Should I buy into a Main event?

[Trainwreck]

Sat. in man, good practice, and if you can't manage to sat in, don't bother, you're just not ready, that's way too many shots to get in cheap, hell, u, myself and 2 other 2+2's could probably get into the main event via sat. if we had the buyin to play with....

>TW<

[tek]

I'm using the $200+25 live NL tournaments at Canterbury Park (Minnesota) as "satellites" for the WSOP regular NL events.

The past couple months I've come in 7th twice and 2nd once.

I'll be at the Rio... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[gk2400]

Ok heres my 2 cents.

You live in Reno so Vegas is a 6-7 hour drive if my memory serves me right. If I was you I would go play a 2k event earlier during the WSOP I think theres one June 8 nl hold-em event (don't have my schedule in front of me). Take a three or four day trip down in Vegas. On that trip try 2 super Sat. My reasoning for this is that the WSOP Main event will probably have over 3 thousand players (guess). In my personal opinion 10k is way to much to shell out this early in your Poker Career. So my point even if your were the greatest player in the world with 2 to 3 thousand players you must get extremely lucky during the event(not that you must get a little luck in all events but I think you get my point)
Just my 2 cents

Gene

PS. I'll be out you there June 6 thru 14 planning on playing the 2k event. If anyone wants to get together over a drink & talk some Poker PM me.

[Temp Hutter]

If you are looking for a little pep talk to get your courage up to do what you already are inclined to do here goes:

I will tell you a little story. I had never played in a NLHE tournament until I entered a daily tournament at the Mirage while in Vegas at a convention in the fall of 2003. I placed 3rd. My next tournament experience was at the WSOP main event in 2004 where I went with a small bankroll and won a 1 table satellite the day before the event. I busted out after about 12 hours but I held my own pretty well. Based on that experience I went back out to Vegas to play in a WPT event at the Mirage and won a seat at the $1,000 NLHE event through a satellite. I busted out in about 40 minutes of play. Undeterred I went to another WPT event at the Borgata in AC and played in the $1,000 NLHE event. I won having outlasted a field of 485 players. With a new confidence I entered another $1,000 NLHE event at the Taj Mahal a month later and won that event as well. I talked things over with my wife and decided it was time to take a shot at a large event against the best competition in order to gauge my skill. Am I just on a lucky streak or can I really play this game? I entered the WPT main event at Foxwoods against a field of 674 players. I pulled down 2nd place. In 66 days and three tournaments I had two firsts and a second and 1.2 million added to my bankroll.

That's your pep talk. You can't win if you don't enter. Go for it.

[PokerPaul]

placing top 2 in those 3 b2b2b events i guess you can rule out pure luck...u gotta have skill to carry u through on top of cards.

Well done.

However, how lucky did you get in your opinion..did the cards play themselves? Did you make tough laydowns....how many close decisions?

How well did you gauge your opponents hands at table, or did you mostly just play your cards?

Reason i'm asking is 1 - im curious 2 - it seems you werent sure yourself if it was luck or skill after second event.

And just how different was the level of competition between the $1000 events and the foxwoods main one?

[Temp Hutter]

Those three tournaments were about 80 hours of poker. There were many "close decisions". In retrospect I would have to say that I was more not unlucky than lucky. By that I mean I did not get unlucky very often. Most of the time I had the best hand when the chips went in and I did not get outdrawn by a larger stack. That to me is not unlucky.

You cannot just play your cards because sometimes the cards don't come. You have to play your opponents as well. I always try and put them on a hand. So far my instincts have served me well.

The competition level in the $10,000 buy-in was definitely tougher. The structure allowed a lot more play as well.

[mcteecho]

I agree with MLG - especially the last sentence. I'm playing WSOP event #2 on this basis.

[renodoc]

OK, Halfway to my seat as I chopped a $540 buy in single table sat last night. All the table talk was "commerce this" "rio that" "I played the $10K in San Jose." Blah blah blah. First hand some kid goes all in with AJ. Worse, he gets called by AQ! Amazing.

Anyway, I had good cards but also made some good plays.

[mcteecho]

Well done - good start to your campaign.

[Scooterdoo]

Play in some prelims and sat's and see how you do and how you feel. Perhaps you'll win a seat into the main event, but only you will know how you feel your play matches up against the higher caliber of player. Good luck and let us know how you do.