Playing in the WPT World Championships - My Trip Reports part 2!

[davejorgens]

Well - my apologies to the cardschat family for neglecting to finish the trip reports from last year. I never even got to the point of talking about playing in the 10K buy-in world championship! I was representing CardsChat from the 12K freeroll that ran in the fall of 2023 and you can search for the previous reports by searching for "Playing in the WPT World Championships - My Trip Reports" if you want to start from the beginning of last year.

When I left off last year, well everything was such a whirlwind that I didn't have much of a chance to type out the reports. As time passed I thought I'd wait until the hype started building for the 2024 WPT WC and help spread the word about what a great experience it was last year. I left off as the Club WPT happy hour ended, and off we went to the Players Party. It truly is one of the highlights of the festival. It was held at Area 15, same as last year, but they changed it up. You know what - this seems like a great time to bring out the time machine and I'm going to rewind to the first WPT world championship at the Wynn way back in 2022. I'll pick back up where I left off in.... a while, because there were so many highlights from that first year.

To start off the whole story, I won a $550 online tournament entry for a satellite on WPT Global. played, and won a 12.4K package to play in the World Championship (WC). Like most of us rec players, it was on my bucket list to one day play a 10K buy-in event and I was now getting my shot - for $0 paid! Few days later, won another online context from Club WPT, this time to meet the GOAT, Phil Ivey, and play golf with him for a chance at ANOTHER 10K entry package. Shout out to Daniel Smyth, carschat reporter, that I met and you can read his article here: https://www.cardschat.com/news/wpt-world-championship-stories-1-114773/

 

[davejorgens]

I'm a curious sort. I'd known that before I arrived in Vegas Doyle Brunson had done a special book signing. Being in the room for the Phil Ivey golf challenge for a few hours, I poked my nose around in the corners and in a box I could see Doyle on the dust cover of 1/2 dozen books. I asked WPT if we could each get one (they were the leftovers), and after getting the OK, it's in the swag bag!

I do love swag (shout out to @Debi for the CardsChat gear) and one of the perks with the packages is getting some free stuff. Backpack, hat, shirts, and so on. Pictured here with Brenden, one of the Royal Flush Crew, handing it out. You'll see us together in a great interview later.

The absolute best perk though for package winners is access to the VIP lounge! It's a great place to chill out and relax, and so many familiar faces would come in for some quiet time. The friendliest pro I've met is Brad Owen. He always takes time to engage with his fans for more than a quick selfie - he stops and talks to you for a bit. "The Poker Brat" I also found to be nicer than expected due to his on-screen persona. - he's a lot more humble than I thought he'd be. And the last for this post, meeting Jaime Kerstetter - I KO'd her to win my 12K package. No hard feelings!

Stay tuned, more posts to come in the following days

 

[Poker Orifice]

You know what they say.... every donk has his day. I'm still waiting for mine.

 

[Debi]

Nice - thanks for checking back in with us!

 

[davejorgens]

You know what they say.... every donk has his day. I'm still waiting for mine.

I have been truly blessed with the opportunities I've had. Not only have I had two chances to play in the 10K world championships (both for $0 entry), and meet Phil Ivey, I've been a part of special events that came out of the relationships I've built with the WPT family. Keep following - so many more stories and pictures to share from the last two year - and you'll see what I mean.