Op update? Any new stories?

Still in Vegas. Had one small cash early. 9 days into my trip and I'm down a little over 3k. (2k tourneys and 1k cash). Could be worse.

Thinking of posting a mini outlined TR. Stay tuned.

Bet your down more than 3k on food, roulette, & pros after 9 days in LV! TR is probably needed at this point.

Fun blog, just started following. Good luck

Down like 350k on roulette and pros.

I eat at McDonald's every day.

I can believe this. Ivin is that rich.

Really enjoy this blog, I'd rather not say how many times I've checked for the Mini-TR

Haven't gotten around to the mini-TR. Hopefully when I do it's still fresh in my mind.

Updates cliffs:
1 cash at VDS.
Busted Turlock Deepstacks ME
Trying to put together a package for the summer
Haven't gotten marketplace approval yet
Looking at 36,222 x 1.09 mu = 40,000 total package

Look for it later!

I have posted a 28k package with about 1.088 markup in the marketplace in case any of my readers want a piece.

Thank you all for your support. I already have a couple of responses and it feels good to know people have confidence in me.

I'll take the over on all 3

will lay huge odds against this

Do you have some inside information that he's been handing out resumes? First one's already in the books. Second one's so hard to predict. That just leaves the third to be so confident of. (I really hope i'm wrong. Hope he wins every damn tournament he enters)

Thanks for the read amused. Remember that the greatest summer of your life could be just weeks away.

Well said.

I am so excite. Leaving Saturday for a wedding in LA then driving up to Vegas for the WSOP.

Lots of frequent blog posts coming soon. Plus a joint TR with 2p2's very own thenorcaljew! Look for it in LVL.

Need.

Trip.

Report.

Asssaaappp.

It's in Las Vegas Lifestyle. I'll link if for some reason you can't find it.

"LET'S F**KING GO!" I belted out at the top of my lungs, but at no one in particular. In fact, I was in my car all by myself and the radio wasn't even playing. I was backing out of my spot on the 5th floor of the Venetian parking lot at 11AM on Thursday, extremely excited to play my first tournament for the summer--the first summer that I would be spending in Las Vegas for the entirety of the World Series of Poker.

---

I had taken the last five days off from playing poker--a little vacation from the felt if one can call it that. The five days started with one long drive down the I-5S from the Bay to LA. Luckily I had one of my best friends doing the drive with me so it wasn't as miserable. That night, we hung out with friends we hadn't seen in ages, did dinner and drinks, then passed out because we had a long day ahead of us.

I woke up with about an hour to get ready for our good friend Ignacio's wedding and as I looked at myself in the mirror I realized it had been over three months since I last put on a dress shirt and slacks. To be honest, the last three months have not been as magical as I had first imagined them to be. I've had a lot of ups and downs. I was doing phenomenally well at my home casino for a couple of weeks and then with one week before the wedding, I had one of the biggest downswings of my career. It was very ill-timed considering it was right before the start of the WSOP, but I knew I couldn't let it affect my mindset.

That night I made it a point to enjoy my time with friends I rarely get to see. We ate good food, had some drinks, danced our asses off, and made bad decisions at 3AM in the drive-thrus of both Jack-in-the-Box and Carl's Jr. Poker only crossed my mind at those times when I found myself sitting alone at a table, but the thoughts were those of the summer ahead of me and not of the losses I recently suffered.

The next morning, we said our farewells and left for Las Vegas. I didn't get right into playing poker as my first tournament wouldn't be for another three days. I just wanted to enjoy myself before the madness. One of my good friends, who had been a Las Vegas local for the last two years, happened to be leaving town to go back home for Florida. Over the next few days we proceeded to hit up various spots on the Las Vegas Strip, enjoying nightclubs and eating good food.

When my friend left town for his cross-country road trip, I knew that the vacation was over. It was time to get back to business, starting with moving into a condo with a fellow poker player and the first week of the WSOP. Hopefully the five days off from poker would be enough because the rest of the summer would undoubtedly be quite stressful...

Go get em!

FYP.

It's been two weeks since I arrived in Las Vegas. The first week was very relaxed as I spent most of it hanging out with friends. Since then, I've been grinding, grinding, grinding. Well, mostly.

My roommate and I got fully situated in our two bedroom condo. The place could use a little fixing up, but other than that it's very clean and it's a nice, quiet place to live in. I had to buy an air mattress, and with the suggestion of some friends, I ended up buying a rather expensive queen-sized, pillow-top mattress. It was worth every penny. I covered the mattress with some sheets I brought from home and every night I sleep easy. What's funny is that it's the only piece of furniture in my bedroom and it's going to stay that way as I don't plan on being in Vegas for longer than two months.

We had to clean the fridge out, so on the second day of being in the condo I did a thorough cleansing of every inch of the damn thing. It's now filled with bottled waters, Gatorade Frost, select deli meats, and a large package of string cheese. Y'know, just items I can stuff into my backpack before taking off for work.

Unfortunately I'm 0 for 6 when it comes to cashing in World Series bracelet events. There were a couple of times where I can honestly acknowledge I made plays that were far below optimal, but for the most part I'm happy with how I've been playing. It's just unfortunate that I haven't made any deep runs in any tournaments yet.

On the other hand, my performances in live cash games have been good. I've made enough to be just about even in my overall results for poker. What's great is that I have such an amazing time when I'm playing these live cash games on the strip. The experience is overwhelmingly different compared to when I play back at home. (It's fun back there, too. Just not as fun.) There are people constantly drinking, enjoying themselves, just having fun playing some cards. The best part is that I don't have to drink to be enjoying myself as well.

The "offices" I've been working at mostly in the last two weeks have been the Bellagio, Aria, Rio Pavillion, and Planet Hollywood. Being in Las Vegas is great because of the game selection. If I don't like the table I'm sitting at, I can request a table change. If I strike out on that table change or if none of the games look good in the room I'm in, I can just walk across the street or take a tram to the next hotel. More often than not, I'll find a good game to sit in without a problem.

My favorite room to play in so far has to be Planet Hollywood. It's not a large room or anything, but the atmosphere is awesome. The Heart Bar is right next to the poker room, which means they have loud Hip Hop/Pop/EDM music playing up until about 3AM, which creates for a great vibe during the grind. It's too bad Planet Hollywood doesn't get the game I play going on a regular basis.

So while my tournament results have been a let down, it's actually pretty standard. Sure it's never a great feeling to bust and I beat myself up about it for a good while, but It's very difficult to get far in these large tournament fields and I have to consider myself blessed for the fact that I've done well in the past. I still have another 12 preliminary tournaments ahead of me and this year will certainly be the first year I try the main event, whether I sell enough pieces or not.

Did I mention that the food here in Las Vegas OFF the strip is amazing?











As a reminder, my Live Vegas joint-TR with thenorcaljew can be found in the Las Vegas Lifestyle subforum!

Greetings fans,

I appreciate the feedback! Especially the comments about breaking my routine up. I figured, what is the best first step in breaking my routine...playing games outside my bankroll!

So I ninja reg'd for this afternoon's Event #28 - $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em. I don't play much PLHE (if that is an acronomanym) but I figure it's effectively no limit for pussies. I tried to ask jew if he wanted to buy 10% but he just responded back cryptically "spewaments?" Now my urge to dominate is indomitable.

Just before registering I check the WSOP live stream schedule. I don't want to be spewin' if there is no chance to have David Tuchman comment about how my aggresso level is revolutionary and that he and his fiance want to take me to dinner. Score, the final table is primary stream on Saturday night. And there is no NBA final game on Saturday, so you KNOW all the NVG haters and BBV degens will be riding that ********** harder than King Niche rode his morbidly obese girlfriend. Which is not often, but when it does happen, it's with the fury and anger of one thousand suns.

I get seated on table 12 in the one of the Rio rooms. I'm not sure which one, but it's the cold one. Confession - I said:

...but I never said anything about not getting completely hammered prior to registration. Why do you think I keep getting busted with AK vs KK in the first round when OMC's 12 bet me AI?

Anyway, so I am chilling sick, but zoned in like a cobra at table doce. I am sooo zoned in that I am counting the grains of felt on the table. I am counting the pixels on the level monitor. I am counting the nosehairs of Jean Robert Bellande (seat 5, #humblebrag).

Just before I reach buzzed zen mediation oneness with the omniverse, the dealer aggressively elbows me "IT'S STILL ON YOU SIR!" with the tone of a man that doesn't feel like he needs to call me sir. Jokes on him though, I'm playing poker for a living and he is my temporary penis puppet.

Getting back to the action...I peel back and see my first card (K) and authoritively announce "CALL".

"Sir, you're the big blind. Check or bet".

Oh. I quickly cobra scope the table and see that there is only one limper, Dennis Phillips, UTG. His range is polarized here AA to AA. I throw out a raise to narrow his range further. He clicks it back. The patented OMC limp raise. He definitely has AA. This helps out my 4 card spade draw. ****, I should look at my 2nd card now. I slowly peel back the K. ****, I must have peeled the same card again. I mentally convince myself by thinking about it that this is the 2nd time that I have seen the card, purging myself of all possible live-tells. Let's do this. I flat.

Flop comes:

AAQ.

Wow this flop hits sqar in Dennis's range. But if there is anything that I've gleaned from my years of reading 2+2 strat forums like OOT is that every hand in poker is effectively 50/50. Especially post-flop, where I can outplay the barbaric hordes.

Dennis bets pot, and I snap call. This is what we call fluffering the flop.

Turn comes:

J

This is a great card for us. I'm more confident in Dennis having pocket rockets than I am of norcaljew's burning burning love for DollarStoreBaller's girlfriend. Our redraw to the nut nut is of course paramount, but we still can Mississippi Bluff the river, repping the Royal Flush if needed. Friends and Family note - A Royal Flush is having 10 through Ace of the same suit. Lastly, I still have no idea what my second hole card is. This is an advanced move that prevents me from self-leveling....myself. Dennis bets pot, and I promptly call.

River comes:

10

Well slap my ass and call me Shirley. Dennis looks visibly uncomfortable as if he just saw the pics of the stripper from Club Platinum that katana1979 posted on his twitter last night.

This is such a dream situation...time to run the reverse Mississippi Bluff. I bet pot into Dennis. He shrugs and reraises pot. We are both AI at this point but I say repot just for effect all gigglely and breathing heavily. He double shrugs and turns over his AA. **** I hate being so good at poker. I tell him to choose one as I spread both cards in from of him. He chooses the left one but I go for max tilt effect and flip over both at the same time. KK.

****ing RIO!

The TD is called over and declares a misdeal, and that Dennis and I will chop the small blind. WHAT THE ****. I MWAS SO ****IN MAD I STARTED SPITTINGup BLOOD FOAMING UP ...PUNCHED MY SELF in teh side of the head I FEEL LIKE A WORM WHO HAS HAS BIN SHOVELLED WHEN THE GROUND IS COLD OR MABE STUCK HIS HEAD IN A TURD.

Then, then it becomes delicate time. I don't want to get into the details but eventually I had to get katana(Friends and Family note: this is the same guy as katana1979) to bail me out of jail. I used my first phone call to reach jew, but he just responded to my story by saying "spewaments?"

Anyway, I may get into the details of my tempban, fisticuffs with Brandon Cantu, and table flipping escapade later...

(Friends and Family note - everything is still 'alleged' escapades at this point.)

Omfg, I just fell off my couch laughing. You sir are a genius.

looool...the penis puppet screwd you man !!

Bump-any update Amused?

Have enjoyed following your progress and am hoping that the professional poker life is suiting you well.