I'll try to make this as short as possible. Me, 31, Advertising Exec, Business Admin degree from University of MD. I've been playing poker since about 14 years old, before the online boom. Granddad taught me all types of card games at an early age (he was retired Air force, a bit of a degen card player and "legendary" local pool hustler). Fast forward to the boom, I always saw myself taking a shot at the WSOP. In 2005-2008 I was playing 4-5 days a week. In 2007 I 3 step satellited into the WSOP Main Event on Pokerstars. I came to Vegas with 4 friends for it and always told myself I would live someday.

I Lasted 5 hours in the '07 main event (sat first table with Rep Porter who pretty much ran over the table). Went back home to Maryland and worked various sales jobs to to decent success (avgeraged 65-80k/yr) while playing home games Tuesday-Friday and taking bi-weekly trips to Atlantic City. I never had huge success, my biggest cash was an $8,000 heater over 20 hours playing 2/5 at the Borgata.

I decided to take my savings with my best friend and open up an auto repair shop in 2010, specializing in performance mods near the beach in MD. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the beach hard and destroyed much of the shop, my house and the town business. After three years of financial failure with the business we sold all the equity in the business, I sold much of my personal possessions and said "If we're gonna struggle anywhere, we might as well be somewhere we like."

January 2014, packed up a budget truck and my car and drove cross country from Maryland to Vegas. No real plan in sight, just about 10k to finance the trip out, get into a house for rent, get jobs and start a new life. Within a month I got a job in town selling cars which was pretty cool. Got back together with an ex that moved out here before me (mistake #1), and started to do my own thing. Little did I know about this thing called "Vegas" that eventually gets most people. I never had a huge roll to play with full time, but mostly played cash around town or some tournaments here and there to mediocre success. In my Journal, I was +$3,415 in 2014. Better than a loss for sure, but nowhere close to where I want to be. But back to this thing called "Vegas".

Things started going really south with my GF, as well as my roommate/best friend and his newly found "GF". Before I came out here, my ex developed a pill addiction which started to resurface real bad about 4 months into us dating after she had a surgery in the summer of '14. Things got bad, real bad. My roommate's GF pulled him into the world of partying and Meth and the home situation got really bad while I'm sitting in the middle of all of this like "WTF did I just get myself into?". Little did I know the spiral that life would take from there for the next couple of months.

I ended up getting fired from the car dealership for something stupid that I said in retaliation to a horrible customer that had a blow up on me on the phone on a recorded line. Not the smartest thing to do, but at the time I wasn't thinking and I dealt with those consequences. Went about 4 weeks without work and did not want to gamble my savings at the time to go full time poker. I ended up working in a call center in town just to make ends meet financially since I moved out on my own and left my best friend to the drug ridden life that he got deep into. I in August of '14 during a fight with my GF she slammed my hand in a car door which required extensive surgery/rehab as part of my hand was pretty much crushed. Finally had to give the ultimatum to the GF that I loved. It was "get help, or we're done". Her not really having the means to financially, I financed half of her rehab expenses with her mom (about 3000 of the last 3500 that I had to my name) and sent her off back east with her son to live with her mom and complete Rehab. Three weeks later I hear she left the rehab and we haven't really spoke since.

2015, I decided screw the past, I might be broke...but I'm not broken. And just like any other bad spot I've been in through life, I'll find a way to bounce back and do what I set out to do, and that's come to Vegas to eventually make it as a poker player and cash at the WSOP. I'm still working the job full time and not making good money at all, but I am still finding a way to log about 20-25 hours live a week in an effort to stay sharp. It has been an up and down ride, but I am still barely + this year due to 4 decent tournament cashes (total $6450, up $2,300 in 2015). The point I'm getting to in all of this, I was able to get sponsorship from my mom's company for 2 events this year at the WSOP, and I am going to finance myself in Event #64, the Online NHLE event with my saved Roll on WSOP.com. I have locked my spot in at the Colossus and will be playing event 16A- the Millionaire Maker.

Due to some strong support from friends I have nationwide, and my own will and desire, I'm following the dream at all costs. Even if I don't find success at the WSOP this year, I'm still proud of where I've been able to get to despite setback after setback. Hopefully my story will have a great ending to it and inspire anyone doubting themselves to never give up on what you set out to do, no matter what stands in your way. I will be keeping a log of my WSOP once it starts.

Cheers guys.

nh, gl!

Good luck man. Maybe I've played cash with you in Vegas... take care

Any reason you're not playing cash games? That's where the consistent money is.

I play cash once a week. I'm trying to get my tournament stamina together for a potential long run. I feel that playing tournaments with low to medium strength players has my reads at an all time high as I have been studying nothing but body language of players for about 6 months now and I'm trying to get as many hours improving on the parts of my game I considered myself bad at. Not to mention I don't have a big enough bankroll to comfortably play cash with.

The bankroll for playing to live tournements is considerably higher than cash. You're going to need to some serious run good to make this work.

GL

Subbed.. Def an interesting backstory. GL op

Very interesting and well back written story. I'm in for updates. I wish you good luck.

Bad deal about the drugs, especially for your best friend. I've never understood it and I always wonder what goes through people's heads when they are going down that path. It's not like they've heard a lot of fairytale stories about drug heads that makes them think it's all going to work out well for them. So bizarre to me. Bad deal and I hope the friend gets clean before it's too late.

Thanks guys.

So it's been about 3 weeks and I've yet to update this thread. I've just been really busy. Work has been picking up and between trying to get in 30-40 hrs of poker a week and an additional 40-45 at my FT job I haven't had much time to fully chronicle everything. I do have some notes from a few of my sessions that I'll briefly go through.

5/7/15
A friend a mine is in town for the weekend before he goes back to Pittsburgh. I taught him how to play poker about 2 1/2 years ago. While he is a borderline life degen (party & BS, not cards so much) he like me have this super keen intuition on human behavior which makes his decision making in poker very sharp. If he took it serious, I think he'd be a player. Anyways, he is downtown playing Roulette at the D Casino. I get off of work @ 3 and go to meet up for a late lunch and to plan the night out. I was thinking we'd just play the electronic tournament tables at the Plaza downtown and get hammered while BS'ing around.

We played the 5 pm $3 at the plaza, rounds of beer every time the waitress comes by. I ended up coming in 3rd, immediately jump into the 7pm $5 tournament and continue the Heineken fueled run. At this point he's bored of the tables (pretty much a beginners/OMC room with a few downtown regs who take micro-stakes WAYYYY too seriously). He jumps over to the blackjack tables at the Golden Gate cause he wants to see some "Titties-bro". 7pm tournament is dragging along at the final table until we decide to chop 4 way around 9:30.

For anyone who doesn't know, there's a $38 9pm tournament at the Plaza with a guaranteed $500 1st place. It usually gets up to around 6-650 1st. At the first break, I'm barely hovering around starting stack until the heater begins. Dealt QQ on the button, blinds at 400-800 with an UTG raise, 2 callers and action around to me. with about 15k behind, I make it 3600 to go, 4 callers to the flop. Q7K flop, checks around to me, 2200 bet, 3 callers (WTF?). Turn comes a Q. Check Check -All In, I call (I have the all in covered), get one more caller. River is a 4, one guy mucks, the first all in shows K7. There was a guy at another table steamrolling everyone on a sick heater. He was literally playing every hand at least to the turn and getting there about 3/4 times. At the final table, I had position to his left and a little bit of "respect" as we had both previously cashed the last two tournaments. Ended up doing a 4 way chip-chop, first getting $550, 2nd/3rd/4th getting $220.

Decent day for being hammered for much of the night. In for $56, out for $323 (All 3 tournaments combined).

....It's 2:30 AM, Friend is nowhere to be found...stopped answering his phone 4 hours prior. I crash at a girl's place I know downtown to avoid driving home for a few hours until work that Friday morning.

5/8/15

Friday, I go to work, hear from my friend that he met a couple that wanted to "party" with him. He wakes up in his hotel room at the Trump, but had no idea how he got there. Had $1325 in chips from the Golden Gate in his pocket when he woke up. Still estimates a $400 loss on the Thursday. Yup..... still a degen.

Friday afternoon. On about 3 1/2 hrs of sleep before going to work and contemplating if I want to run anywhere tonight. I get home at 2:30 and want to take a nap but friend wants me to meet him for food and a little bit of blackjack. While blackjack isn't my thing at all, the "stake" offer + lunch was enough to get me to go along. Pick him up and head downtown to play a bit at the Golden Gate and get food downtown.

Opted for Hash House for the afternoon brunch. Meatloaf hash FTW. Eggs/Potatoes/Meat always a good idea for soaking up any remaining alcohol and fuel a little bit more. Get over to the Golden Gate around 5, Playing some BJ with $250 that he's given me just to sit with him and keep him company. I lose $175 of that in about 20 mins and move over to the bar for Keno. Not wanting to have anything to do with any alcohol for the rest of the day, I decide to leave him there and go to the Golden Nugget for 1/2

Buy in for $250 and plan on playing Tight/Aggressive. Squeezed in between a stack of around 1600 and a little over 1K to my left with a super aggro guy calling anything to the top I figured I could be in a good spot to wait for a hand and get aggressive post flop. About 3 hours in and running dead, dealt 9c9s in the small blind. Button (now around 2.2k) makes it 30 to go, I re-pop to 120 with about 200 behind, BB snap calls, button folds. Flop comes AKJ all spades. I check, BB bets $100, I reraise all in, BB tanks for close to a minute and calls. I'm thinking I'm dead here, flip my 9s. Turn 10h, River 4s. BB mucks his hand. He tells me the next hand he had the 8 or spades with the 9. About another two hours goes by of me running card dead, or getting no callers with $20 pre-flops raises. I cash out for around $515 around 9:30 pm and decide to take it home before lack of sleep gets me in trouble.

Mom flew in for Mothers Day on Saturday morning. We went on the downtown Scavenger Hunt with the Alibi tour group. Awesome interactive live performance show with a lot of wacky characters and plot twists. Kind of hard to explain....but I enjoyed it. Check em out on Trip Advisor.

Haven't heard from my friend all day, I know he's flying out Sunday

+$515 today


5/9/15

Go to pick up mom for a ride out to the Hoover Dam, she shows me a three ticket vouchers from the Hard Rock, $118, $108.75, $740!! Mom with some slot machine run good on $60 bucks in. After the Hoover Dam. I had a Groupon deal for the Palms Casino Bistro Buffet. I couldn't eat much but it was awesome. Shrimp looked amazing but I'm allergic to shellfish. Opted for a couple plates of the prime rib and brisket. (8/10)

I call my friend to wish him well in his travels back. He ended up +1700 on the trip, due to a little more BJ run good, and a +800 session at Ceasars 2/5 on Saturday he tells me.

I took the entire week off until Thursday..

5/14/15

The game was so soft at the Plaza last Thursday, I said why not go back. $38 for a shot at 15x the money back is just too good of value to pass up. I get there around 3:30 and park at the main street casino and take a walk through Fremont until about 6:30 before the 7pm sign up. I end up busting out on the final table, with a KJ flopped straight, losing to a runner runner J-high flush. About 25 minutes to 9 pm tournament.

Tournament starts, still a soft field. The downtown regulars and a few guys on vacation. Two guys buy in about 30 mins before the break and are getting very aggressive with anything. I get JhQh with a stack of about 16.5k with blinds at 300-600. Super Aggro Guy with 28k opens up for 2400. Get an all in for 4K. I call. SAG calls. flop comes ThKh9s. SAG checks, I check, Turn comes 9H, SAG puts me all in, I call. River comes a blank. He had A9, All in shot stack had 77. Straight flush winner.

I stayed tight aggressive for the rest of the way to the final table. Never really got into any dramatic hands, just playing very aggressive when I had a hand since the majority of these people can be outplayed after the flop. It's close to 2am and down to 4. Chip Leader has about 150k, I'm 2nd at 58K, 3rd stack close to 40k, 4th stack 29k. We chip chop it and I take another $220 2nd place.

+$375 on the day (Keno winnings for $155 off of $10 into a quarter machine, hitting 5 spot twice).

5/15/15

Have a backer friend from back east that's coming out for 3 weeks, talk to me on Skype about my plans for WSOP. He agrees to purchase some stake in me so I have secured enough backing to play a good schedule of tournament events this summer. After work I take a much needed nap and plan on playing the 7pm $125 tournament at the Orleans. This tournament usually runs close to 200 entries with 1st place usually upwards of $5500.

My first table is pretty soft. Player to my left (the eventual chip leader when I exited) was a very good player. I've always played well at these tournaments. There's enough nitty aggro types that will get it in bad, and enough beginners to pick your spots at so you can run up a stack early in these. Plus the format until the first break lets you coast for a bit if you only plan on playing premium hands. With a 12,500 starting stack, you aren't way behind if you go on an hour of running bad. First break is approaching and I'm around 26k. Post break, I get moved to a table with hands down the most action out of the 14/15 tables left. Big stacks, lots of acton pre flop and big bets going around. Inside I'm licking my chops knowing that I can take a huge chunk out of some of these guys here. Pick my spots (in position) and put these guys to big decisions for a lot of chips and I figure I can get good position to cash.

After about 45 mins at this table, I go from 26k to over 100k easy.


A Big hand came when I had T5 suited in the BB with 4 callers. Flop comes 9T9, a big stack leads out, gets reraised by an equal stack, fold to me, and I all in for my remaining 30k. Both guys fold and 2nd player shows the QT.

Fast forward a little more. Prize pool is posted. $5900 for 1st, paying about 26 spots. Fast forward to final two tables and I move there with a little over 340k.



Starting to get pretty sleepy going into the final table (4am) but get a 2nd wind after a couple of exciting hands. Older guy I have been playing with since 1st table is only playing premium hands. I haven't seen him in a flop without a pocket pair. I'm dealt QQ in the BB, he's all in on the button for about 120K. I call and he shows 77. OMC Rivers the 7 for the win for about 1/5th of my stack.

Huge pot time: I got it all in on a KT8 flop with QJ to two smaller stacks, one a suited A9, the other pocket 8s (OMC from the 77>QQ hand earlier). Turn the A high straight to eliminate both, now around 600K. Another hand comes up a bit later while I'm around 500K for a player's remaining 180ish. Super tight player hasn't been playing many hands, and is giving away huge facial tells every time someone raises and she folds a hand. She gets it all in UTG and I can sense she isn't confident in the hand at all. Folds around to me, I tank on my 99 in the SB for a minute then call. She flips over 4s. 4 hits the turn and takes 1/3rd of my stack. Table doesn't seem to want to negotiate a chop and I am running pretty card dead. I ended up folding a heads up hand with the Chip leader. I had KJ on a KQQ flop. He gets me all in while about 1/2 of my chips are already in the pot. I fold, he says good fold and shows me the Q.

Blinds are now at 20k/40k and I'm around 220k. chip leader raises to around 120k preflop and I'm all in. 44. Chip leader calls AT off, flops the AT, turns the T for the full boat and I'm out in 6th out of 236 runners. Ran pretty good, only made about 3 mistakes all night that I paid for big. I was pretty satisfied with my play.

+$1280 on the night (had some side action come in on Keno around +200).

Took Saturday off.

5/17/15

Felt like going down to the strip. Has to get the screen fixed on my Galaxy 5 that I cracked so I say hey, lets see what's up with Planet Hollywood. Got there close to 1pm. Not much cash action going so I opted for the tournament. Nothing exciting here, fast levels, low-medium strength players. I haven't seen a hand to showdown yet and have only scooped up 3 or 4 pots on small bluffs. Break is coming up in 3 mins, I'm around 7400 (400/800) blinds. look down at Q9 in the BB. SB calls, flop comes J97. SB checks, I lead out for 3500. SB calls and gives me the "WHAT YOU GO THERE BIG BLIND SPECIAL?" Turn comes a 4. He checks. I all in he calls and got the straight on the turn with his 58 off. I guess that was a small blind special eh?

Fired a bullet at the 4pm, after a #1 at the Earl of "Sammich" as Trooper would say. Immediately regretting my decision to play the 4pm as there were about tables of cash going and huge splash pots every 30 minutes. Not much action at this table. Check/Fold city. I was dealt a suited AJ and raised to 1200 (200/400 blinds with about 14500 behind). Get a reraise from late position to 3000. I call. Flop comes A89 no flush draw. I lead out with 3K, lady from late position goes all in. I fold the Ace face up, she shows AK. Two hands later I have 66 in the SB and raise to 2400. BB calls. Flop comes 7J5. I lead out 2k, BB goes all in gets a caller, I fold. BB scoops the pot KK > AJ. In a hurry to get out of the tournament I get 88 right before break and get it all in with my last 6600 and got snapped off with A9. I was thinking move over to the cash game, but my heart wasn't really in it for the rest of the day.

-$160 today.

All in all a great weekend. Secured some backing for two more WSOP events and 2 PHamous Series events.

If anyone would like to follow me, @coltfoatie5 on Twitter and IG. I'll probably be playing online this week. Have a friend in town this weekend. Going to go see Joey Diaz at the South Point on Friday, Ronda Rousey Meet & Greet/Book Signing on Saturday, and Saturday night playing get in the 7pm Bounty tournament at the Orleans or Aria 7pm.

Thanks for reading everyone.

Subbed and going back to read later - excited to see the story of Foatie aka Capt Pimp a Ho AND Capt Save a Ho aka drops the mic on a honeypot aka George Jung aka Sir Pimps a Lot aka West Coast WarmDeck aka You get the picture

Bwahahaha! Thanks Man!

subd, good stuff, keep the updates coming and get ready to do work this summer. also followed you on Twitter, looking forward to following your run good.

Solid update.

You need to write a Keno book. Indeed pro tips. I drop $5 in an automated machine and I can't hit 2 numbers. I quickly remember why I don't play the lottery.lol

Nice write-ups! Are you always drinking while playing, or only occasionally?!?! I tried to do a semi-poker TR while drinking and it was tough recalling hands

Just occasionally. I usually max myself on 4 drinks. Especially in a tournament setting. If I'm playing a tournament I plan on being there at the end sof I'm not trying to take myself out of it by being too drunk. Ironically, I tend to tighten up if I'm drinking and playing.

I can usually remember hands in a cash game more because I am associating the dollar value with the action. Buy I do play rather tight, admittedly, so I scoop a lot of pots before it gets to showdown.

As far as Keno strategy, I have four sets of numbers that I play. One 4 spot, one 5 spot, one 7 spot, and one ten spot. When I play, I will usually play 20-25 games in a row of live Keno and go play poker or do something else and come back to check the numbers. Not a strategy, it's a game of pure chance, but I figure if you play the same numbers all the time without deviation, you will eventuallyhit

Loving the TR so far. Keep up the run good. Hope your WSOP goes as well for you!

nice TR. keep up the updates.

Keno "strategy"..really?

Must be similar to roulette strategy.

Other than that, I am enjoying your trip report..

OP, I wish you good luck, you seem like a nice fellow.

But what you call "setback after setback" I think a lot of us would call "consequences." Until you can admit that taking the g/f with the pill addiction to Vegas, and some of the other things you mention, had their inevitable outcomes, I feel like any success you have will be short lived. Hope I'm wrong.

Maybe I should have bolded that the first go round ? Thanks for the well wishes everyone. It really means a lot.

I didn't take her to Vegas. She moved here about 2 years before I did, I got back with her when we re-met here. And I'll be the first to admit, I've made a ****ton of mistakes in life and paid the consequences for them. I hope you're wrong too. And as far as short lived poker success, I'm willing to accept that. That's why I'm keeping the full time job.