VEGAS

Hey guys. I'm pretty beat right now, but I promised myself that I would blog before I went to bed tonight, so hopefully this entry doesn't come out too garbled.

I arrived in Vegas yesterday afternoon. Flight went smoothly, and then got my rental car in a timely fashion. I met Dodgyken and Andr3w for the first time (in person, obviously) when we checked into the house. They are both about what I expected since I have been speaking to them regularly for a while. We get along very well and I'm looking forward to living with them for the entire next 4 weeks. As far as the house goes, it is everything I was hoping and expecting. It's large and works perfectly for accomodating a group of young guys looking to have a fun time. Anyway, my friend Mike (a friend from college who is staying at the house for one week) flew into Vegas a few hours later, and the four of us drove down to the Rio to check out the poker scene.

I was in amazement of seeing the big-name poker players last night. The four of us just railed various WSOP events, smiling as we got to watch people we have idolized for years. Guys like Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Allen Cunningham, Tom Dwan, and others simply have a larger-than-life presence. We were content not even playing poker last night, and just railing these guys. The $5K PLO w/ rebuys event had brought out many great players and condensed them into a few tables.

Today, I headed back to the Rio and played my first live session. I played a short session of 5/10 NL. There were five tables of 5/10 NL running when I got there in the late afternoon, and I must have been seated at the worst table. I quickly found out most of the guys at my table played online poker. I would have left the table but I got lazy because there was a waiting list for 5/10. I got very few cards preflop and just ended up playing pretty snug. I 3-bet light a couple times after I realized I had a pretty tight image at the table, but otherwise I came into zero interesting spots and basically broke even at +$330. My next live session I will probably be going to the Bellagio, as I heard the action for these stakes is pretty good there lately.

I am still on the fence about playing the $2500 six handed event tomorrow. I feel like I played a little hesitant in the cash game today, and that makes me wonder if I will not apply the right amount of aggression tomorrow. I know once I get comfortable with the overall live setting in Vegas that I will be fine, but there is still some kind of mild intimidation factor for me. If I feel this way, I probably should just skip on the event tomorrow. It's honestly 50/50 right now for me, and I believe for Dodgyken as well. I'll just wake up tomorrow morning and see how I feel about it.