2022 WSOP Main Event - Runup Days - Part 1

This post is of my experience in Las Vegas, Jul 2022. Part 1 is a depiction of the first couple of days, preparing for the WSOP Main event and playing a mega-satellite. It also includes some hand histories.

If you're bored with the details of my comings and goings there, skip straight to the hands (in between solid lines). Vice versa, if bored with poker, skip them.

This year, a friend (Mike A) and myself decided to both enter, and rail / support each other as far as we survived the event. For the uninitiated, this is a $10K Poker tournament with over 8,000 entrants, considered the largest tournament of the year in the poker world - although there are other events with much higher buy-ins or more participants, this is the one that garners one of the highest prize pools, has the highest name recognition and is on the bucket list of many players. It pays the top 9 players $1M+, with $10M going to the winner this year. While I don't play many tournaments these days, I have dreamt of playing this event for years and didn't think my skills fell short of the average general player pool. I generally spend a lot of my spare time thinking, studying and playing poker so I figured I was ready for this.

I decided to head over to Vegas on Sunday July 3rd, actually one of the starting days of the event. There were 4 starting days this year - July 3,4,5,6 - and my game plan was to play a "Mega-Satellite event" on July 4th, and play the main event Day1 on July 5th. The Satellite is basically a mini-tournament with a lower buyin ($1,100), paying the top 10% finishers $10K towards the main event.

Contrary to past trips, I discouraged Tali (wife) from joining, given the logistics of this event and the long days / nights ahead. You typically start play at 11:00am and end at 11:30pm. It would also keep my mindset in poker 100% without distractions (although she is a good travel partner in that respect). Mike A also traveled on his own.

My selected hotel was Cromwell, just across from Bally's and a less than 10 minute walk from the poker tables. Cromwell is a decent, small-sized establishment sandwiched between Bally's and Flamingo - catering to a middle class, party-going client base, their main draw being Drai's night club and pool club. The booking made well in advance, I snagged a week's stay at a very good price and requested a quiet room well away from the rooftop club. This worked fairly well, despite some booming noises pulsating through the building at all hours - that subsided after the weekend.

Mike decided to stay at Paris, and so our meeting points would be visiting each other at the tables (roped off to the side) for a few minutes, getting a table for dinner during breaks and sharing hands that went down through the event. He would just be arriving July 5th and his Day1 would be Wednesday July 6th - one day after mine.

For the Satellite registration, I headed over to the WSOP registration room upon landing at my hotel, only to discover after a 20-minute wait that they only take Satellite registrations on the same day. Standing behind me in line was Erik Persson, the infamous CEO of Maverick gaming, who some of us have seen taking the fight (aka verbal abuse and middle fingers) to Phil Hellmuth on a recent PokerGo High Stakes Cash Game. Maverick is the owner of most of the poker cardrooms in the Northwest. He looked as douchey in person as on TV, albeit shorter - perhaps 5'10" like me. One person in line was fawning over him saying what a great job he had done on the show, and Persson mentioned that another series will come next year. I also heard him quietly saying to his lady partner that Patrick (Antonius), the famous player he's been touring some of his cardrooms with, is a "sheep". Hmm I wondered, would he say that to his face?

Heading back to my hotel, I dropped into Istanbul, a hole-in-the wall Mediterranean fast food joint amongst the stretch of outdoor eateries just outside of Bally's. I had what must be the best Shwarma chicken wrap in my life and returned there for every meal I was going to eat on my own.

On Monday (July 4th) before heading out to the WSOP, I went to the hotel gym and after a few minutes this guy walked in. I had to do a double-take - it was Hussain Ensan, the winner of the 2019 main event (German, Iranian born 58 year old guy). I left him alone and then before exiting the gym, asked him if it's indeed him, and we had a nice chat. Really nice fellow. He has gained a few pounds though since his win (he's a fit guy), but I guess that's what $10M will do for you.

At Bally's around 10:15 am, I lined up for the Satellite registration, in the actual ballroom the event was to be held in. Imagine an airline hangar and you will get a sense of how vast these rooms are - holding hundreds of tables and thousands of players at a time. 

In the line, a 70-ish old guy in front of me looked worried and then started going through his wallet, realizing he was short $100 to buy into his event. I thought here goes, he's going to ask for a "loan", but instead he asked if I could hold his place in line so he can go to his room and get the money. Sure, I said, I got you. 10 minutes later he was back and we chatted through our wait. Turns out he's a Jewish fella from Montreal, currently living in Victoria, BC. Very chatty, always on the phone, answering with "Shalom" (which I found a bit strange). 

Arriving to the registration booth, I suddenly realized I HAD ALSO FORGOTTEN my money pouch and will need to go to my room to retrieve it from the safe. So, it was his turn to hang around and keep my spot. I raced to the room and back, sweating like a pig (changed shirts in the room) with my pulse at 170. It took my heart rate over an hour to settle back to normal.

The satellite table looked to me like easy pickings, with the guy to my left looking confused and saying he really doesn't know how to play these things. Nevertheless, despite having a decent chip count early on, I experienced the "dead zone" we get into quite often in poker - getting bad cards for an extended period, missing flops when we enter them with playable cards, or the worst - ending up with a second-best hand. So I did not make the cut in this one.

Poker hands (Mega-Satellite): 
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Here are a few hands from the Satellite: there were about 475 entries, with 48 players cashing. 20-minute levels which meant this would be over within 6-7 hours at most. 

My plan for the satellite was to Elephant-hunt and go for large pots only with nutted hands post-flop. I would let the fish fight over small pots, which usually are not of much consequence in this type of event. You're not trying to win, just to get enough chips to make it into the top 10% (which dictates a significant difference in strategy compared to normal events).

Hand 1

At level 2, blinds are 100 SB, 200 BB, 200 BB Ante, I have 11,500 chips.
I picked up AK offsuit in the small blind.
Middle position raised to 400, I decided to just call.
The flop was K and two low cards.
It checked around.
Turn was another low card, I bet 400 and he folded.

Analysis: AK in the small blind is "normally" a large raise over a single open. I should be mostly raising to ~1400-1600 in that spot, expecting to be called quite often. My rationale in just calling was not wanting to play a large pot out of position early on in the event. At this point I had 11,500 chips, or under 60 BB.

Hand 2

Same level, I picked up AA in early position.
I bet 400 and late position raised to 1200. After some thought, I re-raised to 3900 and he asked me a few questions (I was stone faced) and then he speech-folded, saying if this were later in the event he'd pay me off.

Analysis: I might have raised smaller (like to 3200) to get more calls, but since my (very few) bluffs want him to fold and my value wants a call, my polarized sizing out of position works fine.

Hand 3

Same level, KQ diamonds, I bet 400 from the field and got one caller. The flop came KXX, I bet and he folded. Routine.

Then, AT hearts in middle position, I bet 400, big blind called.
Flop was A55.
I decided to check, he bet 400, I called.
Turn was 9.
Check / check.
River was a low card.
Check / 800 / I called and lost to A9. 
Nice hand sir!

At this point my stack was still ok, 10,500. 

Hand 4

I went dead for over a half hour and into Level 4 with blinds at 200 / 400 / 400 and only 8800 chips.
I got A3 offsuit in the BB.
Under the gun bet 800, folded to me, I called.
Flop A and two unconnected middle cards.
Check / 1200 / I called. While unhappy, am hoping to get to showdown with no further betting.
Turn was a J. Pot is now 5000.
Check / 2000 / I folded.

Analysis: I was not trying to get all in with top pair, no kicker. In retrospect: with the current big blind ante structure, when in the big blind and there is a single raise, I am calling an additional 1 BB into what will be a 5.5 BB pot. While A3 is a good hand to put into a defensive range (it has more than the requisite 18% equity), it won't realize its equity on most runouts. So - in a satellite event with 22 BB, it may be correct to fold and preserve chips. Ergo as played, even though I made top pair, I bled 4 BB and had to fold the turn. A better play might have been to 3Bet preflop (blocking Ax hands).

Hand 5

At level 5, 300 / 600 / 600 I was down to 6600 chips (11 BB) to start.
I got KJ spades in middle position and open shoved.
Confused rec player to my left said he had no idea what to do in this spot and tank-folded (later saying he had AQ). BB called with 99. I spiked a J and doubled up.

Hand 6

Later at that level, with 11,300 chips, I got 66 in early position. I opened to 1200 and the BB called. The flop was JTT. Checked through. Turn 5. He checked, I bet 1200, he called. River low card. He bet 2500 and I folded.

Analysis: 66 in a satellite with 19 BB in early position is a fold. I was splashing around and once the JTT board hit, the caller had a range advantage.

At level 6, 500 / 1000 / 1000 I had 8500 chips coming in. I bust at that level - my notes don't say what that hand was - to the best of my recollection it was something like AQ running into a pair.

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OK, so on to the main event! But prior to that, the satellite ended at around 3:30 pm. I lined up to register for the main event (almost an hour - thanks (NOT) to the WSOP for poor management). Back in the hotel room after the obligatory chicken wrap, I deposited to WSOP.COM for legal online play when you are visiting in Nevada, and spun up a small cash game. Oddly, the games I found were 50NL (blinds are $0.50) and lower, or 200NL ($2 blinds. I played the 50NL for a while, then spun up some sort of tournament and turned in early enough for a good night's sleep towards the main!