Jim Reid is The Rec — a recreational player with a lifelong love of poker, a member of the PokerOrg Player Advisory Board and the host of the popular RecPoker podcast.
Here Jim shares some hard-won advice for other recreational players taking their shot at WSOP glory.
Hey, gang! I want to take you behind the curtain on how I set my World Series of Poker tournament schedule each year, some savvy places to stay and eat while you’re down in Las Vegas, and some tips for what to pack, how to register, and what happens once you’ve made your big score.
Here's part one, the tournaments; stay tuned for parts two and three, coming soon.
Check the schedule
I get excited every year when the schedule drops, and I love that the WSOP continues to offer low buy-in bracelet events for recreational players like me to enjoy. With a day job and a limited budget, we recs really need a good plan in order to get the most out of our WSOP trip each year. Here’s how I put mine together.
Last year I managed a deep run - to 210th - in the Main Event.I begin by making a list of all the events that are $1,500 or less to enter. This year there are around 25 or so between May 27 and July 16, depending on if you count events restricted to industry employees, seniors, or women. Then, I tag the ones that are even less expensive, $1,000 or less, and this year there are around 17 of those.
Once this is done, one section stands out: like I mentioned in my earlier column, in the 13 days between June 22 and July 4 there are eight different NLHE bracelet events with buy-ins of $1K or less!
To put that in perspective, if you fired one bullet into all eight tournaments and bricked them all, you would only be out $5,700. That’s an amazing opportunity for recreational bracelet hunters!
If you had more time and a bigger bankroll, you could add the $1,500 Millionaire Maker the weekend before, or the $600 Ultrastack and the $777 Lucky 7’s events that are both the following week. If you did, that’s still 11 bracelet events you could fire at for less than $8,600!
The Millionaire Maker always draws a huge field.
Draw up your shortlist
Here are those 11 tournaments that are in the rec-friendliest stretch of the 2025 WSOP schedule:
| Dates | Event | Buy-in |
|---|---|---|
| June 18-21 (Day 1s) | Event #53 - Millionaire Maker | $1,500 |
| June 22 | Event #59 - Battle of the Ages | $1,000 |
| June 23 | Event #61 - NLHE Freezeout | $1,000 |
| June 24 | Event #65 - Tag Team | $500 each |
| June 25-28 (Day 1s) | Event #67 - Gladiator | $300 |
| June 29-30 (Day 1s) | Event #75 - Mini-Main | $1,000 |
| July 1 | Event #78 - Deepstack | $600 |
| July 2-3 (Day 1s) | Event #80 - Summer Celebration | $800 |
| July 4 | Event #84 - No-Limit Hold’em | $1,000 |
Once that’s done, I plot these short-listed tournaments out on a calendar to see what travel dates make the most sense, and how I can minimize the number of days off for my visit, overlap with dates of my friends, or take advantage of time-sensitive deals on accommodations.
Don’t forget rebuys (and to prioritize)
When it comes to planning a poker trip (and the bankroll/budget for one) you need to think ahead about what tournaments you are going to feel prepared to rebuy into, how many flights you might want to try for each, and which to prioritize if multiple tournaments fall on the same day.
If you go deep in one of the above tourneys, that will likely take some other Day 1s out of play for you, lowering your buyins for the trip. But it’s just as likely (or more) that you will bust often, and have a decision about whether to rebuy or not, and that can quickly eat up a poker budget.
For instance, if you used the maximum number of rebuys for the Millionaire Maker alone that would be eight entries, or $12,000, just in one tournament! If you are prepared to fire that kind of money on a single tournament, you really should be playing the Main Event for $10,000 with starting days from July 2-5 instead.
It's the one everyone wants.Speaking of the holy grail of tournament poker, I had a good run in the Main last year and will be back to toss my hat in the ring again in 2025. Because of this, and because I am taking some time off in April for the Irish Poker Open, I am coming down later in the schedule and making a shorter Vegas trip this year, from July 2 for a couple of warm-up tournaments to whenever my Main Event journey ends.
I’ll play some combination of the Summer Celebration and the NLHE Freezeout beforehand, and probably the Ultrastack if I bust the Main early, so while it’s a short trip, it has a lot of poker packed into it!
Including the Main, if I max-fired every tournament I was planning to play, I would need $16,200. I expect it to be less, and of course I have sold a lot of my action, which is a great way to lower your own out-of-pocket investment.
And if you win big, trust me: there’s no better feeling than sharing it with your friends!
Check back soon for the next installment of The Rec's Guide to the 2025 WSOP.
