There it was... gone!

Lesson learned on the trip... A week in Vegas just isn't quite long enough... two weeks may well be too long, but I think 10 days is about right.

Apologies to my reader for not updating from Vegas as promised, I took my laptop but there were problems with the hotel wi-fi and I was unable to get an internet connection. Fortunately I did keep 'a few' notes, however there are some gaps... my memory really isn't what it used to be!! ;-(

So, we'll start at the beginning... other than a two hour delay to the flight, the journey there was un-eventful, the pre-booked stretch limo was waiting at the airport and we were soon at the hotel. We decide not to waste any time and after a quick shower, head over to the Rio to register for a 6pm $125 tournament... only to find they don't have a 6pm tourney. Instead we play a bit of 1/3 NL cash, I quickly took my $300 buy-in upto around $850 and it did cross my mind to quit and book an early profit, however I decide to continue... big mistake!! Soon after I get sucked into a hand and find myself with top pair (okay it was only 7s), and a huge open-ended straight and flush draw... miss the lot and lose a $600 pot to an over-pair. By the time Rich (+$20'ish) and I (-$100'ish) cashed out, Paul had already left and gone back to the hotel (with a bit over $200 profit I believe). Me and Rich feel we still have a bit more poker in us and, since we are only there for 7 days, want to make the most of every day so we head off to Ceasar's Palace for their 11pm $150 NLH tournament. Rich made his exit on the last hand before the first break, while I persevered and made it the last two tables (of 5 I think), before going out in 13th or 14th place. So at about 3am we decide that it's time to call it a day... it had been a 30 hour day after all.

Up, showered and having breakfast at about 8.30 Saturday morning, I recieve a text from Paul; he's entered in the 9.00am re-buy at the Rio. Assuming (wrongly) that he had also texted Rich, I decide to go over and play also. The original plan had been to play the 10.00am $22 mixed FL & NL tournament at the Gold Coast as a bit of fun to start the day. I fail to make any impression on the Rio tournament, other than being the only person to have multiple re-buys!! Paul, however, went on to finish 2nd for $396. We had all agreed that we would swop 15% (after deducting buy-in) of each other whenever we played the same tournament, so at least I got $51 back reducing the cost of my re-buy frenzy to a less embarrassing figure. Rich meanwhile had played the 10.00am at the GC and his personal challenge had begun... to make it through the first hour and into the NL stage of this tourney. I'm not too sure how we spent the rest of the afternoon, may have been a bit of a cash session at the Venetian (?), anyway... Saturday evening we definitely all played the 8.00pm $150 NLH freezeout at Binions. I took a share of an even 6-way chop, for $650, a satisfactory end to the day. Paul & Rich suffered fairly early exits and took the opputunity to explore Freemont Street, I would suggest checking their respective blogs for more detail!

.
.
FURTHER DETAILS TO FOLLOW (a lot on my plate at the moment!)
.
.

To give some idea of the kind of last night we had, check out this pic of Rich, taken while waiting at LV airport...

This time tomorrow...

... we'll be in Vegas, Baby!!

So, the next update will be from the gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada... hopefully reporting that 'The Mob' have hit the ground running, we are all in profit after the first night and I have won (or at least not lost) the last longer in the Gold Coast, 10:00am Saturday morning, $22 tourney. This is a 1000 chip / 20 min freezeout and the first three levels are 'Fixed Limit'!!! First out buys dinner for the other two. If any one of us lasts into the 2nd hour and the NL stage, I'll be extremely suprised... the poker Gods will have indeed smiled on the fortunate one.

So, a quick round-up of the cash grind... Another decent session last night and I am now standing at $843 profit... The full bankroll inc. original deposit and rakeback is now a few cents under $1550... This is officially the best run I've ever had playing 6-max cash games and I think most of the credit has to go CardRunners and more specifically Thomas (aka Brystmar, aka MicoTX, aka marantz), whose SSNL series of videos set the foundation for my far more disciplined approach to playing cash. $99 sign-up and $27 a month seems quite expensive at first glance, but certainly for me it is money well spent.

Tonight is the penultimate event in the Ladbrokes WSOP league, a decent cash in that would be most welcome... apart from the fact that that would mean sitting up until about 02.00am - we leave for the airport at 06.00!!!

I can dodge bullets, Baby!

The good run has continued over the last couple of days and we are now in un-charted territory again... the current profit stands at $717, plus rakeback. This heady height is partly due to the hand below, which happened earlier this evening... how many 'bullets' did I have to dodge here -

5 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:

Hero		($48.28)
CO		($47.65)
BTN		($72.44)
SB		($20.45)
BB		($51.75)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is UTG

Hero raises to $2, 2 folds, SB calls $1.75, BB calls $1.5

Flop: ($6, 3 players)
SB bets $3, BB calls $3, Hero raises to $18, SB calls $15, BB goes all-in $47.25, Hero goes all-in $28.28, SB goes all-in $0.7

Turn: ($121.23, 3 players)

River: ($121.23, 3 players)

Final Pot: $121.23
SB shows:
BB shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $114.26 ( won +$65.98 )
SB lost -$20.70
BB lost -$52.25

By my reckoning, they have 18 outs between them, giving me about 26% equity in the pot, and just for a change my hand holds up... happy days!

Maybe it's a sign... I'm going to do OK in Vegas and for the third trip in a row bring back more money than I take. Well, it's only three days away, we'll soon know.

A so, so week...

Well the cash balance is a bit higher than in the last post, but the week was spoiled by another brutal session... if only I could see those sessions looming before it's too late!


On the brighter side, I've just been paid my Full Tilt rakeback for April (~$114) and now have the Eurolinx rakeback set up so I can withdraw it myself at anytime, I have taken the ammount earnt in April ($29) and I think I will continue to withdraw it monthly. So that was $144 for April and $62 for March, a total of $206 so far, which is now sat in my Neteller account and will be withdrawn when it equals my original dposit of $500.

Once I have recouped that $500 through rakeback I will be embarking on a regime of regular (regular may not be the right word!) withdrawals. These withdrawals with seriously hinder the rise through the limits, but if I stick to it I think it will make this venture much more rewarding, in more ways than one.

The following picture kind of illustrates my plan... I must point out that this is not my idea, it is my adaptation of "The Stairway to High Stakes", by Inspiron & Jimmy Rare, which I discovered on the CardRunners website.

So, as you can see, I will be sticking at 50NL (25c/50c) until I have withdrawn $2k AND my bankroll is up to $2.2k. This is up to 22 buy-ins at 100NL and I plan to work on 30 buy-ins at all higher levels (should I ever get there!!)... obviously there are points when I will drop back a level if things don't go too well.

I feel I should set some sort of targets on timescales for reaching certain milestones but the way the graph has been having long sideways spells I don't really know what would be realistic. So, for now, I have the target of reaching 3500 'raked hands' by June 18th, on Eurolinx, to clear my $250 deposit bonus.

In other news... the team scored decent points in the Ladbrokes WSOP league tournament this week, I finished 43rd and 'madmac' made 25th, alas no cash for either of us. We are now in 8th place, but with two games to go and 500 or so points to make up on the leaders, I think all hopes of winning the league have now passed. I did manage to get some big hands hold for a change, but didn't win one race from behind... fortunately on all but the last one I had plenty of chips!

The cash rollercoaster continues...

I knew the good run reported last time couldn't continue, but was it really necessary for the Full Tilt RNG to hit me hard on three tables all at the same time? Now I don't if it's the same for everyone, but it is not unusual for me to run bad on one table and drop a couple of buy-ins, while more than making up for it on the other table/s. But the session of 25c/50c NL I played on FT last Wednesday was brutal... a loss of $281 in about 90 mins - and I think I was playing quite well?!? I just kept getting my money in with the best hand and getting outdrawn.

The most annoying thing about it is that I hadn't played on FT for a few days, I have doing much better on Eurolinx (Prima/Microgamimg)- see HERE for 30% rakeback. It had been my intention to finish playing on FT at the end of April anyway... wait for my rakeback to be paid, then withdraw all money from FT... and then 'spend' my FT points on a nice jacket. You see when you spend the points they make some deduction from your rakeback, so I want to get the money first! Anyway, the jacket I had my eye on had suddenly gone up in price by 500 points - bastards! And this was why I decided to play another session or two on there... but after that hiding, I didn't play for a day or two... didn't get the extra 500 points... won't get the nice jacket... do I look bovvered???

Thursday evening I contributed my usual $22 to the prize pool of the Ladbrokes League tourney... money goes in on the turn, matey boy hits a 3-outer, goodnight and god bless! Fortunately other team members are consistently getting in the points and I believe we are just about guaranteed a place in the top 30 teams and entry into a 120 man, winner takes all WSOP package freeroll. Incedentally RakeUpdate.com are now offering rakeback at Ladbrokes, at 15% upto the point where Ladbrokes own scheme kicks in.

I didn't play any cash until yesterday, a decent session then and another this morning, both on Eurolinx, and I've clawed back $150 so at least the rollercoaster is on the up slope again...