Vegas Bound

Well, where to start? I have never written a blog before but wanted to try it for my upcoming Vegas excursion. If I enjoy the blog writing and find I get some positives out of the process then I may continue to write on a more regular basis for my daily poker exploits. However, this blog is intended as a synopsis of my upcoming Vegas trip. I know there are people who like to hear how I am doing in various events and this will certainly be a good avenue to reach people at their leisure. Also, I want to write the blog as honestly as possible to help keep myself somewhat in check over the course of my trip and curtail the degenerate gambling.

I fly to Vegas tonight from Fargo. I decided to book out of Fargo to save about $300 on a one way ticket to Vegas. I took a bus down here and actually the bus ride was not nearly as painful as expected. I read a little bit of Super System II which was enjoyable, it had been awhile since I read any poker literature. (well read anything for that matter)

The Plan: Play live tournaments for the entire month of June.
During the World Series of Poker there are tournaments of all sizes and structures to be played. The Venetian runs their Deep Stack Extravaganza for the entire month. I've always enjoyed the Venetian card room. It is roomy, good service, and the tournament directors do a very nice job. Also, when you cash they pay you in casino chips and do not take the 30% taxing for the IRS. I understand this year they are going to try to facilitate field sizes of 800 players for their events.
Caesars is hosting a MegaStack series to compete with the Venetian tournaments. I had some success on my last trip at Caesars chopping a $500 PLO tournament when we were 3 handed. Officially finishing in 3rd place for 2nd place money. The only real annoyance with Caesars or any Harrah's event is that they will tax your winnings immediately as a Canadian citizen. Oh, and depending on where you sit the room can be super cold.
Binions started a new series last year that is quite interesting. Basically they mirror the World Series of Poker events but do so at smaller buyins and two days before the actual WSOP event. So, if there is a 2K holdem event then binions will run a $200 holdem event two days earlier.

With all these tournaments happening I plan to target as many Omaha events as possible. I plan to play at least two WSOP events. The first, which starts tomorrow, is the $1500 NL Holdem event. I used my points from PokerStars to buy into this event. Last year the event had close to 3000 entrants and I expect it to be larger this year as it is the cheapest event PokerStars will allow you to buy into. There are going to be two starting days so I don't know if I start Saturday or Sunday at this point. Also, I will be playing the $1500 PLO8 tournament in late July. I played it last year and did not cash in spite of the overall field calibre being absolutely horrendous. If I happen to hit some nice early cashes I will consider playing two other O8 WSOP events as well. However, I always find that limit O8 is tough to play in a tournament format. At the start you have far too many people seeing the flops so it becomes bingo and then all of the sudden your blinds are so significant that you must hit hands and have them hold or you are suddenly done. I guess my track record online over the years seems to show I have a similiar ROI with limit O8 as I do with PLO8 but I certainly do not feel nearly as comfortable in the limit structure.

I will try to make daily posts as I come back to the hotel room each night. If anyone has any comments or suggestions do not hesitate to let me know.