About this Thread: The idea for this thread came from family members and friends that have no idea what I mean when I say I’m moving to Vegas to play poker. Some think I’m counting cards at blackjack, some think I’m gonna be a TV tournament pro, and others just have no idea. This thread will document what I do on a daily/weekly basis to give them and any others an idea of what its like to be a professional poker player.

What this thread is not/disclaimers: This will not be another train wreck “I’m moving to Vegas with 500 bucks and I’m gonna be rich by Christmas” thread. There won’t be any specific discussion of finances; you’ll just have to trust me when I say I have enough. Also, don’t expect a ton of in depth strategy. This thread is first and foremost to give some of my friends and family who have expressed interest in what I am doing a glimpse into my every day life. That being said, having gotten so much out of these forums over the last few years, I hope everyone in the 2+2 community will get something out of it as well, I just wanted to be up front about what the thread will be about.

About Me: I’m 21, and just graduated from UW-Madison with a finance degree. I play up to 2/5 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) and any Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) game that plays roughly the same size as a 2/5NLHE game. I will also play PLO8 when the game is good.

I leave tomorrow morning around 5am. Since I will need my car out there, my dad is driving out with me and flying back. We should be getting in to Vegas some time Thursday afternoon. I will need a few days to get major furniture for my apartment but after that I will pretty much go right to the tables.

My poker plan is to play 3-5 of the mega satellites per week to try to win a main event seat. Other than that I will basically be rotating between the Rio, Aria, and Venetian tracking down the best PLO games.

I’m sure I left something out and some of this will still probably be confusing to some of my family/friends. As I give my updates I will explain things like what a satellite is and some basics on each of the games and places I go to. In an attempt to make this thread interesting to those that play, but also make it not confusing for those that don’t, I think what I will try to do is whenever I explain something really basic, I will put it in a different color font. That way more experienced people can just skip it while everyone else will be able to follow the thread.

I think that’s plenty to start. There will be much more to come, but probably not until the weekend once I get settled in. If you have any questions feel free to ask here or PM me.

Good luck at the felt! Don't degen all your $ away

Goodluck! Hopefully you run goot out the gate

I strongly suggest reading Dynasty's survey threads.

http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/i...pring-2012.php

Not a lot of PLO being spread in LV. And to be blunt, if you can afford 5 weeks of playing 3-5 mega sats per week to the main event, you can just save the trouble and buy in directly. Given the structure, it is mainly going to be a luckfest if you win a seat. If you can't, then finances are going to be an issue.

Plo everyday at the rio

Thanks! I hate pit games/slots and the like so I think I should be ok. Not that those are the only things in LV to degen money away on but they seem to be the most popular haha

Thanks! I hope so too.

I've been keeping up with those for the last couple years. I should have clarified that that is my summer plan. After the WSOP I will be playing much more hold'em, but since there is plenty PLO to go around during the series I am going to be focusing on PLO since I enjoy it more and feel my edge is bigger. As far as live goes, I'm more experienced with hold'em than PLO so not having much PLO during non-series times should not be a problem.

As for the satellite thing, ya you're probably right. I've gone from thinking I'm not gonna play any satellites and just buy in straight up to thinking I'm not gonna play at all and everything in between. What I wrote is just what I had settled on recently, though it might change if I don't like the structures of the satellites. I can see myself playing a handful of the satellites and then deciding later whether or not to buy in straight up if I don't win a seat. Still thinking about this though so we'll see.

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

Good luck, I look forward to reading about it.

Good luck dude!! Look forward to following you!

Did you arrive safely?

Yep, got in Thursday but haven't had internet to update until now.

Everything went pretty smoothly with the move. Spent my first night in my apartment last night. I have everything put away that I brought and I have some furniture coming today. All thats really left is getting a TV and then it will just be odds and ends type stuff to do.

I played my first Vegas poker session Thursday night at the Rio. Played about 2 hours of 1-2 PLO. It went pretty well but I was tired so ended the session after only 2 hours, which won't be typical going forward but if I'm tired its better not to play and possibly make mistakes.

PLO stands for Pot Limit Omaha and is a game where everyone gets 4 cards and the community cards are exactly like Texas Hold'em. You must use two of your cards and 3 of the board cards to make the best 5 card poker hand you can. Also, bets and raises are limited to the size of the pot.

Today's plan is to arrange the furniture once it gets here, find a TV, and probably take a trip to Wal-Mart to get some random things I still need. Hopefully by the time the weekend is over I'll be settled in so I can start focusing on poker.

Thanks for reading and again, if you have any questions let me know!

Hey guys, time for another update.

Yesterday we got all the furniture situated and got the few things I needed for the apartment, so that is pretty much all set up. The only thing I'm still missing is a TV but I have one coming Thursday.

Starting tomorrow I'm going to try to get into a routine. The plan is basically going to be wake up, eat breakfast, work out, and try to be to the casino sometime in the midafternoon. I plan to play a short session until dinner time, take a dinner break, and play another short session.

I did play another session last night at the Rio. Played 1-2 PLO again for about 3 hours. I left earlier than planned basically because the dealer was so bad that when they went to collect time me and about 3 other players stood up and left and the game broke.

"Time" is a form of rake used in some casino poker games. Instead of taking a percentage of each pot (typically 10% up to $4 or $5), the casino takes some amount of money from each player each half hour. In this particular game it was $6.

This dealer barely spoke english other than being able to say numbers and didn't seem to know the basic rules of the game. I've heard of some bad dealers at the WSOP cash games but this was absolutely terrible.

Today I plan to go to either the Venetian or Aria to play some more PLO without having to deal with the cluster**** at the Rio.

They have a timed rake?

subscribed. Run good, OP. Any chance you played PLO at Potawatomi?

yea at the wsop cash games everything is time in the PLO section, not sure about holdem.

Thanks, yea a few times

What is your bankroll? Do you have online experience?

And do you have a pretty good track recod of live games in your former state?

Hey big guy, I figured I should register and follow you on here.

When are the satellites you're gonna get in on?

Bankroll is big enough.

I have limited online experience. Played a bunch of 25nl a few years ago and lost a bit but it was only like 10-15k hands. I was doing pretty well in the micro PLO games on merge until black friday hit but that was a relatively small sample as well, about 30k hands. Even though they didn't shut down the site I got off with the assumption it would be shut down soon.

Live I have over 500 hours of play at 1/2 nl holdem but some leaks in my game had me only breaking even over that stretch. My live play above 1/2 and in plo games is less than 100 hours so those results are meaningless until I get more hours in.

Haha, knew you would. The satellites I'm gonna play go daily, just gotta decide what days I'm gonna dedicate to playing them.

So you are a break-even player at 1/2 NLH? I am guessing this is kind of like a post-college experience where you live in Vegas for a year. I trust that you have enough money and won't fall into the trap that is Vegas.

Hope you have fun. It should make for a good experience before you join the real world.

Pretty much yea. I'll see where I'm at in a year and decide what to do from there.

As promised yesterday I checked out the Venetian. Got there around 4pm and 2 tables of 1/2 PLO were going. Jumped on the wait list and in 10 minutes had a seat. The way the Venetian room is run really well. The dealers are great and almost always know what the pot is so if someone says "pot" they don't have to count it and slow the game down. The floor is also great at filling open seats and just generally keeping everything organized and running smoothly.

The table I was at was a must move game. A must move game is used sometimes when there is more than one table of a game. One game is designated the main game and the other table(s) are must moves. Whenever a seat opens on the main game, someone from the must move game is moved to the main game and then someone on the wait list (if there is one) gets moved to the must move game. The game was really good, lots of action and people playing really loose. I played for about 3 hours and then went to get some dinner. Came back to the must move game but all the players I played with before dinner were on the main game and the must move now was pretty much all short stacks and everyone was playing fairly reasonably. After about an hour I decided to rack up since the game wasn't very good and I was starting to get a headache.

Today I have a few errand type things to do and then I'll head over to either Aria or Venetian for some more PLO. Later on in the week I plan to play my first satellite tournament, I'll explain more about that after I play it. Thanks for reading!

I really appreciate the red highlighting, very easy to skip over it.

Love the report, one tiny nit.

I notice you never metion how your sessions went (won$250, dropped $400). I assume this is because your peeps back home are reading. Do you plan to divulge this ever? It makes for a far better trip report, as opposed to every post "played for 3 hours, bought a lamp at target, etc."

Anyways, hope you crush! Look forward to reading the rest.

Thanks, glad thats working for people.

Yea not divulging wins/losses is by design. I know it would make the reports better in some sense but I'm just not doing it right now. Once I get more settled in I'll hopefully have other non-results things to keep the reports interesting, not to mention you can only buy so many lamps at Target lol. Random tangent, I actually did go to 3 different Targets in the last couple days to get the vacuum cleaner I wanted but wasn't in stock at the first two haha. Back on topic, I don't like getting caught up in session win/losses and prefer to think long term. If I have a tricky spot or play an interesting hand I might post it but like I said in the OP, this isn't intended to be a strategy thread. I may post a landmark update at 6 months or something just to give people an idea of where I'm at, but no promises on that.

Glad you are enjoying the thread!

Post some HH's

OP, I completely understand you wanting to be discreet because family/friends are reading this thread. However, you really need to consider posting your session win/loss results. This thread is mainly for entertainment purposes, right? Can you at least say something like, "had a really nice PLO session at the Venetian today" or "wasn't a great night for PLO at the Bellagio." Anyway, it's your thread, you can do what you like. Just tossing in my two cents.