Jim Reid is a longtime lover of poker, a member of the PokerOrg Player Advisory Board, and host of the popular RecPoker podcast. His summer trip to Las Vegas included a moneymaking run in the 2024 WSOP Main Event, which he breaks down for us here. Check out part one, in which he navigates his way past the bubble, ending up with a stack of 300K chips heading into Day 5 - good for around 12 big blinds…
The plan I had for the morning was to give myself two orbits of blinds before I got desperate enough to shove - that would mean dropping from 12 bigs to 7. Well, my plan developed perfectly, in that I did end up folding for even a third orbit, and was down to 4 bigs before I got a crucial double up when I shoved 
from the small blind into the big blind who called with 
offsuit (thank you, sir) and we held.
Having so few chips made the game more fun, to be honest - every time I went all-in preflop I would load my meager stack into my RecPoker shot glass and thrust it into the middle of the table, extolling its virtues as a little ‘extra value’ for whoever took me out. The dealer even got in on it, and would send my newly won chips back in the shot glass too, it was amazing!
A couple of orbits later, the same spot came up and I shoved 
from the small blind and the big blind called with 
offsuit. In this spot I thought it was a good idea to finally use my 'one-time', so I told the dealer as much, and luckily she obliged because even though the flop brought a queen, by the river there were four clubs on the board - and I had one in my hand while the big blind did not.
On the next orbit, it folded to the small blind on my right, who shoved with into my big blind where I was waiting patiently with 
and I doubled up again! Hello! More chips, please! At this point, the RecPoker shot glass was no match for my stack anymore, but for the life of me I could not find a RecPoker pint glass or a RecPoker beer stein to replace it with. Shoot. First world problems.
My clash with the World Champion
On basically the next hand, I got and a fellow kindly shoved his whole stack into me after I opened, so of course I called, and got another HUGE double up. At this point I actually covered a few players at the table, and they definitely had ‘that feeling’ about me, like I couldn't lose a hand, so I took advantage of that with a good mix of bluffs and value bets that resulted in me winning a few more hands. I'll share more hand details in the forums or on the podcast but there were a few doozies!
Anyway, the blinds kept going up and I lost a few small pots, eventually coming back to earth with a more typical stack, laddering up and securing more and more money every few hours. Eventually I shoved my last 16.5 big blinds with 
over the raise of the player to my right, who tanked and called with 
, then hit their ace on the turn. Exit Jim.
That player who knocked me out was called Jonathan Tamayo, who went on to have a successful tournament, to put it lightly! Tamayo took my chips all the way to the final table, where he added the chips of everyone else to be the last player standing and the 2024 WSOP Champion. I never saw my ‘bounty’ shot glass make an appearance at the final table, though…
A special experience in a special tournament
When it was all said and done, out of 10,112 players I ended up in 210th place, for a payout of $60,000! Since I’d sold around ⅔ of my action, that meant I got to keep about $20,000 of that for myself, and share the rest with my friends.
Busting tournaments is always painful, but this time was relatively sweet: I’d achieved my target of locking up enough money to replace my 2006 Chevy Equinox that had died for good the week before I left for Vegas; the next payjump wasn't for another 50 people or so, and that means a quarter of the field would have to bust before we saw it; I got it in good in a dream spot versus one overcard, and even though my opponent hit a 3-outer to bust me, I regret nothing about it. Coming in 210th in the Main Event is beyond the wildest dreams of the guy who joined RecPoker as a premium member five years ago - honestly, this entire chapter of my life since then has been crazy, and cool, and wonderful.
I'm beyond grateful for all the support and encouragement I received! This was a lot more fun with my gang in my corner, no doubt about it. I'm so glad it went the way it did, and that I was able to share the rewards with the people who helped me. I've had such a blast I think it will be hard for me not to come back next year and try it again! I honestly might just skip the earlier bracelet events and just play the Main again - it's that special.
If any of you have considered playing it, I will say: there is no other tournament like it, and while $10,000 is a ridiculous amount of money, there are ways to satty in or that kind of thing. Or you can figure out a way to plan it in advance: if you wanted to play next year in 2025, for instance, you have fifty weeks to study and prep, and fifty weeks to save $200 each week to get to $10,000.
If that's too ambitious, be realistic about it: the 2026 Main is a little over 100 weeks away, which is a lot of study time, and you might be able to put $100/week aside if you really want to make it a priority. So while it's not something anyone should take lightly, it's also not impossible, and there are lots of players in it that are worse than you at poker, believe me. They'll be harder to find on Day 5 than they are on Day 1, but trust me when I say that with enough prep and study, you have just as much a chance as anyone to cash the Main, if not to actually win it.
Now it’s time for me to reminisce about bluffing into four pros with 4-high, and correctly folding 
to a single raise with 7 big blinds on Day 5. What a day that was. What a trip! What a life!
Now, just 50 weeks ‘til the next one…
