Played in my first WSOP, and figured why not swing for the fences in the main event. Started on Day 1C, and stayed at Paris for the week, comped thanks to Total Rewards.

My wife and I stayed at Paris in a Calais Suite. It was free for the week, so I can't come down on it too hard - the property isn't the newest on the strip, but is in a great location, and my wife loves playing the cheapo $5 and $10 blackjack in the Party Pit at Bally's, which is connected. The room was definitely dated. I have some pics on another device with the awesome view we had (best feature of the room - perfect shot of the Eiffel Tower, Bellagio Fountains, Cosmo, Caears Palace, and Paris' pool - amazing at night). The other awesome part was the TV in the bedroom which automatically rose out of the night stand at the end of the bed - it was an old style tube tv - it was classic. Must have been really high tech in its time. Just sort of a novelty now.

A few pics from the room at paris, of the living room / dining room area. You'll see what I mean about dated decor:



The WSOP setup in the Amazon Room at Rio, and the cool lighting and "Featured Table":


Celebs and Poker Pros I saw on other days I was not playing:
Ray Romano:


Phil Helmuth:


Last Year WSOP Main Event Winner - Pius Heinz from Germany:


Dan Harrington:


Vanessa Selbst:


Daniel Negraneau - this guy was great, he really 'worked the crowd' gathered near him. Definitely went above and beyond what you saw anyone else with a crowd there doing. He would take pics, talk and mingle, sign autographs, etc, between hands:


For chip stacks, green = 25, black = 100, light blue = 500, yellow = 1000, and orange = 5000. After day 2 sometime they got rid of green chips and colored up to higher denomination chips.

Starting chip stack, day 1 - 30,000:


Starting chip stack, day 2 - 143,000 - somehow I was in 19th place overall starting on day 2.


Starting chip stack, day 3 - 131,000:


On day 2 I started at a table with a very aggressive pro named Nam Le, who took a few hands to get used to. I lost about 40k to him learning how to beat him, but after that I never lost another hand to the guy Nam is on the far left in this pic, in the white shirt. I just snapped a pic of the other end of the table. The other guys you see here are not pros.


Later on day 2, I was moved to a table with two very big name pros. I got to play against Antonio Esfandiari and Jason Mercier (purely luck of the draw). I got way more chips from sitting here than I did at the previous table. Esfandiari would repeatedly fold when I would 3-bet him. It got to the point where he'd raise and just tell me to go ahead and double that bet so he could fold, so I would, and he folded, like clockwork. I think maybe after winning that $18 mil from the One Drop tournament the week or two prior, he didn't care a ton about the Main Event... this ended up working out in my favor.



I got knocked out about halfway through day 3... it started off bad when the short stack at my table went all in on the first hand, and I called with 10-10 pre flop, he has AJ and catches a J on the turn. -25% of my stack on the first hand... and kept going down from there. Couldn't win a hand that day. Finally went all in when I was as low as 30k, with QQ pre flop, and was called by AK, who of course catches the K on the river.

Thought I'd throw in a pic of me playing, this was taken day 2 when my chips were short, but the only good pic I was able to get:

Hey, you took a stab. That's more than a lot of us get to do. I really must use my TR card more.

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Jess

Nice report, thanks for including the photos. Good point above though, what kind of action do you give CZR for a free week at Paris?!? I can hardly get a free room at Bally's and I like to think I use my TR card quite a bit (once a year, but give decent action!)

I am TR Platinum and play frequently at the local Cleveland Horseshoe now that it's open. Besides that I am in Vegas about twice a year non-WSOP anyway and always end up losing way more on craps than I should play.

very cool... I love the pics. I thought that was a pic of Chris Moorman at first glance.

Sounds like you played pretty well and just didn't run good. Thanks for sharing

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- pls excuse my typos... I'm prob on my iPhone

Play online with me, check out my other blog: http://vookenmeister.blogspot.com

What's the story behind the nut and bolt? I worked in the fastener industry for 15+ years, hence my curiosity.....

I have carried it in my pocket every day for several years, I guess like a good luck charm, and started using it as a card protector one day when I needed one in a pinch, and just started using it for that in big games. In the pic of me you can see it in action

I do IT consulting for a living, and my first client (in Canton, OH) made these things... they gave me one and I just held on to it.