Self Fullfilling Prophecy

It never seems to fail that when I do well in something I tend to do poorly in the short term right after. It is like I am allergic to money. I always have enough to do what I want and live at the status quo but never seem to build after a good win.

The day after I hit my WSOP ME score I didn't plan to play much poker. I went and got a really half assed haircut that cost me $60. $60 to use some clippers and scissors. If you are going to charge me $60 shouldn't the hairdresser be under the age of 60 and at least provide a bit of eye candy for bending me over. Anyways, I then went down to the outlet malls. I wasn't overly impressed and was even less impressed when I got home and the two pairs of shorts I bought don't even fit.

I took a walk down to the Wynn and treated myself to the Wynn buffet. It was my first buffet of the trip and my first time in a year to the Wynn. For anyone who hasn't gone it is highly recommended. Even if you aren't a huge buffet fan the quality of food is simply incredible. If you are gonna hit a buffet in Vegas shell out the extra few $$ and spend the $35 and treat yourself. I am not a huge desert fan but make sure you save a bit of room for some of their homemade ice cream that changes flavours daily.

I decided I was going to go downstairs and play some craps. In my brilliant mind I decided I was going to play a different system this time. For anyone who knows craps I am generally a 3 number player and sometimes 4 numbers if things are rolling well. I decided I was going to get my money on the table quicker by placing the 6&8 and playing 1 or 2 numbers in addition to those two. In theory I would reap the rewards of a hot shooter a lot faster. However, the flip side is I would lose a lot really quickly if the shooter was going to 7 out fast. Well, after treading water for an hour or so everyone went dead and my $500 didn't last very long. I had made sure I didn't take any more money downstairs with me as it is way too easy to keep reaching into the pocket once you are at the table and the drinks are flowing. On my way back to the room a guy steps into the elevator on the 2nd floor on my way up to the 9th floor. He looks totally distraught and immediately asks if he can ask me a question. He asks me where I am from and if I found the people here nice. I said I was Canadian and that in general I found the staff here at the Imperial Palace very nice. He goes into this story about how he is having the worst day ever, his friends left earlier in the day and accidentally flew home with his wallet so he had no ID or money. He says he has been dealing with the staff there all day and has had no help whatsoever and is just looking to get cab fare so he can get to the airport. I have a bit of a buzz on and have just won over 13k the day before so I figure I can give this dude $20. He is dressed just like a regular middle aged guy from Indiana so I think I can do a good deed here. I tell him to wait by the door, grab him $20 and he asks if I have a business card or anything so he can send me the money back 3 fold. I tell him not to worry about it and he says he will "pay it forward" Anyways, shortly after I actually start to think about the situation. How is this guy going to get on a plane with no identification? If all he wanted was to get to the airport could he not just hang out and get the airport shuttle? Could he not just go to the taxi line and ask someone if he could share a cab to the airport? So, yeah, I think I got played for $20. If I did, congrats on your creativity sir, well played indeed.

When I got back to the room I shot up some on-line and actually had a very solid 3 hour session.

On to, yesterday. The plan was to play the $200 PLO Megastack at Caesars. This tournament had a 3pm start so I put in an online session before heading across the street. Well, the session went the shits. In the span of two hours I ran into setup after setup and took some sickening beats. The worst of which was a $1300 pot that went like this. I am playing 2/4PLO8 and sitting with about $600 in front of me. There is preflop raise and I call with A4JJ suited Ace. The flop comes J27 rainbow. (rainbow simply means no cards of the same suit for you non poker people) So, I have flopped the nut set with the 2nd nut low draw on an unconnected board. Looks pretty nice so I fire out a pot sized bet, I get a caller and the button rejams pot so I instantly jam all-in. Both players instantly call and the board runs out turn 4, river 5. The worst two cards to possibly come as I know at least one of these guys will have held A3 and the nut low draw. Sure enough they both have A3 and make a running wheel to split up my money. All either of them had was a naked low draw and they backdoor into a scoop by counterfeiting my 4 and hitting the river 5. Fun times.

So, I head over to Caesars and sit in the $200 PLO. I end up sitting beside Will Clarke who is a very solid card player from Winnipeg who is now living down here in Vegas. We shoot the shit a bit and over the first couple hours of the tournament he chips up with some nice hands while my stack goes the opposite direction. I start playing too many hands as the European guy who took some of my money in the Rio PLO8 game is playing horribly and can not resist bluffing on all streets so I am looking to catch a hand. Well I don't and I piss away chips. I then proceed to try and take down a pot on the turn when I hold two pair and a gutter to the nut straight. One player calls quickly. I fire out a big river bet "hoping" he has just missed his flush draw and has to fold. He calls pretty quickly with the 2nd nut straight. This bet was horrible. I should have just shut down. I didn't really put him on a flush draw I was just simply hoping he had that. Very poor play on my part. Anyways, last hand before the break I hold ATT6 double suited and limp into the pot. The flop comes 732 with two spades and I am suited to the Ace in spades. The big blind leads out a solid bet and I decide I am willing to get it all-in here with the nut spade draw and an overpair. I pot it and a guy behind me tanks for awhile and eventually repots it. The initial bettor thinks awhile and folds. I call for all my chips and he rolls over 7654 for top pair and wrapped straight draw. The turn is an Ace giving him the wheel and the river is a 7 not of spades so I am done. When the money goes in here I am close to a 2-1 favourite to take down the hand. Oh well, a quick exit. Will went on to play a long day but busted out 40th with 27 playing. He had his aces brought down a few times by shorter stacks nearing the money and just couldn't win his key pots.

I cam home and was ready to play a long online session. Things started off right where I left them. I swear for about 3 hours it felt like every single decision I made was incorrect or if it was correct I would get punished by the deck. I lost more money in 4 hours than I have ever lost in my life on-line in one day. I started off getting beat after beat, then when I bluffed I got called, when I checked I got sucked out on, when I called I was beat. Basically was having the worst poker day of my "career". Awesome, way to go Q, hit a nice score and proceed to piss it back. Well, I got some room service, regained some composure, played better and made a bit of a comeback. It was going to be basically impossible for me to get to even on the day but I did take a good dent out of the loss. The end of the night dropped back a bit when a total maniac fish who likes to play the game came to my table. This guy is so wild and will bet anything. But, as such, he is very dangerous. Of course he stacked me twice and proceeded to piss my money away to everyone else at the table. That is so frustrating but you just can't leave when you get a guy like that on your table. All in all, I lost a good chunk of what I had won over the last few weeks online in one day excluding the WSOP win. Sigh, the volatility of cash games.

On the topic of the WSOP seat I won I have been credited with the cash in my Pokerstars account already. Due to new regulations over the past two years there is no longer an allowance for a 3rd party to register you for a WSOP event. What this means is that poker sites can not register you for WSOP events, that you have to do so yourself. With this being the case they have no choice but to just give you the cash in your account and hope that you will chose to play the WSOP and agree to their sponsorship terms and conditions. Well, odds are I am just going to take the cash. I look at it this way; If I won $12,500 in a different tournament would I roll that money into the WSOP Main Event? Quick answer would be an emphatic NO WAY! With my current bank roll $10,000 means to much to be to just be slamming it into one tournament. I can use that money on-line for cash games and many other live tournaments. I know it doesn't have the sexy appeal of playing in the WSOP event and possibly becoming a millionaire but I am realistic and do this for a living and not recreation so I have to be smart about my decisions. Now, if I happen to make over $10,000 in another tournament while I am down here. Let's say either myself or my buddy John make a big score in the $1,500 PLO8 WSOP event then I could see maybe taking a shot at the main event. Otherwise, I am going to need that money to basically pay for the trip and soak up what has so far been a disappointing run in live tournaments.

Today, I went and played the $235 Megastack NL holdem. I probably had the weakest table I have had so far. The play is quite bad. However, it is bad in a weak passive way so it is tough to extricate big pots from people. I played for 3 and a half hours with my best hand being AJ and my only pocket pair having to be laid down preflop. I pick up QQ in the sb and run smack into late postions AA and am out just like that. Blah, just not getting any breaks whatsoever live.

The balance of the day will be spent on-line. My buddy Travis Brown gets down here tomorrow and then John Angst gets here on Friday so I am looking forward to that. I am getting a little tired of hanging out by myself. I'm used to being out with friends upwards of 5 times a week. So, sitting in the room in Vegas by myself for days on end does wear on me a bit over time. I'll likely go play the Caesars again tomorrow, if not I may just change it up and go play at the Venetian. The Venetian is a bigger buy in so we'll see how I feel.