I only made my first trip to Las Vegas 9 years ago - January of 2011. We stayed at the Imperial Palace. I played poker there exhausted and lost more thn 3/4 of the money I came with in the first six hours.

I had made annual or semi-annual trips every year until 2017 when I took a job dealing the WSOP. Mostly it was an excuse to play a lot of poker.

At the end of the summer I went back to Philadelphia to gather my stuff, pack up my car and drive cross country.

I arrived in Vegas on Oct. 3, 2017. All along I planned to deal 2-3 days a week and play 2-3 days a week. That never materialized.

I got off to a hot start and was cruising after 3 months when I hit a terrible downswing. I had started working with a coach and staker in December. It went great for 3 weeks and the next 3 months were hell. Trying to learn a new playing style was not easy. It was extremely hard. And I have an ego so that made it harder.

I was able to get a temp dealing job on the strip in April and worked 30 hours a week through the summer. I played and played well. I managed to build up a decent little roll by early October. I think the high point was $3,300. It was a life/poker roll so not nearly enough but I never expected to be out of work long.

Again I went on a massive downswing. Throw in that I don't manage my money well - I don't waste but I didn't watch what I spent and probably ate better than I deserved - and I was broke by Nov. 1 or so. I spent the next couple of months before landing another temp dealer job in February. It waa about the time I got my tax refund which I used to play for about two months before bills and another small downswing ended that.

I worked part time and played sporadically during the summer. I left one job for another and it didn't work out. I grinded for about six weeks before a bad weekend busted me.

I should mention at this point tbat most of the poker in 2019 was played buying in for 60 BBS. I never approached it like so many others in town - those who hit and run 3 or 4 casinos in a night.

It's now January 17, 2020 and I'm leaving town.

I have a plane ticket back home in the morning. I have no idea where I'm going to live. I have no job. I have like $20 in my pocket and I'm starving.

I've been at the airport since about 2 pm Thursday. Its almost 3 am and I'm exhausted.

I don't regret moving out here. I took a shot and failed. The city will eat you up if You let it. I didn't drink or party or go to shows every week. In a way I missed out on some of the perks of living in such a great city.

But moving out alone - even though I have made some lifelong friends - in my mid 50s was dumb.

If you are thinking about making the move don't let this dissuade you. Had I been smarter and not had some other issues it might have worked.

I paid $600 a month to live where I did. With people I was acquainted with. I could have found a room for $350-400 that would have suited my needs just fine.

Anyway I'll be on a plane in about 7 hours.

I failed but I lived my dream and took my shot. Now it's time to get the truck from Knish and get back to the real world.

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I'm so sorry Chip. Good luck going forward.

At least you had the balls to take a shot. Most people never get close to that. Good luck in future endeavors!

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Sometimes the pain of regret of not doing something is worse than the pain of failing after you go for it. This was a good read and I'm sure it mustn't have been easy to write so I really appreciate it. It takes guts to take a shot like this, especially at your age. But it takes even more guts to share it instead of sweeping it under the rug. I know I do the latter a lot; it's something I have to learn. No matter where life takes you, just remember that this is something a lot of players want to try but never gather the courage to do. Best of luck! And remember: you're never too old to learn a new skill or try a different line of work. Take care and godspeed!

i know it doesn't seem like it now but failure is an integral part of life. use it to make yourself better rather than letting it define you.

best of luck moving forward.

Life is never a snapshot, it's a film reel.

You can always get squared away for a life roll and come back for fun. Vegas isn't going anywhere and you'll probably enjoy it more that way.

GL

Best of luck, Chip. Learn from and use this experience moving forward. Glglglgl

Also, stop playing poker for a long while.

Yup, totally this.

Stay upbeat but think about why you went bust and what went wrong. You can always go back at some point with a full time job and play 20 or so hours a week until you build up a big bank roll and history that shows you are good enough to sustain some downswings.

Good luck going forward.

Good luck back home.

You and many other people. You will be back. Keep your head up.

Chip, it takes giant nuts to put this story out here. Nobody likes sharing the times they didn't win, or ****ed up, or got screwed. We only want to talk about the good things that happen to us. I'm sorry you're in this spot and I hope things turn around, but I applaud you for writing this and I hope 2+2 appreciates how important this is.

Agreed, takes incredible balls to post this. Mad respect for you.

You're honest, a good writer, and this is a very compelling sorry that a lot of people would be interested in. I would genuinely spend some time writing it down in between job interviews and trying to get a book agent or contact publishers or however that process goes.

Good luck man

Good luck Chippy.

Not sure if this is the time or place for suggestions, so if it isn't, my bad:



GbestofluckG

I probably will take a couple of months off but no way will I not play again. I'm still a winning player even if it's $8 an hour.

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If you’re an 8/hr winning player having to deal with the stress of possibly going busto and not eating, i would imagine you are better than 8/hr without the stress.

Are you allotting the correct amount of time in your life to a below-the-poverty-line wage that may (???, this may be an unfair assumption) be partially responsible for some of your health issues?

ETA: Yikes, just googled that the US minimum wage is $7.25/hr, is that true? Lol. Our minimum wage up here in my parts will be over twice that by mid 2021, and I don't even see how anyone could actually live on that. Point is, allot your earning potential hours appropriately.

Gbalanceappropriately,imoG

You should consider never playing poker again for anything other than a hobby. And then treat it like that, aka it's a hobby you can no longer afford to enjoy at this stage of your life. And probably for quite some time to come.

Otherwise you're bound to conflate life/poker rolls again and continue to mismanage your money. You're likely not improving either due to the aforementioned ego issues. It's a hobby that you _potentially_ could make some beer money from but that's about it.

and also you are successfully leaving las vegas without an arrest record or needle mark I assume. That's a win in life and should be remembered that you cannot change 2017 but can do a lot for 2020.

Many individual states set higher min wages. Also In_This_Economy I suspect the actual starting wage is better.

If you're still in Vegas I'll give you a job, but you need to be reliable. Can't sleep until 9pm, work starts 8am.

It's nice to see the positive energy directed towards the OP in this thread which is a huge change from alot of the stuff you read on here directed at people who aren't going through the best of times. From reading what you courageously wrote OP it sounds like you didn't give yourself a solid shot to succeed from the outset. If you're ever gonna give it a go again, being rolled to play above 1/2-1/3 and having a seperate, comfortable life roll are of course very important but also as equally important if not more is the fact that you're mentally strong, i wish you nothing but the best!!!!

Good stuff op
You gave it a whirl at least.

You aint broken, just a little beat up!!

LOL at OP saying he's a winning player even though he went busto after years of play and is going home with $20 to his name. No way you make $8/hr, not that that would be anything to brag about, but I would guess you are making close to $0/hr. Feel free to tell all the other homeless guys at the soup kitchen what a good winning player you are though. LMFAO.

OP - why is your life going to be different now that you are leaving vegas? Do you have anything in Philly to go back to?

This is out of line. Takes a small man to kick someone while they're down and laugh at them. Who cares if he is winning or not.

Brass is a very little, very insecure man.