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So here's the way the WSOP has gone so far:

$1500 O8
Finished deep in the money last year, and was looking to do it again when I quickly doubled my starting stack (plus a bit more). However, I stopped winning hands, and was out in the final level of Day 1.

$500 Big Fofty
Event was a complete clusterfuck, as you'd expect, because Caesars is never prepared to do anything correctly on the first try. I ended up playing in the former bowling alley, now a warehouse, and it was super hot and stuffy in there. The AC was "bagged off" with actual trash bags over the units. I asked if they could be cut down (it was like 30 feet up, so it couldn't be reached easily), and they claimed "a ticket was submitted to maintenance", which obviously meant it wasn't happening. Probably some kind of health code violation, but whatever. Started out crappy, but the event was shockingly slow structured despite its $500 price tag. I lost half my stack in the first 4 hours, but then I caught fire, and finished 24th out of the 7000-something entrants on that day's flight. However, I wasn't too excited because the field was 28,000 deep, the structure was slow, and I knew I'd need to get lucky for 6 days in order to make big money. Sure enough, my time of reckoning came late Day 2, when an amateur called with AK on a 966 board, hit the K on the turn, and a K on the river. I had the 6. Fortunately she went all in on the river so I could fold before putting any money in there, and she showed me the AK. But what a fucking joke. That and a few other hands ate some of my stack, and I finished Day 2 about average, despite a good start during the first half of that day. Ultimately, I finished 666th out of 28,000-something entrants, oddly getting knocked out by 666. That's better than top 3%, but only paid $3273 or something. This is why I hate huge field, low buyin events.

$10k O8
Got a nice table draw, with a surprising number of fish. Last year same thing, but I ran bad and still didn't make it through Day 1. This year's table wasn't quite as good as last year's, but still good. Then I heard the dreaded, "Big Blind come with me", and they moved me to a new table formed by taking the BB from other tables. That was a dreadfully bad table, full of really tough pros. Even the "worst" players at the table weren't all that bad. On top of that, I ran horrendous, and missed just about every single flop, which is a killer in this game. I was one of the early ones out.

$1500 Millionaire Maker
I've been very competitive at these non-Main NL events at the WSOP lately. Dating back to 2017, I had four consecutive cashes in them -- two deep. I approached this one with optimism. Unfortunately, I had two cooler hands. The first was JT against JJ on a board with 89T by the turn. The second hand, and the one which took the majority of my chips, involved Tc9c on a board of KcJs7c, meaning I was a favorite over most hands, including AA. The board bricked and I was gone.

$1000 NL Double Stack
This was the last one on the schedule for early June. I couldn't get much going on this one. I was in a lot of hands, but was losing more than I was winning. I got temporary new life by flopping a set of 2s against AK with an ace on the board, but I stopped winning hands after that. I could have gotten new life again in the final hand before dinner, where the SB and I both had a little more than half starting stack (I had him a tiny bit covered), and he decided to shove 96o pre on the final hand before dinner. I snapped with AQo and the board ran out giving him a pair and me just ace high. So I was crippled and all-in on the SB. Actually got dealt A8 but was against AA, and that was that.

Took a 2 week break at this point and went back to my family. Then I returned on June 25:

$1500 PLO8
With bullet #1, got it in with a big draw bricked, and that was that. I bought in a second time (we were about 4 hours in), and I started losing again, and was down to just 9k of my 25k in starting chips. However, I showed incredible patience, and kept folding hands which were marginal, knowing that the slow structure gave me time to get it in good. I slowly chipped up to 14k, then doubled off an over-aggro guy, and finished the day with about 60k, which was essentially average. Day 2 went well enough, as I surfed the wave of average to again finish the day with average chips, with just 58 people out of 1117 left. One notable hand involved me making a great fold with just 126k left (not much at the time), and reading the hand perfectly, to where I only had backdoor flush outs. Guess what would've got there for an 800k pot? Despite that, I ran it somewhat back up, and as I said, finished average for the day. Day 3 I played pretty well, was dealt a ton of monster hands pre, but kept totally missing the board. Despite running bad like that, I showed patience again, and still skated into 30th place. I got $6687 for that effort.

$1500 Mixed Omaha
This event is a combo of limit O8, PLO8, and Big O. I took about a 45 minute break after finishing 30th and late-regged (about 2.5 hours after start) to Mixed Omaha. There was a PFA Radio listener who identified himself at the table. I ran well, and played the table well, having a great feel for my opponents. I only fired one bullet, and finished the day with almost 83k chips, which was 16th out of 717. Once again I had a huge Day 1, just like at the Big Fofty. Unfortunately, unlike the Fofty, I didn't make much of it. I came back today to play and was just "off". I just didn't play well, butchered a few hands, and also ran bad. I also lacked the incredible patience and restraint I showed during the previous three days of WSOP play (both at the PLO8 and Day 1 of this event). It was just one of those days where you're not yourself poker-wise. I busted shortly after min-cashing for $2249. I've been disgusted about this one, because I should have done much more with this opportunity. However, I will also say that I ran quite poorly, only winning one decent-sized pot the entire day -- where I busted Eli Elezra. Guess the people he owes will have to wait longer.

Tomorrow at 3pm is the first limit holdem event -- the $1500 one. This is the event where I have the greatest edge, but sometimes that doesn't matter. Last year I was one of the early ones out.

Also coming:

June 30 $888 8-handed NL Holdem (only if I fail to make Day 2 of Limit Holdem)
July 2 $10k Limit Holdem
July 4 $10k Main Event
July 8 $3000 6-Max Limit Holdem (only if I'm out of Main)


TL;DR:

Three cashes out of seven events (eight if you count that I fired a second bullet at $1500 PLO8).
Two deep runs beyond top 3% but ran out of cards before I could really get big $.
Two huge Day 1s.
Fucked up the second huge Day 1 and barely mincashed.

I've cashed 4 out of the last 6 NL $500-$1500 holdem WSOP events I've played, two being deep runs.
I've cashed 4 out of the last 6 $1500 Omaha events I've played (all variants), two being deep runs.

Tournaments are idiotic.

That is all.