Vegas Trip - Day 1 at the WSOP

OK, I've tried to post this 3 times now, so hopefully this'll take...

Sometimes you have to get away from something to see it more clearly. Over the past four days, I was entrenched in the circus of the WSOP, never really able to stop and focus to put together a write-up on the experience. Now that I’m 20K feet in the air above Lake Mead, heading back to the real world in Texas, I can finally sit back and try to piece together the events of this week. So here goes…

We (the PokerLizard crew) arrived in Vegas on Tuesday the 5^th and after getting one of us checked in at the Wynn (which has a decent, but not spectacular poker room), headed over to register at the Rio for our press passes. Right off the bat, it was obvious we were in for a long few days. The walk from the Rio’s casino to the new convention area where the WSOP is setup has to be over a quarter-mile. Now, making this trip once is not a big deal. But let me tell you, after 4 days of going back and forth, it becomes quite a grind. Would have been nice if Harrah’s had outside access to the convention area, but then that would go against everything Vegas stands for, right? – guiding the masses through the aisles of slots and blackjack tables.

Luckily, at 10:30 Tuesday morning, the lines at the WSOP were still very manageable, so we quickly got registered as players and members of the press. We headed over to the press room, dropped off our gear, and then went out to the floor. “Massive” is the only word that can describe it – 200+ tables, a cashier/registration area, and a stage for ESPN’s Featured Tables. That first morning, things were pretty quiet. The current event was on break, or hadn’t yet started up for the day, and the only action was in the front area where they were running single-table satellites for that evening’s $225 cash tournament. Having spent most of the 3-hour flight from Houston boning up on Harrington’s tournament strategy, I was itching to start playing.

So, since we had no appointments setup that morning, I rushed over to get into a $50 satellite – 9 players, 2 winners for the 11 pm $225 game. The rounds were aggressive, of course, at 10 minutes, and I think we started with 600 in chips and 25-25 blinds. I started with my typical sit ‘n go conservative strategy, not making many moves without cards until the blinds were worth stealing. People started busting, and soon I was medium short-stacked. Then came my first all-in with pocket 6’s against pocket 2’s and my cards held up, boosting me into the top 3 chipstacks. Then, down to 3 players and just hoping one of them would knock the other out, I picked up 7-9 in the big blind with one caller. Heads up, the flop had a 9, so I pushed all-in, he called, and I won my very first WSOP event. At that moment, I felt like I’d just taken down the final table of a major event – surely my rush would continue all week. Now I just had to wait until 11 that night to really put my skills to the test against a serious field. Bring it on!