Road to the 2027 WSOP: The Grind Starts Now

Written By Michael Doub

The grind for the 2027 WSOP begin NOW! Follow and see you on the felt.

Where I've Been


Let's rewind. Before 2008, poker wasn't just a hobby—it was a lifestyle I was genuinely good at. I racked up daily tournament wins at the Luxor, the Flamingo, and The Mirage in Vegas. I took down dailies at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and put in serious volume in cash games at the Borgata. I even played the World Poker Open in 2003 and 2004 at the Horseshoe and Gold Strike in Tunica, Mississippi—back when Tunica was still a real stop on the poker map.


Then life happened. I went back to school for my MBA, built a career, and poker got shelved. Not forgotten—just paused. For nearly two decades.


Why Now


This summer, I did what a lot of recovering poker players do: I watched the 2026 WSOP unfold from my couch. I followed Daniel Negreanu's vlog. I followed Jaka's vlog. And somewhere between the final tables and the bracelet ceremonies, the FOMO hit hard. Not the fun kind. The kind that makes you open a laptop at midnight and start doing math on buy-ins.


So here's the deal: I'm rededicating my life to poker. Not as a nostalgia trip, but as a real, structured comeback with a real goal attached to it.


The goal: build a bankroll and play the 2027 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.


Starting at the Bottom, On Purpose


Here's the part that matters most: I'm not walking back in assuming my 2008 game still works in 2026. Poker has changed. Solvers exist now. GTO strategy is mainstream. The games I used to beat with instinct and reads are now beaten with math, ranges, and study.


So I'm starting over, deliberately, at the bottom:


  • $2 buy-in No Limit Hold'em cash games online and $10 tournaments

  • $1-$3 No Limit Hold’em at Maryland Live & MGM National Harbor

  • Americas Cardroom and PokerStars for regular volume

  • GGPoker when I'm in Mexico


Small stakes, real reps, and zero ego. The plan is to relearn the fundamentals with modern tools before I even think about moving up in stakes.


The Study Plan


Grinding without studying is just gambling with extra steps, so here's how I'm building the "study" side of this:


  • Run It Once Poker — course work and structured training from some of the best theoretical minds in the game

  • Solve For Why — deep dives into solver-based strategy so I actually understand why a play is correct, not just that it is

  • Red Chip Poker — practical, applied strategy content to bridge theory into real decisions at the table


Tracking Everything


If it's not measured, it's not improving—that's the MBA talking, and it applies just as well to poker as it does to a P&L.


  • PokerTracker 4 for hand history review, leaks, and database analysis

  • A custom Google dashboard and spreadsheets to track both:

    • Leading KPIs — volume, study hours, hands reviewed, session discipline

    • Lagging KPIs — win rate, ROI, bankroll growth over time

  • Bankroll management treated like an actual budget, not a vibe


Follow Along


This blog is the record of that grind—every study session, every stake I move up (or down), every bankroll milestone, every hard lesson from the tables. I'll be honest about the swings, the leaks I find in my own game, and the slow, unglamorous climb back from $2 buy-ins toward a seat at the 2027 WSOP.


Eighteen years away is a long time. But the fundamentals of getting better haven't changed: play, study, track, adjust, repeat.


The grind starts now.

Michael Doub
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