Big Downswing

DISCLAIMER: I tried to post this on June 29th, so this is a few days old.

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. It's partially because I am staying at Harrah's now and don't have internet in my room. But mostly, it's because I haven't had too much great to say. Unfortunately, my good run in the beginning came to an end around my birthday, when I started to have a bit of a downswing. Now, that small downswing has turned into a big one. I was up alot in my first few days here, but now I am down for the trip.

Poker can be veeeerrrryyy frustrating when things do not go your way. I will not subject you to bad beat stories in this blog. Nor will I dwell too long on how crappy things are going poker-wise. Let's just put it this way: the cards are rarely coming, and when they do, they tend to hit someone else slightly better. I experienced this last summer as well. The swings in poker can be very difficult to deal with. Unfortunately, this downswing hits a bit harder since I am playing higher limits than I did last time. I am fortunate, however, that I won some money in the beginning to offset this lesson in variance. I am going to keep pushing through, and hopefully I'll get back to winning soon. I'd kinda like that.

Otherwise, things in my life are still good. It is just poker afterall. I have seen the ups and downs in poker many times. While the losses can definitely affect my mood, I try to shake it off and remember all the good things I have in my life. The last few days, I have felt shitty at night but I wake up feeling reinvigorated and ready to turn it around. My luck hasn't turned back yet, but I keep hoping it will soon. Keep checking back to find out! Winning or losing, this weekend will be a fun one, as my mom and grandma (Bub) are coming out to Vegas for July 4th weekend. It will be really nice to see some familiar faces around here. And who knows, maybe their visit will turn my trip around. Last summer, Amy's trip to Vegas was the turning point for turning my losses into wins. Hopefully this will do the same!

I tried to post some pictures of my room at Harrah's on here, but for some reason the image function is not working for me right now. I'll try again next time. Thanks again for reading. Hopefully next time will be more upbeat!

-Danny

Aria Poker Doesn't Treat Me As Well As Rio Poker

Hola,

I figure it's about time for another update. After my rough losing session on my birthday, I returned to the tables for one more bday poker game. It started out pretty terribly, as I was quickly down a good amount. However, this time I was able to claw my way back thanks to some very crazy guys at my table. They were throwing around hundred dollar bills like I've never seen, and luckily I was able to catch some before I called it a night. I ended up making back about half of what I lost earlier that day.

Unfortunately, the cards would turn cold again for me the next day. Yesterday, I played for about 5 hours at Aria and had a big losing day. It was pretty rough. I just wasn't getting the cards, and when I did, someone got slightly better. Sometimes, that's just how it goes in poker. As I experienced plenty last year, you have to ride the variance wave and keep pushing through the bad streaks until another good run comes along. Luckily, I am still up for my trip despite these two disastrous sessions which makes it alot easier to keep playing through it.

I will probably play for a few hours today at Aria to get my last few hours required to get the poker room rate for my hotel stay. Playing a total of 5 hours per day (15 total since I am here for 3 nights) gets me a very reduced rate here. I played 5 hours during the first session on my bday, and 2 hours during the second session. They usually track your hours by swiping your player's card at the table. However, the table that I played at Friday night didn't have the computer system. Instead, we were just supposed to report to the floor people how long we played. When I told her that I played 2 hours that session, she said "Oh, not 4?" Confused, I said "Well, I'm not gonna lie to you, I played 2. But, if you want it to be 4, I'd be happy to take 4." She said that since we were patient about playing on a side table, she would help us out by giving a few extra hours. So even though I only played 7 hours that day and 5 yesterday, I got credit for a total of 14 hours. Thus, I really only have to play about 1 more hour today to receive the full poker rate discount, which is perfectly fine with me.

After my morning poker session, I am planning to go to the Rio to catch another of Domenico's final tables. Those of you who read my blog last year may remember that last year Winnett's friend Domenico made the final table of a Limit Hold'em event. Well, he did it again...like 2 weeks ago...and again, today! The final table starts around 2:30 so I'l probably head over there around then to hopefully watch him take it down to earn his well deserved 1st WSOP bracelet at his 3rd final table and the $167,000 that goes with it. I'll update about it next time!

Later,

Danny

Happy Birthday/Move to Aria

Hey peeps,

I just got back from a delicious birthday meal at Carnevino, Mario Batali's steakhouse at the Palazzo. I went last year with Lahey and knew I had to go back. I figured my birthday was a perfect excuse to go get a nice steak. And man was it awesome. The filet was amazing, the bread was spectacular, and they brought out some kind of fried little ball made out of a bunch of different cheeses compliments of the chef which was shockingly tasty. There are so many great steakhouses in Vegas, but I'm definitely happy with my choice to go back to Carnevino.

Let's rewind a bit. Yesterday was my last day and night at the Rio(until I return there for my last 5 nights in Vegas). It went pretty well, as I logged a few hours at the table in the morning for a solid win and a few more hours before dinner to book a small win. I was tired from waking up so early every morning and decided to take the night off from poker and get a good rest. Somehow, I still ended up waking up very early this morning and decided to check out early and head over to the Aria.

If you haven't been to Vegas in a while, then you probably are wondering wtf is the Aria. It's a newer hotel located at the newly built City Center on the Strip. It's pretty awesome and very modern. I attempted to use my birthday to swing a "complimentary upgrade," but had no luck this time. Not that it really matters, as my room is very nice. After checking in, I went up to the room to put my bags down. As soon as I opened my door, the lights all came on, music started playing, and the curtains slowly opened to reveal a nice view of the City Center's other properties. It was like my own little surprise party. Here are some pictures of the room:

Everything is controlled by a touch screen remote next to the bed. It controls the temperature, television, lights, curtains, music, and even the privacy settings on the door. Pretty awesome. I'm sure it does even more that I have yet to discover.

The safe, which fits my laptop, is located in a drawer next to the bed! It's very fancy and makes me feel just a little bit like James Bond.

Overall, it was a decent birthday with the exception of the poker :( I had a very rough day at the tables, but overall I'm still doing well since I arrived in Vegas. I won't go into all of the details since most of them weren't pretty, but I am just going to try to forget about today's loss and get right back to winning.

Thanks again to everyone who wished me a happy birthday today! I really appreciate all of your love and support. It means alot while I am out here and is why I don't feel lonely despite being alone in Vegas. Hopefully a better poker update will be coming soon!

Later,

Danny

Hey guys and gals,

It's another semi-early morning for me. Not sure why I keep wakin up by 8 am, but at least I fell back asleep for a little today. Yesterday I played 3 sessions of poker at the WSOP cash games. I had never played any of the cash games at the WSOP, but I'm glad I tried it out yesterday. The competition varied from extremely tough to extremely easy and ready to gamble, so I just had to try to stay out of the way of the tougher players and wait for the gamblers to make a big mistake against me.

In the first session, I played for about 2.5 hours to the right of the best player who I have played since I got here. It was very interesting, and I felt lucky to be to his right so that I could see what he did before I had to act. It would have been bad news for me if I had been on the other side of him, as he was very aggressive and picking apart most of the other players there. He said he usually plays 5/10 no limit, so I told him he needed to leave my 2/5 games alone. After a few hours of battling with him(on the felt...otherwise he was a great guy and I enjoyed playing with him), I decided that there would be way more profitable games and left the table up about 57 dollars, which was just fine with me. A little later, after watching a little bit of a WSOP final table, I went back to the WSOP cash games and started round 2.

I started out hot, winning a few medium sized pots and getting up a decent amount before disaster struck. I paid off a guy when I had pocket queens and probably could have gotten away from it against his trip 10s and was suddenly down to about $70 from my $500 starting stack. I normally rebuy at this point, but I decided that I would just let the $70 dollars ride and see if I could make anything happen with it. I normally like to have the big stack, but it was interesting to build it up from a small stack. I soon picked up Ace King and got it in and won to double up to around 140. I worked it up a little more til I had around $230. I called a 15 or 2o dollar raise with A3 of clubs in late position and about 4 other people came along. The flop came K73 and it checked around. The turn was the King of diamonds, putting 2 diamonds on the board. At this point I could easily have the best hand and decided to bet when it checked around to me. I bet $40, the lady on the button called really quickly and the rest folded. The river was the Jack of hearts, missing the flush. I decided to check to her as I thought I could get a free showdown and that my hand was likely good. She instantly slid out a bet of $70. It didn't really make sense to me, as I was almost sure she would have bet the flop with a king or raised the turn. Almost noone would make a strong bet onto that board with just a 7, and her quick call on the turn felt alot like a diamond draw to me. After a minute of thinking through the hand and not believing her story, I called with my pair of threes and was good against her missed flush draw. The table was kind of in shock which is always a nice feeling. I played a little longer, and by the time I left I was back above even after working it back up from $70 and was very satisfied with that result.

I took off for dinner and relaxed a bit before playing one more 2 hour session at the WSOP cash games. This game was a goldmine, as there was only one player who I felt was good, and the rest were big gamblers or weak players. The gamblers were really nice, fun guys and it made it a really fun table. I started out down a little before doubling up with pocket Aces vs his AJ of diamonds after he called my reraise and flopped a flush draw. Luckily I faded the 5th diamond and had a good stack when a big hand came u against the one good player at the table. I stayed out of his way as much as I could, but sometimes there is no choice. I had J8 in the big blind, the gambler under the gun raised to 15, and about 6 people called when it got to me. So I threw in another 10 dollars and we saw a 10 9 4 flop. I checked my open-ended straight draw, the gamblers checked and the good player bet $50. We both had well over $600 on the table at this point, so when it folded around to me I saw a good opportunity to get his whole stack if I could hit my straight. I called and the other players folded. The Q on the turn was pretty perfect, as it completed my straight and put out no potential flushes. I checked, and he bet $100. I thought for around 30 seconds before putting out a raise to $235. He called the $135 pretty confidently, and I prayed that I avoided a card that paired the board on the river to potentially give him a full house. The beautiful 5 of diamonds peeled off and now I was sure I was good. After some thought, I moved all in for around $400 and he called and a brief time thinking and my hand was good in a huge pot. That was the biggest pot I had played since I got here, and I was very happy when the chips were pushed my way. Phew. I sat back for another 30 or 45 minutes before calling it a night with a pretty big win.

Overall, it was a very good day of poker and I was happy with almost all of my decisions. Before going to sleep, I went and watched Jason Mercier play for his second bracelet in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 6max event, which he went on to win for over $600,000. He's ridiculously good. I watched them play 3 handed and then a little bit of heads-up but called it a night before it was over as I was tired and wanted to get a good nights sleep. So that's that. I'm gonna go eat now and then start my day of poker. Tomorrow I will be moving to the Aria for 3 nights, which should be reeeeally nice and a sweet way to spend my birthday. Finally, here is one more picture from my room. There happens to be a window from the bathroom to the bedroom. As you may be able to see in the picture, anyone in the bedroom can see right into the shower and vice versa. It's pretty strange, but still slightly less pervy than the Luv Tub room at Imperial.

I'll update from Aria tomorrow! Thanks again for reading.

-Danny

First Day Swings

Ayo,

It's Wednesday morning and again I'm up a little early, partially because I'm still adjusting to the time zone but mostle because a drunk girl knocked on my door at 6:45 am looking for her room. Only in Vegas... Wrong room lady, now let me sleep. Now it's 10:30 am and I'm down in starbucks again using their internet.

Yesterday was a long, exciting, and most of all swingy day. After updating the blog, I waited about an hour for a seat at 2/5nl at the Rio's poker room. I was first on the list for about 45 minutes, but noone left and I had to wait for a seat to open. Unfortunately, I wouldn't even last that long at the table. After losing a big all in pot whay ahead, I was down alot and decided to get up and cut my losses for now. It was not a great way to start my trip, but I played great and got my money in very good. I was still confident and ready to play. I just needed a change of scenery. I decided to hop on the Rio's shuttle to the strip and check out the action over there.

While I waited for the shuttle, the guy next to me started talkin to me. I was wearing a WashU shirt, and it turned out he was from St. Louis. He started talkin to me about the Lou, then said he now lived in Atlanta. Strange coincidences. He was a nice guy so I talked to him throughout the trip until we got to the strip. That's when things took their turn.

"Hey man, I wouldn't ask but you seem like a nice guy and I need some help," he said.

"Um, ok," I said. "What's up"

"Like I was tellin you, I'm down on my luck with the poker thing and I need to get back on my feet. You know, just like a room and somewhere to sleep and shower."

"Uhhh, shit," I thought.

He went on: "I've been sleepin out in the ditches outside the Rio and just really need a place to go and get clean and contemplate my next move. And I know you feel me because you do your social work thing, so just please help me out."

I kept tellin him that I'm out here on a budget and I don't have the money to just be handing out hotel rooms and stuff, but if he wanted me to get him subway or somethin that's all I could do. He said he'd already eaten and just really needed a hotel room, etc... I could tell I wasn't gettin out of there easily. I told him I only had $40 on me(true) and the best I could do for him was to give him $10 to put towards his room. I was not happy about this, but it wasn't because of the money. I just really was surprised he put me in this position. It's not like he just came up to me and asked for money. Instead, he made friends with me and then took advantage of that friendship. I'd rather someone just come out and ask than trick me into thinking one thing then flipping it on me. Oh well, we live and we learn. So I gave him the 10 bucks, told him no thanks when he told me he'd take my number and call me when he's back on his feet, and went on my way.

Once that was done with, I walked over to Caesar's and put myself on the list for 2/5. It didn't seem like they were going to open up a game any time soon, so I made the walk over to the Bellagio instead. I actually never played at the Bellagio last summer, but they have a wider selection of games and I knew they'd have a few 2/5 games. After signing up for a player's card and waiting a few minutes, I was in my seat and ready to redeem myself from my morning's beating. Luckily, that's exactly what happened. Not only did I make back what I had lost at the Rio, but I actually ended up 3x as much as I had lost earlier, putting me up a significant amount for the day. I played there for around 3.5 hours, then got some chicken parm sliders at the Palm steakhouse. I can't think of many better meals for $4.50. The bar menu has like 10 items for $4.50 during happy hour. 3 chicken parm sliders and homemade chips for $4.50. I'll be back there soon I'm sure.

So, I was finally ready to head back over to the Rio. I hustled over to Harrah's to catch the shuttle and wouldn't you know it, the guy from the shuttle earlier was directly in front of me in line. I was able to jump out of line and book it in the other direction before he saw me there. I did not want to deal with that again at all. So I caught the shuttle from Bally's instead. Once I was back, I decided to play another few hours at the Rio since it was only around 8:30. I booked another decent win and called it a night around 11:30. Overall, it was an emotionally swingy day, but it turned out to be a great start to my trip. Today, I plan on putting in a few more sessions, and I also might watch the final table of the WSOP $5,000 preliminary pot limit omaha event as I am positive that the final table will be stacked with great players. Ok, this got really long so I'm gonna end this post here. If you made it to the end, thanks for stickin with me! I'll post again soon, and I promise it won't be as long!

Peace,

Danny

Vegas!

Hey guys,

I landed in Vegas last night, ready for the start of my second poker odyssey here. I must still be on East Coast time, as I woke up at 7:30am this morning. O well, gives me some time to update the blog and play a morning poker session. I didnt play last night cuz I was so tired, but I'm ready to go today. I'm staying at the Rio for the first 4 nights(and the last 5) of my trip, and I am very pleasantly surprised with my room. It's waaaaaaaay nicer than anything I had last year (Yes, even the infamous luv tub room). My room at the Rio is pretty huge, with a big bed, couch, and suite style separate bathroom nook:

I am definitely happy with it and almost wish I was staying here longer. Maybe I would, if it were on the strip. There's lots of poker action going on here cuz of the WSOP, but it will be nice to move to the strip and try out harrah's in a few days. Today I am going to play my first session, probably here at the Rio but well see. Also, I found free wireless in the Starbucks at Rio, so it shouldn't be too hard for me to update my blog again soon. Wish me luck!

-Danny

Round 2

Hey Everyone,

I decided to go back this year for another shot at the Las Vegas poker scene. It's World Series of Poker time again, and what better time to spend about a month in Vegas playing poker. Last year was great, and I am looking to make this summer even better. I will be in Vegas from June 20th until July 15th and will be following a similar path to last year with a few exceptions. This year, I will no longer be living in that dump Imperial Palace. It suited my needs last year, but this year I can stay in some better hotels with the help of Harrah's rewards program. Since I earned platinum status at Harrah's properties last summer, I get some comped rooms and reduced rates this summer. I'll be staying mostly at the Rio (home of the WSOP) and at Harrah's on the strip. One other change is that I will be attempting to move up in stakes from 1/2 no limit to 2/5 no limit. Another year brings a new challenge, and hopefully I'll embrace it and come out ahead. The bigger game will mean bigger swings, but hopefully in the end I'll show a steady profit like last year. It's my last summer off before I start school in the fall, so this will be my last go at the poker thing for a while. Hopefully the blog will be entertaining for you guys as well as constructive for me. I enjoyed doing it last year and hopefully will keep up with it again this summer. Thanks for reading. Check back around June 21st or 22nd for my first post from Vegas!

Peace,

Danny