Trip Report: Wpt Boot Camp

[hblask 1]

This weekend I attended the WPT Boot Camp at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, CA. This may get a bit long, but people have shown interest in the past, so I want to write my impressions.The Instructors: The teachers for the class were Chip and Karina Jett, and Crispin and Jules Leyser. Crispin and Jules were the eloquent speakers of the group, very polished and professional. Chip and Karina were less eloquent, butChip's sense of humor and Karina's accessibility made up for it. All the instructors were enthusiastic and knowledgeable -- as you would expect from people who make their living off poker. It's clear they enjoy teaching and sharing their experience. Being human they did tire of stupid questions. I'm not talking about "I don't understand that slide" type questions, but the kind of questions that bogged down the class -- more disguised bad beat story than actual question. They handled them gracefully anyway, but it's clear they were trying to keep the topics crisp and clean.The Students: the students were a cross section of people from all walks of life and many different experience levels. At breakfast before the class started a couple of the younger students were trying to establish their dominance, saying they probably belonged in the advanced class, blah blah blah. We played two tournaments during the class, the Alpha Male Wannabees finished nowhere near the top in either of them. One student in the class was a complete beginner -- because she will be the new host of WPT on TV starting this coming season. She wanted to learn about the game before she started her new job. And yes, she does look that good in person. As with any group this size, we had a couple people who wanted to make the class about them with endless strings of irrelevant questions. For the most part, they were dealt with effectively yet politely. Another student of note: a free-lance journalist who is going to write a three-part article about the class for American Poker Player magazine (www.appmagazine.com) that should appear in the August issue. If I do well with my knowledge, I may get mentioned in the article (she wants to follow up on a few of the students).The Tournaments: Halfway through the first day, they break the class into 5 tables for 5 separate Sit-N-Go tournaments. The class has mainly been introduced to starting hand requirements and betting (both mechanical and strategic). The SnG tournament had a terrible structure -- basically, they created a turbo SnG structure. It wasn't as bad as the online turbo ones, just sort of halfway in between the turbo and regular online. Without going into too many details, I won my table. I made it look easy. OK, it helped that the cards were practically falling out of the deck for me. But I did have a couple things that I did better than the other students. First, I recognized the implications of the near-turbo structure. Second, I knew everyone would be playing the way we were just taught -- very tight, very mechanical. (It's intimidating trying to make a play when a pro is watching over your shoulder.) So it was easy to get a read. And then, when I finally hit a hand and took the lead, the rest was just picking them off. Oh, and it helps to win 4 coin flips in a row. I didn't need all of them, but it sure made the job easy. For winning this, I had a choice between a WPT chip set or a WPT jersey. Since I had just bought chips, it was a tough choice, but I went with the jersey.The second tournament was for the whole class. This one had a great structure and a great prize for first: a $1000 entry into a WPT event. The competition was much better for this one, as people had loosened up and played their usual styles, except now enhanced with the knowledge from the first day of class. For me personally, I was disappointed. After 13 hours of focusing on poker, I was dealt a KK. I had been running blinds and M's in my head and lost focus for a few minutes on what the current blinds were, overbet on my KK. Two people considered for a long time before folding, and I won the blinds. A reasonable bet could've doubled or tripled me up. Or knocked me out. But that mental error was probably my best chance in the tournament, so I'll never know. Finally my M dropped to single digits and I lost my coinflip hand to a low pair.The Content: The class suffered from both too little and too much material. There is only so much material you can listen to before you get brain overload. So it would be hard to pack much more into a two day class that will, as advertised, have some beginners in it. As I expected, the pot odds discussion lasted WAY too long. But some of the material I would've like to spend much more time on, to explore in more depth.There were two tools that they used to teach that were great. The first was videos. They would talk about a subject, and then show clips from WPT events where a pro made a mistake on that concept, and show how badly it can go. I was especially surpised at some of the technical mistakes, such as string bets on the final table. Anyway, seeing the concepts in action is a great reinforcement. The second tool, and the strength of the weekend, was the live labs. The pros sit at your table, deal cards, let you play them the way you think is correct, and then anaylze the play. If you have questions, they take the time to answer them in detail. If you disagree, they convince you that you are wrong, and you almost always are. That's why they are pros and we were not.Conclusion: The most obvious question is "is it worth it?". The answer to that is, it depends. Do you think it is worth it to spend $400 to take your family to a pro sports event ($80 seats plus food)? What are you getting? If you are wondering if this class is the most cost effective way to get good at poker, then no, absolutely not. I can say that there were no new (to me) concepts introduced in this class. If you've read The Theory of Poker and HoH v1/v2, you have seen it all. If you are looking for the *cheapest* way to learn, buy those two books and play cheap tables online. It'll take a lot of mistakes to get to the price of the class.Talking about poker is fun. At least, with knowledgeable, enthusiastic people it is. If you disagree, this class is not for you. If you agree, this is an immersion for two days with some truly great poker minds. How much is that worth to you?Poker is about decisions. Sometimes difficult decisions. The class provided me with no new concepts, but plenty of new windows on old concepts. If you come to a key point of a tournament, and the choice could decide your tournament life, how many tools do you want at your disposal? Two? Three? Ten? This class is about providing more tools. Every new way you have to look at a problem is a huge benefit, because the next one you learn may be the one that makes a difference between going out on the bubble and finishing in the top couple of spots. So as a cost effective way of learning poker, no, it is not worth it. As a fun adventure to immerse yourself in poker and gain valuable new tools to help you around the margins of your game, yes, if you can afford the price, it is absolutely worth it.

[Oziumrules 0]

Good Post!

[fleung22 1]

Good trip report...Well written.

[ricker 0]

Great post! I'll be attending the Expert Insight Class in Vegas coming up on the 24th, so it'll be interesting to see the differences between the two classes.

[Verdimme 0]

Good post, well written.

[hblask 1]

Great post! I'll be attending the Expert Insight Class in Vegas coming up on the 24th, so it'll be interesting to see the differences between the two classes.

I hope you'll post your impressions, I'd like to see how they compare.

[wsox8 10]

It was an interesting read and I hope you had a great time.

[blakheart 3]

Nice job! Very well done- I went to a Howard Lederer camp last year, the sit n gos were the very best part of the trip in my opinion.

[finztotheleft 0]

Great post. Do you mind me asking how much it was/did it include hotel/meals, etc. Sounds like you really enjoyed it. I'd love to do one someday.

[hblask 1]

Great post. Do you mind me asking how much it was/did it include hotel/meals, etc. Sounds like you really enjoyed it. I'd love to do one someday.

It was a gift to me, but I believe it is around $1600, that includes breakfast and lunch, you are on your own for dinner. It doesn't include any travel costs.The one I really want to go to is their Carribbean camp. $4000, and you play in a 3-day tournament against the pros, with first prize being a years worth of entries into WPT events (total value over $150,000). There are going to be a lot of pros there, including: T. J. Cloutier • Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari • Phil "The Unabomber" Laak • Jen Tilly • Mark Seif • Clonie Gowen • Marcel "The Flying Dutchman" Luske • Michael "Grinder" Mizrachi • Chip Jett • Karina Jett • Jules "The Outlaw" Leyser • Crispin Leyser • Rick Fuller.See: http://www.wptbootcamp.com/index.php?fn=10&id=25 for details.