The WSOP Kicks Off Today And It's Still The Coolest Thing I've Ever Been Lucky Enough To Be A Part Of
I can't believe it's already here, the best time of the year! Every year I do a blog previewing the WSOP, and wanted to do a new one this year because I have been answering a misconception a lot over the last couple of weeks, and wanted to clear it up- what exactly is the WSOP?! Most people think it's simply the Main Event, the $10,000 buy-in tournament made famous by Chris Moneymaker winning it on ESPN. But in fact, the WSOP is a summer-long series of poker events, ranging in buy-ins and poker discipline. It's not just No Limit like you played at the dining room table with your pals in high school, they still play all the variants and will be handing out a grand total of 95...yes 95 bracelets this year!
If you've been following along with me, you would know a couple things:
1) I fucking LOVE playing poker tournaments, especially at the WSOP. Playing tournament poker is one of the only things that genuinely excites me. And playing the WSOP is a league of its own. There's just something so special about it- sitting in that huge room with hundreds or even thousands of other people, building a big chip stack, running bluffs, trying to make a deep run to win a bracelet. It's a rush unlike any other. I fucking love it.
and
2) I was planning on playing a ton of events this Summer and now it's in jeopardy because I broke my 11 days ago. I had an entire schedule set up- was planning on flying out there TODAY and playing up to 17 events, including the Main Event. I had an Air BnB, sold action, the full enchilada. I spent the last year studying, playing, grinding, getting better at poker. All for it to blow up in my face right before I got to live out my life-long dream of grinding a full WSOP. It's devastating, no doubt.
I don't really want to talk about the foot thing anymore- it's the only fucking injury where it's *bad* to be sitting for 13 hours a day at a table, so god damn unlucky. But the MRI+more X-rays showed good news in terms of ligament damage, so there's a chance if my next round of X-rays go well next week that I could get to go out to Vegas in late June, we'll see!
That being said, I still get hyped for the WSOP. I love following my poker heroes, my friends, and my poker heroes who have become my friends go for the glory. What makes it so special is anyone can enter- you put your money down at the cage, get your chips, and you could be sat next to Phil Ivey, a plumber, or anyone in-between.
Another wild thing about poker is it has gotten much more difficult over the years. The pros are unreal good- they spend so much time "in the lab" aka studying the game. There are now things called "solvers" which basically run sims to let you know the best thing to do with any given hand with any given chip count with any given flop/turn/river, etc. The best players in the world grind these solvers day and night to perfect their poker game, to get as close to playing GTO as possible.
But even the amateurs are better now than ever before. Part time grinders like myself for example still spend a lot of time studying in other ways- watching training videos, watching great players play on Twitch, using apps to learn ranges, etc. Simply watching great players on Twitch helps you learn and improve immensely. Back in the day these free recourses weren't available, now there are a ton of pretty good players who play recreationally but also crush and have a great understanding of the game.
Last year I cashed 2 events, but had no real deep run. I then bagged a huge stack after Day 1 of the Main, but busted out on Day 2, going another year without a Main Event cash. I've never been better at poker than I am right now, so hopefully I get to play! If not, I will have no choice but to study my ass off for the next year and be even better for next Summer (and keep myself wrapped in bubble wrap until then).
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Good luck to the grinders chasing their dream, to the amateurs taking their shot, and bad luck to the scumbags and cheaters in the poker world who ruin it for the rest of us! Can't wait to follow all the action, the drama, and the crazy hands
And maybe a fun Phil Hellmuth blow up too!