WSOP 2026: The Quest Continues

On Thursday, I entered another WSOP tournament. Something was wrong; I couldn’t stay awake. Late in the tournament, I closed my eyes between hands and even started dreaming. I couldn’t figure out why, but I was just counting the excruciating minutes until it ended. I was doing fairly well somehow—I guess poker has become instinctual by now. This has happened once before about 10 years ago (see picture below), and that time, I slept the entire next day. I’m pretty sure I had picked up some bug that luckily was gone in one day so that I could play Day 2 (though I busted out after playing my first hand, calling an amateur who shoved, it turned out with pocket As when I had AK suited). This time, I min cashed and then busted, not making it to Day 2. I celebrated my fourth cash of the WSOP by calling Carrie to take me home and again sleeping most of the next day.

Bob asleep at the table back around 2016

Day 1

On Sunday, I entered another WSOP tournament. A German player sat across from me. Several years ago, Germans dominated poker tournaments. A friend told me that Germans took poker seriously, studied it like they would for a bachelor’s degree, and played like it was their livelihood. Actually, it was their livelihood. The top player, Fedor Holz, earned over $50 million in his short career before retiring in his early thirties to run an investment fund.

This guy at my table was no Fedor Holz. On my first hand, I got dealt pocket 10s. He min raised from 500 to 1000. I reraised to 2000. He shoved his entire stack of 50K! I folded and said, “That’s a lot of chips to risk just for 2K. He said nothing but seemed really grumpy, the frown never leaving his face for his short time at the table.

He did this twice against other players until someone called with pocket Qs. The German turned over J4, the “Robbie Lew.” He lost his entire stack, silently stood up, put on his backpack, and walked out. Someone said he probably just wanted to keep shoving and reentering until he doubled up. I replied that if so, he could have waited a little bit until he had an A, K, or Q in his hand. Really strange.

Unfortunately I got AQ shortly after that. One player raised to 2K (4 BB), and I called. The flop was QJ3. I checked. The other player bet 5K. I reraised to 10K. He then shoved. I think I was thinking too much about the German player who had shoved with nothing. I had top pair, top kicker. I thought maybe this player also had AQ. Maybe he was trying to make me fold a good hand. Maybe all the players in this tournament were crazy aggressive. Maybe he had hit two pair or a set. I looked down at my now halved stack. It was still a decent stack to continue playing, but with the German player’s move stuck in my head, I didn’t want to be bullied off a great hand, so I called. He had pocket Qs. I busted out. I really felt bad. I hate making stupid plays, and that was a stupid play.

I immediately entered another cheaper tournament, the Summer Saver tournament. I sat at a table with several loud, aggressive players who kept betting too much. Very soon, I go dealt pocket Qs. I raised pre-flop, and one particularly obnoxious, bragging player called. The flop was 9A6. The ace was bad for me. I checked and he bet a lot. I doubted he had an ace and felt he was trying to just represent an ace, so I called. He was continually bragging that he “always has he goods,” which made me doubt that he actually “always” has the goods. The turn was another ace. That meant if he had an ace, he was way ahead, but it was less likely that he had one, given that there were two on the board. He bet big again. I figure if he really had an ace, he would want to keep me in the pot, so it was a sign that he didn’t have one. So I called. The next card was a blank (a small card that likely didn’t help either of us). He shoved. I desperately wanted to call, but I thought that he should be wary that I had an ace. Unless he had an ace. Or he had flopped a set, giving him a full house now. Thinking about my loss at the previous tournament, I folded, leaving my stack under 10 big blinds, which was soon gone.

I really felt sick mentally. I felt that I had misread the players and played emotionally and badly. I decided to give it one more try, but it took a lot of mental fortitude to focus on the game and not my previous mistakes. Eventually, I got back into my normal pattern and built up a good stack.

As we got close to the money, I had an average stack of about 200K and got dealt 6♦7♦ in the big blind. The under-the-gun player with a giant stack min raised to 10K (2BB), so I figured I’d take a chance and call. If the flop didn’t help me, I could always fold. But the worst possible thing happened. The flop was 4♦5♣K♥. I had an open-ended straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. The other player bet 20K and I called. The turn was 2♦. I now had a flush draw to go with my straight draw. He bet 52K. This signaled to me that he had a very good hand but didn’t want me to see another card. And I wanted to see another card. So I called. I knew that I could survive if I missed though I would be short. And if I won, I’d have a monster stack. The river card was 9♣. I had missed everything. He shoved and I folded. He showed me pocket 5s.

I was then short stacked and determined to play very tight to get into the money. We were approaching the money bubble, and I didn’t want to be the bubble boy once more, having played for 10 hours with nothing to show for it. But then on the bubble, I got dealt pocket Ks. I could fold every hand and probably squeak into the money for a $6 profit for the day and then bust out shortly thereafter. Or I could risk everything on the pocket Ks to try to build a decent stack going into Day 2. It’s nice to be able to say I cashed, but I’m so wealthy that $6 is practically meaningless to me (sorry for bragging), so I shoved. I got called by A 10. The Ks held, I more than doubled up, and the bubble burst shortly after that. I had a few more small wins after that and went into Day 2 with a short but playable stack.

Day 2

Day 2 began today at noon. I was short stacked with 255K in chips, which was only 12.75 big blinds. However, I was the second largest stack at my table! One player had about 800K, but the rest were smaller than me, so it gave me hope. The luck of the draw.

I won my very first hand. Shortly after that, believe it or not, the big stack actually busted out. He made the mistake of shoving each hand, assuming the smaller stacks would all fold. What he didn’t count on was that once in a while, a short stack gets a great hand and calls.

My stack was slowly growing when I got AJ. I went up against another player who turned out to have pocket Qs. I lost a lot. Fortunately, it didn’t last long because on the next hand, I got AK. I shoved and got called by A 10. The board was a nail-biter as it ran out $Q 10... J... 9. I got the straight on the turn and kept it on the river to more than double up.

After that, I got A8 in the big blind and was prepared to shove when the big stack on my right min-raised and another player called. I thought about it and just called. The flop was JA8. I knew I was in great shape, so I shoved. The big stack called while the other player folded. The big stack had A3. I was way ahead and then crossed the finish line when the turn was another 8, giving me a full house.

Shortly after the break, I shoved with pocket Ks. I got called by a big stack who had pocket 10s. My kings held, and I doubled up to over 1 million! I was above average and the playing field had dwindled to about 200 players by then out of the original 4,622 entries.

My stack hovered around average for a couple hours as players bit the dust. In the meantime at a nearby table, Martin Kabrehel, the loudest and one of the most annoying players in poker (you might remember that I was at two final tables with him a few months ago), started shouting and pacing and doing everything to 1) get attention and 2) distract the other players. I ignored him. Over the next hour or two, I won and lost chips, but the losses outnumbered the wins. With about 8 big blinds left, I shoved with Q 10. I got called by AQ. I was dominated. On the river came a Q, but that helped him more than me.

I had a nice long run, finishing 79^th out of 4,622 in the Summer Saver tournament. I’m very happy. In fact, I’m very happy with my entire WSOP run. Here are my stats from the WSOP:

Cashes: 5

Final tables: 1

Wins: 1

Profitable: YES!!!

Bracelets: 0 ☹

This was by far my best year ever at the WSOP. My quest for a bracelet continues but with a lot more confidence. I’ve promised myself to take a break from poker to unwind my mind. Instead, I’ll be focusing on my software forensics business, my engineering consulting business, my political/cultural/societal articles, my patent litigation, my online poker platform development, and my nonprofit work. That should be a breeze compared to poker.

Bob Zeidman is a high-stakes recreational poker player. He created Good Beat Poker, a free online poker site using patented technology for audio and video—see and hear the other players at the table if you choose.