Day 52: +115 in 7.5 hours

Almost did not go because of lack of motivation. Forced myself and happy that I put in the hours.

Day 53: 0 in 0 hours
Day 54: -290 in 9.5 hours

One day of extra sleep and one day playing OK, but unlucky.
Poker can be fun ..... but not now :-(

Day 55: +1174 in 9.5 hours

Won a $450 pot (had 20% win chance) and some more pots. Tables were good with tourists and I played good also.

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh Marta! Gogogo!

Day 56: -480 in 7.5 hours

Within 30 minutes I was down 400 (having the nuts twice and 80% in 1050 pot totals and lost both). Some more bad luck happened later to make it a brutal day.

Day 57: +283 in 8.5 hours

A couple of times very unlucky again. My hourly used to be between $20 and $26, but this trip it is $10 so far. Still love the grind :-)

damn, I wish I loved the grind, I get stir crazy trying to play online for even a few hours.

You're a machine my friend with impressive consistency, year after year.

Why did I skip this thread so many times? This is amazing! I love the stats and graphs and stats! I also like the work ethic. The guy is grinding it and it's fun to watch. I thought I was the only one to grind poker happily and then go home, put stats into excel, make a graph, and drool over it trying to find statistical trends and stuff.

This is awesome! Subbed!!!!

Day 58: +257 in 9 hours

A good day.

@yimyammer, mrducks: nice to read you both enjoy the results. I am not one of the top players here in Vegas, but I consistently can keep up with a positive result and a low variance. I know what I am doing and the chances of me getting broke are pretty slim :-)
Playing live is much more fun than playing online, but after 90 days I am happy to leave LV again. I think the best way is to grind for an average of 20 hours a week besides a normal job (this reduces variance and increases poker fun).

Day 59: -269 in 6.5 hours

Card dead. Currently winning $4444 in 2 month of play. Aiming now for 7k when leaving.

Looks like you've been catching the Bad side of variance this year and not as soft games this year. I know you play the major rooms so you would have a good feel for if this summer had as many loose tourist as previous years and you didn't catch them - or if the games were tighter as well as bad variance. Thoughts?

@Natamus: I also think one of the reasons of my lesser results is that I am on the wrong side of variance this year. Also there were less spewing opponents/tourists compared to other winning opponents/pros. And I have to be honest that I am not as focused on the game myself (like lazily staying too long at a bad/tight table). Sometimes I am tired at the tables and in combination with loosing this can result in not playing my A-game (and loose more).
Also I want to mention the increase in rake and drop in combs at Venetian and Wynn which also adds up. I loose money because of this and my opponents also (which leaves less money on the table).
Probably the EV of poker will decrease on a yearly base, because there will be more better opponents who make the jump to LV.

If next year I expect the same result as now I (probably) will not come to Vegas :-(

Do you think any of this is because your playing
2/5 vs 1/2?

@JackStraightUp: I think my results would even be worse if I play 1/2 compared to 2/5. This because the (winning and loosing) pots would be lower and the relative rake pressure is higher. Not sure if the lower level of 1/2 players would offset this.
My goal was to play a lot of 5/10 this trip (the BR is big enough), but I just did not go for it. The 2/5 results were bad from the start of this trip and because the big rooms take $7 instead of $6 for every half an hour at 5/10 I just did not feel good about moving up (playing 800 hours of 5/10 would cost me $11,200 in rake!!).

man, it really slaps you in the face when its laid out like that

Day 60: 0 in 0 hours (a needed rest)
Day 61: +397 in 7 hours

Vegas is getting slow. Managed to find some OK tables, played solid and won as I deserved.

Asked Aria about my comps and they showed me that they reduced my comps by about $8 a while ago because of the new rule that they are only valid for 1 year. Changing the rules is one thing, but not telling your customers and silently reducing their account value is something really really bad :-(

The games are average Marta. I've been playing 2/5 and for the past two days 5/10 at Bellagio.

Not as many fun players this year. I think the World Series attracts to many young players that dilute the games.

It's probably better coming during March madness or something.

Statements like this (coming from someone who consistently comes to Vegas) combined with your comments on the MGM comp purge (which I agree with) make me nervous about the future of poker in Vegas. It will always be here but the level of quality is definitely headed in the wrong direction. It's really frustrating especially when you factor in your statement about rake (800 hours is $11K).

I didn't mind the parking thing but this really ticks me off. One was upfront, honest, and with plenty of warning.

The comp purge was a sneaky trick. The rule makes perfect sense from an accounting POV but the execution of it is very unprofessional. F MGM properties!

Day 62: +10 in 8.5 hours

Had some luck cracking AA in a $300 pot. Tomorrow attacking the 5k mark (feeling strong).

I'm just curious, if you file taxes as a pro-gambler/pro-poker player, can you write off the rake as an expense?

Like mileage, or office space, or something along those lines?

Its already taken out of the pot as an expense.

Or if its a time charge, you would likely just report the net win or loss after each session which would already reflect the rake

I think the last 5 years in Vegas have proven that I am a steady winning player (with good work ethic), but I am not one of the top 5% players.
My BR is big enough to make the jump to 5/10 (or higher) but I do not feel my poker skills are good enough.
For next year I would like to improve/broaden my skills from a $20/hour player into a $35/hour player.
To accomplish this I am seeking help from a proven top 5% poker player(s) who is good in helping an apprentice (for 1, 2 or 3 month).
I am ready to live like a monk first showing all my (missing) skills and from there on increasing my skills with the lessons of the teacher.

My ideal teacher would be Blake Eastman from School Of Cards. The teaching does not need to be in Vegas and what's in it for the teacher can be discussed.

Who is/knows a teacher ???

Are you only interested in improving NL at the moment Marta, or would you be interested in learning some new variants such as PLO, BigO, PLO8, Stud, Stud8, Razz and Lowball 2-7 Single/Triple Draw?