”Listen, here’s the thing, if you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker. Guys around here will tell you: You play for a living, it’s like any other job. You don’t gamble, you grind it out. Your goal is to win one big bet an hour, that’s it. Get your money in when you have the best of it. Protect it when you don’t. Don’t give anything away.”
The so-called pro’s who live by the above mantra are those whose money I have consistently won since late-2010 and have taken back to my McMansion in the Midwest every two weeks. I only play NL in Vegas, from 2/5 to 10/20 (depends on what’s available, I always aim for the largest NL game I can find). Average blended win rate from 2016-2018 at 2/5 was $150/hr.+, 5/10 was $300/hr.+, and although I have struggled to find consistent 10/20 action, that win rate has been $250/hr.+ but has counted as less than 15% of my hours played. I buy-in short (150% to 300% of minimum, depending on the existing stacks in play), my average session win rate is approx. 71%, average session length is 2 hours give or take. The only way my approach can be profitable enough to make a bi-monthly trip worthwhile is in a town like Vegas with so many options to bounce to and from.
This journey began in 2009 during the depths of the recession, in which my business was on the verge of failing. I had previously played poker at a few casinos, mainly 1/2 and 1/3 NL with mixed results. I started with a poker bankroll of $4K plus travel expenses and in mid-2009 started taking monthly trips to Vegas to see if I could supplement my normal income via poker. I took my first trip in August 2009 and by mid-December, I had blown through my meager bankroll at 1/2 and 1/3 NL. I read the poker books, watched and read anything and everything online that l could find, and in mid-2010 started with a $10K poker bankroll and tried again. My day-job was starting to show signs of life again and allowed me to try this poker experiment one more time. Anyway, by November 2010 my bankroll was down to $2K…playing classic TAG the entire time.
I figured I’d take one more trip in December 2010, give poker one more weekend, then walk away from it. That December trip almost felt like me saying “good bye” to Vegas; I think I was expecting to lose that last $2K. I had lost half of the $2K I brought with me and decided to take that last thousand and step up to the biggest game I could find and play short stacked. I remember this day so vividly…it was a Saturday…nice day, mid-60’s and cloudy. I decided to check-out Bellagio for the first time, the fancy room where all the “pro’s” play…you know, I’d go out in style. After waiting almost 2 hours, I was able to get into a 5/10 NL game…bought-in for $1K. Most of the rest of the table had stacks that probably averaged $2.5K. I played tight for the first couple of orbits, paying close attention to the action. The game-play was light-years different that the 1/2NL-1/3NL games I had been playing. More than anything, I noticed these 5/10 players were very careful pre-flop, and basically made post-flop decisions via “the math” and most hands seemed to be going to the river until either someone made a big enough bet to scoop the pot, or there would be a two-player show-down. Without going into great detail here and now, after sitting in that game for about 3-4 hours, a lightbulb went off in my head…my “Eureka!” moment. I was down to about $600 by this time and slowly started mentally developing my “system” during that game. I ended up leaving that game after a total of 10+ hours with approx. $3K. My “system” today has at its foundation those building blocks from that game at Bellagio, but through trial and error, I have developed a much more advanced and consistently winning approach.
Although it may seem to some that this is little more that a brag-blog attempt by me, I can assure you that this is not the case at all. I’ve been a LONG-TIME lurker on two-plus-two, and have learned a ton about poker, more specifically, about the mindset of those who play professionally or at least close to that level. You see, for me to achieve my goals, given the short time-frame of 2-3 days at a time, I seek out pro’s or very experienced players to play against. While some players are what they call “bum hunters”, I suppose I could be most aptly called a “pro hunter”. Since I only play two weekends per month (sometimes only one) and bounce from casino to casino, these Vegas pro’s rarely seem to remember me, or more importantly, they rarely seem to remember HOW I doubled up on them the last time we played…but I always remember them. The hundreds of competitors they play against every week is a definite advantage for me.
Some of you may wonder, if I am really running as hot as I claim, why not do poker full-time? Thankfully, my business took back off in 2014 and has been extremely profitable ever since. I typically earn mid-six figures annually now, and truthfully don’t need the poker profits anymore, but I enjoy it so much that I don’t want to quit; and frankly, it’s a good fallback should the economy tank again someday.
My “short-stack system” isn’t as simple as jamming high pocket-pairs pre-flop. As a matter of fact, I almost never jam pre-flop with a pocket pair. The primary factors that play a role in my success are position, previous action, relative chip stack sizes, and pre-flop action from the OTHER players. That’s all I’m sharing for now…actually, will probably never give the system away…not unless I someday walk away from the game (unlikely).
Next trip is in a couple of weeks. I will show before and after chips stack pictures, food pics, street pics, stupid pics, funny pics…whatever looks good to share. And of course, will share exact results from each trip. I hope at least some of you enjoy it.
Here are my results since 2011 (amounts shared are NET, as in all travel expenses have already been deducted):
2011: 11 trips, +$13K
2012: 18 trips, +$28K
2013: 14 trips, +$18K
2014: 22 trips, +$39K
2015: 25 trips, +$21K
2016: 20 trips, +$41K
2017: 21 trips, +$49K
2018: 27 trips, +$64K
Due to business related commitments, I haven’t been able to take a trip yet in 2019, so next one will be the first of this year – looking forward to it! My next update will be during that trip.
Last edited by LasVegasRounder; 02-04-2019 at 12:35 PM.
Reason: Clarification
