For the past few years, I've been selecting a summer week to travel to Las Vegas and play a mix of tournaments and cash poker. After the 2022 WSOP main event when I made Day 2 and busted out of the money, I decided to risk less and enter smaller events. Cash would be played mostly at Venetian, after their 2023 rebuild and relocation to Palazzo, establishing them as the premier cash game venue on the strip.
This year, Mickey (son) decided to join me, as Tali (wife) was busy at work. The plan was to play the WSOP $1,000 Super Seniors (60+) event, and Mickey would choose his own ones. For proximity, I booked the Paris hotel & casino from Sunday-Thursday June 21-25. The WSOP promotional rate was quite good, about $150/night including resort fee and taxes.
Sunday, June 21
We flew out Sunday with Delta and Ubered to the hotel. Lining up for check-in seemed like it would take a while. A lady approached and said we could use the kiosks for check-in. I asked if it would allow me to add Mickey as a second guest and she said yes. The kiosk experience was ok, albeit it chose our room for us.
Paris is structured a bit weirdly - the reception area is separate from the room "towers" - Bordeaux close by the reception and Versailles quite distant from it. We were assigned the Versailles and had to walk through the casino, up an escalator, then through an indoor passage bridge until we finally got to the elevators. Technically it's closer to Horseshoe (formerly Bally's) than Paris, that same elevator leading to the ground floor of Horseshoe.
Our room was a two-Queen on the 65th floor, overlooking the strip and Bellagio fountains. Walking in, it seemed quite spacious and modern. Taking a closer look, the carpet had some leftover crumbs (or similar) and the desk and nightstand stains from what appeared to optimistically be sugary drinks. I went to work with my cleaning wipes and approved the space for use. The bathroom was pretty ok, with modern fixtures and none of the plumbing issues that often plague hotel sinks and showers. The walls were paper-thin though, as evident from ambient noise we got from an adjacent room one of the nights.
This was the view from our room at sundown:
Whenever I travel, my first step is to go to a nearby pharmacy to get water and other goodies for the room. This time, we first headed to the WSOP registration counter for me to get my spot in the Super Seniors (to start Monday) and then to the CVS outside Horseshoe.
For dinner, I suggested Istanbul Mediterranean, also just outside of the Horseshoe. They have a good selection of Shwarma, Falafel with various combos - all for about $25 with soda. We grabbed our dinner and ate it in the room - the outdoor area being too hot and crowded.
When in Nevada, it's legal to play online poker on the WSOP app and so I got in, deposited a modest amount and played $0.50/$1 cash while watching world cup soccer in the background. Perfect!
Monday, June 22
We woke at about 8 am and hit the gym for stretching and a basic workout routine. It is sort-of ok equipment-wise, but not large enough for the demand and the hogging of weights by some of the jock-bros caused me to give up after a few sets.
True to the stereotype of Seniors waking early, my event was slated for a 10AM start and I showed up on time, a 7 minute walk from the room to my seat. Mickey decided to head out to the Orleans casino for what looked to be a juicy $400 deep stack event, starting at 11AM.
The structure of Super Seniors was 20,000 chips, 1 hour levels starting at 100/100/100 blinds. For the first few levels, my table was populated by recreational, friendly players who were playing ABC poker. Perfect for yours truly, although I probably could have taken a bit more advantage of that setting. Here are a few hands I recorded in that stage:
Hand 1: QJ offsuit
Position: button
Blinds: 100/100/100
Stack: 20,000
Preflop action:
- Middle position raised to 300
- I called
- Big blind called (pot: 1100)
Flop: A Q X
- Checked to me
- I bet 300
- Big blind called (pot: 1700)
Turn: Jc putting 3 clubs on board, I have Qc
- Checked to me
- I bet 700
- Big blind called (pot: 3100)
River X (don't remember)
- BB bet 1000
- I called
- He showed Ax and I won with 2pair.
Note: I should have led larger on the turn, targeting Ax. Standard would be about 70% (1200) and exploitive could be 125% pot or 2100.
Hand 2: KQ offsuit
Position: small blind
Blinds: 100/100/100
Stack: 21,500
Preflop action:
- Early position raised to 300
- Button and I called
- Big blind folded (pot: 1100)
Flop: K 9 X
- Checked around (pot: 1100)
Turn: Q
- I bet 600
- Early position raised to 1600
- Button folded
- I called (pot: 4300)
River 9
- Early position checked
- I checked
- He showed JTo for a flopped straight.
Note: I lost the minimum here. The board pairing on the river dissuaded him from another value bet which should have come anyway. Rec players fear going for thin value, in case someone raises them with a full house.
Hand 3: KQ offsuit
Position: under the gun + 1
Blinds: 100/200/200
Stack: 23,000
Preflop action:
- I raised to 700
- Middle position called
- Blinds folded (pot: 1900)
Flop: Q J 9 with two spades, I don't have one
- I bet 600
- Middle position raised to 1200
- I called (pot: 4300)
Turn X (low, non spade)
- Checked
River A (non spade)
- Checked
- I show my hand and opponent mucked.
Note: This was a weirdly played hand by my opponent. He likely had a non-Ace pair + flush draw on the flop (like KJss) and was trying to apply fold equity. A min raise was not effective for that!
Hand 4: KJhh
Position: small blind
Blinds: 200/300/300
Stack: 23,500
Preflop action:
- Early position limp called
- Middle position raised to 1500
- I called, big blind called
- Limper folded (pot: 5100)
Flop: Q T X with one heart
- I and big blind checked
- Middle position bet 2500
- I called and big blind folded (pot: 10,100)
Turn X heart
- Checked
River Th giving me a flush
- I bet 4000 and opponent folded.
Note: Most likely my opponent had AK or AQ. My river bet of 40% pot on a paired board was ok (I think), targeting his hand class. I don't think he was betting river so I needed to extract some value here.
At this point my stack was about 30,000 - chip leader since no dramatic hands had played out.
Hand 5: KQdd
Position: small blind
Blinds: 200/400/400
Stack: 29,400
Preflop action:
- Middle position raised to 1200
- I called, big blind called (pot: 4000)
Flop: T 5 X with two diamonds
- I and big blind checked
- Middle position bet 2500
- I called and big blind folded (pot: 9000)
Turn: X low non-diamond
- I checked
- MP went all in for 9400
- I tank folded
Note: Most likely my opponent had an overpair; I thought AA or JJ were the main candidates. With just a flush draw on the turn and my KQ pair outs being questionable, I was getting about 2:1 pot odds to call, whereby I needed something like 4:1.
Dinner break
In this event, they broke for dinner after Level 6, at around 4:45 PM. We found it strange but with "super seniors" I suppose it worked, to help them pace Day 1. Mickey was away playing at Orleans, and others in our group (Ron, Scott) had already bust this event and were busy elsewhere in other WSOP events. I headed to Mon Ami Gabi - a French bistro at Paris and ordered Trout Almondine and light beer. The trout was overcooked but edible, enough to keep me going for a while.
Update: Prior to and after the dinner break, I had been card dead for a few levels and blinded down to less than starting stack. The table changed, with 7 of the original 9 players busting and an aggro Danish player named Lars Hansen (who ended up min-cashing the event) applying pressure with ridiculous raises and showing bluffs like 53o.
Hand 6: 33
Position: small blind
Blinds: 500/1000/1000
Stack: 14,700
Preflop action:
- Limped multiway to me
- I called
- Big blind checked
Flop: A 3 2
- I checked
- Middle position bet 3000
- I jammed my remaining 14,200
- He called and showed AK
Turn: 3 giving me quads and the win! I went to a stack of 32,000.
The table loved seeing quads.
Hand 7: KJo
Position: big blind
Blinds: 600/1200/1200
Stack: 16,000
Intro: Since the 33-quads double up, I missed flops with hands like KThh, 77. I also jammed into multiple limps with KTss and they folded. My stack was now back down to the danger level.
Preflop action:
- Middle position raised to 4000
- I think called. My
thinking is he is not folding to a jam now, but my hand is too strong to fold.
- Pot: 9800
Flop: A Q X
- I checked
- Middle position bet 5000
- I folded my gutshot, my pair outs may not be good.
Update: I now entered the last level of day 1 (level 10). I came into it with 9500 chips (6 BB) and after the blinds was down to 5500 (3 BB). A shove with A4cc was called by something like JT and put me at 13,500.
Hand 8: AA
Position: early position
Blinds: 1000/1500/1500
Stack: 13,500
Preflop action:
- I went all in for 13,500
- Late position called and showed AK
Result: I spin up again to 33,000.
Hand 9: As7d
Position: cutoff (one to the left of the button)
Blinds: 1000/1500/1500
Stack: 33,000
Preflop action:
- It folded to me and I raised to 4000
- Big blind called (pot: 10,500)
Flop: 9 6 4
- BB checked
- I bet 3000
- BB called (pot: 16,500)
Turn: 5
- We both checked (pot: 16,500)
River: 8 giving me a straight
- BB checked
- I bet 10,000
- BB folded
Hand 10: AKo
Position: button
Blinds: 1000/1500/1500
Stack: 46,500
Preflop action:
- It folded to me and I raised to 4000
- Big blind called (pot: 10,500)
Flop: 9 X X
- BB checked
- I checked
- BB called (pot: 10,500)
Turn: A
- BB bet 4500
- I called (pot: 18,500)
River: X low card
- BB checked
- I checked
- He showed QTdd and I won.
Note: This was another weirdly played hand by my opponent. The Ace turn favored my range and he still led out with a bet. Many AK holdings by the button would raise here, but I figured I could often be up against a 2-pair Ax and if not, I'll let him hang himself. I didn't lose value by not betting the river because he wasn't calling any amount.
Soon afterwards, we bagged for Day 2 and I had 53,000! Going from 5,500 to 53,000 (at some point I had 56,000) was probably the luckiest tournament level I had ever played.
Tuesday, June 23
Sleep didn't come easily after the built-up adrenaline of 10 hours (net) of Day 1 play. I had a bit more time in the morning, since Day 2 resumed at 11AM. Mickey went in hunt of a decent breakfast spot and I decided to check out the pool. My thinking was that if I show up at opening time (9 am) I could get some laps in before the crowds come. No such luck! It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to use the elevator to get to the pool level (needed to first use the card-touch mechanism, which Paris confuses its clientele by not requiring it elsewhere). Once I got there, the single circle shaped pool was cordoned into only half of it being active, already full of families and kids. I turned around and left.
Starting Day 2 of the event with 26 big blinds gave me some playability. Here are a few more of the hands:
Hand 11: KQo
Position: middle position
Blinds: 1000/2000/2000
Stack: 53,000
Preflop action:
- Early position raised to 4500
- I called
- button called
- blinds folded (pot: 18,500)
Flop: 9 8 7
- Early position bet
- We folded
Note: This was the absolute worst flop for KQ. I might have found a preflop fold to the early position open, given my relatively shallow stack. 26 BB was too much to shove there and KQo is probably not the best candidate against an EP open. Calling may have been ok if there wouldn't be a lot of 3Bet squeezes behind, an assumption I should not have made. The counter argument is that in a tournament you have to play some hands you are uncomfortable with, and KQ is a potentially powerful holding. An interesting tactic would have been to 3bet to something like 11,000 planning to fold to a re-jam by early position, but if called I'd have to give up on that flop.
Hand 12: 33
Position: big blind
Blinds: 1000/2000/2000
Stack: 48,500
Preflop action:
- Early position raised to 4500
- I called (pot: 12,000)
Flop: 6 5 2
- Checked around
Turn: 5
- I bet 4000
- Early position called (pot: 20,000)
River: 4
- I bet 4000
- Early position called and showed A3 for a rivered straight.
Note: From a theoretical perspective, this may have been the most interesting hand I played. I ran it by PokerSnowie Scenario and it approved of all of my actions until the river. On the river, when betting 1/5 pot (as I did), it does put in that bet a small percentage of the time, but mostly checks. The only "error" in this hand was made by my opponent, when he just called and did not raise river. In a twisted way, I was happy to see him just calling with the A3, since my river bet functioned as a blocking bet, removing a possible hard decision from my game tree. From a "street poker" perspective, I could have bet full pot on the turn, given that my opponent checked back the flop; putting the tough decision on him. This is something I will need to add to my game, since I tend to think more as a cash game player (gaining marginal EV) than a tournament player (protecting my advantage).
Update: Now, with my stack down to 34,000 I was moved to a new table.
Hand 13: KJo
Position: big blind
Blinds: 1000/2000/2000
Stack: 34,000
Preflop action:
- Early position raised to 7000
- 2 calls from the field
- I called last to act (pot: 31,000)
Flop: 8 4 2
- Early position bet 15,000
- 1st caller went all in
- the rest folded
- Early position called and won with QQ vs the caller's KQ.
Note: this was a terrible preflop call by me. With 17BB I had no business entering this pot with any action other than a shove, and KJo was too weak for that. I was on tilt from the previous hand's loss and being moved to a hostile new table in desperation mode. I hate playing poorly when the advice I would have given to anyone else would be to FOLD that hand preflop 100%.
Hand 14: AJo
Position: button
Blinds: 1000/2000/2000
Stack: 24,000
Preflop action:
- Middle position limp called
- Cutoff raised to 7000
- I jammed all in
- Middle position folded
- Cutoff called with QQ and won, I BUST.
I ended in 742nd spot of 3,323 entries. The 1st place prize of $355,263 went to Lionel Barracano of France, with his first WSOP cash.
Note: The AJo shove was marginal but better than the previous hand's KJo multiway call. With 12 BB I still had time to wait for a better spot, perhaps when someone had not raised over a limper. These guys were pretty face-up and had I assigned him a tight range of 88+, AQ+, I would not have assumed that I had any fold equity and made the fold.
Update: after exiting the first level of Day 2, I decided to head over to the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas and join Ron and Scott, for another Super Seniors event, with a $400 buyin. That had started at 11AM and I figured that by the time I arrived, I'd enter to its level 4, giving me a decent starting stack to work with. The Lyft driver got me there by 12:20 and after hunting down the Ballroom at Golden Nugget, I bought in and got seated at my new table.
Below: Mannes, Ron and Scott at the Golden Nugget. I had ChatGPT remove an unwanted person in the photo's background.
More so than at the WSOP, this table was chock full of colorful characters. First, they had some fun on account of my Seattle Seahawks hat and Vancouver T-shirt (which one are you from??), until I explained my affinity to both places. The guy to my left wanted to know my age and to my response "a bit over the threshold - 66" he said "I'm 18 years older"; to which I responded "you don't look 84" and he said "the threshold is 50 so you're 56" and then others pitched in and added that if someone had played their Seniors event (50+), they were also eligible to enter the Super seniors. All said and done, his age was established as 74, a more reasonable fit to his looks. A 75-ish lady to my right was from the Austin, TX vicinity and plays at The Lodge of Doug Polk fame. She was entering about 60% of hands and raking some of them in with ridiculously sized bets and suckouts. Then, a wild-eyed, 62 year old woman named Karen from Minnesota with roots in Tacoma, sat to the right of the Austin lady and drove her nuts with incessant talk, jewelry admiration, taking selfies and stories of family history until she bust in a very awkward and silly manner. After she left, the table nodded their heads in a sort of "good riddance" manner; I offered an explanation that she may be on the autism spectrum which can be associated with a certain lack of self awareness, and others suggested she had been drinking. Aside from that, many of the players knew the dealers and service staff, and there was a good ol' time vibe there that one could find charming, annoying or a combination thereof.
Here are a few notable hands from that event:
GN Hand 1 - AQo
Position: button
Blinds: 200/400/400
Stack: 30,000
Preflop action:
- I opened to 800
- SB and BB called (pot: 2800)
Flop: 9 8 X
- It checked around
Turn: J
- It checked to me
- I bet 800
- they called (pot: 5200)
River: low card brick
- SB checked
- BB bet
- We folded
GN Hand 2 - QTcc
Position: MP
Blinds: 200/400/400
Stack: 28,000
Preflop action:
- I opened to 800
- 3 players called including the blinds (pot: 3600)
Flop: A 3 3
- It checked to me
- I bet 800
- LP called (pot: 5200)
Turn: X putting a second club on board
- I bet 3000
- LP called (pot: 11,200)
River: brick, non-club
- I checked
- He bet 15,000
- I folded
- He showed A3 for a flopped full house
Note: From just these 2 hands you can see a pattern. The table was full of passive calling stations, not good bluff targets when I whiffed. Every open is met with 2-5 callers and you have to make your hand to win it.
GN Hand 3 - A2cc
Position: SB
Blinds: 300/600/600
Stack: 19,600
Preflop action:
- EP opened to 1500
- Button called
- I called
- BB folded (pot: 5700)
Flop: A 2 4 monotone diamonds
- I checked
- EP checked
- Button bet 2500
- I called
- EP folded (pot: 10,700)
Turn: non-diamond
- I checked
- Button bet 3000
- I called (pot: 16,700)
River: Tc
- It checked around and I beat AJ
Note: On a monotone board, top and bottom pair functions well as a merged value / bluff catching hand. I don't think raising would have made a lot of sense, given Button's desire to build the pot.
GN Hand 4 - KK
Position: MP
Blinds: 500/1000/1000
Stack: 28,600
Preflop action:
- MP to my right, 75-yr old Texan lady playing too many hands, opened to 3000
- I raised to 10,000
- She called (pot: 22,500)
Flop: A A 2
- MP checked
- I jammed 18,600
- She tanked, gave a long speech, asked me if I'll show, ended up folding and showing TT. In return, I showed her my KK.
Note: This was a fun one. I had pretty much decided to jam any non-Ace flop. When two Aces came, that "blocked" her from having many Ax combos. Also, she might have called pre- with a weak Ace and think she's up against AK etc. I was baffled when she showed the TT - she had tanked for at least 3 minutes. Too bad - it could have been a nice double up if she was really considering calling.
Update: from that point onward I was card dead and whiffed almost all of the few hands played. My final hand was at the 1000/2000/2000 level with 12,000 chips (6 BBs), I open jammed KQdd and lost to JJ.
At that point, it was 4:30 PM and Ron and Scott had left, having busted earlier. I headed back to Paris and had dinner with Mickey at Gordon Ramsey Burger - Planet Hollywood. We lined up for ~15 minutes but it was one of the best burgers I've had!
Wednesday, June 24
Mickey and I headed out to the Palazzo to play cash at the Venetian, which is technically located on the second floor of the Palazzo mall (confusing, yeah). Even though I had played there a few times in past years, we still had to make our way around the maze of stores a few times, in the absence of any "Poker room" signs. The room itself is large, VERY LOUD and well run, with both cash games and tournaments. At first, we were seated together at a 1/3 game with a max buyin of $300. I also signed up for 2/3 with a max buyin of $600 and was soon moved there.
The cast of characters at 2/3 was problematic: two guys to my immediate left and right were buddies who had been, and were continuing, to heavily drink and speak loudly with each other. I couldn't understand why they didn't move to sit next to each other, even when a seat opened. They were however good for the game, punting quite a bit. But then, 2 players to my left was an aggro and smart Asian kid you never want at your table. He incessantly 3Bet my opens until I 4Bet him once and he started picking on others. His presence led me to request a table change, and I was moved after about a half hour to a more "conventional" one.
Here are a few hands from the session:
Cash Hand 1 - AA (first table)
Position: UTG
Blinds: $2/$3
Stack: $372
Preflop action:
- I opened to $10
- 2 calls from the field (pot: $25)
Flop: A J X two hearts
- I bet $10
- LP called (pot: $45)
Turn: T
- I bet $40
- LP raised to $140
- I called (pot: $325)
River 6
- I checked
- LP bet $145
- I called
He showed KQo for a turned straight.
Note: the turn T completed many draws, including some 2 pair hands. I cannot fold my set there quite yet. On the river I could have found a fold, but I'm pretty confident a solver would call with villain's two-pairs and sets (mainly of TT) potentially playing that way.
Cash Hand 2 - QTo (new table)
Position: SB
Blinds: $2/$3
Stack: $340
Preflop action:
- Cutoff limped
- I completed to $3
- BB checked (pot: $8)
Flop Q T 9
- I checked
- BB checked
- Cutoff bet 20
- I called
- BB folded (pot: $45)
Turn T (!)
- I checked
- Cutoff bet $75 all in
- I called and beat JT
Cash Hand 3 - AKo
Position: Button
Blinds: $2/$3
Stack: $515
Preflop action:
- Cutoff opened to $25. He was behaving a bit weird, Chinese 40-ish with a hoodie and shades. He had not played many hands.
- I raised to $75
- Cutoff jammed all in and covered me ($440 remaining in my stack)
- I tank folded
- He said he doesn't like slow playing his hands. When he left, he said he had QQ.
Note: Calling $440 to win $1,025 was laying me 43% pot odds, approximately my equity against his likely range (mid to high pocket pairs, AK, AQ suited). It was basically a question of calling off vs an unknown player and if I was in a "gambling" mindset for my stack. It was a bit early in the session, I might have taken that gamble later in the day.
Cash Hand 4 - A7hh aka "shit luck"
Position: MP
Blinds: $2/$3
Stack: $385
Preflop action:
- I opened to $10
- 3 calls from the field (pot: $33)
Flop: 8h 7x 5h giving me a pair and nut FD
- I checked
- LP bet $35
- EP called
- I called (pot: $138)
Turn: 9h completing my flush
- EP checked
- I checked
- LP bet $85
- EP jammed, we both covered him
- I re-jammed
- LP called my jam
River: EP said "pair the board" and the dealer put out a 7, driving a stake through my heart.
- EP won the main pot with 55 (full house) (about $750)
- I won the side pot with LP (about $240)
- Total pots were ~$1,000
Note: After this hand my spirit was crushed. Instead of sitting on a ~$1000 stack I was now (again) reduced to a fraction of my buyins for the day. So, I decided to join in on the double board PLO bomb pots every dealer change (1/2 hour) and gamble it up. Somehow, I managed to make my way back to just a $245 loss for the day.
Mickey and I then had dinner at Miznon, an modern Israeli casual bistro at Palazzo, and then headed to Planet Hollywood to check out Tipsy Robot - where you order cocktails on a kiosk and a robot mixes them! While it was well worth the $20 just for the novelty - the drinks themselves were kind of meh.
So - that was it! We headed back to our room, packed and summed up our trip. A bunch of loud kids abandoned by their parents in the next-door room kept us up until around midnight, and after a night of poor sleep, we woke grumpily and made our way to the airport. Landing in Seatac it was chilly with a light drizzle - a fitting welcome back from our Vegas week! I said to Mickey, it's good to be out of the furnace.
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