The Summer Wind - A WSOP Trip Report …… and beyond!

oof. Saving up the run good hopefully? How many more on the schedule?

Hang in there!!

So sorry for the run-bad. It can be soul crushing :( It will turn around!

as we all know sometimes variance comes in clusters
but being there for the excitement when it turns is the reason i post
give 'em hell Tony

WSOP
Day 33 - Thursday July 10th

Thanks for the messages of support and well wishes. They do help, as I was pretty down yesterday.

Two more tournaments to go and they’re both TORSE which is one of my favorite mixes.

If anything can cheer me up it’s surely playing TORSE in luxurious surroundings, with good dealers, attentive cocktail service and a tournament run like clockwork.

The first bullet turns out to be a dud about 20 minutes before the end of late reg. Unfortunately we’re having to fire more bullets than this guy with a MP40:

Bonus points for naming the film. It’s one of my all-time favorites.

We hit couple of hands in the short period before late reg ends to be on 55k at the break.

We chip up to 85k on the next break and about 220k on the break after that approaching the bubble.

The bubble only lasts one hand and we’re in the money.

Level 18 now which is 15k - 30k limits and we win a nice Stud 8 pot with Aces up.

Onto level 19 (20k - 40k) we have 300k with 15 players remaining. Average is 290k

Agro Japanese player on my left. Play a couple of 2-7 pots against him. Lose the first but win the second.

The TD pauses the clock at the end of the level to color up the 1k chips although it’s not an official break. We now have some chocolate chips, and not the cookies.

Level 20: 25k - 50k. Average is 350k, we have 400k but the limits are so high now it’s very crap-shooty. Need to run good.

We don’t.

In Stud 8 we have split two pair Aces and Fours all the way against villain’s board with open Tens.
It’s a big pot. He bets all-in on 7th. We call. He caught the 3rd Ten on 7th. (We also had a Ten on our board so it’s a one outer) sick. [emoji1785]

We only have 80k left and put it in playing 2-7 starting 7652x

On the last draw we still haven’t improved while the villain stands pat with a ten. Can we hit?

No. [emoji22]

Out in 12th place for $2,847 and pretty sick about it. If our aces up held in Stud 8 we would have had 500k and been one of the chip leaders but instead it’s little more than a min-cash.

We start the lonely walk back to the Paris. As I’m going through the Venetian I realize I haven’t eaten since breakfast and just make last orders at Sugarcane.

Another place where they serve the fish upside down. Is that a thing here?

For me it should be like this no?

A much bigger portion than the branzino I got in Mayfair supper club and almost as tasty.

The Venetian lobby is the nuts.

So just one tournament left tomorrow and it’s our main event. WSOP $3,000 TORSE

All I ask from the poker gods is a fair run of the cards. Please hold off on the bad beats for the next 3 days. [emoji120]

Gross stud hand.

GL in the WSOP event tomorrow.

The only thing I really miss about the old Venetian poker room is taking long walks down that hallway during breaks. The bathroom adjacent to the check-in area was my go-to. Epic scenery for sure. Slightly more inspiring than the Palazzo retail shops.

What I like most about your posts is the suspense element. We read about the hands that you played, your growing chip stack, and the blinds that keep increasing - interspersed with emojis and relevant pictures - without knowing the result beforehand. I thought the "Can we hit?" bit was especially well done.

While it sucks to not hold in that Stud hand with two pair, at least this bullet wasn't another blank. Good luck in your main event!

GL in the WSOP TORSE!!! You are due for sure.

Is that Clint in Guns of Navarone? Didn’t look it up, just a 50 something whose family would watch those movies/shows growing up.

What impresses me about your trip reports is the fact that even when you are running bad, you still get some "results."

Wishing you huge run good in the WSOP $3,000 TORSE.

With trip reports otherwise grinding to a halt after the WSOP deluge of LVL TRs, I desperately want you to run deep. I suspect you are similarly invested.

In all seriousness, I hope the cards are friendly.

Where Eagles Dare? An all time favorite as well.

Good luck today!

Nnnnoooooooo Guns of Navarone was Gregory Peck and David Niven. Good film though.

Si señor.

broadsword calling danny boy, broadsword calling danny boy over.

WSOP
Day 34 - Friday July 11th

The trip is nearly over but there’s still time for one last hotel change! We’re going to finish where we started at MGM Grand.

I decided it was probably quicker to walk up the strip with my suitcase than to get the monorail so that’s what we did.

I was just about to get in line in the lobby to check in when I got a message on my phone. My room was ready and my virtual key was in the app!

I got an old room on a low floor (as you always do with app check-in) but it’s better than standing in line for 2 hours.

And it allowed me to get in a little pool time before the tournament.

Pre-tournament lunch at Canes.

Playing in Paris purple today and the shuffle machines are turned on to start. About as good playing conditions as you can get at the WSOP. The shuffle machines were turned off later when the field grew and spilled out of Purple and into Yellow as well.

I’d like to say this story has a happy ending and recount how we chipped up steadily and found a bag at the end of the night but I’m afraid it doesn’t. It was another tough day and we fired another two bullets [emoji30]

This hand captured by PokerNews told the sort of day I was having perfectly.

I’m pat with an 8-6 and despite the fact that it was a 4-way pot and nearly all the wheel cards must have been dead the villain still manages to find the one he needs on the end [emoji22]

To rub salt in the wounds he got there again on me for another big pot a little while later in Stud 8 making deuces full of nines on 7th to beat my trip sevens that I’d had since 5th.

So that’s the tournaments done. It’s been a rough and expensive WSOP which has wiped out nearly all the profit from the early victory at Wynn.

I’ll do a full accounting in the next couple of days.

oof, nasty one. I was fully expecting a deep run from you as I started reading the latest post

mtts are a brutal business when you're running bad. Guessing you're desperate to get home now?

WSOP
Days 35 and 36 - Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th July

So my WSOP is done but I still have another two days to kill here and the last thing I want to do is play poker.

Saturday I was still feeling down and didn’t go out much. I actually watched a lot of the main event coverage on my laptop in the room and caught the circus that was the Will Kassouf show. What a clown.

Sunday I was over the disappointment and ready to face the world again. So what do normal people do in Vegas? Dinner and a show? Sounds like a plan, but first things first:

Weekend mornings at the pool are fine but they crank up the volume and play the douchy club music in the afternoons unfortunately.

So in the afternoon I escaped to Planet Hollywood to watch the final of the Club World Cup. I had intended to watch it at MGM, but as they had no live betting on it had to find an alternative. For sports betting in Vegas there really is only one choice between the big two: Hail Caesar!

The book at PH was busy and there was a good English crowd in cheering on Chelsea. By the time I got there Chelsea were already winning 2-0. I liked them to hold on to win but the live line was -260 so I went with Under 4.5 goals instead at -160

I didn’t like the 3rd goal before halftime but they played out a bad tempered goal-less 2nd half and I had a winner on my last day.

I know Craftsteak at MGM is one of Watbri’s go-tos so decided to give it a try as I didn’t want to leave the hotel and I wasn’t disappointed.

A really nice steak perfectly cooked and excellent service.

And a little treat for dessert.

After dinner I saw the Ka show by Cirque du Soleil. I’m not really a big fan of those sort of shows but I found myself enjoying it.

Then it was time to pack and head to the airport for the red-eye with Copa back to Medellin via Panama.

Wrap up post and final thoughts still to come.

Glad you got a late sports betting winner to ease the pain.

Craftsteak is on my Way Too Early List of Restaurants for WSOP 2026. The food looks great.

Agree with your take on Kassouf.

While the results weren't what you wanted, thanks for a compelling and highly readable trip report.

Currently killing time waiting for my flight at the airport so thought I’d take a look and see how good my original numbers were.

Seems a long time ago but we did manage to win a tournament. This was a hard line to set. At +1,200 I gave myself a 7.7% chance.

We only made 1 final table which I’m disappointed with. We did have a 9th, 2 x 12th and a 16th so we were within touching distance of another.

I juiced the over 5.5 on number of cashes so expected the over and delivered with 7 cashes although would have liked a couple of them to have been bigger.

Steak dinners 6.5. We just squeezed in for the over with 7 steak pictures ITT.

Desserts. Looks like I only posted 4 ice cream or dessert pics ITT but I for sure had way more.

Pool pics. I counted 14 ITT and again there were days when I went that I didn’t post. I did miss out on some pool days with early tournament and cash game starts and changing hotels.

Strip club visits. Didn’t go. Might have gone after the win at Wynn but for the fact that I had to go straight to the airport so maybe a bad beat there, although I hear they now charge $40 for lap dances WTF ?

Propositions. I think I only mentioned 5 occasions ITT but it was definitely more, especially when I was staying at the Paris as the bar between the check-in area and cafe americano seemed to be their hangout.

Thanks so much for writing it all up. So sorry for the run-bad. So disappointing in Vegas, but those of us who have been often feel your pain :( Safe travels, and good luck at the tables!

Thanks for the great write-ups. Got unlucky at inopportune times. Was a fun sweat for us.

Thanks for sharing. Tournaments are cruel until they aren't. The deep runs are coming.

Glad to have met you and hope to cross paths in the future.

Thanks for the write ups mate. Sorry the results haven’t gone your way in the second half but with the pool and a good dinner every night, you’ve done Vegas right

And for us schlubs at home, you’ve been very generous with your time to give us a consistent daily Vegas fix

Thank you