Getting Ready

I think this is my tenth trip to Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker.  

The first trip was in 2015, which I know because I was 51 years old and played my first Seniors Tournament, which is open to players who are 50 or older.  

Why didn’t I play in 2014, when I was 50?  It happened that my daughter was graduating from high school the same weekend that the tournament started, and despite my assurances to my wife and daughter that I would not miss her graduation from college (which is the graduation that really matters, right?), they would not let me chase my poker destiny.

So 2015 was the first year.  And I think I took 2016 and 2020 off for reasons lost to time.  So 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and now 2026.  I have linked my live-blogs above from when I started doing them in 2019.

Two of those years, I played in the Main Event, which costs $10,000 to enter.  I did not actually spend that much money to play - I had been backed by a poker league here in Houston, and I came close the first year to having a dominant stack before falling in an unlucky hand late on the second day.

All the other times, I played in the much more affordable and friendly Seniors Tournament (and lately in the Super Seniors Tournament for guys 60 and over).

And win or lose, playing in these tournaments has been great fun, giving me the chance to unwind with my friends, eat well, and now and then win some money.

This year feels a little weird, however, because I have been in a bit of a slump in my home game.  No cashes through the first half of the year, and some mediocre cash game play.  I’m not having a confidence crisis yet because I’m still generally making good decisions, but I’m hoping that this trip will be a reboot, a chance to get my instincts and fundamentals recalibrated.

I’m also going to try to limit my table game play - as little blackjack and pai gow as possible.  We pay a resort fee for the hotel amenities, whether we use them or not, and this year, I want to swim in the pool, use the gym, and see what the spa has to offer.  I’ve got three books to read, crosswords to solve, and a chess buddy who I play daily.  I also want some decent meals for a change - no poker room hot dogs and protein bars for dinner anymore.

In short, this year will be two or three deep-stack tournaments, some double board bomb pot cash games, one day of bingo, and otherwise chilling in the room, schvitzing in the spa, or sipping beers in the sports book with my friends.

The other wrinkle is my schedule. I will be in Vegas from Monday to Friday, then come back home for the weekend, then back to Vegas for the Monday Super Seniors Tournament (60 and older players).  I have to do it this way because I have a wedding and a memorial service to attend on the weekend, and it won’t be too expensive because I have tons of airline points.

It feels a little decadent to go home for the weekend, but the alternative is worse - missing two important events for good friends, as well as Fathers Day that weekend.  

Plus Vegas definitely has a shelf life: after five or six days, I get tired of pretty much everything.  The twenty-somethings at sushi bars in swimsuits and Affliction t-shirts, the sad professionalism of the table dealers who cringe as they take your money knowing there is no tip coming from a losing player, the weird mix of aromas from cigarettes, vapes, energy drinks, and flop sweat, and the feeling that you are a coin spinning, spinning, spinning down around a funnel into a casino’s lockbox, the reverse of an ATM.  You scan your loyalty card and they take your money, asking if you want to give it to them in twenties, fifties or hundreds.

And knowing all of that, here I come nonetheless.  Everyone has a system to beat the house, and every year, I try something new.  My system this year: the money I don’t play is money I can spend on real things, like food and massages and movies.  You can’t lose what you don’t play.

Let’s see how long that lasts.

Assuming the weather doesn’t ground us, we will be at the Paris at about 5:30 Houston time tomorrow.  I will start live-blogging on Tuesday morning.

Until then, as Stan Lee liked to say in the back of the comics, Excelsior!