Vegas October 2021 (WSOP)

Planning

Last Updated: 2021-10-06 13:53:18

Getting close!!!

We are leaving Friday the 8th after work, we're there until Monday the 25th. We have tickets to a concert on Friday the 15th, so I cannot play in either of the bracelet events I would have considered on the 13th and 14th.

There is a very small but non-zero chance we could leave Friday morning, but right now it looks like Joann has to work most of her normal shift that day. I've listed the 8/b tournament for Saturday, however if we get there at 2am Friday I am more likely than not going to keep it as just a day in town. We have a dinner reservation, but it gives us another Saturday to possibly spend time with Heather (my cousin) and Glenn and they always find good restaurants for us to try.

The table below is my options day-by-day. I will not be playing in everything listed below, but I expect to play in a decent number of them. If the trip is going poorly like 2019 there will be cutbacks towards the end for sure. If the trip is more like 2017 then all bets are off :-).

That said, PLO8 mix on Sunday is 100%. 8-Game mix Monday is 100% unless I'm still playing in Day 2 of PLO8 mix and can't buy in. But I will late-reg right up to the cutoff to play in that.

The WSOP is shortening to 40 minute instead of 60 minute rounds on day 1 for the majority of tournaments, their structures remain incredibly slow so I will likely late-reg intentionally in most if not all bracelet tournaments I play in. And for sure 8-game I would late-reg right up to the cutoff after 9 rounds have passed if it came down to it.

THAT said, my bankroll is not infinite and I'm already building in some "off days". Most days that are "off days" there is a $400 NLH at Aria I can play in. If things start out incredibly well some of them could turn into playing days. So ... with that ...

10/09	11:00AM	$470	Aria L Omaha 8/B	Only if Joann could get Friday off
10/10	3:00PM	$1500	Event #21 Omaha 8/b Mix	PLO8, LO8, Big O
10/11	3:00PM	$1500	Event #23 8-Game Mix	If no deep Day 2 8/b mix
10/12	11:00AM	$400	Orleans H.O.R.S.E.	If no FT from PLO8 or Day 2 from 8G
10/13	11:00AM	$470	Aria PLO
10/14	11:00AM	$0	Off day	Would have played bracelet event but can't because...
10/15	11:00AM	$0	System of a Down	...with special guest Korn
10/16	3:00PM	$3000	Event #32 H.O.R.S.E.	If I was having a monster trip, otherwise off night (we hope) with Heather and Glenn (aka my other whisky buying enabler)
10/17	3:00PM	$1500	Event #34 L 2-7 Triple Draw
10/18	11:00AM	$200	NLH Orleans	If no day 2
10/19	11:00AM	$400	NLH Aria	If no final table
10/20	11:00AM	$1500	Event #39 PLO	This one is for sure, with Patrick
10/21	3:00PM	$1500	Event #42 Razz	If no Day 2, and see below
10/21	11:00AM	$400	NLH Aria	If things are going really well, Razz. If things are going OK this. If things going poorly, this falls into the "possible cutbacks" category
10/22	10:00AM	$600	Aria Seniors	or...
10/22	11:00AM	$600	Orleans H.O.R.S.E	this will be a tough decision on this day. This is a possible 2-day
10/23	11:00AM	$470	Aria Limit Omaha 8/b	Might actually be "8/b mix" (omaha and stud rather than WSOP mix)
10/24	11:00AM	$0	This is almost certainly going be an off day. There is a $400 at Aria, Orleans has a 2-day 8/b tournament so I can't play there. But I will probably spend our last day watching football and hanging out with Joann. Eagles in town but probably won't want to spend the money on tix.

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NEW: I have to say I'm not too worried there will be a WSOP this year, but I am starting to worry about how good it will be. Joann and I have already started talking about "what if". My concern started when I saw a Twitter exchange between Shaun Deeb and Matt Glantz about the possibility of vaccine requirements and casual players not attending if they were imposed. Then it occurred to me that with travel and quarantine restrictions it will be very hard for international players to play, which means very few will. I'm starting to worry about whether there will be a big enough player pool and how tough it will be if it is small (which implies all pros and few casual players). I guess we'll see...

I will say that considering that Caesar's wasn't too concerned about distancing in the heat of COVID when we were out there July 2020 I think them implementing a vaccine requirement is pretty unlikely ... but you never know if the state might require them for any large crowds.

Now that the WSOP schedule is out Joann and I could do some serious planning. As I said in my original posting we booked the 7th through the 25, but we've pretty much decided that we're not going for that long. More likely we will drive out the 9th or possibly the 10th, and we're considering leaving town as early as Saturday the 23rd but currently leaning towards staying through that weekend.

While I was playing in a tournament at Orleans Joann compiled a list for me of everything I could consider playing in at the WSOP, I probably will only pick 2-3, but if I get off to a good start there would probably be more.

UPDATE: I started telling some folks 8-game was going to be my first bracelet event, but after thinking about it some more I've decided I shouldn't pass on 8/b mix so as of today we are going to arrive in Vegas the afternoon of the 9th so I can get a good sleep and be refreshed for a day of poker on the 10th. I will turn around and play in 8-game the next day unless I make it deep enough into day 2 that I can't or it's later than I want to register.

It will not surprise me at all if I play in Orleans in October also because I overheard a floor manager or someone like that talking to what I guessed was a new worker about the tournament series I was playing in and saying they were going to replicate this in October now that they know the WSOP will be going on. I asked Alan at Aria if he thought they would have a series and right now he's short dealers and is worried about today, not October.

With that said, Joann's list of WSOP tournaments I'd consider playing in with a couple I added (to which I will add other stuff as other casinos announce their series):

(previous table deleted)

=======================original post=====================

UPDATE: I will be redoing this entry soon now that the full WSOP schedule has been announced. We are booked 10/7-25 but we are cutting out at least a couple of days, maybe as many as 4-5. Unfortunately the first and last weekends are prohibitively expensive (EDC was moved to the last weekend we had booked, not helpful), can't even book a room for the first weekend at Park MGM! Now that I have a list of possible bracelet events I could play in during that timeframe we are looking at cutting out some of the more expensive days both at the beginning and the end.

Scotland is definitely out for 2021 and pushed out to 2023, so this will still be at least a 2-week trip. Just might not be a lot more than 2 weeks.

All I have right now is that the WSOP has announced that there will be a WSOP this fall running September 30 through November 23rd at the Rio and one way or another we will be going in October so I can play some poker. Joann cannot get time off in November or December.

Joann and I are hoping to go to Scotland late this summer. If that happens, then the likely scenario is that we will go out for a long weekend together in October (as we had already planned to do) and I will either go out ahead of her to play poker or I will stay longer than her at the end. I will see what WSOP event I want to play in and build the trip around that.

Joann is often my enabler and sometimes insists, but my intention is that I will not play poker while Joann is out for the long weekend. Only while I'm there by myself.

If Scotland doesn't happen then we may do a long trip together like our typical June trips. We'd go for a couple of weeks and I'd have a normal WSOP trip, in which case we might cut back on June a little.

The only problem with that scenario is that we are definitely doing Italy in 2022 already and then we'd be doing Scotland in 2022 as well, so that would mean not much of a June 2022 WSOP trip for me. So I'd prefer Scotland works out this year because I frankly think attendance at this fall WSOP is going to be much less than normal. But who knows, maybe it'll be packed...

Regardless, I expect to know what's going on with all of our 2021 trips before we get in the car for the June trip.