WPT Boot Camp

First of all, I'd like to thank Maryann (Goddess) for the opportunity to attend poker school. For those that don't know, I won this opportunity through WPC league play. This was a multi-week tourney with WPC members and through a lot of tough competition, I won first place.

I went to Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend to attend the WPT Boot Camp. This was a $1700 Boot Camp---and well worth it, I might add.

The main instructor was T.J. Cloutier. He is a delightful man with many, many years of experience. He does not mince words---always says what is on his mind. Vnessa Rousso was in the hospital so was not able to instruct. Crispin Leyser was an instructor. Jules Leyser was an instructor---she was very good. Tom McEvoy also delivered some of the sections.

The boot camp is a full two days. Saturday begins at 8:00 a.m. with breakfast and concludes at 11pm after a student tournament. This tournament paid the first place winner a $1K satellite for the WSOP. There were 60 people in class that participated. I finished 12th and was the last woman standing.

Day two started at 8:00 and ended at 5pm.

There were a couple of neat things about this particular boot camp. Every major lecture was followed by a lab. Every student sat at a poker table and we played hands practicing and reinforcing what we learned in the lecture. The dealers were the instructors. This was very valuable.

Another thing we did on Sunday was to watch and listen to player critiques while Tom McEvoy played the PokerStars Million Dollar tournament. This was also invaluable---especially to see if he actually applied what we were learning in class. He did!! Not sure how he did in that tournament though---it goes on for many, many hours.

The WPT has two other boot camps which I think would be equally good---one for women only taught by Annie Duke and another one for cash games.

I know some of you would like me to translate my notes here---but I don't think that would be fair to the WPT----so let me give you just a few tidbits:

1. The goal of poker is to make good decisions! You can't control the cards---be they luck or unlucky. But, you can try to always make good decisions.

2. Don't be satisfied with just placing in the money. Play for the win!! (Most of the good money is at the top---first 9 or 10 players.)

3. TJ says that you should only read the poker books that are written by known people. He says there are a lot of books out today written by people he never heard of.

I'm going to leave it with those words of wisdom. I hope that each of you gets an opportunity to attend a boot camp to improve your poker skills.

Thanks again to Goddess and the ladies I competed with during our league. We have some great ladies and some wonderful poker talent.

Good luck at the tables!!

DontMessWthTX (Jane)