Let the World Series of Poker begin!

Are you planning to attend the WSOP this year in Vegas?

Whether you're a seasoned pro or a first-timer, here's a handful of tips which will help to maximize your expected value during the hottest tournament poker series of the year.

Plan ahead

World Series of Poker, held every year in Las Vegas, is an extensive series; in fact, it's the biggest tournament poker event of the year. Just like during online poker series, planning is the key, and there are many factors to consider.

Let's start with the basics; whenever planning a live poker trip, ensure you have your passport and any travel documents (visas) you may require. Being early with planning will save you money that you can use for the tournament buy-ins (and you'll need a lot of them).

Accommodation - a factor many poker players underestimate

Your best but pricy bet is staying somewhere on the strip near the Horseshoe. If you travel with others, consider an Airbnb. You can compare the prices of hotels on the Caesars or MGM Resorts sites, but beware of resort fees. Recalculate what is more profitable, as a few weeks in Las Vegas can be costly.

Tournament schedule

The WSOP schedule is on the official World Series of Poker site. The 2023 edition includes 95 events, taking place over 40 days! You may also want to check out some of the non-WSOP tournaments that run during the series - they are softer and less crowded, which is a great way to reduce variance.

Pick a wise play schedule

You'll want to factor in day 2s when creating your schedule and potential break days. It's a long summer, and you'll feel the toll of the grind at some point, so avoid unnecessary tension with intelligent planning.

Factor in time for tournament registration

Don't spend hours waiting in lines because you weren't prepared. You'll find all the important information on the World Series of Poker website. Studying what options are available to you in advance will save you a lot of time, so it's best to figure this out early rather than later.

Food options

Once you get on site, you'll want to scout for different places to eat during your dinner break. Many options are available, and it's best to team up with your friends. The key is to try to avoid ending up queueing for food. If need be, you can also prepare some food in advance.

Remember, tournament poker can be cruel

What you've read above is a general overview of things you should consider. Let's look at tournament selection and bankroll management.

Bracelet events usually attract big fields

During the series, you can expect to see enormous field sizes - last year's WSOP Main Event attracted 8663 people, but three other tournaments had over 10k poker players each! Players often neglect to factor in field size's effect on variance when looking at tournament bankroll management.

Check how bad variance can treat you

A common way to simulate variance is to use the prime-dope calculator. This tool can help you understand how cruel the variance in poker tournaments can be.

There are many ways to use it, but let's look at the effect of field size on variance. Imagine you'll play an average buy-in of $1k during the series and look to play at least 50 tournaments with an avg field size of 2500 players and an ROI of 30%.

Here we see that over 50 MTTs, you can expect to have a losing series over 75% of the time, potentially losing as much as $45,000. That's harsh!

Let's change this a bit by reducing the field size to 1000 players, keeping the other parameters the same.

The numbers look better here; you're now only having a losing series 61% of the time. However, despite being selective with our field size, there is still a very high probability of having a losing series.

What if we increase our ROI? Let's look at a player with 50% ROI that plays a field size of 2500.

We can see that they now have a 65.9% chance of having a losing sample compared to the 30% ROI player.

If this player now chooses to play a smaller average field size of 1000, their probability of loss drops to 55.5%.

The key takeaway here is that you want to be sure you're a big winner in the tournaments you're playing. It will drastically increase your EV and reduce the chance of having a losing series. Remember, field size also has a significant impact on the variance.

Another factor to consider is selling some of our tournament action with a markup. Assuming you play $50,000 worth of buy-ins and sell at a markup of 1.15, it would save $14,375 of your buy-ins.

A 1.15 markup means you're selling every $1 of your action for $1.15. By doing this, you're locking in an ROI of 15% on 1/4 of your total buy-ins. Of course, this means that you're giving up some EV. But at the same time, you greatly reduce the risk of our series.

To picture how this works, let's look at an extreme example. Imagine you showed up and played all the tournaments but sold 100% of your action at 1.15 MU. You wouldn't pay for the buy-ins and still make a guaranteed profit of $7500.

The best players can charge even higher markup. If they set 1.3 MU and sold all their action, they would guarantee a $15,000 profit on the series.

Of course, most players typically want a piece of action in whatever they're playing. That is a fair trade - as it incentivizes them to play their best and maximize their results. Remember, it is in good taste to let people who stake you know how much of an action you sold.

Many players playing WSOP swap with their friends

Another way that players typically use to reduce the variance is to swap pieces with other players. Of course, there's some risk here as well. You have to trust that the players you're swapping with will pay their swap out (there have been many cases of this issue occurring in the past). You may also give up EV if you believe the other players are worse than you. That is, however, a great way to minimize variance in tournaments as big as WSOP events.

So, before you start firing your buy-ins away during the WSOP series, make sure you have considered available options to reduce your risk and make the most out of every WSOP tournament you're going to play.

Whatever your schedule looks like, we wish you the best of luck!

Reaching a World Series of Poker Main Event final table or winning a WSOP Bracelet is considered by many a pinnacle of poker achievements. Given the variance, reaching even one final table during WSOP is a remarkable feat and requires a lot of luck. Be sure that when you get there, you'll be prepared.

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