Gray-haired poker TRs: Living the WSOP dream

It sounds like there were long, slow lines today for the WSOP+ verification process at the WSOP. The hope is that there will be a lot more people to assist with the verification process moving forward. We'll see.

Here is my game plan for dealing with this one-time verification process that is brand new:

1) I will expect the worst. I will carve out a 2-3 hour window of time for me to get my verification done.

2) I will bring a book to read while in line.

3) I'm not going to let it upset me. It is unavoidable if I want to play. Getting angry not only won't do me any good, but it is -EV. I will control what I can control, and I won't sweat that which I cannot control.

4) I'm not going to complain. It is like a bad beat story. Unfortunate to experience the bad beat, but no one else wants to listen to the tale of woe.

Two days until the big weigh-in to see if Operation Weight Loss has been a success.

Where do you get ESPNU for free? Asking for a friend interested in NCAA baseball tournament...

It's part of whatever cable package I have. I'm sure when I signed up a million years ago I took the package that allowed for me to get as many sports stations as possible. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I haven't looked at what package I have in forever. I get my cable through Comcast if that helps any.

Because I am a complete dope, I posted the following stuff in someone else's thread. I'll still post it here where it belongs.

............

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #13

I have a very slight hand tremor. It doesn’t occur with any regularity or for any particular reason. Just every once in a while, it appears briefly. Totally random.

Once in a while it takes place at the poker table. It usually draws a comment.

“I saw your hands shake when you bet and I knew you had a monster, so I folded.”

or

From a neighboring player not in a hand, “I saw your hand shaking so I knew you were bluffing. You should hide it better.”

Here’s the amazing thing. Every time someone has ever commented how they interpreted my hand tremor, their interpretation of my cards was completely wrong. Every time. As in 100% of the time. So, if my hand shakes a tiny bit, I don’t concern myself with it since I know it’s not a tell and especially since other players have always read it wrong. I don’t know why they always get it wrong, but they just do. It’s too bad the tremor does not appear with more regularity since it seems to totally result in other players misinterpreting what it means as it relates to the perceived strength or weakness of my hand.

Fore responded to the above post in the thread I posted by mistake.

Here is Fore's comment: "They have always been wrong only for the times it was mentioned. Maybe every time it was noticed and not mentioned they got it right. Since when it happens is random but the person responding is likely consistent in their interpretation, it will randomly help and hurt equally."

Here is my response: "Of course you are correct. The good news is it rarely happens. It happened once in my 2019 WSOP, once in my 2024 WSOP, and twice the last couple of years when I have played in tournaments in Arizona and Illinois casinos. In every instance, my opponent did what I wanted. When I had it, they called. When I was bluffing, they folded. I realize this is a small sample size. And I am kidding when I say the tremor should come around more often since opponents always get it wrong. They have always gotten it wrong, but that doesn't mean they will continue to get it wrong. All of that said, I am not going to concern myself with the hand tremor since it's not something I control, and its appearances are so infrequent. The worst of it is if I am carrying a tray of food and someone mildly bumps me, which makes the tremors in both hands go crazy. But that won't be an issue when I am at the poker table."

Concentration at work is becoming increasingly difficult. The WSOP anticipation is becoming all-consuming.

RR - I can't tell you enough how much I have enjoyed following your journey. As a fellow poker player, sport fan and writer it has been an amazing follow. Your growth as a player, and commitment to your business and family are something many of us strive for.

Now that I am finished with all of the sappy shit, I plan to play the $1, 500 LIMIT TOURNAMENT on June 9. Yes. I said LIMIT TEXAS HOLD EM. It would be an honor to treat you to a Dr. Pepper, or one of your yearly alcoholic beverages.

Hi GoIrish, thank you for the kind words. As I like to say to tenants of mine, among my many duties, I am in charge of the Department of Compliments Received.

Check your private messages. If our respective tournaments cooperate, I am up for trying to connect.

The 2025 25K Fantasy Draft was just held. Each drafting team had a budget of $200, and a total of 192 players were drafted. The following are players I played against in WSOP 2024 who were drafted in the just completed draft ($ amount in parentheses).

Arthur Morris ($38)
Ben Yu ($31)
John Hennigan ($11)
Eric Baldwin ($5)
Erick Lindren ($2)

I'm curious if facing them last year was typical, on the high side or on the low side.

Time will tell.

Reason #703 why I don't like unions. Even dumber there are no union workers that filled Dave's absence.

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #14
Things I dare not attempt at the WSOP

I'd like to think I won't be afraid to bluff, make a correct hero call, stand up to an aggressive table captain.

But there are certain things I dare not try when I get to Las Vegas shortly for WSOP 2025.

For starters, chip towers that seem to require an architect's degree and a building permit. Something like ...

(

https://www.pgt.com/news/odd-poker-superstitions

PokerGO Tour

Odd Poker Superstitions | PGT

Or this ...

(https://www.reddit.com/r/poker/comments/...)

OK, I don't think anyone will fault me for being too chicken to build towers like that.

But, this next one is embarrassing. I cannot riffle poker chips. It doesn't look difficult. The fact that almost every other player at the WSOP seems to riffle chips effortlessly would seem to indicate that it doesn't require a degree from MIT to do it. But I can't do it. I try, I fail. I don't even come close to pulling it off, so I won't try it at the WSOP since spewing chips from a riffle would make me look like the biggest fish in the entire Paris ballroom.

I've never tried to riffle chips -- I can't stand it. It makes the poker room so annoyingly loud. I wish it weren't a "thing." Please never learn 😉

I don't have those kinds of issues 😉

Seriously, I don't really think about it -- I guess my hands are usually in my lap or sometimes resting on the table. If I'm playing well-known opponents and I don't have to pay too much attention to hands I'm not in, I'm usually playing poker on my phone or reading a book on my phone, so one hand might be holding the phone.

I wish everyone would just get spinners to keep the noise down! It's the only thing I don't like about walking into a poker room.

Things I’m thinking about while waiting for my WSOP trip to begin #15
Let’s talk poker superstitions

I look at my bankroll I am bringing to the WSOP, and there are no $50 bills in it. I always hear poker players say $50 bills are bad luck. They seem to say this a lot, and they strongly believe it is a thing.

This gets me wondering about why a $50 bill is viewed as being unlucky by gamblers. I ask AI Overview for an explanation, and it responds: “Yes, it's a common belief among gamblers and some others that $50 bills bring bad luck, particularly in casinos. There are various theories about the origin of this superstition, including a famous gambler's supposed demise while holding only $50 bills and the fact that the bill features Ulysses S. Grant, who went bankrupt before his death. Some casinos even avoid using $50 bills as change due to this belief. … While there's no scientific basis for the idea that $50 bills cause bad luck, the belief is widespread, especially among gamblers and in some gambling-related contexts. The superstition has been attributed to various factors, including the mobster Bugsy Siegel's rumored death with only $50 bills in his pocket.”

According to an article I found (https://www.potawatomi.com/blog/top-10-g...), the story behind $50 bills being unlucky “… comes from mafia culture. It is said that when the mafia buried someone in the Nevada desert, they placed a $50 bill in their pocket. This led people to associate $50 bills with bad luck.”

This led me down a rabbit hole about gambling superstitions. I found one that I take great issue with. According to an article I found (

https://www.pokertube.com/article/five-odd-gambling-superstitions-and-their-origins

PokerTube

📰 Five Odd Gambling Superstitions And Their Origins

This same article has another poker superstition that I will argue against: “According to Indian culture, maintaining hygiene is a bad omen for gamblers. Instead, if you are going to gamble, be sure to stay away from all forms of hygiene, as washing your body will wash away any good luck that was lingering around you.” Uhhh, sorry but I’m not interested in a superstition that encourages poker players to be stinky. Heck, the WSOP even has a rule against bad hygiene deemed disruptive to the rest of the table.

Steve Dannenmann, the 2005 Main Event runnerup, definitely believed in poker superstition per an article at https://www.888poker.com/magazine/poker/... “During the 2005 WSOP Main Event, Steve Dannenmann had a list of superstitions he adhered to. For example, he only rode in even-numbered taxi cabs, wore the same shirt seven days in a row, and he wouldn’t let his wife watch him play since she missed watching the first day of play.”

To combat this thought process, I call on the testimony of an expert witness. In the same article as the paragraph above, Doyle Brunson was quoted as saying, “Superstition is so destructive to poker profit that I believe the costliest thing a player can bring to the table is a good-luck charm. When I’m in doubt, I generally go with my feelings, but that’s not the same thing as superstition. I’d prefer to make decisions based on percentages and perception, but when those don’t point to a clear choice, I let gamblers’ intuition be my guide. I figure there might be something that I’ve unconsciously observed steering me in that direction. Maybe it’s wrong, and maybe it’s right, but since I don’t have a more scholarly reason to make a decision, I’ll go with that feeling. … But superstition is quite different. When you’re superstitious, you do things that are contrary to common sense and analysis. And you lose money. I’m not saying I’ve never had any mild superstitions. But you’ve got to fight them back and not let them guide you.”

As for me, I’m not really a superstitious person, so, back to where this post started, the fact that I am heading to the WSOP without any $50 bills is entirely due to the fact that $100 bills make for a more compact stack of bills. But for those of you who believe in the $50 bill curse, I am safe from any unluckiness it brings.

Wait a minute, TonySoprano9, who posts LVL TRs of winning tournaments left and right, is a habitual chip riffler? Maybe my lack of chip riffling is why I don't have better results.

I believe what Doyle wrote. So many times if I had just followed my intuition (gut), I would have been correct. I try to do it, and I am going to try harder in the future.

Oh, well. It can't get much louder, anyway.

I'm still not going to do it.

$50s are unlucky because they aren't $100s, is how I've always heard it.

I try not to bring any superstitions to the poker table that would negatively impact my play. Touch wood. And the rifling of chips from 100s if not 1000s of players is like music to these ears. Can't wait to immerse myself in poker in Las Vegas for 3-4 days.

It is surprising how much noise can be generated by a ballroom full of chip shufflers.

True story. Senior year in college there was a kid in one of my classes who used to bring a little stack of chips into class and fidget with them during the period. I thought, 'That's a little corny, but fair play.'

He now has a banner hanging in the Horseshoe. I see a 30 foot version of him every year that I play the WSOP.

I have mentioned in this thread that I have an office building for sale in which I thought we were close to closing. All of the terms had been agreed upon, but recently unexpected snags keep cropping up during due diligence, inspection, etc. I fix it. A new snag appears. I fix it. A new snag appears. Today, a pretty big snag came up. I still put the likelihood of the sale going through at around 60-70%, but there is work/negotiations to be done.

The bad news is at this point it seems almost certain that I am going to have to deal with some of these issues during breaks in my tournaments at the WSOP. Not every break, but some of them. Not ideal. While everyone else is discussing bad beat tales of woe, I will be busy on the phone trying to keep a deal afloat.

I really didn't want to deal with this at the WSOP. I've just got to deal with it and not let it bother me. Fortunately, one of my super powers is the ability to compartmentalize.

DogFace's story reminds me of this.

A while back, (before covid, anyway), I was playing in the Seniors event. After we'd started, a guy comes up, gives the dealer his entry slip and players' card.

The dealer says he needs photo ID. Guy looks around a bit, and points at a banner on the wall.

Turns out it was Berry Johnston, 1986 ME champion. We all got a good laugh out of that.