Mike Codes LLC Goes to the WPT

Mike Codes LLC

This past summer I came in first out of 19,000 and change players to win a million dollars at a poker tournament in Las Vegas. I did not quit my job immediately. It wasn't obvious to me if I could, really.

I am a corporation now. This is common in software development and poker. Mike Codes LLC is a business. I am the owner and I have no employees.

It's a bunch of bullshit really. It means I can work for a company without legally being considered an employee and entitled to unemployment benefits and health insurance and whatnot. Also it allows me to deduct my post-tournament bustout Taco Bell binges as a "business expense."

I didn't know how easy it would be to break my contract. And they were paying me quite well. So I went back to Minneapolis and slung code throughout the summer and autumn before hanging up the reins on Thanksgiving.

In December I left for the World Poker Tour Championship festival in Las Vegas as an unemployed man. Or corporation.

I wired $25k to the Wynn Casino and packed up the $30k in cash I had on hand.

I was prepared to blow my entire bankroll mere weeks after quitting my job. This is the business strategy of Mike Codes LLC. Or something.

The Prime Championship

The WPT Prime Championship is a massive field $1,000 entry tournament full of munsons. I showed up in time to late register the 3rd of 4 starting flights. That did not go well.

So the next morning I was back at it in the final flight. I began at a table with 3 pros where I quickly got it in drawing next to dead with a king high flush draw vs trips and a higher flush draw. Rebuy!

My next bullet went much better. Rather than describe 10 hours of no limit holdem poker, I present 1 random hand:

At the end of the night I bagged up 703k for 40th out of 1231 players advancing to Day 2 and was feeling great.

My day 2 table draw looked amazing with only one tough reg - Kharlin Sued. The allure of this type of tournament is that you're playing for huge money and likely to have a table filled with recreational players. And wouldn't you know it - I lost a big chunk of my stack to the lone pro at my table.

Sued was on a 20ish BB stack defending the big blind and I opened A5s from early position. We took an 842 rainbow flop where I had the backdoor flush draw. He checked, I bet, he raised, I jammed, he called with a pair of 8s and won.

My huge stack didn't stay huge very long and before I knew it I was making my exit mid day 2. I cashed for just under the price of my three entries into the tournament. Two Minnesotans would go on to final table this one and bring home massive paydays. But not me.

I felt like crap after busting but walked over to the Venetian anyway and immediately hopped in a big $2200 tournament. I fired 2 bullets and built up a big stack but then got moved to a table full of regs and sputtered. In some spots I played too passively. I didn't want to raise and fold to a 3b from the aggressive players at my table. After late reg closed I blinded down and eventually got it in with a short stack vs a whatever hand and lost.

The next day I went to a breakfast meetup with some Chip Leader Coaching guys. I talked lots of poker with Chance Kornuth including analyzing the hand where I doubled up Kharlin Sued in the Prime. He preferred just call on the flop vs the check-raise. I was thinking I'll have some A8 and 99-JJ hands that want to jam here and the only natural bluffs are the wheel aces with backdoor flush draws. I think that makes sense too. Chance was more of the opinion that you can be unbalanced in this spot and have no bluffs.

Besides the poker talk, I felt like an alien at the breakfast table. They were discussing fine dining and trying to get their kids into good private schools. I live alone and regularly eat gas station food. So I didn't have much to add there.

That day I fired a $1600 tournament at the Wynn with no luck and then in the evening I played a $600 TORSE tournament that I had forgotten until my friend Derek recently mentioned to me that we played together in it. Sufficeit to say I didn't win.

Heading into the WPT $10k Championship I was down five figures on the trip and well on my way to blowing through the entire bankroll.

The WPT Championship 2-7 Mixed Limits

The WPT $10k Championship was the tournament I had circled for this trip. I sold action so that I was only going to be in $5600 of my own money on each of up to 3 bullets. The only $10ks I had ever played were the WSOP Main Event and one WPT $10k this past summer. I had never cashed one.

It's a very slow structure. Day 1 you play 10 1-hour levels. My table seemed fairly tough. No obviously weak spots. One Minnesota reg I know - Thai Van Dinh - was a couple seats to my right.

I was card dead the first couple levels but then on level 3 I 6-bet jammed KK and was shocked when my opponent folded. Who 5-bet folds? I guess that's the world of $10ks.

Most of the day was pretty smooth for me chipping up slowly. Towards the end of the night I played a big one against Thai where I got out of line:

I was pretty happy to bag up 272k (starting was 100k) on my first bullet and have a couple days off while the other day 1 flights ran. And since I had a couple days until my Day 2 I took the next day to get stupid drunk gambling around Vegas.

The day after my drunk binge I wanted to play an $1100 2-7 mixed limits tournament at the WPT but I was too hungover to get out of bed. So instead I just stayed in my hotel room until 2pm rolling around in discomfort and watching YouTube videos.

I eventually called an Uber and made my way over to the WPT. It was one of those cab rides where I had my head down and eyes closed the whole time to keep from hurling. At the Encore I gingerly made the long walk to tournament registration.

This tournament was a mix of 2-7 no limit single draw, pot limit double draw, and limit triple draw. We played 6 hands of each game and then switched.

To be honest I don't remember much of this tournament. I do remember the MN mixed cash player Sony moving to my table at some point and then busting. Towards the end of late registration I had a big stack, but by the bubble I was a short stack and squeaking into the money.

Also around the bubble they moved us from the quiet room we were in upstairs into the big banquet hall shared by the $10k Championship players. In our section a couple tables away from me they also moved the final table of a $5k PLO PKO tournament where the chip leader was MN legend Robby Wazwaz!

After the bubble burtst in my 2-7 tournament I caught fire and started building up a stack. I didn't write down a single hand from this tournament but I'm pretty sure they would be super boring to read anyway. Let's just say I made some 7s and and some 8s. I bet pot as a bluff a few times. Etcetera. By the time we made the final table I was the chip leader.

The funny thing is that I don't even consider myself good enough at mixed games to play the $40/$80 mix game they run at my local casino. But I have a pretty good track record the last couple years in these mixed game tournaments.

By the time we got to 3-handed I was more or less sober. I offered the other two guys who were both Euros an ICM chop and they declined. So instead I shipped the tournament and won the maximum!

By this point Robby was heads up in his tournament too. He would go on to win as well but I left before he finished it out because I had my Main Event Day 2 the next morning and it was already after 2am.

I had bagged the $10k on one bullet and shipped a 2-7 tournament for $35k. So this already a guaranteed winning trip for Mike Codes LLC. It was no WPT Prime Final table but still a major relief to not have blown my entire bank roll immediately after I quit my job.

The Consolation Tournament

The $10k Championship Day 2 sadly did not go well for me. I was unable to find a fold with AA on a board with two queens and then I got in half my stack with JJ and folded to a turn jam a while later. Ultimately I busted on a flip midway through the day and did not secure my first cash in a $10k.

There was an $1100 multiday going on but I wasn't too excited about that one. So instead I chilled until the evening and hopped in a $3k sattelite to the $25k high roller running the next day.

The field in the $25k satty was surprisingly soft. That's about all I remember from it. I busted AQ < AK right before the end of late reg and decided not to re-enter.

So the last tournament of the series for me was this $1100 consolation tournament for all the players busting the more prestigious events. There were 2 starting flights left - a morning flight and then an evening "turbo" flight with 20 minute levels. I fired two bullets in the morning flight and then it was onto the turbo for my last chance at glory.

In the turbo I was able to build up a nice stack but towards the end of the night I dipped below average and ended up limping into the money with about 20bb for Day 2. Nice to end the series on a cash but I did not have very high expecations.

Day 2 started off pretty well though with me picking up some small pots here and there. Then I played a wild hand where I hero called the river for most of my stack with a weak pair on a scary board:

After that hand I was suddenly a big stack in this tournament and a real threat. For being a consolation tournament and not getting much hype there was still a huge $3m+ prize pool! First place was almost $500k!

We played deep into the night and I maintained my big stack until we got down to 2 tables where I eventually slipped and fell under chip average.

With 16 players left I opened AJo on the button and faced a 3b from an older recreational player in the BB who was one of the chip leaders. I went with the charts and 4b jammed for 30bb and got snapped off by QQ. In retrospect I think this was a mistake. It's a standard jam spot vs a GTO 3b range but vs this fish I think I should have folded. He thought so too and after I spiked an ace on the flop he laid into me. He challenged my poker bona fides. Have you ever made it this deep in a tournament this size!? Uh, yeah...

I ended up bursting the final table bubble in another questionable spot by me where I called off 75% of my stack with KQs vs a jam and was fortunate to be shown KTs and hold.

Wait, I made the final table? I had to scramble to change my flight and arrange a dog sitter and extend my hotel stay. Actually not too tough. Okay onto the final table!

I came into the final table 2/9 and feeling very confident. Most of the remaining players had never been in a spot close to this in terms of the big money on the line. I had, and recently.

We had a few quick bustouts and eventually arrived at 5-handed with pretty symetrical stacks. Then this hand happened:

It's tough when you reach a big ICM spot and feel like you made a mistake that cost you potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. With this one at least I didn't know the correct answer at the time and played the hand the best I knew how. This really was a spot to learn from for me and I'll approach AQo in ICM spots much differently in the future.

I did end up exiting in 5th place in this one, eventually getting it in 66 vs AA to bust. The guy with aces had only looked at one ace before raising initially. We peeled the 2nd ace together and that was GGs.

I received $145k for 5th place, easily my 2nd biggest tournament score. Who would have thought? In the consolation tournament!

My first poker trip post-software career was a huge success. Mike doesn't code any more, but Mike Codes LLC is doing just fine!