The Summer Wind - A WSOP Trip Report …… and beyond!
Don’t ask me why I chose the title of an old Sinatra song to be the title for this year’s trip report, i have no idea, i
Hard Rock Poker Open 2025
Part Four
Wednesday August 6th
Only managed to get about 3 hours sleep after the late finish and the buzz of winning.
The win propels me into 2nd place on the leaderboard with just two events to go. It’s still a long shot to overtake Joe as I will need a podium finish to do it but at least we have a chance.
That’s the only reason I chose to play today’s $600 PLO 8 event as I was still really tired and would have skipped it if not for the leaderboard.
I steadily increase my chips before I brick out with A234 on a A-5-9 flop and lose a big pot to a set of fives.
That leaves me with just 4k in chips from the 20k starting stack at the end of late reg. So I have an interesting decision to make. Do I forfeit the chips and spend another $600 on re-entry to have 20k again or try and spin up the 4k?
I decided not to forfeit the chips and re-enter as I wasn’t feeling it due to the fatigue. I didn’t manage to spin up the short stack so it was an early exit today.
I was on my way back to the hotel but I stopped in at the poker room and they were just starting up a $10-$10-$25 5-card PLO game with a seat open so ordered a Red Bull and sat down.
It was without exaggeration the worse cash game I’ve ever played in my life. All regs, all nits, half with earphones in, most more concerned with their phones, zero social element, zero enjoyment.
I managed to win a smallish pot although I don’t remember how and racked up after 4 hours with a $600 profit and headed back to the hotel for some sleep.
Thursday August 7th
1st day of NFL pre-season. After 20 years of using Don Best I’m trying out a new odds screen.
This is odds logic which was built by the guys that used to work at Don Best. It currently comes with a 7-day free trial and then just $99 per month which is a good deal. (I am in no way affiliated with them)
I have great closing line value on all 3 of today’s games getting way the best of the numbers. Now all they have to do is win.
None of the contenders cashed yesterday so the leaderboard stayed the same. Last event today and it has a bigger buy-in. $1,100 Omaha 8.
First bullet was a blank. Why do I always need 2 bullets in the bigger buy-in tournaments? It’s most annoying.
It was hard work with the 2nd bullet but I made the last two tables before fizzling out.
David Shmuel who won the $1,500 Omaha 8 bracelet at the WSOP this year ended up binking the tournament and in doing so catapulted past Joe and myself to win the leaderboard.
Still my 3rd place finish was good for $1,700 worth of tournament tickets that I will use in the remaining tournaments.
Watched the NFL games in the sportsbook. Beating the closing line is no good if they don’t win. I go 0 and 3. [emoji30]
Friday August 8th
$600 Mixed PLO again with a very late start time of 3pm due to the main event kicking off today so we spend the morning at the pool.
Not quite as glamorous as Las Vegas.
Never got going today in the tournament so went off in search of a cash game.
Played the smaller $5-$5-$10 5-card PLO which was better than the bigger game I played the other night. I was winning on the must move table but after I got sent to the main game went extremely card dead and whiffed the flops on the few playable hands I did have. I waved the white flag after 3 hours down -$300.
Hard Rock Poker Open 2025
Part Five
Saturday August 9th
$600 Ten Game again today. The ten games, and the order we played them in are:
1. Stud 8
2. A-5 Triple Draw
3. No Limit Hold’em
4. 7 Card Stud
5. 2-7 Triple Draw
6. Omaha 8
7. Razz
8. Badugi
9. PLO
10. Limit Hold’em
At the WSOP they use 2-7 No Limit Single Draw instead of the A-5 Triple Draw but I don’t mind it this way.
I have a tough PLO spot early. I call a raise pre with JT78. Flop is Q-5-6 with two spades.
Villain continues. We have open ended and 8 high flush draw. We call.
Turn: Ace spades completing the flush.
Villain bets small, less than half pot. We call.
River: 2
Villain leads out for full pot.
His small bet sizing on the turn and then pot lead on the river seems really strange.
The call would be almost all my chips. I think for a long time and try to get a read on him. I eventually come to the conclusion that he has it more than not in this spot and even if he doesn’t, I like my edge more on the fixed limit games and will get it back a bet at a time there so decide to let it go.
It’s hard work early. We’ve only got 33k from a 25k staring stack at the end of late reg but go on a bit of a rush to sit on 85k at the next break which is slightly above the average of 75k with 21 players remaining.
9 of us left now and we’re on the bubble. I have 125k. Average is 175k playing 8k - 16k limits.
We make it and make the final table of 7. We’ll start it with 200k which is just below the 240k average and we’re playing 12k - 24k limits.
We play a big badugi pot early.
I open with a one card draw to A-2-5, villain 3-bets and a short stack 4-bets all-in.
1st draw. 1-pat-pat
2nd draw. We take one and villain now takes 2 saying he misread his hand. WTF? All-in guy stays pat.
We brick but bet liking our 3-card 5 against villain’s draw 2. He calls.
Last draw: 1-1-pat
We check, villain bets, we call.
We bricked and he made a badugi of course. Idiot gets rewarded. Half our stack gone.
Bricked A246 in a 3-way stud 8 pot and am now short.
Made 7-4 in A-5 to double.
Level 19: 15k - 30k limits. We have 80k and are the short stack with 5 players left.
All in and double in Stud making aces up on 7th against Kings up.
Level 20: 20k - 40k limits. We’re still the short stack of 5 with 150k
Make 8-6 in 2-7 in blind v blind pot. Pick up 100k
Lost it all back last hand of 2-7 bricking a 2357 draw.
Scoop an O8 pot to knock out 5th place. Up to 300k Avg. Is 400k
Lose a big razz hand with 9-7 vs 9-6
Down to 140k at break coming back to 25k - 50k limits
All in with 7-7 | 8 on 3rd in stud 8 against the Badugi idiot from earlier. He has J-6 | A
I have a bad feeling and sure enough he catches another Ace and we don’t improve. GG.
Wanted another win really bad but it wasn’t to be.
Hard Rock Poker Open 2025
Part Six
Sunday August 10th
The series still has two more days to run after today, but this will be my last day as my flight home is booked for tomorrow.
Today is a $400 TORSE but I’m tired after last nights efforts and only playing my B game at best. I punt off my chips shortly after late reg closes and that will do it for the poker this trip.
I do bust in time to catch the 4pm NFL pre-season game and the end of the golf which I watch in the pretty empty sportsbook.
I go with the Chargers and Tommy Fleetwood. The Chargers win easily enough but Tommy Fleetwood despite being 2 ahead with only 2 holes to play bottles it again.
Enough gambling. Haven’t had a proper restaurant meal this trip so let’s put that right with a juicy steak at Council Oak.
Bone in ribeye with au gratin potatoes and a glass of Cabernet. Mmnnn, mnnnnn, happy happy. [emoji39]
They had live music today which was pretty good.
And that’ll do it.
Final numbers
Tournaments Played: 13
Bullets Fired: 18
Total Buy-Ins: $11,400
Cashes: 3
Final Tables: 3
Wins: 1
Total Prize Money: $19,510
Net: $8,110
Cash Games
Sessions Played: 3
Hours Played: 12
Net: $1,500
Hourly: $125
Sports Betting: -$3,000
Expenses:
Flight: $413
Hotel: $1,547
Overall Net Profit: $4,650
So another profitable and enjoyable trip to the big guitar in South Florida. I’m still not sure what the future holds for me but If that was my last trip until next summer then at least I signed off with a win and brought home some hardware.
Thanks all for reading.
Nice write up, good results!
Thanks for the TR,
Great read and congrats !
I'm shamefully late in replying to this awesome thread, although I have been congratulating David on Twitter.
Ideal combination of pics, poker details and food and although it sucks to see some of the bad beats, it's also somewhat reassuring that I'm not the only one it happens to 🙄
Still no job and the way the company are messing around it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen so I’ll keep grinding away.
Short trip to Borgata upcoming to play two tournaments; an $1,100 HORSE and a $2,500 9-Game with a $250k guarantee!
Selling some action on pokerstake if anyone wants a sweat.
Still no job and the way the company are messing around it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen so I’ll keep grinding away.
Short trip to Borgata upcoming to play two tournaments; an $1,100 HORSE and a $2,500 9-Game with a $250k guarantee!
Good luck in the tournaments. Sorry to hear the potential employers are dragging their heels.
Borgata Big Big Buy-In Series
Day One - Saturday September 6th
The summer wind has turned into the autumn breeze and here we are still floating along.
I did think I would be starting a new job this week, as anyone would, after 4 interviews and verbally agreeing a salary and start date. The formal offer letter did not come through however, and after a couple of weeks of them ghosting me I finally got the email I was half expecting.
Due to a shift in business direction we have made the decision to pause recruitment
And this was from a big online gambling software supplier. LOL. Give me illegal offshore books and handshake deals where someone’s word counts for something any day of the week.
Anyway, so that’s why I find myself with this short trip to Borgata, which is not the easiest place to get to for me, hence the unsocial flight itinerary.
I did manage to sleep on the first flight which was good but still arrive pretty tired so won’t be playing poker today.
The Saturday night rates at Borgata are crazy so will be staying at Harrahs tonight before moving to Borgata tomorrow.
Coastal Tower King. I think this is the oldest tower but the room is fine apart from that’s it’s on the 5th floor so I don’t have a view.
After getting checked in I go for a stroll outside. Beautiful day today in the mid 70’s.
After the stroll I had a siesta before going down for dinner. I opted for the Italian restaurant La Strada.
Chicken parm.
And tiramisu for dessert.
Pretty good. I’d say 7/10 for the chicken parm and 8/10 for the tiramisu.
Someone told me that the powerball jackpot was up to $1.8 billion so I couldn’t resist. $60 I’ll probably never see again.
Then went up to the room to watch the Michigan / Oklahoma game while playing some online poker. Sorry rppoker but I was on Oklahoma which proved to be the right side.
I’ve recently started playing on Phenom poker which is an interesting concept and is great for mixed games as it has all the games.
Tonight I played the $4 / $8 Fun Mix which consists of A-5, 2-7 Razz, Omaha 8, Badeucy, Badugi, 2-7 and Stud 8.
For anyone wanting to learn mix games I would recommend it. If anyone does want to give it a try send me a pm and I’ll give you a referral code for a 200% bonus up to $4,000 USDT.
On deck tomorrow:
$1,100 HORSE
That's a Harrah's room, alright. Furniture and carpet identical to their LV rooms, where I've spent many a night.
Good luck in the tourneys.
Borgata Big Big Buy-In Series
Day One - Saturday September 6th
Then went up to the room to watch the Michigan / Oklahoma game while playing some online poker. Sorry rppoker but I was on Oklahoma which proved to be the right side.
I don't blame you. I was not optimistic about Michigan's chances going into the game. I don't bet on sports, but if I did I would have viewed Oklahoma as the screaming play.
Sorry about the bad job news. Not sure if I’ve mentioned it but I own/run an exec search firm.
Momentum is so important in recruitment and unexplained delays are bad news 90% of the time. Either the job is on hold, they’ve gone soft on you or you’re the #2 choice and they’re waiting for an answer from their #1. Your best hope (other than unexplained illness etc) is that they are too disorganised/busy and don’t have their **** together which is bad news of a different kind
Borgata Big Big Buy-In Series
Day Two - Sunday September 7th
First order of business today was to change hotels. I forgot to mention yesterday I tried to go for a swim at Harrahs and they wanted to charge me $27. WTF? Apparently their pool is run by a 3rd party and you have to pay extra. I politely declined.
A Borgata King.
In stark contrast to yesterday. Drizzly rain and grey skies today.
$1,100 HORSE today which only drew a rather disappointing 32 runners. Based on that number there’s no way in hell they’re going to make the $250k guarantee on the 9-game, so should be a nice overlay.
Some changes to the poker room since I was last here in January.
They’ve taken the tables out in front and converted that area into a Racebook.
The old high limit section in the back is now the tournament area and isn’t really any different, although that’s not where we were playing today.
The rest of the room they have sectioned off more and added some TV’s.
We started with 40,000 chips on a slow structure including 2 Kessler double levels, meaning that even with only 32 players it would still be a two day affair.
We didn’t make much headway in the first session but had a better 2nd stanza to have 68,000 on the 2nd break, before regressing slightly to go to dinner on 56,000.
Penne allá arrabiata with sausage from the food court.
The pasta fueled us onto 85k at the last break of the night but then we had a bad last two hours.
We were down to only 10,000 at 6k - 12k limits before finding a double in Razz then winning a Stud pot to ensure we bagged, albeit not very impressively.
We’ll be coming back to 8k - 16k limits tomorrow meaning I only have 4 big bets. And to make matters worse there is only 2 hands of Stud 8 left before we switch to hold’em where I’ll be the big blind first hand. (No overnight re-draw as we already did a re-draw for the last two tables)
Going to need some cooperation from the cards early tomorrow if we’re going to turn this into a cash.
