Greg Raymer knows a thing or two about making a run in the World Series of Poker Main Event. There’s a banner hanging inside the Horseshoe with his face on it to prove it, as the 2004 WSOP Main Event champ. One year later, a run at history ended in 25th place.
So when he bucks the trend of players entering the tournament hours or even days into the process, it might be worth paying attention.
“In some tournaments, I’m happy to late reg,” said Raymer. “Sometimes there’s just other things in your life, and so you don’t get around to it on time. But especially in this event – I’ve been doing this a while now, since 2002 I’ve played the Main Event every year – and I’ve seen guys show up on a mission to win a million chips or go broke.
“You want to be there when that kind of guy is just throwing chips at every pot, and if you show up in Level 4, that guy might be busted.”
Taking advantage of some of the more advantageous spots early in the tournament also allows for a lot more creativity if you can get a hold of chips early on.
“Building up a big stack is very important,” said Raymer. “You can call raises with marginal hands when you know you have a better than average chance of outplaying someone after the flop. If you’re short stacked, it’s harder because there’s less risk for them and they’re less worried, so they’re harder to bluff. It gives you room to make some moves.”
The mindset Raymer has seemed to work out well on Day 1B of the 2023 WSOP Main Event, as he jumped out to a big stack and rolled to a very solid bag heading into Day 2.
It’s also the continuation of a nice little run of momentum Raymer’s built up over the last week. On June 30, Raymer took down a Seniors Event at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas, topping a field of 321 entries on his way to the title. The day prior to starting that Seniors Event, Raymer also took down a $200 nightly tournament at Resorts World.
While it definitely helped set the tone for a good start to the Main Event, Raymer hesitates to attribute too much weight to such a run.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily important that I play or get reps before a tournament like this,” said Raymer. “This isn’t like tennis or something where you need to stay loose and in the groove, or golf where if you don’t play for a few weeks, you might not read the putts so well. I just want to be in that positive frame of mind. But it is nice, because it’s a lot easier to generate a positive mindset when you’ve been doing well lately. Much easier.
“But there have been plenty of summers where I’ve come to the Main Event and I’ve had a s— summer. If you’ve been playing a lot and running bad, it can be very easy to be in that negative mindset. However I get there, though – even if I’m losing – screw that, that’s the past and today I’m going to crush it.”