I just realize how funny your avatar is, a donkey looks into the water and see a happy shark lol

The Oaks is very well run and the action is usually great. The area is a little sketchy so always watch your back.

I decided to take a trip out to Vegas this week. I'm at the greyhound station in Oakland typing this on my phone. I should arrive around 2pm tomorrow. I'm planning on staying a week at Holiday Royale which is about a mile east of MGM. Basically I plan on grinding most of the day, maybe have a couple drinks at night. I'll try to remember to take a bunch of pics.

GL mate!

Gotta love the freedom of the game
Good luck out there and do u know where your going to be playing/grinding

I'm going to be playing at Aria, Bellagio, and the V for sure. I will hit up some of the smaller rooms too so I can add to my chip collection. The freedom feels good but I miss the freedom of playing internet poker.

Awesome, GL.

Best of luck pure! Keep doing what you have been. It will be a nice little taste of your eventual goal.

Good look mate, don't forget the late night drunk loose games at ip/ballys etc

Look forward to the tr, run gooooooot gogogogo

Thanks guys, I just checked into my room it is great. The weather is nice and warm here (no hurricanes). I'm about grab something to munch on then hit Aria. I'll post a couple hands when I get back.

I played 5 hrs today and lost $116. It is awesome to be out here. I played Aria and Bellagio tonight, I made a few mistakes but I'll get a good rest any by ready to focus tomorrow.

Here are a couple sticky spots I got into.

1/3 nl at Aria. I've got QQ in lp. One open to 16 from mp and one mp caller, I make it 62. The original raiser 4bets to 162, caller folds.
I've got 200 left and villain covers. I ended up sticking it in and got snapped off by Aces . It was a pretty clear fold but it was a tough spot without having played very much with this player.

1/2 nl at Bellagio. I complete the small blind after 3 limps with A10

Flop- A96, I check lp bets 10 into 9, I raise to 25. lp calls the rest fold.

Turn- 8 I bet 35 into 59 because of the draw heavey board, villain calls.

River- 4 I check, villain quickly bets 40 into 129. I thought about calling but it seemed like a value bet and I couldn't really beat anything so I folded.

August 2011

Total hours played- 59
Pace- 117
Average hourly winrate- $13
Winnings- $760

2011 YTD

Total hours played- 522.5
Average hourly winrate- $13
Winnings- $6965

This is prob not the best place to discuss strategy, but I'll go ahead and give you my two cents.

QQ is a clear fold like your hindsight read said. A MP raise/4bet from an unknown live player is usually AA/KK.

For the AT hand, personally I would k/f the flop. I don't like to play a limp pot oop with a marginal holding like TPWK. players generally play very straight-forwardly in limp pots.

My advice might sound strange if you, like most oaks reg, think I'm this lagtard who never has anything. I'm actually a tight player; I do all my crazy shenanigans in position, never oop.

Wow I just drove from the bay area to Vegas too and just got here Friday morning hahaha, what a coincidence. I played at the MGM and Venetian today. I went to the MGM cuz I heard it was the best place to play 1-2NL cuz of the softness, but unfortunately for me it was a table full of solid TAGs other than the guy to my right. I was in a hand that someone straddle (5 limpers) and I got AK so i shipped it with 60 (shortstacker) on the small blind, the guy on the CO went all-in with 300+ and the guy on the button call the all-in on the button when he have about 230 with 108o preflop and end up winning the hand with one pair of 8, it was pretty halirious and crazy. I lost a couple of buy-in to the same guy and my wife called me to pick her up from Cosmo and drop her off at Venetian where she is staying with a bunch of girlfriends so I decided to play there. At 5am the Venetian still had alot of tables running. I ended up the night winning $1 lol, so I decided to leave and keep the $1 chip as a souvenir. Both the tables I was at the MGM and Venetian seems tougher than expected, I should have table change but I didn't get a chance to . It will be funny if me and the OP ended up sitting at the same table hahaha. Anyways GL OP, maybe we will clash if you hit the Bellagio or V today . Now it's time for some free breakfast at my hotel yay....

Loving the thread OP. How long you staying in Vegas for?

I agree with what you said. Playing in position is so much more comfortable and it is easier to get a feel where you are at in a hand.

Cool, I might run into you at the V. I plan to play there sometime today. The MGM is a nice room but I really hate the poker tables they have there with the sunken stone race tracks.

Right on, I'm here for a week. It's my first solo trip.

Are you serious? you must me a kid to say that... 5k is nothing bro..

Go for it I say, its about having a good time, if lady luck ****s you over it aint the end of the world, hopefully :-)

I played 8 hrs today and won $315. I only slept 4 hours then woke up with grind on the mind. I played at Planet Hollywood, Caesars Palace, The Venetian, and Wynn. It is a lot different playing with 9 randoms as opposed to playing back at the Oaks with mostly regs that I have reads on. I'm trying to pay more attention and quickly profiling the villains at each new table.

I played better today than yesterday, making stabs at the right times. I am really in the zone. I hope to keep running good (or take some super sick beats, so I'll have some cool stories to tell )

August 2011

Total hours played- 67
Pace- 121
Average hourly winrate- $16
Winnings- $1075

2011 YTD

Total hours played- 530.5
Average hourly winrate- $14
Winnings- $7280

are you playing tonight?

Haha, in vegas taking all the poor tourists money hahahaha you snake you!

good to see your taking a short trial run in Vegas. as others have said ITT plenty of easier money outside of Nevada.
since you have nearly a year to save before you plan to make the big move, i would advise breaking your bankroll up into 3 parts.

1, $4,000+ to grind 200NL
2, Six months living expense's.
3, $10,000+ to fall back on if you have trouble making enough to survive in the tougher Vegas games.

Vegas is a gr8 experience but their is no worse feeling then going busto because expense's exceed profit. Set aside 10k+ if possible. Use that money to relocate to the softer games in this country if needed.
gl

I played 6 hrs today and won $366. It is my best day in over a month. Just completed a 130 hour break even stretch, no better place to dig out of the hole I dug than in Vegas .

I have decided to adjust my monthly goal from 140 hours played down to 100 hours played which is much more attainable at this point after getting off to a slow start at the beginning of the month.

I am really enjoying getting out of town and taking this trip to my future home base. I just decided I wanted to go and hopped on a bus the same day and made reservations online.

Today I played at Exlcalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and The Orleans. I was walking to The Orleans from In N Out Burger and some random dude in a car offered me an ice cold jug of water, and said "Jesus loves you". I just said "right on!" That walk in the 107 degree sun was much better thanks to that guy.

Here is a hand I played.

I complete the sb with J10 with 3 limpers and the bb checks.

Flop- J104
I lead out betting 10 into 9 and get 2 callers.

Turn- 10
I now have the 2nd nuts so I go for the c/r with very little risk of being outdrawn. Villain 1 bets 10 into 39, Villain 2 calls. I raise to 30 giving a flush draw an enticing price to peel a river drawing dead. Both villains call.

River 2
I fire 50 into 129, Villain 1 had about 80 left and Villain 2 had about 120 left. Villain 1 ended up calling with A10. If I had a better read I probably could have made 30 more .

My sleep schedule has been a little messed up so I've been going to sleep really early. I think I might be missing out on some juicy late night / early morning tables.

That's the plan!

I appreciate the advice man. I hope to have $10k+ by the time I move out here but that is all up to variance.

I haven't played anything higher than 1/3 here so I wouldn't have any idea how tough the 2/5+ games are but I don't doubt that Vegas is more saturated with tough players than almost anywhere else. I haven't had much trouble finding great tables with so many options at the low limits.

August 2011

Total hours played- 73
Pace- 90
Average hourly winrate- $20
Winnings- $1441

2011 YTD

Total hours played- 535.5
Average hourly winrate- $14
Winnings- $7646

You have to bet $80 here no matter what your reads are. If AJ called your c/r then it'll call the river. Any 10 calls. Missed fd's don't call any bets. But one of them almost always has a hand. Missing alot of value here imo.

Good to see you're doing well out there!