my vegas experience

i dont know how many people move to vegas looking to "make it big" or try to become a "professional" poker player or gambler, but im sure whatever the number is the success rate is most likely very small. as for my vegas experience goes i guess its somwhere inbetween.

my trip begins in alaska which is where im from. anyone who has spent any sufficient time in alaska will know there is no poker scene available. i had been playing poker cosistantly for 2 years prior to my vegas trip and for the most part losing slowly with the exception of about 4 months prior to my move to vegas. which is when i start taking poker really serious and devoting a lot of time trying to improve my game and just taking everything to the next level. i wasnt ever trying to make a living from poker but i have just as much drive to win at the tables as if i were trying to live off it.

i had a upcoming decision to make right after my summer work season. i was going to have the winter off and i really wanted to get out of alaska for the winter. vegas instantly popped in my head and after a couple weeks of thinking about it my mind was set. i had a couple months left of work for the season before i was headed to vegas. it was about a couple days after my season of work was over that i headed to vegas, i had all my things packed in a trailer and hit the road. my aunt lives in colorado so i decided that i was going to make a pitstop on the way there which turned out to be about 3 weeks and another 1100 miles to the trip. the total trip was about 4500 miles which took about a week, if you added it all at once. i ended up leaving my aunts at the end of november and rolled into vegas on the 29th i believe. it only took me a couple days to find the apartment i wanted which was about 20-25 minutes away from the strip and thats where my vegas experience starts.

after a few days of being in vegas and getting everything set up in my apartment and things all lined up i was ready to start grinding. i had a basic routine for the most part of my time there which went a little like this. i would wake up and get on the computer and eat some breakfast, then i would play online poker usually for about an hour and a half 24 tabling 10nl. after that i would work out, and somtimes get back on the computer for another 30 minutes or so and search 2+2 or other poker material. then i would take a shower and head to the casino. i found myself mostly spending my time at the venetian untill the very end of my trip which is when i started playing at the wynn and aria more than other places. i also spent a little time at the mgm grand but not much.

i guess ill start with online. the reason why you might ask i was playing 10nl was because i was trying to develop a solid 24 tabling game while trying to improve any of my leaks. i guess i could have started at 25nl but the plan was to move up to 25nl after vegas but now that black friday happend my plans are kinda quits for now. im glad i did play 10nl though although i didnt play any 25nl to compare to it gave me a really good feel for 24 tabling and the swings and varriance involved, i also learned a lot about my game and was able to improve so much, i was actually suprised at how many leaks i had and was able to find. the reason why i only played about an hour and a half a day was because i usually played about 2500 hands a day and that was about how long it took. in the begining of my trip i only had a winrate of about 2.5bb/100 but the last couple months there i had a win rate of 4.5bb/100 wich at 10nl its decent but not crazy good, it might be decent for 24 tabling but im sure i was missing a lot of value from somwhere.

as for live poker goes. the first week i was there i made 3000, and thaught wow this is easy. i had played live cash games a few times before but ive never put any serious time in before then. the next following 2 weeks i lost 2200 and thaught wow this sucks. then after that i was on a break even stretch for about a month followed by a slow winning month and then another slow month then the last couple months i was there were pretty decent both showing my best months for the trip.

as far as my play goes. live poker is a breed of its own. especially 1/2nl over the course of my trip i had a winrate of 10bb/100 but that still only turned out to be like 7$ an hour or so. but patience is the name of that game and thats how i was. somtimes its pretty annoying sitting at a table for 8 hours watching dumb players get rewarded for crazy plays that shouldnt work and then you get coolered. but over time if you can beat 10nl online then you shouldnt have a problem beating 1/2nl. the player pool is filled with players who limp in with about 40% of their hands and raise about 7% hardly no 3 betting besides AA or KK sometimes AK and QQ but not always and thats about it. some players are huge calling stations while others might be rocks. some are crazy players that can make 500$ in an hour from there play and lose it back to the table in 30 min. you see just about everything at the 1/2 tables which makes it unique in its self. anyway i gave mayself A 4000$ bankroll which would give me 20 buyins of 100bb's, it took a while but in about 4 months i moved up to the 1/3 tables.
which isnt a huge difference. same style of play just buying in for 300 now so you win a little bit more. i was able to run really well for about a month at those tables and then was ready for 2/5nl when i first got to vegas i didnt know what to expect and just had the basic intentions of atleast breaking even. i didnt even think about moving up untill i actually started getting close enough to where i could play higher. i had made about 9000 at the live tables and about 1000 online and once black friday hit i decided to move up, i also only had a couple weeks left so i decided to give it a whirl. 2/5 nl is a bit more aggressive. not a whole lot but you can obviously see a difference which should be expected. although i only played for about 2 weeks i think i can be a winning player at that level as well and i would say it plays more closer to 25nl online and maybe at times like 50nl, still with a lot less 3 betting and a little more limping.

so as for poker goes in vegas its obiously the poker capital of the world, but if your coming from a online background than live poker can get old kinda fast. for me it took about 3 months and after you get in a downswing your like ok this is kinda lame now i just wanna put in volume lol. also the swings of live poker seem to take a long time as well. for me it seemed like a swing could last 3-4 weeks i went through one kinda big dowswing that last 3 weeks and a couple break even stretches that lasted each a month and then a few upswings that lasted 3 weeks each about. so when your running hot it feels good for while it lasts. then when your on a downswing for a month it feels like it never ends. after experiencing live poker for 6 months i kinda came to a personal conclusion that i would never play live poker for my primary income, unless i was making 500 or more a day so like 10/20nl which maybe one day i can do. now on the other hand i could see myself playing online poker for income, maybe not my main income but side income deffinitley. online is so much more of an interest to me even though its more challanging i like what online has to offer compared to live poker. one thing that i did really enjoy while playing live was meeting a lot of people, as well as seeing a lot of very interesting people. you do get a wide range of characters, especially in vegas. but its cool being able to make poker friends and talk about it and express thaughts about the game. one thing in general i dont like about poker is that if your not improving your game than you going to eventually get passed up and start losing more. which isnt a bad thing you just gotta keep up i suppose but if it were to be your "job" and your life it seems kinda lame to me that your money can be sacraficed because you might not study hard enough. thats just one reason as to why i dont like the idea of poker as a job, especially now a days with how many other good players are out there. all in all though poker in vegas was a great experience and im glad i was able to play for the winter and walk away in profit.

now for the "vegas lifestyle". vegas obviously isnt for everyone but im sure if you were to tell somone your moving to vegas for the winter they probablly think your gonna come back addicted to cocaine and an empty bank account. as for me well... it never got that intense lol. as far as my lifestyle goes there it was pretty decent nothing to spectacular but deffinitely not ordinary either. compared to alaska prices housing there is super cheap of course because of there horrible economy there. so thats a plus. i also really enjoyed being able to go to the casino everyday to play poker even though some days wernt as fun as others. also if you have enough money you basically have everything at your finger tips. vegas in all sense is a false utopia. well on the strip anyway haha. when i first got to vegas i was putting in a lot of hours doing everything, i was playing a lot of poker i was exploring the strip and a couple other places of vegas i was clubbing about every other weeknd and i was hardly home. but eventually i guess it all got normal to me. the flashy lights and exotic things kinda became normal and not so interesting as before and vegas became just like any other place just with casinos. i feel like at the end of my trip i was got a little too use of what vegas was and i didnt see it as how i use to before i got there, not that its a bad thing its just it got kinda old i guess. the casinos were pretty cool i eventually went to about every casino south of the wynn and i experienced a lot of attractions from roller coasters to street attractions and live performances and a lot more, it was also intersting seeing the different poker rooms. i think as far as the poker rooms go my favorites are aria and venetian. both have great service and good games which is why i spent most my time in each casino. i also did a few things outside of the strip. i went to the grand canyon twice. as well as a couple other things. i think my whole experience of vegas would have been so much better if i had a friend that went with me so i could have a running partner and i woul have been able to experience a lot more. my trip was still really fun but it could have been more fun. the clubs are pretty interesting in vegas. at first i was really excited going to the clubs. theres a lot of hot women, the insides of the clubs are usually designed really neat and everyones having a good time. but after a while the club scene kinda got dull. you usually wait in line for 45 minutes to an hour. theres usually a big cover charge, drinks are way over priced and then its hard to meet women cause there there to dance and have fun with thier friends and not leave with a person they met in vegas not that it cant happen its just you have to work hard at it lol. so eventually i lost interst in going cause i didnt really see a point if i wasnt accomplishing anything unless i wanted to get drunk and have fun then it was a good time. all in all though i was able to come away with some interesting stories from the clubs so i can keep those in the memory book. people in vegas are a little different. i remember hearing one guy say having friends in vegas is like having fruit, they eventually all go bad. which i can see happening. vegas does attract scum bags, but it also depends on who you meet and let into your life. i met a lot of really cool people, especially during the end of my trip but ive also met some kinda shady people there as well so i guess it all just depends. everything is pretty good though on the strip, the scenery is nice the attractions are great the weather there is almost always good so on the strip seems like its a perfect place but after a while like i said it gets dull. i really dont want to sound like im trying to make vegas seem lame but after spending 6 months there it just didnt have the same spark it once did.

sorry for the long post and it has been a while since i last posted, i kinda got lazy now that i havnt had any form of poker, i will try and post more frequently and i do have a little bit of material to post about and some juicy details so youll want to hear about those. im sure i left out a lot of crucial things in this post and probablly doesnt really remotely resemble the fun i had in vegas but ive been trying to post the entry for the past week and this was what i came up with lol. so yeah keep tuned for some stories

my "poker story" part 3

so the end of my summer season of work was over, and i just finished packing all my things out of my place and was ready for the long drive to vegas ( yes i drove). from where i live in alaska its about 3300 miles, but i also took a little detour and stopped at coloarado on the way there to see my relatives which added about 1100 miles to the trip for about 4400 miles. the trip did take a while about a week but it was a decent experience. going through canada was a little bit of a hassel cause i was towing a trailer with all my stuff in it and i ran into a little bit of weather but i was able to make it to seattle alive. i stayed in seattle for a day and headed to colorado. i again ran into a little bit of weather but i ran through it like a champ, or a scared whimp whatever makes the story better for you :) once i got to colorado i actually ended up staying there a little longer than i had planned. i arrived like the 8th of november and stayed untill the 28th or 29th wich was about 3 weeks. when i arrived i mentioned to my aunt that i was going to get an actuall computer desktop for poker to 24 table instead of a laptop. she mentioned to me that her son ( my cousin) could build me a computer if i baught the parts. so we got together one night and i told him what i needed and how fast i needed it to be and we ordered the parts. it took about 5 days for the parts to come and we had the computer built, up and running in about an hour. about a few hours after that i had 24 tables of 5nl running on my new computer with no lag. its a pretty nice setup and i was able to save a bunch of money by building it ourselfs.

so after downloading hem and tableninja onto this desktop. i began to put a lot of volume in 24tabling. at the begining i played 5nl so i could get used to 24 tabling and what it takes to 24 table then after about a couple weeks i switched to 10nl. novemeber turned out to be the only month that i was down in profit since i began 24 tabling wich was 14 buyins or 140$ and most of that was due to just figuring out the bugs of 24tabling. as well as figuring out many leaks in my game, and i had plenty. the end of the month came and i was ready to head to vegas and get setup. i packed up my new computer and headed for vegas. it took about a day to get to vegas from colorado.

when i arrived in vegas i started looking for apartments which actually wasnt as hard as i thaught it was, i found a place i liked about 20 minutes away from the strip in a nice neighborhood at a relatively cheap price. a lot of people dont think about vegas other than the strip, but outside the strip vegas is just like any other city, and is actually quite cheap to live in outside of the strip of course. but the economy there is horrible so of course thats why. it took a few days after i arrived in vegas to get my apartment and get all my things moved in and settled in before i was ready to start my full winter of poker. i gave myself a 4000$ bankroll for live poker which breaks down into 20 buyins at 1/2nl of 100bbs, as well as my bankroll online of 1750$, and so began my winter in vegas

to give a little break down of my average schedule in vegas i mostly woke up everyday around 12pm, the games wernt really good in the mornings at the casinos so i would go later. i would get on the computer and do whatever on the internet and then start up 24 tables of 10nl. i would usually only play for about an hour and a half or maybe 2 hours i usually just put in about 2500 hands a day. after that i would work out usually for about 20-30 minutes. followed by some food while usually browsing through 2+2 or somthing else poker related. after i was done i would take a shower and get ready and head to the casino. most of the time i played 1/2nl i would play at the venetian, but if the games there wernt good i would either go to mgm or ocassionally aria. the first 3 weeks i was in vegas i was on a heater and won 3000$, although i have played live poker before (bairly) i had no idea what to expect in terms of swings and possible profits. all i knew was i was starting to win decently and i liked it. online poker was going ok as well but nothing to exciting untill the next couple months that followed. immediately after my live upswing, i had a 2 weeks downsing of -2200$ as well as an online breakeven stretch of about 60k hands. i began to have a lot of thaughts and didnt know what to think about poker, but i think that was the major turning point in my poker story. i had been taking poker pretty serious for about 3 months prior to the vegas move but after the downswing i really buckeld down and took my game to another level. i really just studied my game reviewed my plays read blogs studied how other players were doing and what they were doing, i found a really good thread on 2+2 that helped out a lot and just like that my vegas trip turned into a poker trip. going to vegas i had planned to play poker not for income or to earn side money, but more for a challange and because i enjoyed the game but i wanted to win. i also wanted to to be able to enjoy what vegas had to offer and experience life in vegas, and i did to an extent but i know once i started putting all my time into poker that my trip was starting to revolve around poker. not that it was a bad thing but at the time thats what i was wanted to do.

the next month was really slow for me live and online. i was still in my breakeven stretch online, and now i was on a breakeven stretch live as well. it was about 4 weeks of being break even and the month was coming to an end and i was able to finsh the month with just over 2 buyins in profit which isnt much but i had somthing to show for my time, and online was the same excpet i was only up 4 buyins. i kept studing though everyday, before playing poker and after poker. i ended up getting a subscription to deuces craked which helped a bit as well. the next month seemd like it was going the same way and the first few weeks were very slow. then BAM! just like that i won 1200 in 3 days and hit a little bit of a heater online as well. i was back on track and i was seeing success again. i was able to finsih the month with a pretty decent profit and going into the next month with high hopes. the next month went pretty well no major swings live or online just a slow but graduall win rate with the occassional small losses here or there. i was able the finsih that month off very well and it was my best month to date both online and live. i felt really good i was putting a lot of work and concentration into poker and it was starting to show and i really liked it. the next month just started off with a bang and i was again on a heater for the begining of the month. by this time it was getting close to the end of my vegas trip. i didnt have a deffinit date that i needed to be back in alaska but it could had been as soon as april 15th or as late as june 1st but it was kind of a wait and see thing. the month was going really well for me with poker live and online. and finishing the month i again had the most profit i made in a single month. live was 3000$ and online was about 300$ (all my monthly profits are to the right on this blog page) i was now sitting on a decent roll. i started live with 4000$ and was now sitting at 13000$. i was pretty shocked but verry pleased with my results. going to vegas i had no idea what to expect and with my previous losing years in poker my plan was to just be able to break even while enjoying poker, so i deffinitely exceeded my expectations.

then somthing drastic and horrible happend to me as well as the online poker community. on april 15th the doj finally cracked down on online poker and no u.s. players were able to play. it was pretty harsh and i didnt know what to think. i was still playing live poker so that was all fine and danddy, but my plan was that once i got back to alaska i was going to start 24 tabling 25nl and start making some decent side money and kind of take it to a next level and now online poker is down the drain for now. it sucks but thats how it is. i dont plan on going into any details about it but im pretty confident that it will be legalized in the the next couple years so for now online is on hold for me. more importantly though i had talked to my summer job and they said that work would probablly start up later this year so i was going to be able to stay in vegas for a bit more. up to that point i was playing more in the 1/3nl games around town more than i was the 1/2nl games. you might not think it makes that much of a difference but it actually does and i prefer the 1/3 games over the 1/2 games. not cause of the money but i feel more in control at the 1/3 tables. besides that though i was now starting to think about 2/5nl i was talking to people about the games and trying to figure out the style of play that occurs on the 2/5 tables. at the begining of the trip i thaught that it would be awesome to be able to play 2/5 before i left but i kinda thaught it was out of reach. but i was now actually at that point to where 2/5 was actually considerable. i decided to wait a couple of weeks and start the next month at 2/5 and thats just what i did. it was kind of difficult for me to sit at the 2/5 tables becuase i was going to leave in about 2 weeks. i know how varriance works and i was deffinitely affraid of taking a downswing at a higher limit right before i left and lose my profit. that didnt stop me from playing though. the first weeks was a little interesting and i had a few decent scores but i also was out leveling myself a lot but was able to take a step back and recollect everything and play my game. the next week went decent except for the last few days including my last day in vegas when i lost 1000$ in 2 hours. i decided that it was time to call it a trip and i really felt like i was starting to go on a downswing because the whole week was a little rough so instead of staying 2 more weeks i called it good and decided to leave back for alaska. i was able to take 1200$ off the 2/5 tables in 2 weeks so it wasnt all that bad. so from that winter in vegas i was able to make 11000$. 1300$ from online and 9700$ live. and thats my poker story up untill this point. i will be moving to seattle for work this winter and they have poker there so untill then i probablly wont have any more poker playing time but i do think online poker will be back again eventually. my next post im going to do a vegas recap that includes everything i did including poker and other activites i participated in and ill give more details about live poker and everything that goes with living in vegas and the lifestyle so staye tuned and thanks for reading guys!!