CARDRUNNERS

I drove up from LA to Las Vegas about a week ago, and I'm having a lot of fun. I'm living and hanging out with a good high school friend who now plays 5/10 as well as all his buddies from university in England.

Today we had dinner at Sensi at Bellagio with a huge group of people (6 of us, Tom "brystmar", Derrick "ActionDJ" and his girlfriend Shana, Corwin "[vital]Myth", and Evan "Frinkx"). Oh and Ezra too, last but not least <3! So it was me and the guys from England sitting at the table, and what started with a ridiculous offer consisting of some of the guys paying for half an entree if I ordered 2 of them to some absolutely ridiculous stuff flying around. I offered to pay for a whole bottle of wine if one of my friends finished all of it...he snap called and drank it in no time at all. Then a bunch of us offered him 5 glasses of port along with me offering him a buy one get one deal on dessert, but he snap called this as well and drank/ate it ALL like a true hero. The most heroic deal of the night came when I offered my high school buddy Kader a free dinner if he ate ALL the desserts on the menu. Somehow he thought he could do it after already eating one starter and 2 entrees himself (WTF?) so he proceeded to chomp away at the 5 selections of delicious desserts. Well, as he was nearing the end I couldn't tolerate it anymore because it really looked like he was going to hurl, and knowing him he'd certainly do that than lose the bet, I conceeded and paid for his dinner as well. Total bill: $1700

Some other stuff I've been doing is playing drunk 1/3 at the Wynn, going indoor skydiving with Tom, watching Brian play the NBC HU, and playing in the 1k tournament at the Wynn (not in that order). I didn't even want to play in the tournament, but I lost a flip during drunk 1/3 so I begrudgingly registered my hungover ass. I ran so well though! Going into the final 2 tables with 20 left I was 2nd in chips only to Dutch Boyd, but I lost 2 massive flips Ac6c to 78o on a 2c 5s 8c flop and AK to QQ vs someone who kept reshipping KQ+. So after playing for 13 hours I busted in 12th place for 2600...wtf. I hate tournaments and probably won't play in any more Wynn classic tournies. I'm staking Corwin and Evan for a bunch of them though, and I hope they win me some money! I've met a lot of cool people out here including Dan "Raidan909" and Markus "Lurped". If you guys are out here plz say hi :).

I've been grinding the 25/50 NLHE/PLO games on stars and FTP quite a bit, and haven't been running too well. Oh well, I hope my luck will change soon.

Unfortunately I'm leaving on Monday to go on a cruise, but I'm definitely having a blast and will probably return here immediately afterwards.

 

P.S. Some of you may be wondering why in the world I would eat 2 entrees when I'm in a weightloss bet. Well...I cancelled that. There was a mutual agreement that good food was too much to give up, and so in true fatass fashion, we decided to just eat whatever and exercise more (but probably never will).

So the new rule is that I don't update this until 4 people bug me to do so; otherwise I'll feel too lazy/busy/unloved to bother...

It's been so long, where to begin??  Some random cursory updates, then a few even more random thoughts.

Vegas was great.  Had three separate trips there of 5 days each in June and early July (had to keep going back to nyc for the sake of the girlfriend...  the travel aspects of this being emotionally reminiscent of my days grinding $2-$4 limit holdem on planetpoker.com).  

Met many wonderful people, including desirae, blueflare, and linecrusher, among many others.  Played 4 tournies and broke even (finshed 12th in the 2.5k 6-max NLHE, didn't cash in other 3).  Made a small fortune playing some occasional 25-50-100 PLO at the Rio (which occasionally played with a forced 200 straddle).  Insane action.  At least by my standards.

Learned some things, too, from discussing PLO with others.  Partly as a result of this, I had low six-figure months in both July and August.  And of course I've come crashing back down since, with a 100k downswing that has me at -45k for September.  Still, a good few months.

Other random Vegas notes:

--Devilfish has some rather bizarre tastes in young women.

--Todd Brunson has a consistent leg tell (incidentally---wow, never knew till this trip how +EV leg tells are).

--Gus Hansen is a very solid squash player.  (no, we didn't gamble)

--Shutting off the eletricity to a house full of poker players at 5am is a sick beat (no air conditioning, and it's 95 degrees by 7a.m.) (long story)

--The fun of drunk low-stakes prop-filled games at the Southpoint. cannot be overstated.  Particularly when sober regs at the table know that you lose money when you show down an ace, and win showing down a 2.

--Honestly, half the reason why I enjoyed Vegas so much was because it was divided into 3 short trips.  3 straight weeks in Vegas would be hell for me.  Lack of culture and the money-centric nature of absolutely everything...  it eats your soul away after about a week.  Which helps explain people like Shawn Sheikhan.

Randomly:

--I will go on life-tilt if McCain/Palin(??!) win.  You will want to play at my tables post-election if this happens.  I will lose.  Lots.

--Obama is trading at 51.5% right now on Intrade.com.  Regardless of who you're rooting for, it should be noted that this is an absurdly strong bet.  He should be at least 60%.  Probably in the low 60's.  The post-Palin bounce is already fading in the battleground state polls, and the Intrade number doesn't yet reflect this.  If nothing else, buy now, sell in a week at 60.  Easy money!

--F&*%ck!!! My mutual funds are getting destroyed!

--The living-together-with-the-girlfriend thing is finally starting to work well.  The major non-poker obstacle is quickly realizing when I'm acting like a pig-headed douche; which I'm gradually getting more successful at.

--The French movie (recently released) Tell No One is awesome.  Hitchcock brilliantly reinterpreted.  Don't be turned off by the "French" label--it's fast-moving and fun.

--David Foster Wallace's suicide completely shocked me.  His genius was not only his brilliantly original use of language, but also his intense self-awareness.  I don't see how anyone with that gift, and with his success, could do such a thing. 

Win lots and, as always, please buy my art/lit mag...  canteenmag.com

I can't find my last year's resolutions, so I'll look at 2007's.  It is quite embarrassing to not have most of these completed:

            Get in shape with abs diet

            Stay in touch with/hang out with friends more

            Quit procrastinating/stay busy

            Try to keep poker separate from other parts of life

           

            Poker Goals

                        Be at 5/10 by end of year

                        Keep controlling tilt

                        Have a 10k profit month by april

                        Post more hands in forum/blog

Keep bankroll growing, move up to 1/2 NL by end of jan., 2/4 by end of april, 3/6 by end of September, 5/10 by end of dec. (30 buyin rule)

Win a decent sized tourney ($5k+)

Put in consistent hours/specific times to play, not here and there

Only play more than 5 tables when comfortable

No whining about bad beats to other people

 

It's 2 years later, I'm in the same shape (maybe 5-10 pounds lighter), I still procrastinate and most of these poker goals have yet to be met.  I think they are a bit unrealistic, but this was when the games were good.  And that january I made $6k, then $9k in february, and then it went to shit.  I don't know if I changed, or the games did so much, but I haven't had a month over $3k since then.  I think my confidence is still shot a bit since then.  Maybe I was just overly confident, who knows.  But here are some new goals:

Get a REAL job.  This is so important.  I desperately need a job right now so I can have a steady income and stop worrying about my bills and whatnot.  Then my poker bankroll can grow.

Get a flat stomach.  Not realistic, I've tried, I just think I have to keep sticking to a healthy diet that doesn't veer off for a month or so.  That's what kills it.

Continue to stay focused throughout the day.  So many days I find myself procrastinating and not getting anything accomplished.  This is the time to take risks and make money, and yet I sit here.  Part of this is that I have to focus most of my attention on finding a job and being able to support myself.  After that, I can begin looking into investments and whatnot.

Poker:

Reach supernova.  Definitely doable, I'm at stars for good, I can do this.
Make $50k.  Also doable.  But only if I focus, try not to tilt, and continue to work on my game.
Be at 1/2 by year's end.  Also doable.
Win a tourney for more than $5k.  I always put this on here, but I always come up short.  Maybe some day, that'd be an awesome feeling.


I don't whine about bad beats to anyone anymore, so that's good.  And I try to put in solid hours when I can, not just f'in around.

But what's most important to me is being happy and having my girlfriend happy.  This always seems to hold true, and I hope that continues.  She's the most important person to me in the world, she's really all I need.

...but i also need a job.


gl,

Andy