Michael Craig's Journal

My buddy Raiden mentioned in a comment to the previous post the events he plans to play. I encourage all the members of this community to similarly comment. Here’s my thinking so far:

1. I entered the schedule on an Excel spreadsheet. It will cost $194,500 to play every event, not including re-buys.

2. I intend to play as many World Series events this year as I can afford. I feel I am becoming a very knowledgeable tournament player, am trying to learn all the games, am doing well online, and have a book on tournament poker coming out on June 1.

3. Of course, I can’t afford to spend $194,500 plus re-buys. But I don’t have to. I can subtract the Casino Employee, Ladies, and Seniors events, slashing my total cost of entries to a mere $192,000. Plus re-buys.

4. I have to sacrifice the HORSE Championship. Unless someone - or someoneS - wants a piece of me or I win a satellite, I’m going to have to pass. I’m down to $142,000. Whoo-hoo!

5. I can pretty painlessly axe the PLO Championship and the No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven and save $15,000 plus the rebuys in the Deuce. Those events are too close to the Main Event for my taste.

6. I have no interest in learning Triple-Draw or PLO Eight-or-Better so I can cut them out of my crowded schedule, saving another $2,500. That takes me down to $124,500.

7. In the interest in economizing, I can remove the following $5,000 buy-in events: PLO with rebuys, Pot Limit Hold ‘Em, Stud. That takes me down to $109,500.

8. I can get to nearly $100,000 if I make the decision right now that I won’t play the 6-handed events unless I am in the black, satellite in, or find investors.

9. Why don’t I cut out all the rebuy events? Andy Bloch told me last year that it was necessary to budget at least $5,000 for them. I’ll play the last hold ‘em re-buy event if I’m in the black. Otherwise, they are off the schedule. I’m under $100,000!

10. I love the idea of the mixed hold ‘em events, but I’ll skip the first one. It’s a $5,000 buy-in and is the very first event. I can stay home another day.

11. I’m going to sit-out Pot Limit Hold ‘Em. I already wrote out the $5,000 event. If I skip the $1,500 event and instead play another split event - Omaha EOB/Stud EOB, I can cut some Omaha EOB and Stud EOB’s out. In addition, playing the $2,500 split event gives me more starting chips and more play. And because it starts at 5 PM on June 3, I’m going to assume I won’t be able to play the $1,500 LHE event on June 4. $89,000 to play the WSOP.

12. The way it’s currently set, I’m playing 6/2, 6/3, 6/5, and 6/6. Especially because June 6 is Jo Anne’s birthday, I’ll go home after that. By skipping the next couple days and returning for the $2,500 NLHE on June 11, my WSOP bill is now just $76,500.

After that, it gets a lot murkier. How long I last, finishes in the money, and ruination of my marriage will determine how much more I play. Obviously, if I make a final table early that will fuel a relatively heavy schedule. If Jo Anne incapacitates me with a horse-whip, then I won’t, for example, be playing the $5,000 HORSE.

But I’m confident I can profit from playing a significant schedule, or least keep my losses under $50,000.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Journal.