I’ve made three trips to Las Vegas over the last few years, each with the intent of playing in the World Series Poker. Before I delve into each trip, just a few notes about just how awesome the World Series of Poker is.

Being able to play in the World Series of Poker is a lot of fun and definitely a must for anyone who plays poker. While its expensive, there are ways to get into events without paying full price. And attendance is few anyway if you just want to be a fan. But playing in the World Series of Poker lets you play among the true greats in the game. I can’t go to a NBA game and play against LeBron James. I can’t go to a NFL game and play against Tom Brady. But I can sit at a WSOP poker table and potentially play against Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu. I can also have a ringside seat…again for free…and watch final tables (or not even) of WSOP bracelet events. It’s pretty cool standing there, watching the 10K HORSE event with about 12 tables in place, watching all the great players I’ve watched on TV over the years play.

And of course there’s always the chance, slim as it may be, of winning that WSOP bracelet for myself. Over the years a lot of people have said that winning a WSOP bracelet doesn’t have the prestige it once was. Two reasons why: there are many other big poker tournament series all over the world now and there are 60+ bracelet events a year, plus another 10 or so in Asia or Europe (quick point on the 2^nd point, I kinda disagree with this as there are way more poker players overall. So there are double the bracelet events than 12 years ago. The player pool has probably increased 5 or 6 fold in some events). But I don’t care. Each year I hope I can get lucky enough to win the event I plan on playing.

So, here are short stories about my three Vegas WSOP trips.

2013

I didn’t really think about the 2013 WSOP until March of that year actually. I was in the first year of my professional job. I had a weekend off and decided to travel to Foxwoods to play the Omaha 8 WSOP Circuit event. It was only my 3^rd live tournament (still sadly mourning the days of Pokerstars and Full Tilt, although I never played big stakes there anyway) and while I was still playing with basically scared money I had played my way to the Final Table. Unfortunately, the $12,000 1^st place prize eluded me as I continued to play afraid and basically got blinded out with a bad call along the way. Still, a live Final Table, 8^th place, $1,300 and a chance to play with a professional (Ylon Schwartz) did give me some confidence after some reflection. I decided to target the $1,500 HORSE event (I always liked the limit games, and I couldn’t go broke in one hand which would have devastated me) at the WSOP that year. I thought there was some cool coincidences along the way as Schwartz actually won the $1,500 HORSE in 2012. A bigger coincidence would come up in Vegas actually.

It should be noted that I’ve never flown before and I was quite nervous about that. Once I got through that (I still hate flying) I’ll never forget just how hot it was when I went outside. Despite that I hate the heat, the dry heat didn’t bother me that much. I rode in a cab and was amazed at the big lights for all the big casinos that I’ve only heard of before. I was amazed that I was amazed actually, since living in New York means I go to Times Square pretty much all the time. Well, now I understood how those who’ve visited Times Square for the first time felt. Even though I got there at night I decided to walk to the Rio from my hotel (the Clarion, it was a bit of a walk but I did not care. I was excited). I’ll never forget walking into the Rio Convention Center. I felt like I was home. Tables everywhere. All I heard were the sounds of chips clashing against one another. I walked around some more and saw some tournaments going on. I knew I had to get some sleep since the HORSE was the next day. But I was excited.

The $1,500 HORSE event didn’t go well for me. I was quite card dead and ultimately lost a Stud hand where I had 10h, 9h, 8h, 7h in my first five cards. I finished somewhere in the middle of the field. I was disappointed (and at first, quite bothered as that was the biggest poker tournament I had ever played up until that point) but I didn’t feel outclassed or anything. That night though I decided to sit in the stands and watch Mike Matusow win his 4^th gold bracelet. Mike’s one of my favorite poker players of all time, so that was a cool experience for me. If you watch his Pokernews interview with Kristy Arnett, you can kinda see me in the background with a green basketball jersey on.

Throughout the day I was still in astonishment. I remember the first top level pro I walked by (Michael Mizrachi) and was just another fan as I saw all these guys all over the Rio. Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth etc.

Anyway, I was off to the Binion’s Poker Classic the next day and…to the surprise of myself for sure, decided to walk it. I don’t understand how I was able to walk three miles in 110 degree heat. I had a lot of later and don’t find dry heat that bad I guess. Anyway, 80 people put up $200 to play Omaha 8. I was pretty card dead and played way too tight (not out of fear though, I just thought that made sense and this strategy did get me to the Final Table in March). I also made a really bad mistake in misreading my hand once, and also lost a half of a big pot on a two outer. I was down to a half a bet at dinner. I got pretty lucky to get back to about 3.5 bets (A-3-8-8 over A-2-10-J), was able to double up a couple of more times and then suddenly loosened up (any fear that I may have had went away when I was down to a half a bet). I remember playing really well when we were down to 20; making good re-raises and bluffs. I was among the chipleaders as we got to the Final Table. A few things I remember. There was a player at the table who had a big stack for what seemed like forever that tried to run over everyone. I got in a good trap on him to get a lot of my chips. Later I found out that this player had a 2^nd place in a WSOP PLO 8 event a few years prior. Another player was a tigher, older man who had hit the two outer on me a lot earlier. He was tough to get chips from. Also at the table was that big coincidence I wrote of earlier: Brian Scholl. Scholl has also been at the Final Table back at Foxwoods and I thought it was a crazy coincidence that we were both in this tournament. He had won the event at Foxwoods. I won a huge pot against him at the Final Table (my A-3-4-5 against his A-2-3-4 on A-6-K board). The hand is significant as I was able to get past the mistakes I made at Foxwoods (being too conservative). I had the chiplead after this and eventually went heads up with Brian, where I caught better overall and won the event. Scholl was a great sport too, taking my victory picture and congratulating me. First was also $4,300, so I was pretty pumped that my first trip through Vegas meant I was coming up with a profit. It also meant a lot to me that I won an event in the same building where legends like Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan had won tournaments. It was also 17 hours long.

I played a little cash the next day to try that out (lost $100). I watched the Final Table of the event I came to play in the first place (another favorite of mine, Tom Schneider won). I went home counting the days till I could come back.

2014

I didn’t cash in anything else from the Omaha 8 event at Binion’s until my 2014 trip. I had played when I could and trying to get better. Unfortunately, I had an air of over-confidence. I played a few smaller events before the $1,500 HORSE this year. Two at the Golden Nugget (I think it was an Omaha 8/Stud 8 split and a HORSE) and I think another Omaha 8 at Binion’s. The only things I remember there was that the Binion’s poker room wasn’t used for poker anymore and we played downstairs, and that I ended up at the same table as someone twice. Also, Gavin Smith was playing at Binion’s which was pretty cool too. I struck out in all three events and really wasn’t focused on them. For some reason I thought it come to me. My focus did return for the $1,500 HORSE event though.

There’s a lot of things I’ll never forget about the $1,500 HORSE event on Day 1. For one, I was a table away from both Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey and even Phil Ivey’s stare can be intimidating from there. Jesse Sylvia, a runner-up of the WSOP Main Event, complimented my Nintendo hat and was pretty cool to talk to. I played some Stud hands with former WSOP World Champion Tom McEvoy. Two players were criticizing a Stud 8 play of mine when I got them both to put bets in when I had the high and the low (and I was confident I played it correctly, which only gave me confidence). I re-raised Jan Fisher when I had nothing to win a hand in Omaha 8. I had a pretty good run of cards overall. And I had a Top 5 chipstack (or close. Top 10 for sure) about 7 hours in. Unfortunately, I got tired as well, spewed many chips and barely made Day 2. I was excited to make Day 2, but with a small stack I didn’t get far. Cashing was top 80 and I finished approximately 144^th. I was pretty disappointed overall with how I played.

2015

I had actually started watching Jason Somerville in early 2014 and I slowly was working on my NLH game. I had Final Tabled a small tournament at the Borgata in late 2014. In 2015 I decided I would play the $1,500 Stud 8 as scheduling only permit me to go to the WSOP during that week. I thought about going to play a NLH, but still wasn’t sure about how I’d feel playing a No Limit tournament with huge buy-ins. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I played two small events at the Borgata a couple weeks prior. I played really well in both. I just got knocked out of the money in the first event as a four to one favorite of being close to the chiplead, and I cashed the 2^nd and got KOed on my AK vs. J9. But overall I thought I played great in both events. It gave me to confidence to try playing a couple of 1K No Limits at the WSOP. I played a $1,000 NLH, the $1,111 Little One For One Drop and the $1,500 Stud 8. I played some smaller events as well.

I do regret playing the $1Ks though. I clearly wasn’t ready for them and busting out early in the first 1K…which was my first day in Vegas, put me in a mindset that wasn’t good. I didn’t play anything well until the very last event. I blew a good position in a small Omaha Hi tournament at Planet Hollywood. I busted out early in the Little One. I played poorly in the HORSE at Binions. I felt defeated right after Day 1 for some reason. I remember playing the Stud 8 and playing terribly the whole time.

I finally did get into gear in the last event on my schedule: a $400, 200K GTD at Planet Hollywood. I was able to cash in the event, although I recognize mistakes I made along the way. Still, I felt like I could play better and there were definitely paths to winning these events.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the 2016 WSOP but I am confident. Since the 2015 WSOP I’ve made two Final Tables in small events. I’m happier in my personal life than I’ve been in a while and I think that’s going to lead me into playing great. I finally get to play the $1,500 WSOP Omaha 8 event as well. Maybe this will be my year?