have described, my game entering the 2025 WSOP has undergone something of a makeover from the game I played at the 2024 WSOP. All I can say is I hope my makeover fares better than the makeover just done on the wsop.com web site. Yikes!
WSOP buildup
Less than two weeks to go, which means wellness check time
.....................
OK, I can almost see the starting line.
Time for a wellness check to see if I am in poker fighting shape.
We start with that which gave me so much difficulty in WSOP 2024, which was right hip, leg and heel pain. It wasn't debilitating, but it also wasn't pleasant. The good news is I have been pretty much pain free in recent months. The occasional twinge, but nothing that lasts. A working theory is that the slip-on shoes I was wearing last WSOP added to the problem in 2024. So now I only wear shoes that offer good support. That will continue in WSOP 2025.
Now for the tough part.
My weight. I did a weigh-in this morning and the scale read 195.0 pounds. I'm almost 6-3 so this doesn't set off alarm bells, but it's not good enough. My line in the sand is 200.0 pounds. When I hit that weight, alarm bells do go off and it's time for a serious diet. That said, 195.0 pounds needs to be improved upon before I get to Las Vegas. The way I see it, knowing how I will eat in Las Vegas (no concern for weight gain), I know I'm going to pack on some pounds. I need more cushion than 195.0 allows.
So here's the plan. Mrs. rppoker and I have dinner reservations at my favorite restaurant tonight (a very renowned seafood place). I'm going to eat what I want. Starting tomorrow, I get (somewhat) serious about my food and drink input. What this means is no Dr Pepper from now until I get to Las Vegas. This is a massive concession on my part. Also, no between meal snacks between now and my Las Vegas arrival.
I think this plan can get me down to 190.0 pounds. That is the goal weight. In a perfect world I'd get down to 185.0 pounds, but I don't live in a perfect world. To get down to 185 I'd need to starting working out. That's not going to happen for two reasons: 1) I don't want to aggravate my hip, leg, heel area that caused me pain a year ago, and 2) I'm lazy.
Rocky chasing the chicken is not a training regimen I am willing to embrace.
Have you considered GLP-1 drugs?
I’ve tried diet and exercise, this is the only thing that’s ever worked even a little bit.
Down about 40 pounds in a year, feeling much better about myself.
The data behind them is just about as good as it gets.
Have you considered GLP-1 drugs?
I’ve tried diet and exercise, this is the only thing that’s ever worked even a little bit.
Down about 40 pounds in a year, feeling much better about myself.
The data behind them is just about as good as it gets.
I don't need to lose enough weight to consider GLP-1 drugs (admittedly, I know nothing about them). I think I can lose what I need to lose with a bit of eating/drinking discipline. I guess we are about to find out. Glad to hear you are headed down a great path with your weight loss. Congratulations!!!!
OK, last big feast before I start watching what I eat in the lead up to my WSOP in a little less than two weeks.
I start with clam chowder that is really thick and crazy rich. Basically a calorie time bomb.
I follow that up with Alaskan King Crab Legs that are delicious.
During dinner Mrs. rppoker brings up the WSOP, which she never does. She says it is getting close and asks if I am getting excited. I say, "More than you can imagine."
Then she says something that I think will amuse the message board: "No one has studied harder for the WSOP than you have."
I assure her that almost everyone who will be at the WSOP will have studied at least as much as I have, and in most cases they will have put in way more hours of study than I have. Mrs. rppoker is skeptical and thinks I am just being humble. I know that it is not humility.
And so it begins, two weeks of boring, disciplined eating. Let's see if I am up to the task.
Then she says something that I think will amuse the message board: "No one has studied harder for the WSOP than you have."I assure her that almost everyone who will be at the WSOP will have studied at least as much as I have, and in most cases they will have put in way more hours of study than I have. Mrs. rppoker is skeptical and thinks I am just being humble. I know that it i
You truly are a humble reporter. I, for one, have done practically the opposite of studying, which is playing in a dealer's choice home game where we play everything but Hold 'Em. My eyes light up when I see 3s, 9s, and 4s (Baseball), Queens (Follow The), and I'm very disappointed if I only have two hole cards or there's only one row of community cards. My latest introductions have included games that require dice to determine what we're playing mid-hand (including Chowaha) and using Cribbage rules for half the pot.
You have put in the work. You deserve some good results.
Chowaha is awesome, Lowmaha better.
Speaking of dice, we've discussing having the button roll dice to determine the blinds. Roll for first blind, roll for second. Sometimes it might be 1/2, sometimes it might be 6/1.
We haven't implemented to see what problems it creates. One obvious one is first blind > second blind. I'm inclined to say that the min bet is defined by the bigger of the blinds, whichever position it happens to be in.
And now we get serious. Time for the weigh-in to see how much work I have to do over the next 12 days to get down to poker playing weight of 190.0 pounds.
The good news is I'm not facing in-his-peak Mike Tyson. I am only doing battle with the scale. I consider flexing but think better of it when I consider my far-from-intimidating physique. I ask the scale the question and it spits out its answer ...
195.4 pounds.
I am surprised. I expected last night's dinner to cause far more damage. I have to lose 5.4 pounds in 12 days. This seems very doable. No Dr Pepper and no snacking seems like a perfectly reasonable plan to lose that amount.
Mrs. rppoker is skeptical. She says my game plan won't be enough to lose 5.4 pounds in only 12 days. She says I need to eliminate carbs. On the one hand, she is a healthy eater who knows all about such things. But I think she is underestimating what giving up Dr Pepper and snacks will accomplish given my normal eating practices. But I won't leave anything to chance, and I tell her that if she wants to cook dinners over the next 12 nights that she deems diet appropriate I am fine with that.
My version of the Shaun Deeb weight loss challenge has begun.
Don't forget, all that walking from your room back to the tournament area is good exercise.
Didn't catch your age but short of a total fasting (which is how I start my own diets) you can't really lose more than about 2 lbs of true weight a week. Personally I drop 15 -18 lbs in prep for my National Park hiking and WSOP COMBO trip. Lot better to carry water in your backpack than fat on your belly whether it's hiking a trail or sitting at the table.
Now Im in my 70's so it gets a bit tougher ever year but it truly helps . I ve dropped 14 so far and have 3 weeks to shed 4 more to drop 10% (181 to 163) . Good luck
Didn't catch your age but short of a total fasting (which is how I start my own diets) you can't really lose more than about 2 lbs of true weight a week. Personally I drop 15 -18 lbs in prep for my National Park hiking and WSOP COMBO trip. Lot better to carry water in your backpack than fat on your belly whether it's hiking a trail or sitting at the table. Now Im in my 70's s
Hi RealMcCoy. My age is 63. I am banking on there being some easy pounds for me to shed simply by eliminating my terrible eating habits. We'll see what happens.
As for you, congrats on the loss of 14 pounds. Good luck on the path to 4 more. By the way, National Park hiking and WSOP sitting may be as far apart as two separate endeavors can be. That's impressive range of activity. Kind of like Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders excelling at both football and baseball back in the day.
I've inquired down the line of withdrawal size and needing them to get extra money. I was told anything under $10K should be ok.I don't think I've ever gotten more than $5-7 in cash, so "money on hand" hasn't been a problem so far.I wonder if you had an account with a national bank who has branches in Vegas, if it would be easier. I'd guess Vegas much more of a cash economy t
I have accounts with 2 banks that have branches in Vegas, but there's some opportunity cost going that route. For one thing you have to go when the bank is open, and you have to hope you can get instant access to the amount you need. If you're really worried. I'd think about getting that WSOP account and do an ACH transfer, if needed. Although that could take an extra day. I don't know why that is BTW. One of my banks is Chase and they can do an instant transfer to my other bank. "Instant" being a minute or two. I've never had one of those transfers take more than three minutes.
BTW if a teller hesitates at all when I'm getting a withdrawal pre-trip, I just say "I'm going Vegas" and nobody ever inquired further.
The good news is I'm not facing in-his-peak Mike Tyson. I am only doing battle with the scale. I consider flexing but think better of it when I consider my far-from-intimidating physique. I ask the scale the question and it spits out its answer ...
I'm very intimidating...
to my scale. I step on it and it begs for mercy.
Hi RealMcCoy. My age is 63. I am banking on there being some easy pounds for me to shed simply by eliminating my terrible eating habits. We'll see what happens.As for you, congrats on the loss of 14 pounds. Good luck on the path to 4 more. By the way, National Park hiking and WSOP sitting may be as far apart as two separate endeavors can be. That's impressive range of activity.
Not Great at either but hold my own, and been doing the WSOP and LV a LOT longer. But started the combo when I retired 2 years ago when I drove to LV instead of flying for the 1st time in 40 yrs.
It's fantastic and I'll continue as long as this old fart can physically and mentally pull it off. Dropping weight and exercise definitely helps to sharpen me at the tables. Best of luck to you.
OK, today/tonight was difficult but successful in Operation Weight Loss.
It's Sunday, so I slept in and woke up around 11:30 a.m. I showered and then, since I was still full from the prior night's dinner feast, I skipped lunch. I'm off to a great start. Around 2:30 p.m. I started getting a bit hungry, but I figured I could survive until dinner. I took my mind off food by watching the OKC-Denver Game 7 NBA playoff game.
When the OKC blowout win was complete, I still had a bit of time until our Sunday family dinner. Have I lost any weight yet? I refrain from running to the scale for the second time of the day. Instead, I killed time trying to figure out a movie scene that could describe an untraditional but perhaps overly optimistic weight loss approach (in my case, simply giving up Dr Pepper/snacking and expecting the pounds to melt off my body). I settled on the following scene from the movie Stripes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nuXPDq...
Back to reality, I got thrown a curveball when it came to dinner. I knew Mrs. rppoker and I were going to meet my mom, my older daughter and her long-time boyfriend at a restaurant for our traditional family Sunday dinner, but I figured it would be somewhere basic. Instead, the decision was made to go to a very nice Italian restaurant that has great, fattening food. So the family is going to make this tough on me.
Everyone else orders pasta dishes topped with various rich sauces. I ordered a caesar salad with chicken. My order is not exactly plain chicken with the skinned peeled off, but in light of what everyone else has ordered I consider myself to have shown tremendous restraint. Mrs. rppokker, the only one at the table who knows I am on a pre-WSOP diet whispers to me, "You know, all diets start on Mondays. That's tomorrow."
She is giving me a diet get out of jail free card, but I turn it down because I know my WSOP trip starts in 12 days. I don't have a minute to waste if I want to reach my target weight.
Immediately, the waiter brings a big basket of rolls. Everyone else at the table fills their tiny plate with olive oil and parmesan cheese and then soaks their roll in the concoction. I just watch. I do not partake.
After a bit, the waiter brings a new basket of rolls and plops it right in front of me. Really?! Be strong, be strong, be strong. Mrs. rppoker moves the basket to the other side of the table.
Next up, appetizers are brought to the table. My daughter's boyfriend notices that I have not ordered an appetizer and asks me if I'd like some of his. "No thanks," I say. "But thanks for asking."
After a while it seems to me that the main courses are taking a looooong time to arrive. I do think they were slower than usual, but I am sure the fact that I have had nothing to eat so far today has something to do with my impatience.
Some more time passes, and the main courses finally arrive. For everyone but me. The waiter is going to have to go back to the kitchen to get my order. So everyone else has their food (heaps of pasta doused in rich sauces) except for me. Making matters worse, my daughter's boyfriend is seated next to me and he has ordered my favorite dish from this restaurant. I observe filled with sadness. Finally, my dinner arrives. My pathetic looking caesar salad with chicken.
My mom eyeballs my dinner, looks puzzled, and then she asks me of I'd like some of her gigantic platter of pasta that is dripping with a rich, creamy, heart-attack inducing sauce. "No thanks," I say. "But thanks for asking."
Eventually, everyone else at the table still has half of their dinner uneaten and asks the waiter for the remaining food to go. My salad bowl has been all but licked clean. There is not a morsel remaining.
The waiter then asks if anyone would like dessert. Mercifully, everyone says no.
I consider Day 1 of Operation Weight Loss to be a success.
LOL.
You are truly a paragon of virtue.
Atta Boy RPPOKER - ROFLMAO - Trust me I know and feel your pain.
I ate a little healthier and cut out wine for a week (I drink a lot of wine), and I lost four pounds in a week. According to my full body scale, it wasn't water weight. (FWIW, I'm a woman -- I'd like to lose 15 more pounds.)
I wish you luck with the weight loss and poker -- well done on the salad!
Didn't catch your age but short of a total fasting (which is how I start my own diets) you can't really lose more than about 2 lbs of true weight a week.
Hmmm. Have I bit off more than I can chew? I still think I can do it. Gotta lose 5.4 pounds in less than two weeks.
Monday. Back to work. We have a refrigerator at my office which my office manager keeps fully stocked for myself and our other employees with various drinks. I am the only Dr Pepper drinker.
Normally, Monday mornings are a huge relief to me. You see, outside of the WSOP, I have a four Dr Pepper a week limit on myself. This is because I know pop is bad for me. This is because I might drink 2-3 a day if it weren’t bad for me. I consider the week to start on Monday and end on Sunday. What happens is I drink one on Monday, another on Tuesday, a third on Wednesday, and my last one for the week on Thursday. I have no restraint until I reach my limit, and then I stop until the following Monday.
So here it is a Monday, and my body knows the Dr Pepper floodgates are supposed to reopen. But I have vowed to give up Dr Pepper until I get to Vegas in an attempt to get my weight down so that I can eat and drink whatever the hell I want at the WSOP.
I open the refrigerator and I can practically hear the bottles of Dr Pepper challenging me, mocking me, doubting me. I am facing the monster that is my Dr Pepper addiction. A monster that I am calling out, a monster that it is insane of me to seek out and make aware of my intentions.
Out of nowhere I have a memory of a movie I saw a loooooooooong time ago. Vision Quest. It is about a wrestler named Louden Swain who decides he is going to try to cut weight in an almost impossible way in order to move down in weight and go up against a seemingly unbeatable monster named Brian Shute. Furthermore, Louden isn’t doing this quietly, stealthily, unexpectedly. He seeks Shute out and announces his intentions.
The scene is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BiC3OUN...
“Think you’ll make the weight?”
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
“I hope so, too.”
It makes no sense, that Louden Swain is pushing himself to cut weight in order to take the harder path through the hardest opponent imaginable. Why take the difficult path when the path of least resistance is so much easier?
Likewise, no one is forcing me to lose weight at all, much less via the hardest way possible (no Dr Pepper for 12 days).
I hear a bottle of Dr Pepper ask me, “Think you’ll make weight?”
I respond, “I don’t know. I hope so.”
Dr Pepper bottle, “I hope so, too.”
I do not grab a bottle of Dr Pepper. I grab a bottle of water instead and close the refrigerator door.
Gotta lose 5.4 pounds in less than two weeks. I’m on a vision quest.
