Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand
(Awesome; my browser crashed in the middle of writing this. Let's try again.)
Just put in a 12-hour session of cash games at the Rio. Started at the 2/5 NL to get my feet wet and wait for a spot in the 5/10 NL. The 2/5 is 200-min, 500-max; the 5/10 is 500-min uncapped. I finished the session up about $700 but made a series of severe weak/loose errors that ended up costing me quite a bit of money. I was on a noticably poor run of cards but I also realized that my ridiculous preflop play cost me a lot of money. I will tighten this up for future sessions because I think $100 an hour is definitely sustainable at this game and $200 an hour is possible with the right run of cards and the right table.
I also discovered I play better when I subsist solely on Red Bull and worse immediately after I've eaten. (But man, they make good cheeseburgers in the poker kitchen.)
By the way, based on the few orbits I was there, most people I know could beat the 2/5 game. (I didn't say most poker players I know; I said most people.)
Since the WSOP events and cash games were all in the same place I took some moments to spot celebrity players. Here's a brief synopsis of who I saw:
-Allen Cunningham, at the TV final table for the 1k rebuy event which he won (and which I only watched for like 10 minutes because I was there to play, dammit)
-Barry Greenstein, as I was walking by the cashier's cage on the phone with Kurt, wherein I commented "Barry Greenstein is like ten feet away from me, right now"
-Minh Ly, several times out by the poker kitchen smoking cigarettes; I have a really blurry photo of him talking to
-David Singer, but in the photo they're barely distinguishable as people, let alone famous ones
-Greg 'FBT' Mueller, and I still don't know what "FBT" stands for. But my brother-in-law is a hockey player, and based on my experiences with that, Greg looks exactly like a hockey player
-David Pham, also out back by the poker kitchen / smoking area
-Hung La, talking to someone at a table where no game was being spread
-T.J. Cloutier, just once, when he passed by while I was at the 2/5 NL table
-Andrew Black, playing the $50 blind / $25 ante no-limit hold 'em with
-Antonio Esfandiari, who hadn't shaved in like 3 days, and seated between them was
-Shannon Elizabeth, who is amazingly beautiful in person, even if she is too skinny
-Phil Laak, wandering around at like 4 AM with some buddy of his I didn't recognize
-Paul Darden and
-Eskimo Clark (both of these two on several occasions but at least once at the big NL game)
-Someone wearing an Absolute Poker "Mizrachi" jersey, although I don't know if it was Michael, Robert, the other one (Eric?), or just some goombah-looking dude who was a fan of theirs
-Noli Francisco, I think at a Badugi / Triple Draw mixed game
-Men Nguyen, way across the room, didn't even bother to find out what he was playing, and it might not even have been him
-Hon Le, whose name it took me forever to remember since all I could remember of him was "That one guy at that one WPT final table in season one"
-Tuan Le and Nam Le-- at least I think it was them, because I only saw them walking around, and not for long. They're shorter than I expected.
That's all I can think of right now.
I have a camera on my new phone, so I'm going to try to upload pictures if I can ever figure out how. In the meantime, the sun is coming up, which is a good sign it's time for a poker player to go to bed.
More to report on later, but I'm having an amazing time so far, and I could see myself doing this for quite a while. Vegas is a hell of a spectacle and so many of the buildings are really beautifully designed. The games are profitable and great fun, too.
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time," indeed.
I do wish I knew more people, though. Ah well, Vegas has poker opponents and hookers: do I even need people for anything else?
Just put in a 12-hour session of cash games at the Rio. Started at the 2/5 NL to get my feet wet and wait for a spot in the 5/10 NL. The 2/5 is 200-min, 500-max; the 5/10 is 500-min uncapped. I finished the session up about $700 but made a series of severe weak/loose errors that ended up costing me quite a bit of money. I was on a noticably poor run of cards but I also realized that my ridiculous preflop play cost me a lot of money. I will tighten this up for future sessions because I think $100 an hour is definitely sustainable at this game and $200 an hour is possible with the right run of cards and the right table.
I also discovered I play better when I subsist solely on Red Bull and worse immediately after I've eaten. (But man, they make good cheeseburgers in the poker kitchen.)
By the way, based on the few orbits I was there, most people I know could beat the 2/5 game. (I didn't say most poker players I know; I said most people.)
Since the WSOP events and cash games were all in the same place I took some moments to spot celebrity players. Here's a brief synopsis of who I saw:
-Allen Cunningham, at the TV final table for the 1k rebuy event which he won (and which I only watched for like 10 minutes because I was there to play, dammit)
-Barry Greenstein, as I was walking by the cashier's cage on the phone with Kurt, wherein I commented "Barry Greenstein is like ten feet away from me, right now"
-Minh Ly, several times out by the poker kitchen smoking cigarettes; I have a really blurry photo of him talking to
-David Singer, but in the photo they're barely distinguishable as people, let alone famous ones
-Greg 'FBT' Mueller, and I still don't know what "FBT" stands for. But my brother-in-law is a hockey player, and based on my experiences with that, Greg looks exactly like a hockey player
-David Pham, also out back by the poker kitchen / smoking area
-Hung La, talking to someone at a table where no game was being spread
-T.J. Cloutier, just once, when he passed by while I was at the 2/5 NL table
-Andrew Black, playing the $50 blind / $25 ante no-limit hold 'em with
-Antonio Esfandiari, who hadn't shaved in like 3 days, and seated between them was
-Shannon Elizabeth, who is amazingly beautiful in person, even if she is too skinny
-Phil Laak, wandering around at like 4 AM with some buddy of his I didn't recognize
-Paul Darden and
-Eskimo Clark (both of these two on several occasions but at least once at the big NL game)
-Someone wearing an Absolute Poker "Mizrachi" jersey, although I don't know if it was Michael, Robert, the other one (Eric?), or just some goombah-looking dude who was a fan of theirs
-Noli Francisco, I think at a Badugi / Triple Draw mixed game
-Men Nguyen, way across the room, didn't even bother to find out what he was playing, and it might not even have been him
-Hon Le, whose name it took me forever to remember since all I could remember of him was "That one guy at that one WPT final table in season one"
-Tuan Le and Nam Le-- at least I think it was them, because I only saw them walking around, and not for long. They're shorter than I expected.
That's all I can think of right now.
I have a camera on my new phone, so I'm going to try to upload pictures if I can ever figure out how. In the meantime, the sun is coming up, which is a good sign it's time for a poker player to go to bed.
More to report on later, but I'm having an amazing time so far, and I could see myself doing this for quite a while. Vegas is a hell of a spectacle and so many of the buildings are really beautifully designed. The games are profitable and great fun, too.
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time," indeed.
I do wish I knew more people, though. Ah well, Vegas has poker opponents and hookers: do I even need people for anything else?
posted by Vernon Freedom at 8:08 AM
4 Comments:
Last year I did what you are doing now. Damn, I wish I could go this year.
Speakeasy
FBT = Full Blown Tilt
Oh, okay. I was afraid it might be "Full Body" something and I didn't really want to know what the "T" was.
Barry Greenstein? Wow. Can't believe you were that close to the Tico Bonomo of poker.
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