CARDRUNNERS

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates.  I have been in Vegas since June 3, and as Wiggins blogged about a few days ago, it just doesn't seem like there has been much to talk about.  We've just been doing the typical Vegas stuff - restaurants, clubs, etc.  Our house is much better than last year, when I was very underwhelmed.  We have a nice pool area and a basketball court.  Having a basketball court is great.  I hadn't played since last summer pretty much, but we have been playing most nights at around 7pm when the weather starts cooling down.  My game has improved lots in just a few weeks, although I still basically suck.  In any event, it is a lot of fun as well as a nice workout during a time where there is not much other healthiness going on.  It is really hard living with 8 guys and not eating grossly unhealthy.  To put it in perspective, the last 2 days I ate Pizza Hut for lunch both days, and KFC and Jack in the Box for dinner.  It hasn't been that bad the whole time, but it hasn't been good.  Pizza makes me feel really gross inside about an hour after eating it.  I would be fine with not eating another slice of it for several months.  Yesterday's meal choices were necessitated by the fact that we left both cars at the strip Saturday night and everyone was too hungover to pick them up yesterday.  In Ithaca this would not be a problem as there are some great choices of restaurants to order delivery from, but as far as I know in Vegas this is not the case, all I really know that we can order is pizza, Chinese, and Quizno's.  If anyone knows of good restaurants in Vegas that deliver, please let me know.

The eating hasn't been all bad, though.  I've had Lotus of Siam, the Thai restaurant of recent 2+2 fame, three times so far on the trip.  I wouldn't necessarily say I was blown away, but the food is very good.  My favorite entree is the crispy duck, that is actually pretty phenomenal.  I actually haven't been to many places on the strip so far, but my favorite of those is probably Botero.  It has a really cool atmosphere and some great food, and has the added benefit of being located in the beautiful new Encore casino, the new tower of the Wynn.  It is really amazing how visually stunning the Encore is.

I haven't played any live poker on the trip yet, but I've been playing a decent amount online.  I had been running very poorly the whole trip until Saturday, when I won 124k playing 25/50 and 10/20 PLO ante games.  The games were as good as I had seen them in months and I was fortunate enough to play well and run super hot as well.  Unfortunately, this win still only puts me to about even for the trip.  Hopefully my luck continues to turn in that direction.  According to Holdem Manager, I have played 13.5k PLO hands since June 3 (not counting a session vs Gus at 500/1k), won $29k, but my allin EV says I should have won $98k.  I don't know how much stock to put into allin EV really, but I do feel like I've been playing mostly very well of late even when I was losing.

I have a very exciting week coming up.  I have 3 friends from PA getting into town for today thru Saturday.  Also, Bruce (cornellxc) gets in today and should be out here for the rest of the Series.  And most fun of all, Wednesday is my 21st birthday!  I can't wait to finally be able to drink and gamble legally.  I'm not totally sure what our plans are for Wednesday except that it will involve lots of alcohol, good food, some gambling, and most likely a club.  Does anyone know of some good places to go out in Vegas on Wednesday nights?  Last week my roommates went to a local place called Blue Martini, I took the night off but they said they liked it a lot.  I am probably thinking more something on the strip though.  I know how each major club has a given night of the week that is their biggest night, but I'm not sure what that club is for Wednesday.  Any help would be great!

As for the WSOP itself, unfortunately most events that I would be interested in playing fell before my birthday.  I am excited to play the main event and will likely play the 5k 6max event as well, but that's all.  I'm bummed that they dropped the 5k PLO rebuy, I think that was on June 27 last year, oh well.  I would have liked to play events like the 10k HU, 10k PLO, and a few others as well.  I don't think I ever see myself playing a full schedule of events, but next year I will probably play 5-8 or so, depending on what the schedule looks like.  One of my roommates, Mike McNeil, final tabled the $1500 shootout, but busted quickly in 8th.  Other than that, not much to report from our house WSOP-wise, except Taylor's hilarious claim that he was going to play in 20+ events.  Maybe in 4 years, haha.  Although he did go deep in a $100 6max tourney on FTP yesterday and is playing more poker than I have ever seen him play.  Anyway, I just don't see how some people grind out event after event every day.  Grinding out 10+ hours of live poker every day with super high variance for less expected profit than a good midstakes grinder makes just doesn't seem worth it to me.  I do realize that I am very fortunate to be able to just play high stakes PLO and make good money online, but some of my roommats who are playing at much smaller stakes aren't keen on grinding out event after event either, and I don't blame them.  If someone really enjoys doing it, more power to them, but it's just not my thing.

I'm going to try to put in an online session this afternoon before my friends arrive later on in the day.  Hopefully I will run even 1/4 as good as I did on Saturday.  Good luck at the tables to everyone!