Four days, 6 tournaments. Cashed for nearly $800. Basically these cashes payed for all of my buy-ins, food and the hotel. I had to eat the costs of the flight and a rental car which sat in the garage the entire time.
Could've been better, could've been a lot worse.
I cashed twice, on Thursday and Friday nights at the Aria and Mirage respectively.
I don't think it's a coincidence that I failed to cash on Saturday and Sunday. I was dead tired at that point, from staying up way too late to indulge in a Treasure Island donkament (one that I don't even count as one of the tournaments I played because the structure was so bad) and a similar shove fest at 9am on Saturday at the fabulous Monte Carlo.
First off, the Aria is a tremendous new poker room. The daily tournament at 1pm has an outstanding structure with 30 minute rounds. The evening tournament is less fantastic, same structure, but 20 minute levels make a big difference.
We went to the Aria because the Venetian was running a big event, the NAPT (North American Poker Tour) with all of it's regular tournaments suspended and even the cash tables shut down.
My friends Sven and PGriff both registered for a $350 Thursday noon event; I was proud of myself for not doing the same for two reasons. One, it was way out of my budget. Two, I was absolutely dead money in such an event.
It's hard as a poker player to let go of one's ego. There's an old saying that poker is like sex. Everyone thinks they are the best at it, and very few actually know what they are doing. I'd like to think that I can get busy and fly my freak flag no problem, but I wouldn't match my manhood up with the talent at a porn convention.
So I walked on down to Aria (my salvation on this trip was long 20-30 minute walks, did wonders for my heart and guilt over large meals) and had a blast, even staying there when I busted out and registering for the 7pm tournament - which I final table chopped 6 ways for $280.
Sven didn't cash until the following night at the Mirage; where again we were at a final table chop (along with another friend Potter) for $450 each. This was probably the most fun tournament - it was a bounty event, in which I failed to get a single bounty; but everyone was boisterous in a mostly good way, and it made for a very entertaining evening.
Sven, I'm proud to say, cashed and cashed and cashed again for the remainder of the trip - including the noon Aria on Sunday for over $1000. All told, he pocketed more than $2000, up almost a grand in pure profits.
My other buds didn't fare so well. PGriff I believe didn't cash, Potter once and Feist only once as well. I'm not sure how they all fared in the cash games, though another friend that I met for the first time, Giri, was splashing around for awhile at 2-5 No Limit! Yikes!
I wish I could say that the only reason I didn't cash for over a grand in profits was that I ran bad (I did have my aces cracked by quads and I did run my kings into aces with all the chips going in pre-flop) but alas, I can look back on too many mistakes (at least 2 or 3 major ones per tournament) to say that I didn't win because of luck.
By the same token, I'm jealous of Sven's success, but he made me feel better by saying that he was running exceptionally well and found some ridiculously huge hands in his deep run at the Aria nooner on Sunday. He also shared that he made some colossal boners in earlier events where he didn't cash.
I sat next to him three times on the trip, and I can report that he was from an observers standpoint just about mistake free. He also has a great intimidating table presence - with his bald head and stoic demeanor. Of course, if he ever opens his mouth, people learn very quickly that he's far too friendly and gracious to be a lifelong grinder.
I was pleasantly pleased to have a conversation with a couple of boys (one very drunk) from Texas as we all railed our friends at the Aria on Sunday. They both mentioned to me that I was an intimidating presence at the table! I find this rather laughable, but they seemed sincere. Perception is a funny thing, and I'm happy that I came across as in control and not someone to be trifled with, though that wasn't my intention.
I play poker to have fun, and a big part of that fun is winning and making money. I need to give myself credit now, that I am very comfortable in a live poker situation - especially with a table full of tourists like me.
I also need to work on my mum poker - a concept I've recently read about by poker author Tommy Angelo.
Mum poker means keeping one's mouth shut on the subject of cards, hands - anything related to poker. It's okay to socialize a bit about other topics, but when someone asks about a previous hand or wants to chat it up about how to play jacks out of position, the very best option is to be mum.
I tried very hard in Vegas to keep mum on cards, of course I failed more than a few times, but I'll definitely keep trying to keep my lips zipped when some gabby gabby is spilling info on how he loves to limp with junk.
Angelo is very hung up on being "Tiltless" (a great play on the word) and I agree. Better to be calm and cool when your aces get cracked. Of course I failed at this too - I couldn't help but being a bit snarky a world class douche bag cracked my aces with his A9 hitting quad nines on the turn. I also couldn't help being a bit visibly aghast that my kings ran headlong into aces against a swarthy degenerate - but these were my only real transgressions. I can live with them, but next time I'll do better to keep my emotions in check.
It's okay to feel, but I do nothing for myself or my game by giving my opponents insight into my weaknesses as a player.
The other third habit I'm trying hardest to break is explaining myself. Angelo calls this "Splaining". No need to Splain to others why I would call off the remainder of my stack on the turn if I KNEW I was beat - because I was pot committed. Decent players at the table already know this, and why would I want to educate the fishes that don't.
Too much 'splaining. It's never necessary, and it makes me look like Phil Hellmuth, which is the last thing I need.
All in all, a fantastically fun trip - especially the long walks, it was kind of nice to get lost in my own thoughts (and not just the ones about poker) and get a little exercise for a change. Though the pron slappers do confuse me a bit (I'll be blogging about them on the manzoniman soon enough).
In conclusion, I actually do feel very, very good about my game right now. Naturally on Monday Flatline I had my kings slam into aces on the third hand, all the money in pre-flop against PGriff. And last night in Worldline, I got it all in pre-flop with kings against queens, with a sickening two outer hitting on the turn.
But that doesn't matter so much, these were clearly right and wrong situations and I played them right. It's the gray stuff that keeps me up at night - like at the Saturday Aria nooner where I over played TPTK against an uber-fish by forgetting that there was a third player in the hand! I AM AN IDIOT!
But at least an idiot who can hopefully learn; and still love the game.
