2018 WSOP Main Event Recap + 2019 prep.
In 2018, I had a very deep run in the WSOP Main event. For those who don’t follow this closely, I’ll give you a backdrop and answer a few of the questions that I most commonly get.
First question “How do you qualify for the world series of poker?” Answer: Anyone can play in the WSOP. You take your cash, wait in a line at the RIO and register for which event you want to play. There are over 70 events ranging in buyin price from $500 to $50k. The only qualification to play is having the money to buyin.
Second question: Will you be on TV again this year? Answer: I have no idea. ESPN gets a list of all the players at each table the night before, and they choose the table that they most want to televise. If it has Phil Ivey or Phil Helmuth chances are they are going to choose that because after all, it makes for good TV. Last year I was on a table with the “last woman standing” Kelly Minken,
so with 200 or so people left, they picked our table to be on TV. They send an ESPN rep over to have you fill out a survey so that later on in the edits they can talk about you as if they know about you.
Third question: Are you practising for this year? Answer: No, I don’t practice. I don’t need to practice. However, I am studying, a lot. I have had sessions with my coach, and have been memorizing different stack sizes for preflop play.
So in leading up to my WSOP 2019, I’m prepping in a number of ways to try to improve on my 2018 results (which is next to impossible btw). If I look back at some of the struggles I had in 2018, I can try to prepare to make those less of a struggle in 2019. One of the main struggles was eating and after several days lack of movement. For those not familiar with how a day at the WSOP looks like, let me walk you through it.
11:00 a.m. Cards are dealt. I prepare for this by having a sizable breakfast but very little to drink. I make sure to go to the bathroom around 10:45 a.m. as the lines are not bad. I’m a coffee guy, but it goes right through me, so I have to wait to have my first coffee. I’ll have this around 12:30 p.m. 30 minutes before my first 15-minute break.
1:00 p.m.- 15-minute break. 4,000 people rush out of one room to one of two bathrooms. The lines are long as it’s 95% men. I wait in line the entire time during my break.
1:15- Cards are dealt again. Each session is two hours. I’ll have my second coffee from 2:45–3:00 p.m. Black, no sugar.
3:15- 15-minute break. The same thing- fight with thousands of men for 7 urinals.
3:30–5:30. Two more hours of poker. No drinks. Next break involves dinner. I text my assistant around 4:30 with my dinners wishes. There is no shot of getting in line and getting anything to eat near the poker rooms. Remember, 4000+ people, are all trying to eat at once. Many poker players rush out the back and try to uber out to grab something off-site to eat.
5:30–630- Dinner Break. My assistant brings me my food, and we eat on the floor somewhere in the hall of the RIO. I try to stretch and move around as much as possible, get the circulation going. This is more important after days of playing. It’s usually not so bad on the first day. I fight to use the bathroom and sneak back to my seat by 6:30.
6:30–8:30: Two more hours of poker. A lot of people smoke pot on their dinner break, if you can remain focussed, this is a great opportunity to blind up. The blinds are starting to rise and matter. A lot of people get eliminated during these two hours. People are tired and high :). I’ll drink half a bottled water towards the end of this session.
8:30–8:45. Struggle to use the bathroom. Only #1- #2’s are a death sentence.
8:45–10:45: Two more hours of poker. Many more eliminated. I’ll finish my second half of the bottled water.
10:45–11:00 Rinse and repeat. Last bathroom break of the night.
11:15–1:15 a.m. Last level of the night. I’ll start hydrating a little earlier here and I won’t stop. I don’t have to worry about bathroom breaks anymore.
1:15 a.m. Bag your chips and call it a night.
This is mostly what the days and nights look like. I then head to the bar to unwind and have a cigar. Sometime around 2–2:30 a.m. the wsop will put out the seating assignments for day 2. I then spend the next 30 minutes googling each player at my table and reading up on them as much as I can to see if I can gather any information. I’ll call my coach and a few other guys and see if they can provide any insight into the players. Last year on day two, all 8 of the people at my table had 1 million plus in live tournament winnings. This doesn't mean that they’re all unbelievable, but it does mean that they are likely, not going to be soft. On day two last year, I remember someone coming up to my table and saying “This is the worst table I’ve ever seen, I know every one of you except for one.” That one was me, which meant the table was very difficult. I had a very well known German pro who was very aggressive to my left. Day two was without a doubt the hardest day of poker in last years Main Event. I was really happy to get through it. I think it was 10 hours before anyone got eliminated.
Day 3 came, and I was short stacked. I spent the entire day somewhere between 20–35 big blinds. I was glad I had spent so much time studying how to play those stacks. I had to fight and claw to stay alive. At this point, I had still only been all in one time and that was on day 1 you can read about that here. I was also fortunate enough to play with David Einhorn
who couldn’t have been a nicer guy. He’s an avid poker player and also billionaire hedge fund guy. He was polite, talkative and very down to earth. I eliminated him when he was short stacked and went all in with 78s. It folded to me in the big blind and I had JJ. The board came out clean and he shook my hand and said if I ever needed a job in finance to call him (kidding).
On day 3, I was all in three separate times but never called. The evening approached and the money bubble was getting close. 1182 people of the starting 7874 would get paid and play really started to slow. On the money bubble people tighten up a ton, trying to sneak in for a min-cash, so this is a great opportunity for the big stacks to throw their chips around. I was not a big stack, and with about 15 people off the bubble, I had KQs on the button when a player from the cutoff raised. I reraised all in, and the player thought for a minute and folded pocket queens (and showed). He said, “Either we’re racing or you’re ahead and I’m not trying to go broke like that.” I told him it was a good fold and we moved on. With four off the bubble, I min-raised k5s OTB (on the button) and the small blind called. The blinds were 3/6k so I probably raised to 13 or 14k or so. I had about 170k to start the hand so just short of 30bb. The big blind with a similar stack (a young internet looking guy) reraised to 50k basically putting an end to my hand. Before I acted I knew that the easy thing to do was to fold, but that’s not what happened. I reraised to 110k which was effectively letting him know that my whole stack was going in the middle if he shoved. It looked really strong, and I knew with his stack size being similar he’d have to fold all but the very top of his range- especially 4 people off the bubble. This was about to be how my main event ended. 3 days of solid play, followed by an implosion right before the money in a 10k event. The small blind quickly folded and the big blind did as well. I showed the 5 and he laughed and said we probably had the same hand. I assume he made a squeeze with A5, the new hot hand to balance your bluff/ value range. A5s has 30% equity against every hand except AA, so a lot of people use it as part of their bluffing range. This might be super obvious to many or well above others. Sorry, either way.
The money tournament went hand for hand until the bubble was burst. They literally announce we have an all in on table 784 and a call, and another on table 448. ESPN runs over to tape both the hands. “We have pocket aces verse pocket aces.” The crowd lets out a boo, as they know that no one is likely to be busted on that hand. This continues until someone busts.
Here is the bust out bubble hand from last year.
Bryce McVay raised to 15,000 from middle position, Matthew Hopkins reraised all in for 49,000 from the button and McVay called.
Once the other all-in and call took place, the hands were revealed.
McVay tabled AQ, dominating the A5 held by Hopkins.
The flop came down 10,8,6, providing little help to Hopkins. The turn was the 6, leaving Hopkins with just three outs to survive. The river was An Ace, locking up the pot for McVay and sending the remaining 1,182 players into the money.
It’s not a complete loss for Hopkins, though, as he will receive a $10,000 entry into the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event.
They bring out draft beer for everyone that cashed. I enjoyed my water, and we bagged shortly after.
Day 4. I’m at Barry Greenstein's table.
This is Barry when he was younger, and the picture on the right is from our table last year. He’s known for giving away a signed copy of his book if you eliminate him from a wsop tournament. Somewhere on day 4, UTG raised, I was UTG+1 with Aces and 17 blind. I flat. (I Could go into this much more, but this is the only spot where I’d ever flat aces preflop). Folds around to Barry in the Big Blind who shoves. UTG calls, I of course call, and I’m all in and at risk. Barry tables 10’s, UTG QQ and I’m there with Aces. Board runs out clean and I get a near triple up while also eliminating Barry Greenstein. I did not get a copy of his book.
Day 4 came and went and the field went from 1182 to 310. My pay jump had gone from min cash to a minimum of somewhere near 30k. I had 1.3 million chips and was in 118th place. Sitting in a very good spot. The blinds would start day 4 at 12/24k so I was still only around 30 blinds deep.
Day 5 I was at the table with Kelly Minken and Shannon Shorr (Shannon Shorr)Kelly was getting a ton of media attention as she was the last woman left in the main event. Shannon is a long time pro and a very nice guy. A young woman came up a few hours in and asked me to fill out a survey. Name, age, profession, hobbies, etc. This means they have selected you to play on the ESPN featured table. They said it would be after the dinner break which was only a level away. Dinner came and went and they mic you up and out you go. I called my local cigar bar in Lake Mary FL and told them to turn on ESPN at 8 or 9 Eastern time. I also posted it on facebook.
We got back from dinner and sat down to play. All the other players at the table were professional poker players. Everyone was good. I remember we were talking and one of the guys had said he was a historian, another said he was a science teacher. All lies. I got good hands right away and got raise and folds. Shannon asked if I was losing my mind because I was on TV. I didn’t mind this image. The truth was I just some good cards. The live feed is actually 30 minutes delayed and you aren't allowed phones at the featured table. As soon as it went live, I spent each moment I could on my phone getting details of the hands that had already happened trying to gather as much detail as I could about the table. My phone was BLOWING UP. 80–100 texts at a time. “I see you on TV!” Pictures of me on TV. “She had a set in that hand, he had A5 that other hand.” Many of the other players were doing the same. Poker is a game of incomplete information. The more information you can gather the better. I held my own, mostly card dead for the 4+ hours I was on live on ESPN. Somewhere towards the end of the night, the power went out. I guess Vegas was experiencing very bad storms and the Rio actually lost power. They brought in large spotlights and we bagged for the night. 108 people remained. The min payout was 57k and I was in 70th place of the 108. I had almost 2.5 million chips and the blinds were 30/60k. I was over 40 blinds deep. Still in a very good spot.
Day 6. With only 108 left the field was tough. My first draw was at a table with the chip leader Jordan Fox. His dad was on the rail and pulling for him hard. It was a pretty cool relationship they had. Day six was moving day for me. I had a quick double on this hand.
I continued to chip up getting to about 10 million and was in 5th or so place with 70 left when this hand happened. European with 9 million chips raises from middle position to 160k, I 3b otb with AA to 480k he calls. Flop is 25J rainbow. He checks I bet 330k he raises to 900k, I call. There’s about 2.8 million in the pot. Turn is a 7 (no flush draws). He bets 1.2 million, I raise to 2.7 million, he jams. I folded.
I could go on and on about my thinking here, my coach later said I should have call, called, but I opted for a different route. Was it a good fold? Idk. I asked him on the next break and he said he had Jacks. Who knows? I lost 4 million in that one hand.
I moved up and down for the next few hours and was moved to a new table with 3 of the eventual final 9 players. My friend on the rail had said that the scouting report on me was that I was solid and tight (old man) which couldn’t be further from the truth. Not that I’m not an old man in poker, but that I’m solid and tight. Well, not that I’m not solid, but I’m probably far from tight. At this table, perhaps the most crucial hand happened.
Without about 6 million in chips I raise UTG (Blinds are 50/100k) to 220k. Michael Dyer (Finished 3rd) flats my raise two to my left. Folds around to James Olbst in the big blind. He raises to 1.1 million. I don’t know anything about Olbst at the time, but later would find out about him. I remember thinking I could shove if I thought he was squeezing, or I could flat and re-evaluate a safe flop. I opted to flat his 1.1 million when all hell broke loose. Dyer then shoves 9 million over the top. I had decided I was going to call him and he’d have to show me KK or AA (I didn’t think he’d flat with those hands). As I was making that decision, Olbsts shoves his remaining 8 million in the pot, making it impossible (IMHO) for me to continue. I folded queens and Dyer showed 10’s, while Olbst had Aces. It was a good fold.
Later I’d be able to catch my exact look on ESPN as the queen hit the river. A good (results) fold, but it would have been a full triple putting me in 1st place with 55 people left. When I told my coach about this hand, he was very familiar and friends even with Olbst and said I should have shoved all in after he raised the big blind there, that his range was much wider than I gave it credit for. So to summarize, my play was good (in that he had AA and I folded QQ, but it was bad as it wasn’t the optimal play). The results having been what they were, were also bad. I put that hand quickly behind me and still had over 4 million chips to play with.
An orbit later the chip leader of the tournament raised OTB. I was in the one seat next to the dealer. I was sitting back watching the action when the 9 seat peeled back his cards and I saw the 9 of clubs. The raise was to 240k, and the 3b to 800k. I looked down at 4–5o and decided that the sb was capped at 9’s and wouldn’t be able to play for most of his stack with 9’s. I also knew my image and thought if I could get through the chip leader, that this bluff would work. I sized out a 4bet to 2.2 million, more than half of my stack. Both players folded and I showed the 4. Needed some street cred (mostly a dick move tbh). Two hands later It folded to me on the button. I raised 4x (unusually large) but the big blind was a weaker spot and I was trying to build a big hand with him with QQ. The big blind Ming Xi called and we went to the flop. The flop came out 599 with two clubs. He checked, I bet, he check raised to somewhere around 1 million, I went all in with my remaining 3 million, and Ming went into the tank. There were 48 people left and 159k was the min payout. Floor yelled “all in and a call” so they paused play for ESPN to bring in 30 cameras to catch every angle. Ming sat there for about 5 minutes long enough for THREE other people to be eliminated. When he didn’t call immediately I knew I was good and wanted a call. Ming finally talked himself into a call and I flipped over pocket queens. He showed pocket sixes with one club. The small blind says “I normally don’t say anything, but I folded a six”. Bingo- one out to dodge and I’m going to have a full double and a top 10 stack with 45 left. The turn was the 6 of diamonds and I had two queens and two 9’s to win. The river bricked and I stood there stunned. I didn’t show a lot of emotion, I didn’t want to be that jackass who broke down on national TV, so I just stood there. They counted down my chips and told me to wait. A young woman came up and grabbed me by the arm and said let’s get you paid. Nearly 6 full days of poker and my main event had come to an end. Walking from the poker room to the cashier was a complete blur. I was stunned, the closest thing I can compare it to was a complete blackout.
You can see the actual hand here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT2iu-nPuUo
It’s a year later, I’m I am primed for another main event. I played 6 days and never got my money in behind. That in and of itself shows how lucky I was during that tournament.
Follow me on twitter @pynebox and instagram @pyneboxpoker
Looking forward to July 5th!
