Well the final results for my 2024 World Series of Poker are in:
| Date 2024 | Event # | Event | Buy-In | Planned Buy-In Bullets | Planned Buy-In Dollars | Actual Buy-Ins | Actual Cash Outs |
| 29-Jun | 70B | NLH Colossus (Flight B) | $400 | 2 | $800 | $800 | $0 |
| 30-Jun | 70C | NLH Colossus (Flight C) | $400 | 2 | $800 | $400 | $0 |
| 1-Jul | 75 | NLH Tag Team (only my half) | $500 | 1 | $500 | $500 | $0 |
| 2-Jul | 78 | NLH Mini Main Event | $1,000 | 1 | $1,000 | $1,000 | $2,002 |
| 3-Jul | 80A | NLH Independence Day (Flight A) | $800 | 2 | $1,600 | $0 | $0 |
| 4-Jul | 80B | NLH Independence Day (Flight B) | $800 | 2 | $1,600 | $1,600 | $0 |
| 5-Jul | 81C | NLH MAIN EVENT | $10,000 | 1 | $10,000 | $10,000 | $0 |
| 7-Jul | 84A | NLH $600 Ultra Stack | $600 | 0 | $0 | $600 | $1,201 |
| 9-Jul | 87 | NLH 8-Handed | $5,000 | 0 | $0 | $5,000 | $0 |
| 11-Jul | 89A | NLH Mid-Stakes Championship (Flt A) | $3,000 | 2 | $6,000 | $6,000 | $0 |
| 12-Jul | 89B | NLH Mid-Stakes Championship (Flt B) | $3,000 | 2 | $6,000 | $0 | $0 |
| 13Jul | 93A | NLH Lucky 7s (Flight A) | $777 | 3 | $2,331 | $0 | $0 |
| 14-Jul | 95 | NLH Hall of Fame Bounty | $1,979 | 2 | $3,958 | $0 | $0 |
| 14-Jul | 93B | NLH Lucky 7s (Flight B) | $777 | 0 | $0 | $777 | $1,559 |
| 15-Jul | 93C | NLH Lucky 7s (Flight C) | $777 | 3 | $2,331 | $777 | $0 |
| 16-Jul | 98B | NLH The Closer | $1,500 | 2 | $3,000 | $3,000 | $0 |
| 17-Jul | 99 | NLH Super Turbo | $1,000 | 2 | $2,000 | $0 | $0 |
| Reserve | $3,080 | $0 | $0 | ||||
| $45,000 | $30,454 | $4,762 |
It was another frustrating WSOP for me this year. I fired 16 bullets at a total of 12 events. I min-cashed in three events, so my cash percentage was 18.75%. That’s not horrible, but still disappointing. Remember, only 15% of the field cashes in any given WSOP event, and the other 85% walk away with nothing. So total failure is the most common outcome, even for the top pros (why do we play this game?!).
So after doing all the math, the “return” on investment for all tournament activity is basically -57 percent this year. In other words, for every dollar put in, you get back 42.9 cents. So if you bought one percent ($450), you’re getting back $193.08.
The problem, once again this year, is that all my cashes were small min cashes. To really win at tournament poker, you need some finishes in the top 1% of the field–at least once every 50-100 tournaments. Maybe sprinkle in a few top 4-5% finishes here or there. Finishing with lots of min cashes or slightly better is just not going to cut it.
Also, just like last year, min cashing in a few smaller buy-in events does not offset even the $10,000 entry fee for the Main Event. Clearly, the one large tournament dominates the overall results. And man, did I run bad in the Main (standard stuff).
Honestly, you can just about paste last year’s commentary in here and it more or less fits. I felt like I really played pretty well most of the time this year, and I definitely was NOT playing for the min cash. It just worked out that way again. Once again, I’m pretty sure the results are telling me I’m not being aggressive enough early enough to build up a big stack that can run deep.
As usual, my cash game results far exceeded my tournament results. I mostly played 1/2/5 PLO this year, and that game was SUPER soft. Just full of folks who had no clue what they were doing.
Honestly, I am seriously considering NOT selling any action in next year’s WSOP. I definitely enjoy having lots of you following along and encouraging me. But it also puts some weird incentives in play. There were definitely times when I felt like just skipping some tournaments and playing the more lucrative (for me) cash games. And I also felt obliged to post pretty much all the details on Twitter, so everyone could see exactly what I was doing. That did take my attention off the action a few times when I shouldn’t have let it. There is also a fair bit of administrative overhead. And if I actually manage to win enough to get hit with a W-2 G sometime, the headaches will be multiplied. So we’ll see when next year rolls around. But as of now, I’m pretty strongly leaning toward not selling any more action.