Your WSOP ME Day 1 assignment

[MicroBob]

I got mine yesterday so I suspect that other Stars qualifiers have also.

Sorry if this has already been posted.


I'm on day 1a (Thursday, July 7).

I'm not exactly thrilled about it since I wanted to watch some of the main-event action before playing...but I'm getting there a few days early anyway and will also play the $3k prelim event on July 1 so I'm assuming I'll be familiar with the scene by then.


It might even be to my advantage...as I'll be playing perhaps against a bunch of people who just got in the night before and will be tired.
The 1b and 1c players will obviously have more time to rest up before playing if they arrive on July 6.

And obviously the 1c guys get no rest before Day 2.


Not only will some of my opponents be less rested but they also won't have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the area (finding the less crowded restrooms if there are any) whereas I get a whole week before day 1a to learn all that stuff.


A lot of players seemed to prefer 1b because it would give them the opportunity to watch the day 1a action....but this also means that all of your opponents obviously have the same advantage.

[LotsOfOuts69]

I got 1c...

I also wanted 1b, but I'd rather have 1c than 1a..

Last thing I want is to be short stacked at the end of day 1 and then wait 2 days to go all in on the first few hands, plus I wanted to check out some of the action like you said.

--LoO

[Jinx230]

What are you people, like world-class triathletes or something?

Who the hell needs rest!?! Get up, play cards and get some coffee!!!

[TomCollins]

Ask anyone who has made the final table in the last 3-4 years, and they will tell you it is mentally draining. It is very tough to stay sharp and concentrate for 10-12 hours a day for an entire week.

And I'm telling you to ask, because there is not a snowballs chance that you'll ever make it there yourself with that attitude.

[Jinx230]

Mr. Collins,

It is now time to learn the difference between a joke, and an actual insult directed at various people.

Ex. 1: Joke

"Get some coffee and play poker!"

Elements of a joke: overbearing sarcastic attitude, exclamation point, following another comment of equal ridiculousness.

Ex. 2: Insult

"You people all suck, stop crying about your sleep and your problems, if you were all really good, sleep wouldn't matter."

Elements of an insult: All too serious condescending nature, following by nothing that can be construed in the way of humor.


Now, I am insulting you here with this post? You may think yes, but wait.....everything here, even the example regarding insults, was somewhat funny. So no, this is just as humorous too. If you currently are not laughing, or have not learned to laugh from this email, you don't "have a snowball's chance of winning the tournament, cause your anger will lead you to the dark side, rahhhh!!!!!"

That last line? Yes, also funny, not insulting. Just good natured fun, on a message that no one will read or ever care about 2 seconds from now.

Enjoy life, be happy.

[Scooterdoo]

I think you are under-estimating how tiring these events are. You need an incredible amount of endurance and concentration and it is really tough to keep it going after 12+ hours of poker and little rest and then starting again. In these events you play for 12-14 hours, get back to your room between 1-3am, and have to get up and play the next day around 12pm. It's also difficult to go to sleep so it makes it even that much more difficult to get a good night's rest.

My starting day is day 3. On a positive note I don't have to get there early and wait around assuming I make it out of the first day. On the negative side I'll have to go right from my 1st day to the 2nd. I've been there for quite a bit already and will be returning this weekend so familiarizing myself isn't an issue.

[BadVoodooX]

Something Dan Harrington pointed out last year was that he was the only 1B player at the final table and he attributed that somewhat to his ultratight style which simply made it less likely he'd make a mistake because the fatigue of 5 or 6 straight days was immense.

[billyjex]

i will be playing on friday.

[Equal]

On the Party Poker Millions cruise, the field was divided up into two days intially.

I was soooo happy to play Day 1 as I was ridiculously exhausted after playing 8.5 hours (plus short breaks, etc) on the first day that I needed a day off.

Mark my words: your biggest opponent at the WSOP will be mental exhaustion and if you can't handle the hours and hours of NL poker, you will make one mistake and you will be busted.

[MicroBob]

On the PPM cruise I was in day 2 and it turned out to be a huge advantage for me because I got to watch the day 1 play for a couple hours and get kind of familiar and comfortable with it.
Being my first live-tourney this was important.


day 2 was kind of tiring though...because the action didn't start until the evening and it came after a long day of touring around Mazatlan with the GF.

I did bust-out fairly quickly on day 2...barely making it into the money.
My stack went from $35k at the start of day 2 down to $15k in no time and I blame some iffy blind-steal and defense attempts more than any specific bad-beats...so perhaps it WAS fatigue related.

I know now that I really should have been able to cruise into the $10k prize money for 144th place...but instead I finished 177th and barely got the $5k prize money.


Anyway, you raise a valid point about the fatigue.


The other point is that it would suck to have the short-stack after day 1a on Thursday and have to wait around for 2 days just to get eliminated in the first 5 minutes of day 2 on Sunday.
For me this isn't a problem as I have no intention of leaving Vegas early anyway.
no matter what happens I'll be sticking around Vegas through the 16th.
But for others who might be interested in getting back home as soon as they are eliminated I can see how being the short-stack after day 1a would be pretty annoying.