21 tips for acing the World Series of Poker

Here’s what I’ve learned after many long hours at the WSOP.

Almost every poker player loves the World Series. It’s sort of our version of summer camp. Except, it’s a summer camp that also features the softest poker tournaments in the world. This year’s WSOP starts on May 28. I’ll be out there for the very beginning for roughly 10 days — not as long as I’d like, but it’s an election year — and then if other work is going well, back later for another stretch.

This is a guide to the tournament written for a relatively specific audience: a competent-to-proficient poker player who is now looking to take the WSOP more seriously. In other words, this guide is written for … myself from three years ago. After having treated the WSOP as kind of an afterthought for most of my poker-playing career, I made multi-week trips in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and those long days in the Paris, Horseshoe and Rio ballrooms have given me some insight into how the WSOP just isn’t like any other tournament series. Last year was the first time I felt like I really got the hang of the WSOP, cashing seven events and making deep runs in the Millionaire Maker and the Main Event.

I’ll break these tips down into three categories — logistics, mindset and strategy. The first section is free, and — since this is Actionable Gambling Advice — the rest is for paying subscribers.

Logistics

1. Don’t just play World Series events.

It feels weird to begin a guide to the WSOP by telling you not to play the World Series. But in addition to the WSOP, at least seven other venues across Las Vegas will be holding poker tournament series; you can find a complete list of these using Kenny Hallaert’s awesome spreadsheet. It’s true that the WSOP events come with more notoriety and media coverage — and probably have the softest fields relative to the buy-in levels. But they can also be a shitshow; the Wynn in particular is luxurious by comparison. So I recommend mixing and matching. Sometimes, one of these other venues will be the best use of your poker time. It will still feel great when you make a deep run.

2. Have a plan A, B and C for each day. If you want to make time for non-poker things, be explicit about it.

The sheer abundance of poker all around town at the WSOP — not just tournaments but also cash games — is a luxury, especially if your home base is somewhere like New York where the nearest legal cardroom is two hours away. So what happens in my experience is that all non-poker activity tends to fall by the wayside. Once you’re on site, it’s just too tempting to register for another tournament even if you’ve busted out of something. Vague plans to get dinner with your long-lost friend at some point during the WSOP? Probably won’t happen unless you make an explicit effort to follow through. Exercise and non-poker work? Budget time in the morning or build some off-days into your schedule or it won’t get done.

For planning the poker part of your trip, I recommend going through Hallaert’s schedule and marking it up with 1 to 4 stars — one meaning events that are just barely worth playing for you, and four meaning “destination” events that are among the main reasons for your trip. (Say, the Main Event.) Start with your 3- and 4-star events and build your schedule backward from there. The summer schedule can be a jigsaw puzzle — for instance, you'll need to ensure that potential Day 2s or 3s don’t conflict with other events you’re committed to playing. Poker players love being able to set their own schedules, but this is the one time you’ll really benefit from advanced planning.

3. Never play an event you can't finish.

Last year, there was a guy who flew to his buddy’s wedding in the middle of the Main Event. And I knew another guy who was planning to skip any Main Event days on Saturday because he observes the Sabbath. Listen, those might be honorable practices. But it’s very, very –EV to play an event that you can’t see to completion; most of the prize pool goes to people who are lucky enough to make a deep run.

As a corollary, avoid playing events that will cause a significant amount of stress or hardship if you run deep, like having to cancel an important business meeting. This is a particular issue with the Main Event, since it takes nearly two weeks from start to finish. Now, granted, you can play the percentages — only about 1 percent of the field makes it to Day 6 of the Main, and that qualifies as enough of a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you won’t feel guilty for changing plans. Still, as the pressure builds later in a tournament, the last thing you want is to have any subconscious excuse to punt off your chips. 

4. If you make it to Day 3, aggressively cancel other commitments.

The counterpart to this is that if you do make a deep run, you’ll want to devote 100 percent of your energy to the following: playing poker, studying poker, sleep, eating adequately and maybe working out. Since WSOP events typically have players on the clock for 12 hours a day, these categories alone make for a full schedule.

Because, as Maria and I talked about on the first episode of Risky Business, focus is a scarce resource when you’re playing poker day after day. By Day 3 of an $1,000 tournament, you may suddenly be playing a de facto $25,000 tournament. That means that getting an extra hour of sleep, or not playing hangry, or not having to write a bunch of work emails in between hands, can be extremely valuable. Deep runs do not happen all that often and you want to make the most of them.

5. Stay within walking distance.

Some people really like renting a house with their buddies for the WSOP and I can see the appeal — I’ve never done that for the World Series, but I had a cute little Airbnb apartment at EPT Paris this year and it was kind of great. But along the theme of minimizing unnecessary distractions, one thing I don’t want to have to worry about is catching an Uber or fighting through traffic in the morning. And Las Vegas hotels in general offer good value for the money relative to what the same categories would cost in other cities. (Do sign up for the various casino rewards programs; even bottom-tier status can get you meaningful discounts on room rates.)

So your default should probably be to stay somewhere nearish to Paris/Horseshoe on the Strip. I’d consider anything from roughly MGM Grand on the south side of the Strip to the Venetian on the north side to qualify as walking distance.

6. Use the kiosks to buy in; don’t wait in line to register.

If you’re playing more than about 2 or 3 events, then you’ll really want to avoid waiting in what can be long physical lines to register. Instead, you’ll want to have money on account — what the WSOP calls TBIC or Tournament Buy-In Chips — which you can set up by sending a wire ahead of time or depositing cash at the Player Services desk when you first arrive. Once you have money on account — and complete a verification process before your first event — then you can register for tournaments using the Bravo Poker Live app and print out your event tickets at one of the many kiosks around the venue. The process for wiring money is different this year — you now have to wire to something called PayFiniti rather than the WSOP itself — so I’m planning to budget some extra time on the first day in case things don’t go smoothly.

7. Don’t come in cold.

Because the WSOP is such a hive of activity, it can take some time to get your bearings. Like most casinos, Paris/Horseshoe is a sprawling, mildly confusing venue. It helps to literally and figuratively know where the bathrooms are and other logistics of the property. If you’re in town for, say, the Main Event, I’d recommend playing at least one other event first. And if you can’t, at least get to the venue early to do some walking around.

8. Watch for dealer errors.

A couple of times last summer, I dealt a backyard game for friends — and man, it really gave me a new appreciation for what dealers have to put up with. Dealing a poker game is highly skilled labor.

Unfortunately, Caesars faces a problem: there’s far more demand for poker dealers at the WSOP than at any other time of year. So they inevitably wind up hiring some people who don’t have much experience. By the end of the tournament, the worst dealers have gotten some reps in and/or been weeded out. But for the first two or three weeks, you’ll see dealers make a lot of mistakes. Protect yourself: don’t muck your cards until the pot has been awarded to you, use proper change if at all possible, and double-check the dealer’s calculations in large all-in pots. And if you see something —like the dealer not reading the board correctly in a split-pot game — be a good poker citizen and say something.

9. Consider the small mixed-games events.

In 2021, I cashed the $10K HORSE event and finished 2nd in the $10K Limit Hold’em and got a reputation as a “mixed games guy” that I don’t really deserve. Other than limit hold’em — which I used to play professionally — no limit is by far my best game. 

With that said, I still like the mixed games experience — events like the $1,500 Single Draw, $1,500 Bagudi or $1,500 Eight-Game Mix are typically a lot of fun. Many of your opponents won’t be playing at an expert level either and the level of camaraderie is higher than at other points of the schedule. (Mixed games players are some real characters.) And these events are a comparatively cheap introduction to the mixed games, which are often played only as part of high-stakes cash games. Plus they feature smaller fields, which makes final tables more likely. So consider them a long-term investment in your WSOP bracelet equity.

Mindset

10. Recognize that most WSOP opponents are far from GTO optimal.

This is a dangerous tip, but an important one. In general, I think you’ll do better in poker — and other walks of life — by not underestimating your opponents. Nowadays, even amateur players have access to GTO solvers, coaching sites, and all sorts of other poker tools. Some geezer you assume is terrible at poker might actually be running PioSOLVER sims.