Gray-haired poker TRs: Living the WSOP dream

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #6

There are a lot of dealers who seem very inexperienced at the WSOP. I have no problem with that. Everyone has to start somewhere. Plus, to get the huge volume of dealers needed, it doesn’t seem realistic to expect that they will all be old hands.

When a newbie dealer is making mistakes, I have found that the players police the situation just fine and with respect, patience and understanding. I have never seen anyone berate an inexperienced dealer. More often than not there will be a table captain or two who take charge as needed to fix a dealer mistake, although in some cases it has been a big chunk of the table at different times stepping in on hands close to where they are sitting.

When you do get a very experienced dealer it is a pleasure to see the command they have of the table in an absolutely effortless manner. One year I got the same dealer multiple times who was amazing – kept the action moving quickly and efficiently, was friendly but not so friendly so as to be annoying. Turned out to be the WSOP Dealer of the Year or something like that.

This one I think I can answer. Unions. When the WSOP was at the Rio there was a guy called All American Dave (who turned out to owe a lot of poker players I think - see here: https://www.allamericandave.com/ordermea... and I dont remember anyone getting made whole) who did exactly this. He set up a food truck outside of the back of the Rio, with permission from WSOP, and you could text orders which he would have delivered to your table, naturally normally from attractive, young, fit, females. Made a killing from what I heard.

When the WSOP moved to Horseshoe the Unions got involved and he wasn't allowed to continue, again this is what I heard but pretty sure this is why.

I was a poker reporter for WSOP in 2015 and 2016, and yes it is surprisingly tough. Disclaimer: I am from the UK and wasn't that clued up on well known US internet players, but very knowledgable of UK/Euros at the time and also poker celebs.

On Day 1 my plan kinda went like this:

• Walk around all of the tables/my section and try and ID known players/celebs, and make a note of their seats to keep an eye on their stack.
  
• Keep an eye out for massive pots/early all-ins or developing hands such as 3 and 4 bets preflop.
  
• Talk to players. Not everyone would reply to you but a lot of the amateurs would give you their life story for a shot at being featured in an update.
  
• Go heavy on generic content such as hands that went to showdown or a list of table big stacks. All you need for the latter is a name, and the good reporters can eyeball a stack and know how much you have. Volume is always good for a Day 1.
  

Day 2 and onwards was a lot easier as we would have a copy of the seat draw and everyone was given a numbered card which they were told to carry with them when they moved and to keep visible. Our lists told us who had each card and we went from there. We also went through the seat draw beforehand and ID'd tables that were more likely to be interesting - whether it be 2 of the top 15 stacks or Ivey & Negreanu sat side by side. The final table we tried to do hand for hand in batches of 5's with two reporters covering. One would take notes for 5 hands, then go and type up a post whilst the other covered the next 5 hands, rinse and repeat.

We weren't instructed to focus on who was the big stack at the end of Day 1 and how they got there, the summary of the day was just a list of well known names who played, and the top 10 in chips, as nobody cares who is top of the pile on Day 1, it's all about who's top of the pile at the end 😀

KarmaDope, thanks for sharing. Good stuff!

I fly to Las Vegas for the WSOP in exactly one week. I am so excited that I don't really have the words to describe it. And I usually have lots and lots of words. I hope I never lose this feeling in future years.

I’m a few weeks away myself, and mashing the refresh button on this forum is the only thing that gets me through

I'm envious! I'm going to be at the Hard Rock at Cincinnati tonight -- for one night -- I can't believe how excited I am just for that!

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #7

I don’t love the fact that the table chip leader is asked to do the color up while play is ongoing (admittedly this is not just a WSOP thing). This seems unfair to the chip leader since it makes it difficult to focus on what matters (the ongoing play of their opponents) while they are doing the color up. I don’t actually have a better solution.

In one case at last year’s WSOP, the person doing the color up was actually really excited to do so. I was playing in a Daily Deepstack and an older woman who was playing pretty ABC poker coolered the chip leader, giving her heaps of chips. Soon afterward, it was time for the color up, and she got the duty as new chip leader. She commented with innocence and excitement something along the lines of, “I’ve never gotten to do the color up before. I'm kind of proud of the fact that I get to do so today.”

Not long after that she ran a massive, totally out of character bluff that got picked off, so maybe the chip color up responsibility went to her head.

In another tournament at last year’s WSOP somewhat late on a Day 1, there was a pretty new player to my table who was multitasking by also playing an online WSOP tourney at the same time. He caught a hot run of cards at our table and was the chip leader when the dealer asked him to do the chip color up. Mr. Multitasker flat out refused, saying he was running deep in his online tournament and had too much on his plate to also do the color up. He did so in a very aggressive, obnoxious manner. I understood him feeling that way, but there was a much nicer way that he could have asked to be relieved of color up duties. The professional poker player to his left volunteered to do the color up.

My life today is sort of like Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) in the helicopter scene in Goodfellas

Today was insanely busy for me. I was like the Henry Hill character during the helicopter scene in the movie Goodfellas …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SvJ--JV...

… well, I was the Henry Hill character being insanely busy minus the helicopters and minus all the illegal stuff he was doing. But man was I busy all day. Driving all over. People to see. Deals to be made.

The previous night I fell asleep on the couch reading 2+2 threads. I woke up on the couch this morning at 6:00 am. I went upstairs, set the alarm on my cell phone and saw that my dog Astro had noticed my absence in bed and he had taken up residence on my side of the bed. I shooed him over a bit, and he fell back asleep snuggled up against my leg.

I started out my day by putting myself behind the 8-ball. I overslept my alarm in the morning. I’m not morning friendly, so I always set the alarm on my cell phone for three different times. And still I overslept, which I never do (because of the three different times system that failed me today). Mrs. rppoker woke me up at 10 am and said, “Don’t you have meetings this morning?” Indeed I did. I had an appointment to close an office space deal with a new tenant at 10:00 am. I was already late. I threw on some clothes, put a comb through my hair and raced to my car.

I called the woman I had the meeting with, confessed to sleeping past my alarm and told her I could be there in 15 minutes. She was completely understanding. I got to work much faster than usual (without getting a deserved speeding ticket), met with the client and her husband and closed the deal. She asked for a couple of minor items for her build out, and I said, “How can I say no after being so late to our meeting?”

Next, I had a 12:00 noon meeting with a guy, who had just signed his lease the other day for space in the same office building as my previous meeting, to make decisions on his build out with him and my building engineer. That went quickly. I love working with decisive decision makers.

Next up was a trip to my accountant. I had asked him to have the June 15 tax quarterly payment figures and vouchers ready today for myself, my mom and my two daughters. I had asked for them to be ready by today so I could get them all paid and sent certified mail before I head to Vegas. Yes, I could do so after I return from Vegas, but I didn’t want that hanging over me when I get back home knowing how slammed I will be at that time. I get there, the accountant has everything ready and I head out.

Next, I have a massive dilemma. Massive! MASSIVE!!!! Just down the street from my accountant is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that has the best tasting cheeseburger in the world. IN … THE … WORLD. I know everyone has a place they swear by that is the best they’ve ever had. But I’m telling you, my place has the most incredible cheeseburger on the planet. I will fight to the death defending my claim that this is the best cheeseburger in the world. If I’m ever told I won’t live to see the next morning but I get a last supper, I’m choosing this cheeseburger. I have just enough time to eat at the hole-in-the-wall place and then get to my next appointment. I always eat at this restaurant when I go to the accountant. But my dilemma is I am looking to cut weight before I get to Vegas so that I can eat anything and everything there with no guilt. I am confident that I am going to make my target weight. Maybe I can cheat just this one time. Just once. I swear. How much damage can one cheeseburger cause?

No. I will not vie from my intended path. I drive past the hole-in-the-wall restaurant with the world’s best cheeseburger. I am strong. I will not give in to temptation. I am sad, but I am a force of nature in my weight loss adventure. I keep driving. I stop at a gas station with a minimart and I get a quart of smart water instead. Not exactly living large, but just seven more days I remind myself, and then it’s a food orgy.

By not stopping for the cheeseburger, I get back to my office with some time to spare before my next meeting. I deal with something I wasn’t sure I’d have time for. Mrs. rppoker has just re-done the entire first floor of our house with wood flooring. Now she wants to hire an interior decorator to help her make decisions regarding paint, furniture, artwork, etc. The problem is the interior decorator’s contract. It is the most litigious, one-sided contract I have ever seen. And I deal with contracts every day. Mrs. rppoker insists he is a very nice guy who has been burned by people before, hence the legalese in the contract. I tell her the interior decorator may be a very reasonable guy, but his attorney is entirely unreasonable. She wants to work with him. With a half hour of free time, I call the interior decorator, tell him my concerns, make suggested alterations, and I get him to agree to the changes I need to move forward with a signed contract.

Next up I have a 3:00 pm showing of space in the building I office out of to a fitness instructor. The two spaces I show him used to be rented by physical therapists, so the spaces are wide open, which appeals to the fitness instructor. I do volunteer to him, however, that in recent months I have showed the spaces to two other fitness instructors who really liked the spaces but couldn’t get past the fact that the ceilings are only eight feet high. It was too low for their equipment. I volunteer this information because I don’t believe in putting someone into a space that I strongly suspect will be wrong for them. He says he appreciates my honesty and will try to figure out if he can make it work. His big concern is a piece of machinery people do chin ups on.

Next up is a 4:00 pm showing of the same two spaces as my 3:00 meeting. This is for a theater company. I previously found out from them that they want it for rehearsals for maybe 15 actors/actresses. I had said that would be a problem because I felt that would overwhelm my parking lot. She says, no problem. They rehearse in the evenings and on weekends. Problem solved. She seems to genuinely love the space. Plus, she knows other tenants in the building and has heard good things. I feel very confident that there is a deal to be made here. Then, just before the meeting ends, a wrench gets thrown into the deal. They want to develop a once-a-week preschool program during business hours. At first, I think they are talking about taking both of my vacant spaces, the large one for the adult theater rehearsals and the smaller one for the kids program. This will result in 100% occupancy of the building. But, whenever I am making a deal, my first concern is for my existing tenants. Is a new tenant going to create a problem for them? I ask how many kids there would be. The answer is 20-25. I ask what they would be doing. The answer is singing. The deal just went sideways. That many pre-school kids singing is going to be loud. This could bother the four or five adjacent tenants in which there would be a common wall. As much as I want to close the deal (ABC—Always Be Closing), it doesn’t make sense to upset 4-5 tenants just to get one new tenant, even if it is for a large amount of space. I say that I am going to have to pass on the preschool program. I ask if the evening and weekend theater rehearsal concept is still doable since originally that was all I thought we were talking about, but it seems like in her mind she is now tying the two projects together. The deal is not dead, but I think it is strongly trending that way. Unfortunate, but I have to make my existing tenants happy first and foremost.

Work is done, and it’s time for Friday night family dinner at a restaurant with Mrs. rppoker, our older daughter and The Boyfriend, and my mother. Not sure if our other daughter will be joining us. I plan to get a Caesar salad with chicken while dreaming about all the food I am going to eat during the WSOP.

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #8

When/if I make it to dinner breaks, I think my go to will be the Horseshoe Food Hall. When I did so at WSOP 2024, the walk was not bad and I got my food in plenty of time to finish eating and get back to the tournament on time. The lines were not bad at all.

The food itself is nondescript franchise fast food restaurants. Nothing to write home about. But to my way of thinking, eliminating the stress of the time element is what matters most. I am fine with Nathan’s, Subway, Sbarro, Johnny Rockets, Pan Asian Express. It gets the job done. I’m not looking for fine dining when time is of the essence. I just want to eat unrushed and relaxed, and then get back to the poker on time.

Speaking of food, what are the powers that be thinking when it comes to the area just outside the Paris tournament ballroom?

As Ben Lamb recently said in a Q&A on poker.org, “They could definitely improve on the hot dog stand outside the tournament room for food. And also, why don’t they let food be delivered to the table?”

The solution is to get Subway and DoorDash to become a couple of the corporate sponsors of the WSOP. Then you set up a popup Subway shop near the hot dog stand, and you allow Doordash to have exclusive rights to WSOP food deliveries for whatever restaurant players desire. There, I just found a way for the WSOP to monetize yet another aspect of the series, and it makes the players happy. Win-win. It won't happen, but we can dare to dream.

As for the WSOP kitchen near the Horseshoe tournament poker rooms, I haven’t eaten anything from there, but I have heard it is mediocre and overpriced.

Last month, poker.org quoted Christina Gollins as saying, “Please fix the food situation. Anything else other than baseball food! My message to the WSOP this year? Please, please have some better options than stale $20 hot dogs, pizzas and burgers. You're bringing me back to when I was at the cafeteria in middle school and these were the only options we had to survive. We are adults now.”

Go across the street to Stage Door and get one of those hot-dog-and-a-beer specials. Used to be $3 (?), not sure now.

The diviest of dives.

I haven't seen much of it either, but then again that may just be me telling on myself. I've never been in a big spot at the WSOP. My deepest run as a function of the field is just top 5%. My deepest run as a function of raw players remaining is just top 250ish. Typically you wouldn't expect to see flagrant tanking until you reach the territory where the pay jumps become meaningful. That's when you expect to see people burning clock on trivial decisions.

The other time when you might see flagrant tanking is near the bubble. I did have a guy on one of my day 2 Monster Stack tables who tanked every decision for 30-60 seconds. He was on the short side and presumably trying to buy time while players busted around the room (which happens VERY fast in a tournament that big).

Venetian has a simple solution. They bag up as soon as the bubble pops. When you come back for day 2, you have time extensions and you play on a shot clock. It's a bit of an adjustment to play with a clock if you've never been in that situation before, but overall it seems like a good solution. It's an area where the sheer scale of the WSOP works against them. It's much harder to manage the logistics of time extensions and clocks when you might have 1,000+ day two players in some of the huge events.

Generally speaking though, if you reach a point at the WSOP where tanking has become a problem, it's a good sign because it means you are either near the bubble or some chunky pay jumps. That's when you are most likely to see T4o take 1 minute to fold pre.

Give that man his money

Time to get the rest of my WSOP buy-in money. I previously got some of it, but not all of it. I meant to get the rest of my WSOP bankroll the last couple of days, but I was too busy to do so.

It’s a Saturday today, so my time is free. I can’t go to the nearby branch of my bank because it got rid of tellers a couple of years ago meaning 1) they keep no cash in the branch, and 2) its exterior ATM machine will not give me enough money in one day to meet my needs. I go online and do a search of my bank’s branches that have tellers. The first two are closed on Saturdays. Finally, I locate one with tellers. It’s 25 minutes away, but I have plenty of time.

On my way there I once again pass the hole-in-the-wall restaurant that has THE WORLD’S GREATEST CHEESEBURGERS!!! WTF, how many times am I going to have to pass this massive temptation? I groan and keep driving. I’m not caving now when the finish line is starting to come into view. Earlier today Mrs. rppoker made two comments about my pre-WSOP diet. First, she noted that the fact that I have been skipping lunch makes it unsustainable. I explain to her that I’m not looking for sustainable, I’m just looking to get my weight down enough so that I can eat whatever I want in Las Vegas. Second, she says she sees a positive difference in my stomach. Nice that she can see a difference. This just adds to my belief that I am going to make my goal weight.

Enough about diet, more about money. I get to the bank, and there is one guy in front of me. He is a middle-aged Asian guy, and he says to the young teller that he wants to withdraw $7,000 in cash. The branch manager is standing next to her, and he seems taken aback by the request. Given the timing, it takes every ounce of social self-control for me not to ask the Asian guy if this is WSOP money he is getting in cash. The branch manager jokes, “I’m sorry to see that money leave the bank.” The Asian guy says, “Don’t worry, I’ll be bringing it back and then some.” Now I feel even stronger that this guy is headed to the WSOP with his money. I do not, however, seek confirmation of my theory.

I am going to be withdrawing a little less than the guy in front of me, but when it is my turn the branch manager, probably factoring in the fact that their cash drawers just got emptied coupled with my needs, says, “It’s time to crack open the vault.”

He goes in back and eventually returns with a stack of $100 bills. He runs it through the money counting machine. Then he turns the stack of hundreds over to the young teller along with pieces of paper she has to sign to have the money placed in her possession. The next thing the young teller does is she runs the stack of hundreds through the money counting machine. Then she does it again. Next, she goes back to her computer screen and types stuff in. After that she runs the stack of hundreds through the counting machine yet again.

Finally satisfied, she brings the stack of hundreds to me but not before, one last time, she counts it out by hand in front of me.

By this time, I am fairly satisfied that the count is correct. And by fairly satisfied I mean, please stop counting.

I saw someone get a strawberry julius in a Venetian cash game last December and I immediately scooped him in a PLO DBBP.

"I love these ****in' things but they bring me so much run bad and I can't quit them."

Watermelon juice at Wynn, for the WIN. That **** has something magical in it.

What would you do?

As I have written in this thread of late, I intend to embrace re-entry in all of my WSOP tourneys (if needed). I have a scenario I would like to get feedback on from the LVL/2+2 poker community.

The scenario: WSOP $500-$1000 NLHE tourneys with one rebuy per each Day 1 (i.e. the $500 Colossus or the $800 8-handed deepstack). One level remaining in which people can still late reg/re-enter. I have exactly the starting stack (or more importantly exactly the number of chips I'd get if I bust and re-enter) at this stage in the tourney.

To be considered: I am committed to rebuying when necessary. In my mind, my poker bankroll has been planned with rebuys in mind. I am emotionally more than OK with paying to rebuy. Now, it can be argued that if I get to the end of the rebuy deadline with my starting stack, I will save the money associated with having to rebuy. Let's take that off the table. Yes, saving money on a rebuy has value, but for the sake of this exercise let's say I place no value on it. Instead, what I do place value on is putting myself in the best position possible to cash as often as possible.

Also to be considered: It sounds like the rebuy process may be way faster this year than in the past due to the introduction of WSOP+.

The question: Do I hit the gas pedal and look to much more aggressively get my chips in the middle with a wider range than normal with a double up or bust mentality knowing time is running out on the ability to rebuy? Or do I keep playing standard poker and display a normal degree of patience and opening hand ranges?

What would you do?

No need to spare my feelings with your responses. I am interested in an honest assessment of what you think I should do in this scenario and why.

With your stipulation that the $500 has no value, then you should go all in blind on the last hand prior to rebuys ending.

But $500 does have value and doubling your stack does not double your value. But you can take spots that you normally wouldn't have before knowing you're going to rebuy. E.g all in for a flip.

I think it's a clear yes to hit the gas pedal. Players who do not plan to re-enter have "tournament life" pressure on their ranges and play, so they are incentivized not to take small cEV edges. If there are any such players at your table, you have an advantage over them in these situations. Also, they should not really be playing a re-entry tournament with only one bullet because of this disadvantage. This is a typical complaint of recs (one bullet, show up at beginning of tournament) vs. pros (multiple bullets, late reg).

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #9

Sorry, not sorry.

At last year’s WSOP I sucked out one time against an opponent. I had QQ, while my opponent had KK. We didn’t get it all-in preflop. In fact, I was only all-in (and behind) after the turn in which the community cards were 9-5-7-J. I was behind and in big trouble until I hit a two-outer Q to luck box the winning hand. Quickly afterward I said to the guy with KK, “Sorry.”

I did so because I thought it was the polite thing to say.

Now I’m not sure about it being the proper comment for the following reasons:

1) It isn’t going to make the other guy feel any better.

2) Clearly, I’m not really sorry. Of course I wanted to bink my two-outer.

3) It’s just part of the game. It’s nothing personal.

I think in WSOP 2025 if I suck out in a hand like this, I will just quietly stack my chips. I certainly won’t scream out loud and thump my chest. That would be rude. But I don’t think apologizing is the proper response.

When I see a player make a big suck out and say sorry, I assume it’s an inexperienced player. Or so deep in a tournament that they’re overwhelmed by the moment.

Like you said, they’re not really sorry. If they were, they’d give the money back.

Sometimes, when I suck out big, I’ll sarcastically say “Skill game.”

But as you mentioned, it’s really best just not to say anything.

I'm fine with sorry. I don't think we need to take it literally. It's just a polite way of acknowledging, "Yep, you got screwed there."

As for the re-entry point, it's a "break glass in case of emergency" thing for me and not something that would affect my decisions much. I've taken very thin spots near the end of reg when below starting stack, knowing that I could buy back in and have more chips, but generally I don't adjust my play based on the knowledge that I could rebuy. Barring extreme ICM pressure in specific situations, we should be taking whatever clear good spots are presented to us regardless of whether we have more bullets or not. Maybe the knowledge that we have more bullets in the chamber can liberate us to be less concerned about the worst-case scenario when confronted with some of the more volatile decisions.

That's part of why I advocate for high volume over shot-taking a small number of events. A player might play more freely if they know that busting one tournament or bullet means they can just go play something else. There's more pressure to be scared money when you're on a single bullet or playing at a limited venue with no other tournaments running that day. In Vegas during the summer, there is literally always something else to play, so we shouldn't be too attached to any one flight or bullet. When you bust a tournament it's not goodbye, but see you soon.

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #10

Let’s discuss the different WSOP venues.

The Paris Ballroom: I really like this room. It has a bigger than life feel to it. Tall ceilings and a sea of table after table after table after table. Plenty of room between tables. TV monitors with tournament data are easy to find with good sight lines. In addition to being a fun room to play in, it is a really good room to sightsee for well-known pros, especially in the very expensive buy-in mixed game tournaments. Very well lit. The one thing missing in this room are banners, which were located in the two Horseshoe locations in 2024. I don’t partake, but it seemed like servers came by at a satisfactory frequency for those who want drink service.

The Horseshoe arena where final tables take place: I haven’t played there. Besides final tables, it seems like this room is where final stages of some tournaments (but short of final tables) get sent. Since I’ve never been asked to play here, walking in the room feels to me like I am crashing an A-list wedding that I’m not cool enough to be invited to. It has a bigger than life, elite feel to it. It is where the big boys play. That said, the vibe at the final tables can be subdued since there often was not much of a rail watching when I wandered over after I had been knocked out of my tournaments. Large. Dark in kind of a Hollywood-ized rendition of a dark, smoky poker room (but no smoke in this WSOP room). Good sight lines throughout for fans to gawk.

The Horseshoe poker ballroom that you pass on the way to the Final Table arena: Dull. It has all the charm of an oversized basement. There is nothing bigger than life about this location if you ask me. There is nothing terrible about the room, but there is also nothing memorable about it. Meh!

The Daily Deepstacks location: Just an awful setup. It has all the charm of a can of sardines. It’s jam packed with too many players squeezed into not enough room. Also, the temperature was just short of a sauna the one time I played there. This was the least favorite spot during my 2024 WSOP.

The room where you register for tournaments (if you don’t do so electronically): This area is a huge step above where you registered at the Rio. Just way better organized.

The room where you go when you cash a tournament: It’s interesting. Big chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling. It’s sort of elegant, yet also very over the top for its WSOP purpose.

WSOP’s King’s Lounge: This is the high stakes cash game room. I’m a low entry-fee tournament player. In other words, to the King’s Lounge I am poker riff-raff. I’ve never set foot in this area so I have no insight.

The room where WSOP memorabilia is sold: It is what it is. Vanilla retail space. It is rack after rack of basic WSOP gear. At some point you end up there to buy a WSOP t-shirt or sweatshirt.

The hallways where you go on break: It would be nice if there were some lounges where players could have a place to sit. I believe GG has a lounge for its members, but I’m not a GG member. Having to sit on a hallway floor on break to eat a snack and check work e-mails/voice mails is still doable for me at age 63, but it’s not the lap of luxury. This is really not fixable since I don’t see nearby real estate to add decently-sized lounges at the Paris and Horseshoe tournament areas.

I am going to give a Daily Deepstack one more try when I am out there, but, if they haven't figured out a solution to the air conditioning problems, then that will be the last time I play in it.

As for the King's Lounge going away, I also read something about that. If that is the case, that is some prime poker real estate that gets freed up in the Paris Ballroom. I will be rooting for the space to be used as follows:

1) A pop-up food area. I'm thinking Taco Bell, White Castle or Subway, but I'd settle for anything more extensive than the hot dog cart.

2) A player's lounge for breaks.

3) Hot tubs.

I want to play at least one Daily Deepstack myself, but will wait for your (and others) reports about the condition before deciding. If that tournament room is still like a sauna, it might not be worth it.

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #11

Things to keep reminding myself at the WSOP: Focus on process over results. Focus on poker choices I make, not on the variance I experience. Focus on making more good decisions and less mistakes than my opponents do, not on how unlucky I run.

That’s it.

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #12
A couple of 40+ year old lessons I need to remember

I just watched the men’s college ultimate frisbee national championship on ESPNU. As a former University of Michigan ultimate frisbee player back in the 1980s, it excites me to see the national title game on free TV.

The matchup was between ultimate frisbee bluebloods Carleton College and the University of Colorado. Yes, tiny Carleton is an ultimate blueblood (and won 15-12 for its fifth national title).

Watching these elite college ultimate frisbee players brings back some ancient memories that I think are useful to my upcoming WSOP.

My senior year in college we played in the annual April Fools Tournament in (or near, I forget) Washington, D.C. So named because, obviously, one of the days of the tourney fell on/near April 1. It was a massive tourney. I think there may have been 32 teams. These teams were from all over the country, including many/most of the very best clubs in the entire nation. It was the most high-end ultimate frisbee tournament I ever played in.

Our last game of the tournament came against a powerhouse club, which I think may have gone on to win the entire tournament. The first play I saw action in, I had my defensive assignment. We threw the frisbee down the field to start the point, and I ran toward the player I was assigned to. He came running at me, and, to my surprise, he put on a burst of speed to go deep. This caught me flat footed and he raced past me. My game was predicated on speed but not only did I not catch up but he pulled away and eventually caught a long-distance pass for an easy point.

I was the fastest player on my team, but I was not ready for my opponent’s elite, blazing speed. I’d never faced speed like that. For a moment I was a bit rattled. But then I told myself to adjust and not overplay my opponent moving forward. I actually played fairly well the rest of the way. As a team we got beat handily, but I was pleased that I kept my head in the game, didn’t let one mistake turn into a lot of mistakes and played solidly the rest of the way. I was by no means a star in that game, not even close, but I adapted and did not get embarrassed. I stepped up my game and competed.

I think there is a lesson there for me to embrace in my upcoming WSOP. At some point someone much better than me is going to do something at my expense that will rattle me. I can’t let it get to me. I can’t let one mistake turn into a lot of mistakes. I need to maintain my confidence, adjust and play the best I can. Can’t be scared money.

There is one other lesson I can take from that long ago ultimate frisbee tourney and apply to my upcoming WSOP. In our first game of the tournament, I started well on defense, but on offense I dropped two or three catchable passes. After my speed, my hands were my best attribute, so I was very frustrated at my out-of-character case of the dropsies. At halftime, one of my teammates told me I was pressing too much and that I should just go out and have fun. I did just that and played exceptionally well in the second half.

So, yes, while I will take my WSOP tournaments seriously, I think it is also important to remember to have fun.

In poker terms, the lessons from above come down to …

… Tilt. Don’t. It’s really not that difficult.