Saturday 31 July 2010

July review

I got back to the UK middle of the month and its taken a while to get used to being home again and away from the heat and casinos of Vegas. It was a great trip overall and I hope to go back again next year.

During July I've played a lot more 100PL than usual and have done pretty well, which is a relief as I've not done great at 50PL for the first time in a few months. Its been fun/challenging working out how to play the 100PL regs, although it hasn't seemed too different to playing 50PL. I think one of the biggest differences is that table/seat selection is much more important - knowing when to avoid the tables and also who to have on your right.

I played just over 40k hands in July and was close to a new "best month ever" if I hadn't hit a small downswing in the final few days of the month. However, I can't be too disappointed with a 2nd best ever month and having two $1k+ days.

I played my first live poker yesterday after getting back to the UK - a £30+3 freezeout. We only had 32 entrants, but I came 4th for £100 which makes a nice change. The size of the casino and speed of dealing made me long for Vegas again though. There are some interesting events coming up that I'm looking forward to

  • 21st August - £30 PLO8
  • 11th-12th Sep - £100 2-day event
  • 2nd Oct - £50 HU NLH
The plan for August is to keep grinding 50PL & 100PL and play 30k-50k hands.

Monday 12 July 2010

Sick day


EDIT: Played a tournament and made a deal when HU and outchipped to win $401 too, for a $1,201 total day :)

Friday 9 July 2010

Feeling much better now, so trying to cram in some more touristy stuff before I have to leave.

We went to the Wynn buffet last night which was pretty good and a huge choice of good food to eat. After visiting a piano bar at Paris, we went for some degen gambling at Slots A Fun - probably one of the tackiest casinos (part of Circus Circus?) where we were looking to play $1 craps, but the table wasn't open and we ended up playing $2 blackjack instead.

I managed to turn $20 into $114 and a free beer :)

We've just been to The Gun Store where there were a wide array of guns you can shoot. I'd never shot a handgun before so went for the Glock 17 9mm ($25 for 20 rounds). It had more kick than I expected but an interesting experience. The number of young children (12+ I think) and the fact we didn't even need to show passports or any ID was a litte scary though. With a background check you could pick up as many AK47s as you wanted for around $1300 each, and handguns in the $300-$500 range.

We're about to head off to watch a minor league baseball game - not one of my favourite sports, but seems appropriate while I'm in the US.

Tomorrow a few of us are going on a bus trip to see the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the western ridge of the Grand Canyon.

With only a few days left after that I'm going to play some long live sessions and try to finally book a win. Online poker is still going pretty well and I'm playing mainly 100PL.. its not too different to 50PL I'm finding, but the regs are of a slightly higher standard.

Monday 5 July 2010

Flu in Vegas

I've been laid up in the house for the last few days after catching flu :( I'm not sure if I picked it up at the live tables, from going between the blazing heat and draughty aircon or at the outdoor pool at the Rio but its not been the most pleasant last few days.

However, I'm actually drinking coffee this morning which is a usual sign I'm on the road to recovery. With only 8 full days left of the trip I'm not going to manage to do everything I had hoped to but I'll try and squeeze in as much as possible.

I have managed to do a few other things since my last report:

  • playing and winning first ever game of beer pong
  • going out drinking on the strip and visiting a bunch of casinos
  • going allin blind for $70 at O'Sheas $1/$2
  • continuing to crush at ping pong in the house
I think I'm going to try more live poker today so I hope I can find some live rungood that has eluded me so far.