WSOP 2024 Main Event Starts Today!

[Tammy_G]

Day 1 of the WSOP started today, with some big names already in the mix. Last year's main event brought the all-time record with biggest prize pool ($93+ million) and most players (10,043). Do we see another record broken this year? I'm looking forward to seeing some coverage and how some of the big names do, though I doubt a high-profile player will win.

[Tammy_G]

Was out there a few weeks ago. Felt like my play was pretty good versus Pros and Semi-pros.

Oh that's cool! What events did you play? WSOP or other casino events? It seems like they all build their big tournaments around the WSOP these days. I've only been one time, would love to get back there and take it in a little more.

To your point, Poker is so much a mix of Skill and Luck. Main Event attracts a good bit of loose money.
Dan Harrington used to rate his equity @ 300-cents on the Dollar when he was playing the Main Event. Has to be a great event for Good Players to share action.

Oh 100%. Skill certainly helps, but with so many people converging on the scene, I think luck definitely plays a bigger factor. Looks at the big games like the Colossus - SO MANY people to get through.

I see that Scott Seiver has won 3 bracelets this WSOP.

Yeah! And Negreanu finally picked up his 7th in the $50K Players Championship.

[Tammy_G]

I played the WSOP 6max event. And then I played other smaller tournaments.

The WSOP event was against pros and semi-pros (for sure). I caught some cards and made some hands. So much of it is playing AGAINST your opponent's profile.

I only regret one hand. It was avoidable (in hindsight). I basically ran into a hand. I opened against a Spewy player who had gone All In 4x in 20 minutes. I jammed AJ against his 3-bet.
...I thought he was playing super-wide. He calls and had QQ. His QQ held up.
...I over-played my hand. But this LAG was betting everything. I ran into a hand.
...3x at these tournaments, I ran a big hand (Overpair or Set) into the Nut Straight. And these were hands where it had to be a special FISH to call my pre-flop action with 76o/87o etc.

I LOVE the 6-max format. I like being able to open up my range against what I would play at a full table. I've made that mistake so many times, not giving Spewy enough credit in hands and then running into a wall like that... doh!

Felt like a lot of fish and amateurs to me in 2018

Given the 1,000s of players ascending on the scene every summer, I'm sure this is the case! I would imagine those lower buy-ins in particular would draw a lot of the more "fishy" players.

Opti, at the next bash we revive the SBR Poker game!I want a Heads-up Bracket game. Cards in the air!

Did SBR ever run freerolls way back in the day? I feel like maybe I played some on...I think it was called Poker Host? We're talking like...early 2000s here, so I may have forgotten, but reading that I feel like I have a far distant memory.

https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-new...gest-ever-held

Oooo! Looks like they did it! Just barely squeaked over the line. 10,112 this year vs. last year's 10,043.... https://www.wsop.com/news/2024/Jul/1...TIVE-YEAR.html

[Tammy_G]

I'll be out there next month for a show.
Too late for the WSOP, but there's still a lot of good tourneys.

Oh! What show? Hoping to get to see Billy Joel in November.

I hate being at a table with a self appointed poker etiquette sherif like that.

If it's against the rules the floor manager can handle it.
If it's against their sensibilities of how they think is the "right way" to play, then bottle it Karen. Don't care about you demanding you are right if the floor has decided.

Ugh, yeah, I agree with you! Plus, this is why I never muck until the chips are getting pushed my way.

[Tammy_G]

The Killers at Caesar's

Love The Killers!

Looks like the final table Day 1 is live-streaming on PokerGO's channel (one-hour delay):

[Tammy_G]

Love The Killers!

Looks like the final table Day 1 is live-streaming on PokerGO's channel (one-hour delay):

Oh, my bad - 1 hour preview, not delay. I'm sure there's a delay as well, but no idea what that is.

[Tammy_G]

I knew Astedt was an online wizard but they are estimating his online winnings at $48 million!! Wow

He is chip leader with 3 remaining...

Whoa!!! And he's about to add a few more to that... Wow.

[Tammy_G]

Two words.

Terrible call.

Yeah...I tend to agree. I don't mind calling the 3-bet pre, or even the flop. But calling the shove on the turn...would love to know what he was thinking.

[Tammy_G]

But speaking of solvers...

Have you guys seen this? https://www.reddit.com/r/poker/comme...t_final_table/

Allegedly players on the rail were showing Tamayo something on a laptop in between hands - potentially solver outputs or past hands...what do you think?

[Tammy_G]

A few ideas, Valerie:

1) During hands, of course that's Taboo. If it's in btw hands (to my knowledge) that's legal.

2) He could be giving updates about play off the delayed stream. Revealing player tendencies etc.

3) Re: the solver, point is that it's something you study during prep. Once the hand starts, it's in between your ears. No props.

Yeah, I tend to agree. It wouldn't really be much different than reviewing notes or whatever between hands, I guess.

[Tammy_G]

I read last week where there'll be a universal, mandatory ban of all smart phones/devices at the tournament table.

Speaking from experience, I can give a few comments:

1) The NO PHONES RULE is mentioned by Dealers. But it's not enforced so strictly.

2) People are always handling their phones. It gets to their turn, they've slowed the game and say "Sorry." Very lame.

3) I would say that 99.9% of the time they're just browsing. Only once have I seen a case of a player accessing Solver output to help them during the hand.

Yeah, I think most of us are just conditioned to always have our phones and constant entertainment. It's become more of a really bad habit that anything.

Thanks for posting your thoughts on hands! Super interesting - I will need to find some extra time to watch the whole final table.

[Tammy_G]

Hi, Valerie. Thanks for the replies!
1) Yes, I try to profile players. 98% of the time, I know where I stand. Thing is, spewy players can pick up hands, too!
2) I love 6-Max. I hate Full Ring, 9 or 10 players. Early Position is so tight.
...I made one error in this regard. It had to do with EP action and me not accounting for it enuf. I call a 10BB with AQ. Not a HUGE error, but I think that my call was too much of a knee-jerk.
3) The word that you hear from the poker scene NOW is that it's a 2nd poker boom. As long as people have $$ to play, they will.
4) SBR used to have a great Poker scene here. Daily games, which rolled into Qualification for Quarterly tournaments. Pretty nice, wish they'd bring it back.
5) I heard Norman Chad talk about the WSOP Main Event fields.
...Doyle Brunson won 2x versus fields of 22 and 38!
...Chris Moneymaker won against a field of ~ 800.
...This year's field was > 10,000. So, 8x the # of players Moneymaker beat.

1) Oh yeah - I've seen it many times. lol I love when online players say how rigged it is, and then "You never see that in live play!" Uhh..yessir. Yes, you do. :'(

2) Yeah...That's probably my biggest pitfall is giving too much credit to those "lesser" premium hands. But, sometimes it just is what it is, and not necessarily a mistake.
3) I hope so! I don't have time to play much these days, but getting the itch!

4) I must have played some. Do you remember the poker sites they would host on?

5) I know, wild right?? Just insane. And the first World Series wasn't even hold'em...trying to remember - I think they did a bunch of mixed variants or something?

[Tammy_G]

For sure, Denise. At first, I thought more was being made of this than it should have.

Under pre-2024 rules, I think there are two categories where his Rail could legally help him:
1) Observing hands on the delayed feed. They might tell him that Griff's Bluff/Value ratio is higher than you think.
2) Running the Solvers against the hand. They might tell him that 'you need to loosen up' or 'you need to tighten up.'

WSOP brought in the 2024 rule of no Solvers and no pre-flop charts. If that's a hard rule, then it appears that he violated it. If it was a first-year rule, it's possible that it wasn't strictly enforced.

There's a bigger issue IMHO. It goes back the old Poker rule of "only player to the hand." This is a strict rule. It means that the player at the table is the one solely responsible for making decisions during the hand.

That earpiece he removed was VERY suspicious. If they can prove that he was wearing a buzzer that was translating Real Time Assistance, then he's in jeopardy of losing the entire stash. He's not allowed to receive playing instruction in the middle of a hand.

Dang, I need to get back into looking all this over. The "one player to the hand" rule is pretty cut and dry. And the new 2024 rule. Given that he also had and ear piece??? That's pretty damning, honestly. If it comes down to having to give the money back, what happens then?? Do they split it up amongst the rest of the players?

[Tammy_G]

Nearly $500 million was collected from the 2024 WSOP Bracelet events, a truly eyebrow-raising figure.
The WSOP collected $480,764,185 across the summer, $40 million more than last year's total.
From the $480,764,185 collected, $438,594,151 went into prize pools, meaning $42,170,034 went to the WSOP. As explained in 2023, the rake is shared between entry fees and the WSOP staff. From the rake, $29,466,524 was taken in entry fees, with $12,703,510 going to the workers.
World Series of Poker Rake Exceeds $40 Million from Summer Live Events | PokerNews

Online poker in the US may not be what it used to be, but clearly there is still some money to made from poker! Those numbers are staggering!