Why I decided to skip the WSOP this year
Why I changed my mind
The journey
The journey was pretty uneventful, I had a couple of hours in Heathrow which I spent walking around to make sure I got my 10k steps for the day, and that I didn't fall asleep on a bench and miss my flight. I hadn't slept much the previous night so I was hoping to tire myself out further to the point I might be able to at least nap on the plane, but no such luck. I'm notoriously bad at sleeping on planes, and wasn't helped by an unlucky seat draw (middle seat between window and aisle) but it was what it was and I mostly wrote and listened to music on the flight.
Upon arrival, there was an annoyingly long line at immigration (one of the disadvantages of coming via London rather than Dublin is you don't clear that before you fly), but not the worst. It ended up being 45 minutes and the immigration officer was very friendly and efficient when I finally made it to the top of the line.
With very little sleep in the past 48 hours and about to play the biggest tournament of the year in less than 24 hours, the plan now was to check in at Tuscany Suites, then walk the short distance to do what was needed for me to register the next day, then get an early night and as much sleep as possible before I had to play.
The best laid plans of mice and Dan
I walked back to the Horseshoe and verified myself so I could enter on the app. However, when I did and tried to buy my ticket on the app with my Revolut debit card, they tried to charge me an extra 2% (200 bucks!), despite stating that it was only credit cards (not debit cards) that this applied to. I'm not paying an extra two hundred bucks, so I try my Luxon account next. To my annoyance, when I try to fund it with my card, it objects to the apostrophe in my name on the card, something it never does at home.
Not to worry, I think, there's a Luxon help desk in the corridor. I go there and explain the situation to the very patient gentleman, who waits until I've finished my explanation, then says
"I'm nothing to do with Luxon. The desk closed hours ago. I'm just sitting here"
At this point, my only real option is to buy in with cash. Only problem is I don't have 10k in cash with me, so I send out a few messages, Smidge obliges to the tune of 2k, and Paulina says she can do the rest, but I have to go to her hotel well up the strip to get it.
I ran into Keith Touhey and Ken Griffin in town to promote their AI coach project Edgecore that is drawing a lot of favourable attention, then met Smidge who was eating steak with Dan Wilson. I then got a message from another Dan offering to buy me dinner.
Dan the man
I've known Dan for well over a decade at this point. He's had an interesting last decade to say the least. He was a satellite grinder back in the day when UKIPT and EPT satellites were my main grind, and got some satellite coaching from me. He then stepped away from poker for a while reinvented himself as a DJ in Vegas and trance musician, and released an album called "A Question of Reality" (which he very kindly gave me a CD copy of), before starting a start up that made his fortune. At this point he came back into poker as a recreational, got some more coaching from me, and won a bracelet.
As a man of leisure, he now mainly plays high stakes live PLO cash, which from what I understand supplements his existing fortune nicely. One of the things I love about Dan is that even though he's not doing it for the money any more, and he's a very generous man, he still gets that the money is the point, so he game selects well rather than just firing because he's loaded. This year, he identified that the satellites for the main were the best value, got some more coaching for me and his friend and horse Jimmy, and went at them hard for the 5 days they were running round the clock, and cleaned up. As such, he's a model professional even though this isn't his livelihood or job any more. Seeing how well he and other students did in satellites at the series this year cemented in my mind the notion that grinding the satellites hard should be an essential part in any future WSOP campaign I embark upon.
A catchup with Dan on his dime seems like a plus Ev play at this point. I meet him railing Jimmy on the bubble of a main satellite, and spirits are high when Jimmy gets over the line. We go to Dan's favourite Thai place in Spring Valley, and have a great meal with great company. Jimmy works as a floor guy at the Aria and is good people. In fact, the only flaw I can find with Jimmy is his sense of distance and geometry: he tells us his place is nearby so Dan offers to drop him off. 30 minutes later Dan and I are both questioning if "nearby" means something different to Americans.
After dropping him off, Dan very kindly drops me at Paulina's hotel. I haven't seen her in person since last Vegas even if we have done countless hours on Zoom studying together since. so it's great to see her again (and the way she always squeals my name in delight when she sees me for the first time in ages is always a highlight). She insists we have a drink together so we do: I keep it to one drink because I know from personal experience one or at a push two can actually help me sleep, but more than that can disrupt it and lead to occasional hangovers the next day.
I get back to my room shortly after midnight, a bit later than I originally planned, but actually it worked out perfectly because I was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow, and woke up from the deepest sleep in a while about 11 hours later, four hours before I had to play.
There was still to be another spanner in the works when it came to register, but that's a story for another day and the next blog.
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