Only a few more weeks before I head off to Vegas for the WSOP! I'm really excited about it... and nervous.
Next weekend, my wife is flying out to do the women's event. I get to stay home from work and take care of the baby, so that should be fun. Man, he's getting huge. He's 6 months old, but we've had to put him in 2 year old sized clothes. My wife made some awesome baby clothes (black, pirate skulls, etc), but he only got to wear them for a couple of weeks.
I hope she does well. She hasn't had much time to practice, but won a few tournaments online when she was playing regularly. She's loose/aggressive, not like a majority of the women players who tend to be tight/passive or tight/aggressive, so she should be able to bully her way into a nice stack early on.
Then I fly out on saturday, a few days after she gets back. Stutefish & I will be staying at the Excalibur, playing in the very juicy poker room there for most of the time. I'll also be going to Binion's every afternoon for their 2pm tournament, to hone my skillz. I'll just totally immerse myself in poker for a few days, then start my 3-day WSOP event on Thursday.
They doubled the starting stacks this year, so I'll start out with $3,000 in chips instead of the $1,500 we got last year. That should relieve a lot of the pressure to take big chances early.
I'm hoping to be a lot more patient this year. I've been experimenting with the small ball style. That is, open for 2.5 times the big blind whenever I'm the first person in a pot (from middle to late position). Then bet most flops. I'm hoping that should let me accumulate chips, while being able to escape cheaply if I get raised or check-raised. Just use that to help me keep up with the blinds, while putting myself in a lot of pots, so that I'll have a better chance to double-up when I get a big hand.
Very dangerous style, though. It makes me vulnerable to re-steals & check-raise bluffs. Hopefully, I'll win more than I lose, since I'm not committing much each time. The worst danger is flopping a good, but second best hand, which can happen frequently with weak cards. I have to be very careful not to trap myself. I'll try not to make a big stand unless I've got trips or better. Ugh, but if anyone figures that out, I'll be giving up a lot of winning hands to re-steals. I'll just have to be observant and be willing to change my style at a moment's notice.
I'm not too worried about getting into the money. I know it's a long shot, so I'll just focus on trying to make good decisions every time I act. My plan is to keep earning money at these little home games, then spending it on one big event a year until I cash. I think my biggest dilemma will come mid-game, when I have to decide between folding my way into the money vs. accumulating chips from players trying to fold there way into the money. I want a bracelet bad, but I would also like to at least cash in one of these events.
Anyway, for now I've just been continuing to play heads up on my lunch hours and cash games in the mornings. It's been up & down, but at least I'm making more than I'm spending. I'm just having trouble getting my bankroll over that "hump". Tournament wins used to give me regular infusions of cash, but I never get to play those online anymore (at home I have to be able to sit out if the baby needs me). I'm at such low stakes in the cash games that I only really average about $5/hour. But since I only get to play a few hours a week, that's really not much. I would love it if I scored some big cash in Vegas so that I could beef up my online account and move up to better stakes. $1/$2 just isn't very satisfying. I know I can beat $3/$6, but I don't have the bankroll to do it. I'd want at least $2k online to sit at those tables, but I'm just not willing to pilfer my cash bankroll until it's over $5k. Oh well.