WSOP DeepStacks Trip Report
Alright, not on every bodies playlist but for the low stakes players or anyone that has never stayed at Rio just a couple of thoughts...
I thought that the prize-pools great bang for the buck, though watching Brenna play it was definitely a lot of all in poker as compared to Deepstack strategies. Structure escalates fast, that is to be expected, but being able to play 5 huge live fields that we don't find up here for the price of a regular 1k and similar prize-pool was still worth playing.
During her deep run, Bren peaked at about 800k and was well above average right up to the bust hand at 22/1302. Blinds were 60k/120k/10k with 19 million in play, just to put things in perspective yet average was still around 285,000 according to board, which also kept updated chop values, which was cool. Next time though, on talking to a lot of players, it sounds like Venetian is still the better pick.
As for the Rio, I don’t think they comp as well as other places and I hear Venetian is good. The room rates were great though and it was convenient, but I don't think I would stay there again.
There were decent food options, many cheap grab and go’s so that was also a plus; I also usually have my vehicle down there so it’s never usually something I care about, but was nice to have available.
Friends who grind the summer think it a better idea to leave after poker and then you enjoy Vegas more, which admittedly even after being there a week, didn't real feel like I was there. This was my 6th or 7th trip down, so it just could be getting familiar. Keep in mind I don't drink, so I get pretty bored fast and working with 5k budget for whole trip, there was really only room for one of us to dive in and she likes playing far more than I do these days.
I do plan on staying at Venetian next time as I never have, but stayed at TI enough and I like that area of strip.
All and all, it was a productive trip on many levels, Bren played a ton of cards, I shook a ton of hands and met most of the people I was hoping to. Did get some PFC face time in as well as a few Alberta friends being down. One thing that was decided for sure was that the OPT knows what they are doing when it comes to WSOP and we will be adopting their sat structures for a few of our own. I have two tables in my poker room so a $150 buy-in would award 1 seat, $700, $500, $300 and I know a bunch of players that would like and be serious about playing these at least every few months or more.
That’s about it.
I thought that the prize-pools great bang for the buck, though watching Brenna play it was definitely a lot of all in poker as compared to Deepstack strategies. Structure escalates fast, that is to be expected, but being able to play 5 huge live fields that we don't find up here for the price of a regular 1k and similar prize-pool was still worth playing.
During her deep run, Bren peaked at about 800k and was well above average right up to the bust hand at 22/1302. Blinds were 60k/120k/10k with 19 million in play, just to put things in perspective yet average was still around 285,000 according to board, which also kept updated chop values, which was cool. Next time though, on talking to a lot of players, it sounds like Venetian is still the better pick.
As for the Rio, I don’t think they comp as well as other places and I hear Venetian is good. The room rates were great though and it was convenient, but I don't think I would stay there again.
There were decent food options, many cheap grab and go’s so that was also a plus; I also usually have my vehicle down there so it’s never usually something I care about, but was nice to have available.
Friends who grind the summer think it a better idea to leave after poker and then you enjoy Vegas more, which admittedly even after being there a week, didn't real feel like I was there. This was my 6th or 7th trip down, so it just could be getting familiar. Keep in mind I don't drink, so I get pretty bored fast and working with 5k budget for whole trip, there was really only room for one of us to dive in and she likes playing far more than I do these days.
I do plan on staying at Venetian next time as I never have, but stayed at TI enough and I like that area of strip.
All and all, it was a productive trip on many levels, Bren played a ton of cards, I shook a ton of hands and met most of the people I was hoping to. Did get some PFC face time in as well as a few Alberta friends being down. One thing that was decided for sure was that the OPT knows what they are doing when it comes to WSOP and we will be adopting their sat structures for a few of our own. I have two tables in my poker room so a $150 buy-in would award 1 seat, $700, $500, $300 and I know a bunch of players that would like and be serious about playing these at least every few months or more.
That’s about it.
Comments
Nice report Jon, any more fun things you did, any nice meals you participated in.?
Gotta question your math tho.... 22 players left, 19 million would make avg stack about 864K not 285k.. Avg BB would be just under 7, really low for 22 players left... wow, talk about tight...
Yeah math seemed off to me too, why I quoted board. They seemed to be more on top of updating than most tournaments I've been too though. It also scrolled the payouts, standard, but well done there again with little lag.
As far as meals go, the wife and oldest daughter wet to the Italian restaurant over by BK side. Pricey as hell, but they said was very good. First time for me at Carnival Buffet in Rio, were able to jump line even with just Deepstack ticket.
I thought the Paradise buffet on Freemount was good, prob take three visits to this one just to try everything. Awesome food, not bad at $27 a person for evening including surf and turf.
As far as fun things I participated in, did Quadjacks TV which was cool, sweated Mueller heads up and after he busted, he actually called me over in hall knowing who I was and what I do, to give me opportunity to ask him a bit and let me know he isnt the sore loser who is going to shit on media. Great guy.
Met Buchanan, Mizzi, Idema, Radoja, Liu, Cajelais and Jarzebek IRL, done various articles or interviews with them, but never actually met, so was cool to chat. Some where short intros others we talked a bit and gave the fist pound in the hall throughout the trip, it's always a bit rewarding when at least half the pros appreciate the work. I would say all but a few on this list were in that category.
Also talked with Antonio a bit, he does remember me enough from past things and a had an "inside industry" laugh as well as talking to Gavin, he just kinda grunts and gave us the finger, but there is a few private stories behind that, it's usually like talking to an ape most days, did get the fist bump after the grunts though.
I ran into Keith Gipson and Andrew Robl. Keith is engaged to Lacey, whom of course we all hung out with back in CPT days so just congratulated him on them and he asked about how we were making out, told him about Bren's run. Robl was listening and commented on field size, also shook his hand but they were on break so didn't hold them up. The cool part of that story is that an hour later he bought into One Drop, so it's kinda cool for us little guys to talk the Highrollers and have them genuinely pay attention. Good moment.
As far as our real circle here goes, met Kirk, Mark, Greg, Steve T, Ted, Angel, Ash, Deb and Kerr (hope I didn't miss anyone) and had some drinks, as well as a few FB friends I chat with or from CPT days but don't often see.
I did spend a lot of time with Marco and Zak of Quadjacks talking ideas and introduced my self to Chad Holloway and Kristy Arnette of PokerNews. Chad and I collaborate on Canadian content fairly regularly, so was nice to meet in person.
The trip ended with us watching the Final Table of $50,000 until 3 handed when we had to leave. I've known Chris Torina for a few years now, when I worked for the CPT I ended up ditched and overnight their half of the booth, the one good thing that came out of that was spending 2 days talking to Chris and Kat. The significance to the story was that the wife has always joked about the Grinder being her boyfriend for years and so we took an awesome stalker pic of her squeezing him about 4 hours before he shipped.
I mentioned going out to grab a squeeze of a few female poker Hotties on my list, but Appearantly there is a double standard there....
I had a lot of fun and kept busy, could prob think of more but that about covers it.
Last but not least meet Laurence Grondin from Espace Jouer, just a quick chat but also a pro I wanted to eventually meet.