WPBT Summer 2008

Today I am beginning the serious phase of my plans for the WPBT Summer gathering 2008.

I was really excited the other night during this guy's tournament when this guy said on this that this guy had posted about the WPBT summer gathering plans. I got the link and clicked right over to read what he had to say. Essentially, this guy has had preliminary discussions with this place about hosting another private blogger nlh tournament for us there in early June, and otherwise it is more or less up to us to book rooms at the hotel of our choosing which frankly is not a big deal for me as I have always tended to stay wherever I feel like it even in my two previous trips to Vegas to hang with the bloggers. My first time out there, I ended up staying with the larger group at this resort, which I actually thought was a great place for our big group to be, and then last year I did not want to stay at the Orleans where I think the block of rooms had been set up, so instead I opted for my old stomping grounds on the strip of this place. Both served me well and have a great central on-strip location for reasonable price among the large strip resorts.

Anyways, I got excited just reading about the preparations already being made for the WPBT Summer gathering 2008. But then I looked at the dates and saw that it is being planned for the first weekend of June this year, June 7-8. As I had written about previously, I feel that the second or even the third weekend of June both present better overall options as far as people who are interested in playing in the World Series of Poker during their stay in Sin City. Such as, me.

See, here's the issue. If I want to come the weekend of June 7, my WSOP options are as follows:

Thursday, June 5, 12pm PT: WSOP Event #9 Shorthanded NLH $1500
Thursday, June 5, 5pm PT: WSOP Event #10 O8 / Stud 8 $2500
Friday, June 6, 12pm PT: WSOP Event #11 NLH Shootout $5000
Friday, June 6, 5pm PT: WSOP Event #12 Limit Holdem $1500
Saturday, June 7, 12pm PT: WSOP Event #13 NLH $2500

I really could not play in any events starting later that Saturday at noon, as for various reasons I basically am slotted to take my time at the beginning of the weekend (i.e., Thursday and Friday) as opposed to later on Sunday or Monday. As it is, I can't really even play in a 3-day event that starts on Saturday at noon like Event #13 does, and more than that, I would prefer to play in the live blogger tournament if I am out in Vegas for the WPBT weekend, so that basically takes Saturday out of the picture again anyways. Which leaves me with just the four WSOP options on Thursday and Friday June 5-6. And here's the thing: Event #9 is shorthanded nlh. It is the exact event that I played and cashed in in 2008, and it's a game that I am fairly familiar with. But that said, I don't really play it anymore. Last year at this time I was Mr. Shorthanded Tournament, as I was playing in multiple satellites every single night just about into the nightly 6-handed 30k guaranteed tourney on full tilt at 11pm ET. I was living and breathing shorthanded nlh tournaments, and as a result that is the event I chose to play in, and I fared very well. But ever since I hit that 30k for a 5k score around the middle of 2007, I have really not been playing it much anymore. In fact, to be clear, I bet I haven't played it more than two times since returning from Las Vegas in June of 2007. So, I am not really inclined to pony up $1500 from my roll to play a game that I am just not really attuned to at the moment. So I think that one is not the best idea, as good as it was to me last year.

Now, I could be a badass and play that Event $10, Stud 8 and O8. These are two games I feel quite proficient in and in which I have had a modicum of success at over time. But, do I really feel like dropping 25 hundy to sit down and play limit poker with at least some people who will surely have more experience and knowledge of these games than I? I'm thinking not really.

Which leaves me with the Friday events. First is the nlh shootout, which I could see participating in, but at 5k a pop? Uh uh. And that leaves the Friday 5pm Event #12, which has the $1500 buyin that I like, but alas it is a limit holdem tournament, and that is no good for me. Many of you have seen how frustrating limit holdem can make me for the most part, and I'm just not seeing it making sense for me to fly all the way out to Vegas for my once-yearly WSOP pilgrimage just to get donked by some monkeychaser who won't lay down his bullshit regardless of how many bets and raises it is to him.

So therein lies the problem. What to do, what to do? I mean, I really want to hang with the bloggers who are cool enough to trek out to the middle of the desert in the summer during the WSOP, easily the most exciting time to be in Vegas for any poker fans and also one of the most fun. So I don't want to miss that weekend. But the following weekend Thursday - Saturday June 12-14 has multiple WSOP options for me that are better than anything going on at the WSOP during the WPBT weekend this year.

Obviously I see a couple of options for me here. #1 I can suck it up and pick one of these WSOP events from that first weekend and just play it. I know I am good enough to go deep in any of the events going on that weekend, so maybe I should just suck it up, play the shorthanded event again or something and be a man. That is certainly one option. That way, I will be there with the bloggers, we can share some good times, I can get my World Series fix and I can still almost surely be around for the Saturday blogger tournament at the Venetian. It's not a terrible solution, except for the WSOP options which are not great.

Another option is that I could come out for the WPBT weekend June 5-8, and just not play in the World Series. I understand that the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza is going on during that time, and I have had a number of other bloggers mention that possibility to me. Here is the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza schedule. So I could plya the $540 Friday night tournament and see how that goes. But then I am giving up playing in the WSOP this year, which I will admit is not exactly what I want to do.

And of course my last option is that I could come out the following weekend, on Thursday June 12 as I had been writing about previously, and then I could play in the WSOP on Thursday at noon in an event I would look more foward to playing than any of the WSOP options for the previous week. But although I will still have a few bloggers around that weekend whom I would really look forward to hanging out with, I will then miss the big WPBT gathering from the previous weekend. And that makes this not a great option either.

So what to do, what to do? I am open to any and all advice or thoughts any of you may have. Why can't you fonkeys just be going the second weekend of June instead of the first?