WSOP Trip Report I first want to start out by saying thank you to the guys at Cardrunners for sending

me on this awesome trip! I had never previously been to Vegas and I hadn't even given a thought as to trying to head out there for the WSOP events until I won this promotion. This trip would definitely not have been possible for a college student like myself, who is still attempting at building a decent sized bankroll, without the generous promotion offered by the guys at Cardrunners. As for the trip itself, we (my girlfriend and I) had a great time. The trip was for the week of June 24 to July1. We flew out of CharlotteDouglas Airport on Saturday evening and arrived in Las Vegas at around 9:00pm local time. The view from the plane of the city was absolutely amazing at night time. A brilliant array of lights just seems to appear out of nowhere. After arriving, we head to the hotel and decide to check out the casino there. As this was my first time ever in a casino, I was blown away by the sheer size and atmosphere of the place. We chose to stay the week at the Stratosphere. If you are looking to head to Vegas and are on a tight budget, I definitely recommend staying here (besides the wireless internet connection being super slow). I was able to stay the entire week for a great price. I definitely thought it was nicer than the price that I paid. If you aren?t familiar with the Stratosphere, it is the hotel at the very north end of the strip with the huge tower. I'm not exactly sure how tall it is, but I think it's somewhere around 110 stories. The view from the top is incredible so I'd recommend you check it out if you are out in Vegas ever. Also, check out the rides that are at the top. They are ridiculously crazy. The next morning we got up and immediately headed over to the Rio to register for Event #2, $1,500 NLHE. We took the monorail from the Sahara over to Harrah?s and took the shuttle to the Rio from there. The sign-up process went incredibly smooth. Between signing up and handing over a large wad of cash, I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. The card room itself was enormous with over 200 tables and had satellites and side games running in the back. After signing up for the tournament, I decided that I needed to play as much poker as possible between Sunday and Tuesday. I just recently turned 21 so I had never previously played in any live action. I felt I needed to get a feel for how it would be different actually sitting in

front of other people rather than my computer. Sunday night was spent playing the 1/2 NL game at the Stratosphere. This game was really soft. There were a couple players that seemed to have a good grasp on the game, but mostly tourist type donkeys. I played this game pretty tight since I was still trying to get a feel for the whole live poker thing. It ended up being a profitable session while only winning a few hands. Only one hand that stuck out to me (kind of trivial, but I spent a while thinking about this one): UTG raises to $12 (pretty standard at this table) and I call from cutoff with 99. Flop comes K9X. Bingo. He bets $15 and I decide to just call. Turn comes another K. He bets another $15 and I just call again. River was a blank and he checks. I bet out $25 and he mucks and storms away from the table showing his AA. In retrospect, I think I could have gotten all the money in on the flop if I had reraised. Although the turn made my boat, it actually was a huge action killer. I know he thought I had Kx. On Monday, I spent most of the day playing in tournaments at the Stratosphere and the Sahara. The Stratosphere was a $50 + 1 Rebuy and Sahara was $40 plus 1 Rebuy. I didn't realize how crazy fast the blinds increase in these events so I had to make some adjustments. There were 20 min levels and then the blinds would double. It was basically similar to a turbo or ultra turbo tournament. I managed to make it to the final table of both of them but didn?t manage to take home too much cash from either. I placed 5th in the Stratosphere and 7th in Sahara. In both I basically just received my buy-in plus a few bucks back. So basically this was just a good free learning experience to prepare me for Tuesday. Tuesday morning comes and I am super excited for the tournament at noon. I wasn?t really ever as nervous as I had expected. I guess mostly because my entry fee was paid for so I didn't have to worry about losing the $1500 buy-in of my own money (thanks again CR:)). I got to the Rio at about 11:30 and head to the card room. There were a gazillion people everywhere in the area as I make it to my seat. I was in awe and star struck when I see many of the guys I had been seeing on all the ESPN poker reruns for the past year. I decide to buy a hat and get a few autographs before I take a seat. I take my seat and try to focus amidst all my excitement and the stir of all the people around. The tournament began with 207 tables of 11 players each. There were about 500 or so alternates standing on the sides waiting for their turn to hop in. My table consisted of a bunch of young guys. All of them I estimated to be about mid 20?s. As the

tournament progressed I found myself playing really tight. This is my typical strategy for the early stages of a MTT. I think I might have played 3 hands in the first 2 hours of the tournament. I saw a flopped cheaply with 33 one time and completely missed the flop so I back away immediately. About 30 min. later I pick up QQ on the button. It folds to me and I raise 3x to 75. Blinds fold and no action. The next hand I played was about 20 min. later when I pick up AQ in mp. There are 2 limpers and I raise to make it 5BB?s to 250. They both call and the flop comes Q34 rainbow. They check to me and I bet out and take the pot. We started out with stacks of 1500 chips and I managed to make it up to about 1700 at the first break. About 10 min. after the first break I pick up AdKd. UTG (4k chips) limps, and UTG+1 (1400 chips) calls. I raise 4BB's to 400 from cutoff. Flop comes Qd8d9x. Both players check to me and I decide to check as well to see a free card. The turn brings a 5d giving me the nut flush. UTG bets out 400 into the 1350 pot and I raise him with my last 1200 or so chips. UTG thinks a while and calls me. He turns over 55. River brings another 8 to pair the board giving him 5's full. gg me. I'm out and thoroughly disgusted at his call. I guess that?s just how the cards fall sometimes. In retrospect, maybe I should have c-bet the flop?? O well. I don't exactly know what place I finished but I would guess somewhere like 2100-2200 out of the 2744. I definitely wanted to represent Cardrunners better and bring home some cash, but hey, what can you do? After I left the poker room, I decided I needed to take a dip in the Rio pool to cool off (physically and mentally). I spent some time there thinking and decided that I didn?t have any regrets about the tournament and was happy with how I handled taking that beat on the river. I decided to try to avoid playing any more poker the rest of the week and to just enjoy the beautiful city of Las Vegas with my girlfriend. The rest of the week was spent relaxing by the pool with some drinks during the day and heading out on the strip at night. We explored all the different hotels and casinos up and down the strip. There are so many amazing places there that it was hard to get to everywhere and see everything. Being both of our first times in Vegas we really wanted to see as much as possible. One of most fun nights was spent at Toby Keith's bar at Harrah's where we had some drinks and enjoyed the live country music (we?re from NC so you know we are country music fans). On the last night we were there was managed to get

tickets to see comedian Craig Fergeson (host of the late late show on CBS) who was performing at the Orleans. He was extremely funny and we had a great time. This was a great ending to a wonderful trip. Besides being 10 million degrees, I had a great time and I look forward to heading back later this year or for next year's events. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate this opportunity presented to me by Cardrunners. It was an absolutely awesome trip. Hopefully this wasn't too boring of a read for you all :). GL at the tables to all and thanks again to all the guys at Cardrunners, Andrew Kensmoe kensmoe8