Planning for 2015 WSOP

There are many bromides relating to planning, for example: A failure to plan is planning to fail or Hope for the best, plan for the worst. I am writing this column in April, and already the World Series of Poker is less than two months away. I have started my planning and preparation though. While it is unpleasant to contemplate bad things, it is essential to make sure a plan includes some steps that may prevent a bad situation from becoming a disaster.

Loss Limit: If you are a poker machine, disciplined to do the right thing in every situation, you may not need a loss limit, but it wouldn’t hurt! If you are a human being subject to the effects of emotional peaks and valleys, sleep deprivation, and so forth, you definitely need one. If you occasionally go on tilt or steam (play poorly and lose more than you thought was possible while staying in a game longer than you intended) your loss limit may be the only thing that can prevent a total meltdown.

My recommendation is to decide in advance what is the maximum loss you could possibly afford to suffer. Then, divide this by the number of days you will be at the WSOP. This figure makes a good loss limit. Suppose you intend to be Vegas for a week and can accept a loss of $50,000. Set your maximum daily loss at $7,000. For those who play to spend the whole six weeks there, treat that as three two-week periods, otherwise you daily limit will be too small. If you are a winning player and play in cash games, it is very unlikely that you will ever lose every day for a week. If you are a tournament player, it is not at all unusual to fail to cash seven times in a row. Also if you are a tournament player, you might want to decide that on some days your loss limit will be $5,000 and on other days $10,000. These are the buy-ins for the high stake events. If you lose you limit early in the day, quit for that day. Tournament players will occasionally suffer an early knockout. If you can’t bring yourself to quit, try to find something at a much lower stake than you normally play. Play $1-$2 no-limit hold’em or a $100 satellite. I know this is very hard advice to follow, but in the approximately 40 years that I have played and observed the behavior of other players, I have seen large number of players continue a bad session until they self-destruct. No one plays as well or thinks as clearly when they are losing as when they are winning. That is why it is important to have a firm loss limit in place before your emotional response leads you to keep playing.
Schedule: Plan in advance what tournaments and what cash games you will play in. Some players find it more effective to focus on either cash or tournaments, while others like to alternate. Make your hotel reservations well in advance. Obviously the Rio is the most convenient for WSOP tournaments. If your emphasis is on cash games and other tournaments, then Bellagio, Aria, or the Venetian may be more appropriate.

If you don’t feel alert and ready to play, skip that tournament and play something else later. Speaking of being alert and ready to play, it is good to adjust your body rhythms to tournament time. This means start getting up in the late morning, say 10:30 a.m., and staying awake until 2:00 a.m. the next morning. If you are doing well in tournaments, you will have a lot of long days. This is a good problem to have, but it is nice to be prepared for it.

Another element of scheduling for players who plan to spend a week or two at the WSOP is deciding which week or weeks to be in Vegas. Generally, the tournaments and cash games are best at the beginning and the end. They’re good at the beginning because a lot of weak, wanna-be players show up and quickly go broke. The end includes the main event, which brings a lot of rich, amateurs to town. If you plan to be in Vegas for the full six weeks of the tournament, try to plan to take some days off, get to the gym or see a show. If you have a big win, it is nice to take a day off to enjoy the euphoria and avoid leaping back into action at a time when you may be overconfident.

This column has dealt with some basic ideas about avoiding disaster and planning a sensible schedule. In the next column, I will make some specific recommendations for preparations that will enable you to play better this summer. ♠

Steve ‘Zee’ Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful gamesplayer. He has been a full-time gambler for over 35 years. With two WSOP bracelets and few million in tournament cashes, he is easing into retirement. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at some major tournaments and playing in cash games in Vegas. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A in New York City -The Library near Houston and Doc Holliday’s on 9th St. are his favorites.