"Stockbroker" covers far too many aspects, although yes the direct private client> broker (At least in England) is dying out and it's ridiculously stressful.

But thats OT and I only came to say awesome thread, thoroughly enjoyed it and congrats on your success!

I guess the only downer was you didn't get the girl

gl

I cant believe this is............over.

:clapping:

weeeeeeeeeeeeee enjoyed it! nice job Matt, congrats on the successful trip. GL with you're future endeavors.

I've heard this theory before (from James Woods IIRC) about the best time to play 5/10 at Bellagio, which is right before O starts or near dinnertime. That's when the wife is waiting on the rail nagging her husband to leave, which makes hubby overplay his last few hands. Sounds like you got to experience that, whether this guy knew he was overplaying the QQ or not.

Will definitely miss your trip reports. But I get a feeling that you will have many more to come.

Hope you enjoy your vacation away from the tables Miami Mike.

GL!

Loved the TR OP. Hope to see one in the future.

loved it

I'm dying to see your final update!

post trip

Back home in good ole Oxford, Ohio. Slowly adjusting back to the normal life. I got in Sunday night and had my first class, Psychopathology, the study of abnormal behavior, at 12:30 on Monday. A bit Ironic figuring most people in my life would probably describe my winter “vacation” as a little psychopathic. 12:30 is a reasonably late time for a first class. Unless of course you are used to waking up at 2pm Vegas time, 5pm eastern. Then all of a sudden waking up at noon feels like the crack of dawn. Slept right through that first class. I forget that the real world includes actual responsibilities and obligations. You don’t truly realize the beauty of a free schedule until it’s taken away from you.

As for my trip. Possibly the best experience of my life. Does that make me a degenerate? I suppose, Oh well. I was talking to an Asian fellow at the B one night, who had recently moved from the East coast. I asked him his thoughts on the city after 6 months. He just shook his head. “I thought it would be the ultimate place to live. The city never sleeps! But you know what, the glamour and excitement you feel when you visit wears off pretty quickly,” he told me. I couldn’t have agreed with him less. Granted I was only a tenant for 3 weeks, but **** I love that place. That city was made for people like me.

However, there were a couple things I would do differently. If I could do it again, I wouldn’t stay at the Signature. I stayed there in the first place for three reasons. Number one it had a free gym. Everywhere else I checked charged at least 25 dollars for a day pass. Number two, I wanted somewhere quite, where I could go to relax and not be in the middle of the action 24/7. Finally, they were the only place that could accommodate a long stay with a discounted price. I did not realize that I would pay back a large portion of that rebate to cab fares. I wasn’t all that comfortable carrying large sums of money down Harmon ave late at night, which resulted in a lot of 10 dollar cab rides.

I would’ve done all of my “gambling” at the smaller casinos with the smaller limits. While some people play craps and blackjack and what not for the rush, I usually just do it for the free drinks and the “us against the casino” atmosphere at the table. When you’re gambling at the big name casinos the limits are obviously higher and the money goes a lot faster.

I would’ve hung out downtown. The sidewalk acts, the cheap drinks, and the light show were some of the coolest things I saw in Vegas. I really believe that Freemont st puts the strip to shame.

Piano Bar at NYNY and Jet were my two favorite night life spots. But then again I’m not a big “club” guy, so others would probably enjoy the TAO and XS scene a lot more than I did.

Poker rooms. The nicest looking is at the Wynn. The best service/treatment is at the Venetian. But the most profitable is Bellagio. And let’s face it, when it comes down to it, they could treat me like a Persian Prince at Venetian, but if going to the Bellagio means I’m making an extra couple hundred a day, then you best believe I’ll be at the B.

Food. As far as food went, I was the anti-baller. My friends who visited were not interested in investing the little money they brought in uber-expensive meals (frankly neither was I). And when I was alone, I usually just picked up something quick. I tried eating at a restaurant alone once and just felt really awkward. Like everyone in the restaurant was looking at me. Though from my limited experience, Grand Lux was fantastic and so was the Wolf Gang Puck at the MGM.

Going into my trip, I hadn’t imagined an outcome that would lead me to consider playing poker full-time for money. The idea of spending the majority of my life in a casino was not appealing. Hell even if I wanted to, I didn’t think I was good enough. Post trip, my views have slightly changed. I don’t think I’m any better, I just think the games (5/10) are definitely beatable. The question is how beatable do they need to be to make a decent living.

Let’s look at the rake. I played 126 hours of poker. At roughly $12/hour, that’s $1512 dollars that I signed over to the Bellagio before I even sat down at a table. Add in another 500 in tips for the dealers, and before I knew it I was 2 buy-ins deep and I hadn’t even seen a flop. While maybe that doesn’t seem THAT crazy. Let’s look at it annually. For mathematical purposes let’s say you want to play 40 hour weeks, 50 weeks a year. At $12/hour that’s $560 a week. Add in tipping money for the dealers and it’s a bit closer to 7 bills. Repeat that 50 times, and all of a sudden you owe the Bellagio about 35K. 35 buy-ins. In order to make a salary comparable to the average American (28k), you now need to make 63 buy-ins. 6 figures you say? One hundred and thirty five buy-ins. And so on, you all can do math. Add in the fact that real jobs come with benefits to the tune of dental care, while poker players sometimes get discounts at Snacks and the economic disparity becomes a little more transparent.

With all of that being said, I’m not going to quit poker like I thought I might. I don’t know if I ever honestly believed that I would, but I guess I did write it. I plan on playing the 2/5 NL games at my local casino while searching for a job that I enjoy, whatever that may be.

So after making 10k I must have had to get like a duffel bag for all the money I was bringing back, right? No. Expenses are a bitch when living on the strip for 3 weeks. Here’s the breakdown of roughly how much I spent.

Expenses
Rake- 126 hours. 12 dollars/hour= $1512
Dealer Tips- 25 dollars/day=$450
Cabs-$300
Massages-$1200
Flights/Airport expenses-$500
Hotel-$2000
Food-$600
Shopping/drinks/shows-$800
Gambling losses-Craps$ 500 + Sports betting $500=$1000

Now rake and dealer tipping were deducted prior to my winnings, the others were not. So even though I won about 10k, most of it went back to the city of Las Vegas. Flame on about the massage bill. I openly admit that I am a sucker for those table massages. In fact, there were 3 things that concerned me prior to going to Vegas; my massage bill, my craps losses, and my cherry coke consumption. I’m proud to say that I failed miserably in all three categories.

Some people asked about my writing, if I took any creative writing in college. The answer to that is no. In High school I was an editor and writer of the school paper. Towards the end of high school it was the only area that I really gave full effort to. I loved the challenge of turning an ordinary event into an interesting piece of literature. I loved searching for angles. Somehow amidst all of the booze drinking and women chasing that is college I lost my desire to keep writing. I signed up for the school paper, realized that articles were due every Monday and Thursday and said **** that. As much as I enjoy storytelling, I never realized that people enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. I have everybody on here to thank for that.

I think I’m going to continue writing stories, if anyone is interested in following the post-Vegas journey. Every Sunday, and they’ll mostly revolve around my trips to the boat, growing my bankroll, school, girls, or whatever the **** I feel like writing about. I don’t really know where or how I’m going to go about posting them but they will be posted. Maybe right here?

Anyways I just wanted to thank everyone again for reading and motivating me to start writing again. If there’s any other questions about my trip that I left unanswered, let me know and I‘ll share the details.

Cheers,
Miami Matt

i really enjoyed reading your reports/updates and wish you continued success in the future

Good stuff, thanks for taking the time to write the reports. I figured you had some writing experience, everythig flowed really well and was easy to read.

I tried to make a run at being a pro in the mid 90's (before the poker boom when limit was the only game in town) and after about 4 weeks I was a mess. I had become a lazy slob that never woke up before noon, had developed a hacking cough and rarely saw the light of day. It also didn't help that my poker game wasn't good enough. I was there long enough to know that I'm not cut out to make a living at poker, it's a hell of a grind and I didn't like the person I was becomming sitting at a poker table for most of my waking life.

Props to anyone that can make a living at this game playing live. The novelty wears off fast and you have to be a unique cat to keep at it and be successful.

Atta boy.

Writing's hard. Garnering an audience is even harder.

That was one fine job, imo.

I just discovered this thread, took me a little over an hr to read it all but it was well worth it, good stuff man

Matt, thank you so much for sharing your story. I really enjoyed the reading it all. Best of luck to you with school and all your future endeavours!

Very interesting tr and well written.

Great report Matt.

wow nice trip!
What stakes did you use to play online?

So should we start flaming him about the $1200 he spent on massages?

No... but we might question his judgement about not getting full value for his money on his last night.

quality, just read from start to finish, great read GL!

Online I played everything from .25/.50 to 5/10 (with one 50/100NL session against Phil Ivey, because hey, ITS PHIL IVEY). Most of my time was probably spent at 1/2 and playing those 69+6 multi tables on Full Tilt.

Had a bunch of 5/10 battles with Krantz, right before he hit it big. Lost 13k in 5 hours once, about 3 years ago. Realized how absurd that was, and haven't really played regularly again since (though I do play occasionally at 1/2 when I get the urge).

Are those two events related?

Did you catch that other thread yet?

Nope the Phil Ivey shot was a completely separate story. I actually fared alright in that instance. The 13k in one day was at 5/10. Worst/best thing to ever happen to me. Worst for obvious reasons, best because I officially stopped donating every free minute of my life to online poker.

As for the other thread, I'm reading it right now. Looks good so far!

Just read the thread. Nice job. You shoulda put $300 on black to end your trip though imo.
10k >>>> 9700 > 9400