|
It seems like I'm waking up in a different city every week. So far this summer I've been to Montreal for the Grand Prix, Ottawa the weekend after and now Sin City. I have really been taking advantage of the freedom I have and it has been a blast.
I procrastinated and didn't go to the bank early enough to wire my money to Vegas so I got stuck having to bring 20k in cash. It was a lot less hassle than I originally thought. Didn't get asked any additional questions by Customs, I just had to fill out an extra couple of forms and I was on my way.
The flight into Vegas gives you a glimpse of some interesting scenery. You get to see the desert, canyons, and of course the Strip. Ever since I had a horrible landing flying into Stockholm (If you can call it that we actually never did land on that attempt) landing has been my least favourite part of flights. Thankfully, it was very smooth coming into Vegas. I picked up my bags and decided to arrive in style at my hotel via an Escalade limo.
I've got an awesome suite here at Encore. The whole hotel is pretty extravagant and I would definitely recommend staying here to anyone that isn't on a budget. The restaurants have been excellent. Some of the best food I've ever had has been here. It sucks that you can smoke in most places besides restaurants here. I think they have good ventilation systems but it can still get a bit smokey at times. I'm on a non-smoking floor though so things aren't too bad.
I'm definitely more open to trying new things when I'm with some of my poker friends. I don't know them as well and want to always make a good impression so I'm usually up for whatever. The other night during dinner break of the poker tournament I ended up trying an Indian restaurant. If I was back home I would have told my friends to fuck off and that I wasn't going to eat that. Here, I acted differently and decided to give it a shot. It was pretty reasonable but a couple of hours after the meal I felt like shit. I won't be trying it again anytime soon.
I played Day1b of the World Series of Poker main event. It is a $10,000 buyin. I hate tournaments and live poker in general but the sheer size and softness of this event can't be passed up on. There are so many people who are absolutely horrible at poker playing in this event that it is simply amazing. Lots of professional athletes, celebrities, rich businessmen, and of course lots of delusional old men who have watched poker on tv and think they have some sort of shot at winning. Given all of this, I would expect my long-term ROI in this event to be ~300%. Maybe even higher. I also know that I'm usually only going to place in the money ~15% of the time. I understand the variance and am quite happy knowing I'm making 30k in expected value just by coming out to Vegas for a week and playing some cards.
I usually don't get excited for much but walking into the main room did at least bring a smile to my face. I had seen it all on tv before and now I was experiencing it in person. Sat down at my table and the next person to sit was Allen Cunningham. Pretty neat playing with someone who plays on television now and again but I was by no means star-struck. I think I'm better than 95% of the players you see on television so it doesn't really mean much playing with them. Best part was that there were lots of cameras and video cameras around and I might just get to be on television! My day was pretty uneventful. I had a relatively tough table in comparison to others. I saw tables where it was lots of old men and then one young kid but mine was closer to 50/50. I was pretty card dead but did manage to chip up to 40k from the 30k starting stack and am back to play Day2b on Tuesday. Live poker is extremely boring and really draining just sitting there for 12 hours. Can't believe people actually played professionally before online poker existed. I don't know what they were thinking.
I've gone out for a couple of good dinners but besides that and the tournament I haven't really been up to much here. I don't gamble. I know way too much math to ever indulge in any casino games. I hopefully check out a Cirque du Soleil show before I leave and maybe go try out some guns at a range. I've never shot a gun before and figure I might as well start-off with a machine gun down here. I would love to check out the pools here and work on my tan a bit, but it has rained every day I've been here so far. I thought I was in the desert....
I didn't feel like going back through this and editing so you will just have to put up with my poor grammar. I will try and keep everyone updated as best I can and thanks for all of your support. It means a lot. First place is ~9mm so hopefully I win. If you know me well you know anything short of 1st will be a disappointment. So here's to winning!
|
