WSOP and WPBT In Vegas in July

OK. I've come back down to earth (a little bit) after winning my WSOP buyin on Thursday morning. Yesterday I found the one site on the entire internet that my work does not block ("Gambling and Games are filtered!") that would show me the WSOP schedule. I also went and read the WPBT July gathering information on April's blog in detail for the first time, since I was never really considering being able to go to the live WPBT get-together, as much as I would love to meet everyone in person. And I'm beginning to formulate a plan.

Wait, let me just take one step back for a second. Once the kids were asleep last night, the Hammer Wife mentioned the wsop schedule I had printed out on the desk, and I figured now was as good of a time as any to put in the half-pot bet on the flop, and see where I'm at with her. I let Hammer Wife know first and foremost that I do not in any way feel entitled to skip out of town for a few days to go be a degenerate gambler in Las Vegas while she stays home with our two young girls. You couldn't love anyone more than I love my daughters, but they are also a handful for one person to watch for two or three days straight. So I made sure that my wife knows that I know (is that Level 3 thinking or what?) how big of a sacrifice it would be for her, all for little old me to go and drop a lot of money on an event where by all rights my chances of success will be very, very low. I had spent much of the afternoon thinking of all the things I could offer my wife in exchange for being cool with me going out to Vegas and living one of my dreams and playing in the actual wsop, because I knew she wasn't going to love the idea.

Once again, Hammer Wife never ceases to amaze me. I barely got the first sentence out when she was like "Of course you're going, it's the World Series of Poker!" She reminded me of a conversation I had had with her right when I first heard about the ftp Bracelet Races in April, when I sat her down and really asked her, honestly, if she would be ok with me going to the WSOP if I won a seat. Hammer Wife responded very quickly with a "yes" then, and even though I don't think she really believed I would ever win a WSOP seat when she agreed that I could go, the same reasoning applied then as applies now in her mind -- it's the World Series, I've been talking about it and obsessed with it for years, and now I have a buyin to play there. I gotta go.

So that's it. I will be representing poker bloggers everywhere playing in one of the smaller buyin events at the 2006 WSOP!

Even though I thought convincing my wife that I should go would be difficult, and it wasn't. It turns out, that was the easy part. The hard part now is figuring out which event to play. For those of you who don't know:

This year's WSOP begins with Event #2 (the first public event) on Tuesday, June 27, which is a $1500 nlh tournament. Through Wednesday, July 26, there are 38 different WSOP events scheduled over a span of 29 calendar days, with buyins ranging from $1000 for the nlh tournament on Monday, July 10, to $50,000 for the brand new HORSE tournament to be played from July 12 - 14. Then after a couple of days off for the various satellites that proliferate the poker rooms immediately before The Big One, the 2006 WSOP Main Event kicks off with Day 1 from Friday July 28 to Monday July 31, culminating eventually in the final table and champion being crowned on Thursday, August 10. In between most of the days of the Main Event, there is also a $1500 nlh event for spectators, early bustouts from the Main Event, or anyone else who wants to play.

Basically, although I think I am proficient in games like Omaha and Razz, I would not play those games in the WSOP because they are not my best games, and my roll currently does not even consider permitting me to drop huge wads of cash in tournaments of games that are not my best. Of the WSOP options, there are three tournaments I could play in. There is regular nlh, probably my best overall game. There is pot-limit holdem, probably my second-best game. And there are the 6-max holdem games, something else in which my aggressive style tends to succeed in MTTs, and probably the most fun tournaments to play. Everything else will have to wait for another year.

Also, I have some vacations scheduled for this year which also impact my ability to play in a number of the WSOP events this summer. The entire July 1 - 4 weekend is out, as is a week near the end of July when I will also be away with family. I'm also going away over the weekend of August 5-6, during which time there are two juicy $1500 buyin events which also just happen to coincide with the Main Event thinning down from 600 to 150 players remaining. I know that would be a super fun time to be in Las Vegas, but again I have other plans that prevent me from doing so this year.

Lastly, I am already taking a whole lot of time off from work this summer, and while that will be ok, I simply can't just throw another 3 vacation days on there so I can go sling poker chips with people much better than me in Las Vegas. And since most of these events are 3 days long (and I plan to win, of course, so I'll be around all three days ha ha), that also really limits my ability to play in a Monday or Tuesday tournament, which would require me to miss basically a whole week of work and that is not a possibility right now.

So, all this leaves me with just a few options for me and the $1500 "WSOP buyin bucks" (as I like to call them) I won from ftp this week. Friday tournaments are going to be the best because I can work on Thursday, and get out there comfortably in time for a Friday noon PST tournament start. And even if I somehow manage to last until the final day of my event, that will be on Sunday, after which I can take a redeye home and still only miss the one day of work on Friday. Yes, I know, if I actually win the event I might not be able to make it out of Vegas on Sunday night in time for the last redeye. If I win $500,000 in this thing, I guess I'll just have to not give a shit about skipping out of work again on Monday. How do you like them apples? Heck I'll give my boss 5 grand in hundreds if I have to in that situation. So that's just not something I'm going to worry about.

So, my two best days would be Friday, July 7, when there is a $2500 buyin nlh tournament (Event #13), or Friday, July 14 for Event #22, a $2000 buyin nlh tournament. And this is where the WPBT gathering comes in.

I checked it out last night and it looks like the bloggers will be congregating in Las Vegas for the weekend of July 8-9. That just fits in too well with me playing in the $2500 buyin event on Friday, July 7. Yes, I only won $1500 in buyin bucks from FTP, but I won $500 cash as well in that package, and from my recent poker success I have enough in my roll to chip in the last 500 myself if need be. I've got a free room waiting for me out there whenever I need it, and the flights are reasonably cheap. So in all, I can buy in to the $2500 event, which I guess I would like to do.

So my question for all of you is: Which of you out there are going to be at the Vegas get-together on the weekend of July 8-9? I would love to know who is coming and who is not. Maybe April has a list somewhere on her blog. I didn't check last night and now I can't because for whatever reason April's blog is blocked by my work as a "Gambling" site. Even though its title clearly states that it is NOT a poker blog! Sheesh those Websense people are smart. Anyways who can tell me where I can find this information?

And more importantly, if you're one who is prone to comment on blogs, can you leave me a comment and let me know if you plan to be here that weekend? I am going to make my decision between that Friday or the following Friday (July 14th) probably by the end of the weekend. I just want to get a sense of who expects to be there and who does not.

Thanks!