WSOP Tips

Every summer, poker players from all over the world flock to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. Luckily for the professional players, most of these visitors have little to no chance to actually come away with a big score because they set themselves up to fail from the start. To last the seven weeks at the WSOP you must remain focused and ready to play your “A” game the entire time.

Here are a few tips that will greatly increase your expectation at any tournament series without even mentioning how to technically play poker.  It should be noted these are tips for players who want to have the highest expectation possible during a long series and only care about poker. If you’re going to Vegas to party and to play a few tournaments on the side, these tips probably aren’t for you. Then again, neither is the life of a poker tournament professional.

Get a lot of sleep

To be ready to play your best at noon every day, you simply have to get a lot of sleep. I make a point to get home as soon as the tournament is over each day or around midnight, whichever comes last. For example, if I play a $1,500 tournament and bust in the first hour, I will play satellites or cash games until midnight and then go home. If I play the same $1,500 tournament and survive the entire day, I will go home when play ends, usually around 1 a.m. When I get home, I go straight to sleep. I don’t sit around and have dinner and watch a movie. I get sleep so I’m ready to go the next day.

Play side games

In the past, I never really played the side games during the WSOP. I now realize just how much money I was missing out on. I’ve played mostly $500 and $1,000 single-table satellites in my spare time and have been happy with my results. I also hear the cash games are excellent. I used to simply go home whenever I lost a tournament, which would often waste an entire day. Now, I’m earning around $200 per hour.

Assuming you play four hours of side games per day, you will find that you profit $40,000 by the end of the series. That’s a nice way to supplement the daily tournaments. It can turn a losing series into a break-even one and a break-even series into a decent winner. Obviously this will take time away from goofing off or enjoying the outdoor world, but seeing how the profitability of poker has been shot in the foot because of the problems with online poker, you simply have to make the most of every tournament series.

Eat right

A few years ago, I lost around 40 pounds simply through eating right and exercising regularly. Throughout the WSOP, I make a point to eat a few eggs, some veggies and some lean meat as soon as I roll out of bed every morning. During the WSOP, there are a few food delivery services that will bring healthy food to the poker table. I have my healthy breakfast plus two meals delivered to my table each day. This allows me to not take dinner breaks, which will make me slightly more profitable, and it allows me to stay in decent shape, especially since I have to cut out a little bit of my routine workout time.

That being said, I still try to get in the gym at least three times per week, even during the hectic WSOP. Also, for those looking to quickly lose fat and keep it off, simply stop eating sugar, fatty foods and starches. This means no smoothies, potatoes, rice, yogurt, fatty meats and bread. If you cut these foods out of your diet, the weight will drop off quickly. Realize though, this isn’t a diet, it’s a way of life.

Avoid your vices

My past vices have been drinking and degenerate gambling. I never had a legitimate problem with either, but I realized they cut into the profitability of poker. If you have a few drinks at night you’ll find you won’t sleep as well and will wake up with a mild hangover, which will make you play worse during the day.

If you gamble on random things, such as blackjack or sports, you will find when you lose, you’re on tilt from losing and when you win, you would rather be doing those things than playing poker, both of which are terrible for your concentration. My advice is to cut these activities out of your life, and not just for duration the tournament series. If you do, you will find yourself a much happier person in the long run.

If you are going to the WSOP, I strongly suggest you spend some time preparing. If you simply show up and expect to succeed, you are almost certain to fail. I recorded a six-hour long training series for you that explains all of the preparations I make in order to ensure I have the best chance to do well. I also discuss how to play with the wildly varying stacks you will be forced to play with at the WSOP. Check it out here: Jonathan Little’s WSOP Coaching Series

If you enjoyed this blog post, please share it with your friends. Good luck in your games!

3rd Place in WSOP final table and a wrap-up

The WSOP has been kind to me this year. I cashed 5 times, which is a record for me and also made my first WSOP final table. I always feared my first final table would be in a game besides No Limit Texas Hold'em.

Sure enough, I got to play the $1500 limit holdem shootout for my first chance at a bracelet. My table was no cakewalk either, as it had Mike Schneider and Terrence Chan at the table, who are both certainly amongst top 10 limit poker players in the world. Despite this, I liked my chances, as I used to play a decent amount of heads up limit on Full Tilt before people stopped giving me action, which was around 2.5 years ago.

I quickly lost � my stack, which was no fun. I had AK 4 times in the first 2 hours and lost with all of them. Eventually though, I went on a heater and got up to 1,000,000 chips. We all started with 450,000 and there was 3.6 million in play total, as it was an 8 handed table. Luckily, Terrence and Mike both busted fairly quickly. Things were looking good until I ran AA into J8 twice.

Both times, the pot was huge and they rivered me, so that was no fun at all. I pot controlled wonderfully a few times where I could have lost a lot of bets, like with AJ on a 988J3 board where I lost to T7. I certainly had my fair share of luck. I know I rivered Mike once early in the day with 55 when I bet the flop and turn and rivered a set.

I also made 2 flushes throughout the day and got paid off. Sadly though, the two huge losses with AA did me in. One great thing that happened was I took 3rd place despite having only 200k when we were 4 handed. The other stacks were 1.6 mil, 900k, and 700k. The player with 600k decided to try to push around the big stack with A4s and flopped a flush draw only to get all the money in and lose to a pair, so I lucked out and got $25,000 more than I normally would.

Limit is a swingy game. In my 2nd round match, I was down to just 3bbs when we were 3 handed and came back to win. Both the 1st and 2nd place player at the final table were both very short. Then again, each one of them had the J8 against my AA to come back. Also, against the guy that won, I had KK vs his QQ in a spot where I left him with 2 bets where I probably could have gotten them in if I wasn�t playing to conserve chips.

He raised the cutoff and I reraised with KK on the button. He 4bet and I just called. I could have capped it at 5 bets but I basically never cap it because it turns your hand fairly face up. It came Axx. He bet and I called. The turn was another A, which looked good for me, but I figured he would only call down with an A or a big pair, so I just called his bet again. The river was a blank and he checked. I bet for value and he called, leaving himself with 2bbs. Had I capped it preflop, I probably would have gotten another bet in, leaving him with half as much as he had. Ohhhh well. Cant cry over spilt milk. All in all, I think I played some great limit holdem over the last 3 days.

Since I learned to play PLO pretty well over the last year or so, I decided to play as many PLO events as I could. I made it really deep in the $1500, losing a huge coin flip when we were down to 30 people or so. In the $5000, I got it in once with A986 vs AJ86 on a 8869 board only for him to spike an A to chop a huge pot and then later with AAJ4 vs KK82 on a 543 board only to lose to a K on the river. Simply put, since I now know how to play the game decently well, I see that most other people have no clue how to play.

This has motivated me to learn all the other games so I can play all the random mixed game events. I have decided to spend around 2 months on each game, which should hopefully be enough time to get me to a competent level. I don�t need to be world class. I only need to be ok. For example, I figure I am about a 95 out of 100 at no limit holdem. I imagine the average player is around a 50. In PLO, I am probably an 80 or so where the average player is around a 25. So, I actually think I have a larger edge at PLO than at no limit holdem. Expect me to be in lots of random game events next year.

I am flying to NYC to visit my girlfriend to relax before the main event. I will be back in action on 7/8, playing day 1d. I am going to play as perfect as I know how and make a point to make no mistakes. I have vowed to myself to play great poker and I think I am doing just that. I think I lost the drive to destroy everyone over the last year or so. Now I have it back. I am fully expecting huge things from me in the future. Im coming for the main event belt.