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Donna and I got up. I promised myself that I would get exercise every day while we were out here. Otherwise, I would sit at the poker table all day. We walked from the Rio, to the Wynn and back. On the way, we stopped at Denny’s and ate breakfast. We walked for about an hour, plus the breakfast stop.

After returning, I went down to the satellite area and decided to play in a $175 single table satellite. That went well, and once we got down to three people, one of the guys offered to do an even chop. First prize was $1500 in tournament chips (Lammers) and $120 cash. He proposed that everybody get a $500 chip and $40 cash. Since I was the short stack at this point, I voted “yes”. Valarie, the other lady involved, agreed too. So, the first tournament was a success.

Next, I wanted to play in a $275 or $325 tournament. I asked the lady coordinating them if she was going to get one of those going. She was currently trying to promote a $525 tournament. She also said that she was not going to get a $325 one until she had the $525 sold out. I caved in and signed up for the $525. The moment I paid, she started to take sign ups for a $275 Single Table Tournament. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. I should have been more patient. The $525 tournament did not go as well. I placed 5th and got nothing.

After that, I decided to play cash games. 2/5 NL is what I decided on. I will not get into details, but lets just say I was not getting the right cards. I finished down about $500. By then, it was 5:30 and I was getting hungry.

I went back to the room, and Donna and I went to the strip to get some dinner. We would up at The Burger Palace, which was located in the The Imperial Palace. After dinner, we played some Three Card Poker.

I was starting to get tired. Although I wanted to play some more cash games, I decided against it to get a good night of sleep. The $1500 NL tournament is tomorrow and I need to be well rested. I had heard through the grapevine that they are capping the entries to this event at 3000. I decided to register early, so down I went. I got my seating assignment - Amazon Room, Red Area, Table 29, Seat 1. Ugh - I Hate seat 1. I also watched some of the $50,000 HORSE final table. Among the pros at the final table were Lyle Berman, Eric Lindgren, and Scotty Nguyen.

Notable sightings today included Daniel Negreanu and David Benyamine.

On tap for Monday 6/30 at Noon (Vegas time) is the $1500 NL tournament!

While I am at the WSOP, I will not be blogging as in-depth as I normally do. When I get back, I will provide some hand analysis from actual hands that I played.. .

I was anxious all day Friday. From the time I got up, I just could not wait to get the day over. I left work after lunch, went home, and started to whittle down my “to do” list.

Ray and I had a BerksirePoker.net chartity tournament that evening to benefit the Babe Ruth World Series. There were 60 players (thank you Ethan, Aaron, John, and Mike for playing!) and we were done around midnight. After breaking everything down and unloading, I got home around 1:30.

My flight left Albany, NY at 5:45, so I had no time to sleep. I finished getting ready, and off we went. I slept the whole way to Chicago, and then most of the way to Las Vegas. We landed at 10am Pacific Time, caught a shuttle to The Rio. Luckily, they had a room ready this early.

Donna and I napped for awhile, then explored the Rio. Naturally, I wanted to see the WSOP area. We made our way to the Amazon Room. I have to say, I have never seen so many poker tables in one place - ever. They even had an entire conference room devoted to satellites. WOW!

I wanted to play poker so bad, but I promised myself that I would not play the first day that I arrived. I knew I would be running on next to no sleep, and I would not be on my A-Game. So, I did the next best thing. I fired up my laptop and played some poker online. I thought this was amusing. I am in Las Vegas, at the Rio where the WSOP is being played, and here I am playing online poker.

I finally ran out of energy around 11pm. I retired to bed for a good night sleep.

Tomorrow I will be hitting the tables hard.

One of the ultimate poker questions that will stir more debate than anything is:

As a poker player, are you able to ever fold AA preflop?

A little different, but subject to even more debate is:

Is there a situation where you SHOULD fold AA preflop?

As is with most poker questions, the answer is, “it depends”. This question is a LOT different than my blog post where I wrote about folding pocket QQ preflop. With QQ you might be beat. With AA, you know that you are NOT BEAT - at the moment.

In a cash game, anybody would be hard pressed to ever convince me that laying down “Pocket Rockets”, “American Airlines”, “Bullets”, or “Missiles” preflop could be correct. For cash games, I am firmly on one side of the fence.

How about in a tournament? Here, the commonly asked question goes like this:

You are in the World Series of Poker Main Event and in the big blind. On the first hand of the tournament, everybody folds to the small blind, who pushes all-in. You have pocket aces. Do you call or fold?

This question is an extreme. Certainly, nobody in their right mind would push all-in preflop for T20,000 chips to win T75. It’s stupid, and I think just about every poker player would agree to that. But as is with a lot of poker examples, extremes are presented to illustrate a point - and I can appreciate this extreme question. Are you capable (or even willing) to ever fold AA preflop in a tournament? I am not going to comment on this specific situation, because the point of this blog post is not to debate whether folding AA in the big blind on the first hand of the WSOP is correct. I am here to talk about a different situation.

In my last blog post, I wrote about how I was fortunate enough to be going to the WSOP this year. I have not given up on trying to win a seat into the main event. I played in the PokerStars 200 seat guarantee and came up short (2000 out of 8000). I have been toying with the steps, but I have not had any success. I also have been playing in the weekly freerolls. What the heck, right? Its free, why not?

Having played in four of them already, I knew that these tournaments move fast. Typically about 3000 people enter them. The top 50 players get an entry into Round 2 - which is where they give away three free seats. Enter my situation:

Tournament: PokerStars $1M WSOP Giveaway, Round 1

Starting Stack: T1500

Players: About 1500

Players Left: 76

Average Chipstack: About T29,000

My Chipstack: T59,000

Blinds: T2,000/T4,000 + 200 Ante

Before I go any further, lets analyze this.

Players:

There are 76 people left. The top 50 advance to round two. Twenty-six more people must bust out. The remaining 50 people will win a round two seat.

Chipstack:

I have twice the average. Looking at the leader board, I see that I am in 8th place. There are a lot of people under T10,000. With blinds at their current levels, there are a lot of short stacks.

Tournament Composition:

If you have ever played in any of these freerolls, you know that the players are aggressive. A lot of them are low-stakes players who like to think that they are good. When a short-stack goes all-in, there is usually no shortage of people willing to try to take them out.

My Strategy:

I have more than enough chips to fold to the money - which is a seat in the next round. I decide that no matter what, I am going to fold. I click on “Sit Out Next Hand” - until I see

in middle position. Instinctively, I click off the “Sit Out” button. One guy calls and the action is on me. What do I do? Certainly, I have the best hand. I have the largest stack at the table, but there are a couple of people who could really put a dent in my chip count (~T35,000 - T45,000). I want to raise and play the hand. The question is, do I deviate from my strategy to play the hand, or do I fold? If I fold, I virtually guaranteed to win a seat in the next round. If I play, I am risking my (almost) guaranteed seat.

I ponder this for a minute. I can possibly take somebody out, or I can wait for other people to do the dirty work.

I ask myself, “Why am I playing in this tournament?”

The answer is simple enough: “To win a seat in the next round. ”

Does it make sense to risk your (almost) guaranteed seat when there are plenty of other people who are willing to do the dirty work for me?

BEEP

As I get to this point in the analysis, the PokerStars timer beeps at me. I have twelve seconds to make a decision. Do I deviate or do I stick with my game plan?

If I deviate, then I can either limp (to try to trap) or raise to take control of the hand.

BEEP

Why would I risk the prize that I was playing for in order to be macho and try to flog my opponent?

BEEP

In a regular tournament, this situation is a no-brainer. RAISE. The more chips you have, the better chance you have to make the final table, and hence a better payout.

BEEP

In a satellite, your only goal is to win the seat in the next round.

BEEP

First place pays the same as 50th in this tournament

BEEP

Three seconds left.

I click “Fold”, stand up, raise my arms over my head in victory, and shout, “I love this game”.

Three hands later, I was in the second round.

I must admit it: I am a Moneymaker-ite. Yes, I started to take poker seriously when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP back in 2003. Don’t get me wrong. I had played poker many times in college for nickles, dimes, and quarters. In those games, I usually walked away as one of the big winners for the evening. So much so, I was banned from the game my roommates had. I did not play a lot of poker over the following 10 years or so; I was busy with my other passions - Ice Hockey and collecting sports cards. (Interestingly enough, while living in Colorado, I met and became friends with Joe Cassidy when he was a teenager. Joe was a sports card dealer as well. Now he is a professional poker player).

Anyway, after Chris won the WSOP main event, I started to play online. I never thought that I would ever play for real money, let alone go to the “World Series of Poker”. That was for GOOD players. Five years, many thousands of dollars in painful learning experiences, and uncounted thousands upon thousands of played hands later, I am actually going to the WSOP!

As I got more and more serious about poker, I have always said, “Maybe next year.” I guess Donna got tired of hearing that.

“Why don’t you just go to the World Series instead of taking your next trip to California?”, she quipped.

I was hesitant. This is the WORLD SERIES of POKER! I had heard many tales of juicy cash games, bad satellite players, and the works. Am I actually good enough to hold my own? I thought so.

I called The Rio to check for availability. They had rooms, but for ten nights from June 28 - July 8, they quoted me a price of $3200 - and I am a Platinum Member at Harrah’s. No thank you. I asked about different hotels on the strip (Caesars, Ballys, Harrah’s, Flamingo, Imperial). They were coming in at $1700 - $1800 for 10 night. Again, no thank you. I was a little bit down, but asked Donna to call to see what she could get. Harrah’s loves Donna. When we go to Atlantic City, I play in the poker room for 10-12 hours, and she spends the same time on table games and slots. Hence, she is a Diamond Member.

Donna picked up the phone and called the generic reservation number for The Rio. She was quoted a price, but was asked to hold while they got the casino host on the line. After about 15 minutes on the phone, she had the exact same 10 nights ( June 28 - July 8 ) for a mere $510 - tax included! FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS for 10 nights at the RIO during the WORLD SERIES OF POKER! I could not get my credit card out fast enough to confirm the reservation. Additionally, since Donna is a Diamond Member, we get to eat free in the Diamond Lounge.

The last thing to get in order was airfare. We had gone to Denver this past February, and one of our flights were overbooked. United asked for volunteers to be bumped, in exchange for a free ticket. I always like to plan my travel early in the day just in case this situation arises. We volunteered and received vouchers for one free round trip ticket each, valued up to $300. The only “problem” was that airfare from Albany, NY to Las Vegas was going for about $450. So, it looked like we would have to kick in some extra money. Donna called the airline and low and behold, they said that we would not have to pay any extra. The tickets were 100% free!

So, Donna and I are confirmed for 10 nights at The Rio and the airline tickets are confirmed as well. I am going to play in event #52 ($1500 NL holdem). I am also going to try to satellite into the main event.

Next Stop - The WSOP!