06-14-2019
, 08:21 PM
I'm sitting in my bed back in LA after a two week trip in Vegas for the WSOP. I had intended on leaving on Saturday, but when I busted the PLO $1k yesterday in 120th or so, I decided to drive back with my girlfriend and dog rather than take a later flight.
I was worn out.
If my trip were a boxing match, I'd call the first round a draw. Round two will start in a week or so when I head back out to try and play the main. I also want to play more cash games. The games should be good--they were this time.
I'll back up a few months. I had been very busy with work, but it has been a dream of mine for 15+ years to play the Main and I've yet to achieve that goal. I never qualified back when I played professionally between 2006-2009 (anyone who could count to ten was able to make a comfortable living back then), and I haven't had time due to work since then.
Occasionally I'll hit the casinos in LA, and once in a blue moon I'll throw a thousand or so onto Ignition and donk around. It was in March when I decided I wanted to play the main event of the Black Diamond Poker series on Ignition. Well, I was lucky enough to finish second for around $37k:
I was able to stay away from the PLO tables until I withdrew $30k of that--knowing full well that there was a risk I'd blow it all if I started gambling with it, and I wanted a roll to take to Vegas for the WSOP. The company I was working for was getting acquired, and for the first time in 10 years I'd have the time to properly play the WSOP.
Once I had $7k left or so I took it straight to the highest PLO games they run on Ignition, which was 10/20. The night I started playing I lost half my roll, but decided I didn't care if busted the whole thing so I rebought and ran hot:
Long story short I was on a $70k heater or so leading into this trip. I also got some big buyin tourney experience when I qualified for the WPT $10k in LA. I didn't cash, but I felt pretty good about how I played considering my hold em game is very rusty.
So I was confident heading into Vegas with Albert, my 9 year old lab, and my girlfriend.
I busted three bullets in the Big 50. My final bullet was in brutal fashion. Second to last level of Day 1, I have about 58k in chips at the 1k/2k/2k level. I pick up two red jacks in the big blind, and after an EP open and two callers I ship in in only to get called by one of the guys who called the open and had 55. He flopped quads. Totally standard play by all, but tourneys are a *****.
My main joy is PLO cash. I had been playing mainly 5/5 at the Wynn. Occasionally I'd play at the Aria or Rio, but the Wynn is my favorite casino so that's where I played.
This is getting a bit long, and my goal is to write at least four or five installments reflecting on the past two weeks, then picking this back up when I head back out there. So let me finish with a quick story.
It was around 2am or so last Friday. I was playing the 5/5 PLO game, but had my eye on a 25/25 game a few tables over. From time to time I'd pick up my beer and wander over to check out the action. Freddy Deeb was playing, and I wondered if he was swinging his legs under the table since there's no chance he's able to touch the ground. The game was full so I couldn't sit down even if I wanted to...hell, did I want to? I had played higher a few times, but only once live, and it had been years. Plus I think the smallest stack I saw was $10k and all I had was about $6k on me. Would they steamroll me?
Jump forward an hour and I'm still playing 5/5. My gf is wandering around and playing slots. Occasionally I'd order two shots of tequila and she'd pop in to take one with me. The 25/25 game was now shorthanded and I said '**** it.'
I walked over and bought in for the $2500 minimum. The game was four handed, me included, which was my preference since I usually play the 6 max tables online.
I get owned the first hand I play and quickly lose $1k. I add another $1500 so I'm sitting with $3k.
My plan is to go into more detail on this game in my next post, but I'll spoil it a bit to close out this post.
By around 8:30am this was my stack:
By 10am I was stumbling out the door without a nickel in my pocket.
I was worn out.
If my trip were a boxing match, I'd call the first round a draw. Round two will start in a week or so when I head back out to try and play the main. I also want to play more cash games. The games should be good--they were this time.
I'll back up a few months. I had been very busy with work, but it has been a dream of mine for 15+ years to play the Main and I've yet to achieve that goal. I never qualified back when I played professionally between 2006-2009 (anyone who could count to ten was able to make a comfortable living back then), and I haven't had time due to work since then.
Occasionally I'll hit the casinos in LA, and once in a blue moon I'll throw a thousand or so onto Ignition and donk around. It was in March when I decided I wanted to play the main event of the Black Diamond Poker series on Ignition. Well, I was lucky enough to finish second for around $37k:
I was able to stay away from the PLO tables until I withdrew $30k of that--knowing full well that there was a risk I'd blow it all if I started gambling with it, and I wanted a roll to take to Vegas for the WSOP. The company I was working for was getting acquired, and for the first time in 10 years I'd have the time to properly play the WSOP.
Once I had $7k left or so I took it straight to the highest PLO games they run on Ignition, which was 10/20. The night I started playing I lost half my roll, but decided I didn't care if busted the whole thing so I rebought and ran hot:
Long story short I was on a $70k heater or so leading into this trip. I also got some big buyin tourney experience when I qualified for the WPT $10k in LA. I didn't cash, but I felt pretty good about how I played considering my hold em game is very rusty.
So I was confident heading into Vegas with Albert, my 9 year old lab, and my girlfriend.
I busted three bullets in the Big 50. My final bullet was in brutal fashion. Second to last level of Day 1, I have about 58k in chips at the 1k/2k/2k level. I pick up two red jacks in the big blind, and after an EP open and two callers I ship in in only to get called by one of the guys who called the open and had 55. He flopped quads. Totally standard play by all, but tourneys are a *****.
My main joy is PLO cash. I had been playing mainly 5/5 at the Wynn. Occasionally I'd play at the Aria or Rio, but the Wynn is my favorite casino so that's where I played.
This is getting a bit long, and my goal is to write at least four or five installments reflecting on the past two weeks, then picking this back up when I head back out there. So let me finish with a quick story.
It was around 2am or so last Friday. I was playing the 5/5 PLO game, but had my eye on a 25/25 game a few tables over. From time to time I'd pick up my beer and wander over to check out the action. Freddy Deeb was playing, and I wondered if he was swinging his legs under the table since there's no chance he's able to touch the ground. The game was full so I couldn't sit down even if I wanted to...hell, did I want to? I had played higher a few times, but only once live, and it had been years. Plus I think the smallest stack I saw was $10k and all I had was about $6k on me. Would they steamroll me?
Jump forward an hour and I'm still playing 5/5. My gf is wandering around and playing slots. Occasionally I'd order two shots of tequila and she'd pop in to take one with me. The 25/25 game was now shorthanded and I said '**** it.'
I walked over and bought in for the $2500 minimum. The game was four handed, me included, which was my preference since I usually play the 6 max tables online.
I get owned the first hand I play and quickly lose $1k. I add another $1500 so I'm sitting with $3k.
My plan is to go into more detail on this game in my next post, but I'll spoil it a bit to close out this post.
By around 8:30am this was my stack:
By 10am I was stumbling out the door without a nickel in my pocket.
06-15-2019
, 04:02 PM
I'll have to wait another couple of days after this post to update again--tonight is my anniversary and tomorrow being father's day.
I hope ya'll won't be too upset if I go back to the start of the trip and fill in the details of that epic punt in another post.
We (gf, dog, me) took off from LA at around 9:30pm on June 1. I wanted to fire at least 3 bullets to the Big 50 but had work stuff that prevented me from leaving earlier. I thought that by leaving this late we'd miss traffic and get there in about 3.5 hours.
Unfortunately, there was either an accident or construction and it took over 5 hours with me going 90 every chance I could.
We pulled into Vegas around 2:30am and went to the house. After dropping off the bags and Albert, I was really anxious to play. I opened up my suitcase where I thought I had my roll and it was empty. I checked her bag also--nothing.
I eventually figured out that when we were loading everything up I had accidentally put my roll in the only suitcase we were leaving behind. We went to Aria anyway and I pulled out $1k from an ATM (I hate paying those fees...but I was wired and wanted to play). By now it was 3:15 and I was able to jump into their 1/2/5 game, which had about 5 guys, 1 or 2 of them pretty trashed, splashing around.
I wanted gf to try the watermelon juice so I ordered that, a bud, and a couple tequila shots. The game was uneventful until most of the guys left. By the end it was me and a cool guy in his 20s who was there for a buddy's bachelor party. He was game to play HU and before long we were playing with a mandatory button raise to 15. I got lucky when I flopped a set and rivered the nuts which he paid off with what I imagine was top 2 pair. We shook hands and called it a night around 6am or so. Up about $800 or so iirc.
GF and I drove home with the sun out--the first of many times this would happen.
Over the next three days I played the Big 50 3x. Made it to Day 2 once, but never cashed. I didn't play any cash games over these days as I wanted to focus on the tournament.
Here a a couple shots of where we stayed--I'll try to include as many pics as possible since I know this forum loves them--but I usually don't take too many pics...my gf does, so I'll try to use her shots.
I hope ya'll won't be too upset if I go back to the start of the trip and fill in the details of that epic punt in another post.
We (gf, dog, me) took off from LA at around 9:30pm on June 1. I wanted to fire at least 3 bullets to the Big 50 but had work stuff that prevented me from leaving earlier. I thought that by leaving this late we'd miss traffic and get there in about 3.5 hours.
Unfortunately, there was either an accident or construction and it took over 5 hours with me going 90 every chance I could.
We pulled into Vegas around 2:30am and went to the house. After dropping off the bags and Albert, I was really anxious to play. I opened up my suitcase where I thought I had my roll and it was empty. I checked her bag also--nothing.
I eventually figured out that when we were loading everything up I had accidentally put my roll in the only suitcase we were leaving behind. We went to Aria anyway and I pulled out $1k from an ATM (I hate paying those fees...but I was wired and wanted to play). By now it was 3:15 and I was able to jump into their 1/2/5 game, which had about 5 guys, 1 or 2 of them pretty trashed, splashing around.
I wanted gf to try the watermelon juice so I ordered that, a bud, and a couple tequila shots. The game was uneventful until most of the guys left. By the end it was me and a cool guy in his 20s who was there for a buddy's bachelor party. He was game to play HU and before long we were playing with a mandatory button raise to 15. I got lucky when I flopped a set and rivered the nuts which he paid off with what I imagine was top 2 pair. We shook hands and called it a night around 6am or so. Up about $800 or so iirc.
GF and I drove home with the sun out--the first of many times this would happen.
Over the next three days I played the Big 50 3x. Made it to Day 2 once, but never cashed. I didn't play any cash games over these days as I wanted to focus on the tournament.
Here a a couple shots of where we stayed--I'll try to include as many pics as possible since I know this forum loves them--but I usually don't take too many pics...my gf does, so I'll try to use her shots.