BLOG: whereisrivaldo's year

[Rushbie]

Aallright! Tonaight tha better night!
Well have a watersh..t, Cant know howto tel it.
Music, girls, coke, sauna

whothafuuck cares

 

[BillyR23]

Well done @whereisrivaldo 🆒 👍

[whereisrivaldo]

Thanks a lot guys! Hope to see all of you in Copenhagen!

@MathrimC I kinda prefer it to be the final table if I have to go to the feature table.:haha:

Now just gotta learn some Hold'em too..

[whereisrivaldo]

Moving on up aaaand down with SNGs

I'm a big fan of the 'hide balance' option in the poker client. Since there's no possibility to see actual EV-adjusted graphs of my cash game hands, I think I don't even need to follow my results that closely. Basically I only check my bankroll on Sundays when I make my weekly withdraw. I withdraw a waving percentage between 1-5% of my bankroll as a little paycheck for the week. I keep track of my withdraws and every month try to beat previous month's total of 'paychecks'. This way I get the big picture how I'm doing at the tables without worrying about daily swings. I think not following daily results really help me on the mental side of the game. I feel like it's easier to keep my focus on just making the best decision in every situation when I don't know if I'm up or down for the session, the day or the week.

Ironically, I really like following other Community members blogs and challenges that keep accurate track of bankroll. So you guys inspired me to keep track and draw a graph of my Sit & Gos for the Moving On Up promo.

I gotta say I've never been into SNGs. Nevertheless I didn't want to miss an easy ~300% rakeback promo.

€1 SNGs were a pretty uneventful grind. €2s are clearly the toughest games online so nothing for me there. With €4s I started like I was some MathrimC-like wizard but after a nice streak I met the other side of the variance and finished the SNGs with the result of -5,23€ and ROI of -1,89%.

Well, it was okay practice for tournaments generally. I played around a lot with MathrimC's ICM calculator and feel like I got something out of it. I also watched some Sit & Go training videos, but mainly to fall asleep at night. 

Still not into SNGs.

♠️

I'm one flopped full house (or better) away from my next challenge point reward and after that I'm gonna take some time off. Maybe I tune in for the Community League on Thursday. But probably back on Sunday with a big MTT session, then some heavy volume on cash games before the football season begins.

I know I've been mainly writing in this blog about everything else but my main game, cash PLO. That's partly conscious decision and partly me not knowing what I would like to write about it. In next few posts I think I'll open up my poker background and my current daily routines, so there might be some PLO involved too. 😃

[Rushbie]

" I also watched some Sit & Go training videos, but mainly to fall asleep at night." 
🤣🤣

[whereisrivaldo]

Twitch chat goes:

And I'm like:

:Happyshy: 

 

[whereisrivaldo]

Just a quick update on the trophy count. :peace: 

[whereisrivaldo]

Daaamn this a fun game. We are playing for a two-figure trophy but I'm trying so f*cking hard to control my nerves and play my best. 😀

But there it is! A Community trophy. After one of the most intense and fun heads up matches I've ever played, gg @AlexandraIoana!

[whereisrivaldo]

Whatisuprivaldo

Okay, I think I might have run out of tournaments to bust for a second, so time for a little update.

The blog has been quiet lately and I'm afraid during the summer it might stay this way. I've been working on some blog posts when I've been too tired to play/study, but they're still far from finished. 

The american football season started, I put a lot of hours in my nlhe mtt studies and played some scoops. But for new trophy pics, I always have to come back to Unibet's small field PLOs.

I'm now hanging in my hotel room, 20th floor on top of Casino Copenhagen, following how my football team is doing in their game back home. I played the UO main event yesterday. Busted after eight hours, richer only in experience. But it was cool.

Many years ago in my first +1k€ live event I got Jeans89 mumbling about not getting respect for his utg open as I 3bet him again. I thought that would be my coolest live poker moment forever. :laugh:

But I think yesterday is going to top that as I got to play with Isildur1 for almost 4 hours. You were really close to getting whereisrivaldo vs isildur1 on the live stream, but  he busted just two hands after they told us we would be the next featured table. 

After the main I late regged the turbo PLO event. Had a deep run but busted in a pretty nasty flip before the money.

Today I think I'm just playing the Community freeroll. Tomorrow probably the progressive knock out.

[SkilfulPoker]

Nice one! Enjoy the remainder of your stay in Copenhagen! 

I liked this: 

"richer only in experience. But it was cool."

Have a nice weekend :Thumbsup:

[whereisrivaldo]

Copenhagen Trip Report - Part I

Thursday

Traveling day. But my flight to Copenhagen wasn't until the evening. 

One episode of The O.C. with breakfast. Of course it happened to be the saddest episode of the whole series. My Thursday plans were supposed to be just anything that would take my mind off from poker. I had been studying Hold'em tournaments for eight to ten hours the previous few days, coming close to an information overload and a burnout. I wanted to get the thirst for playing poker back before Friday, when I was going to play the Day 1B of the UO Main Event. But not like this.

To get all the sadness out of my mind, I watched some live poker. An EPT final table from last year with players like Stevie Chidwick, Ole Schemion, Mustapha Kanit, Ivan Luca, Igor Kurganov, one of the Greenwood brothers.. You know how you unconsciously pick up habits from the characters of TV series you follow? Well, I didn't really mind if I would have turned into one of those bosses for the rest of the week. While watching, I ran random shove spots as a final quiz to see how well I had my push/fold and call ranges memorized.

Close enough! 

I quickly packed. 2.5 hour drive to the airport. After Formula 1 free practices (it was Monaco Grand Prix, gotta watch the practices too), I took a peak how the UO live stream was looking and who was playing Day 1A. But I couldn't really focus on the stream. I was getting nervous. Not really about the poker, but rather that it was going to be my first time traveling abroad alone.

On the airport I was looking at the passengers waiting at my gate, thinking how many was traveling to Copenhagen to play some cards. And actually, about 40% looked like they could've been. A lot of young guys who seemed like they spend a fair share of their days behind computer screens. Then the guy sitting next to me heard someone say something that made him jump up, pull out a small red box out of his pocket and go up to him. Suddenly everyone was pulling their decks out ... and a huge Magic the Gathering etc strategy discussion group was starting to escalate.

Pretty close again!

The flight was quick and smooth. I've been to Copenhagen before as a teenager on a family road trip to World Cup in Germany. But nothing seemed very familiar (which just means I didn't spot the Tivoli) on the cab ride to the hotel. Unibet's welcome desk was already closed for the day, but the cute hotel receptionist guessed I was there to play some poker.

"You think you're gonna win the tournament?"  

I answered something stupid she had probably heard a hundred times that day. I went up to my room. The view was amazing. The sun was about to go down. I turned on the live stream from downstairs, went big with the room service, and spent the night thinking something better I could've said to her.

[whereisrivaldo]

Copenhagen Trip Report - Part II

friday

9:00 alarm clock, a cold shower and I was properly awoken to the day I had been looking forward to. I went downstairs to find something that was called Super Breakfast Buffet. And it was very good.

After that I visited Unibet's welcome desk and got the info pack, a wind jacket from my country host and most importantly some toothpaste from the consierge.

Back to my room. One hour until Day 1B of the Main begins. I  put on a random MTT video, just to get my thought processes going. Just to help me get into the zone quicker and prevent the situation where I blankly stare at the first cards I get dealt and realize I have no idea what to think or do. 

Just before 12:00 I headed downstairs to sign up at the casino. Poker room was still pretty quiet. However, we got the 'Shuffle up and deal!' from Kenny and started 5-handed at my table. 

The Main Event

30k starting stack

Level 1               50/100

One guy, a nice Dane,  kept taking down all the pots in the beginning. He also kept showing his flopped sets and big pocket pairs, keeping it friendly, but also kind of giving that fun player vibe. The pace of play was pretty quick and I feel like we got to play a lot of hands pre-ante.

The first pot I got to play:

               #1

               I open from the Button to 275 with A7o, older gentleman in the Big Blind defends

               flop 883r - check, I bet 250, call

               turn 6 - check, check

               river 2 - check, check

               BB shows 65s and wins the pot

Next time I was on the button they folded to me again:

               #2

               I open to 275 with A6o, another older gentleman in the Small Blind calls, Big Blind calls

               flop JJ4r - check, check, I bet 275, both fold

Touchdown celebrations for the first pot I ever  won in the Unibet Open. And for the third orbit in a row, I got to play my button unopened and found an ace:

               #3

               I open to 275 with A4o, the gentlemen in the blinds fold

I really had no plans to start attacking blinds this early, but with picking up Ax on the button three times in a row, a little bit of dynamics had started to develop with the two gentlemen to my left. I had now shown I've read a poker book from the 2000s and am going to be aggressive from the button, and they had shown me they might have watched a video from the 2010s and won't be giving their blinds to me everytime.

Our table was filling up pretty quickly. Eighth player to sit down was Isildur1. Everyone just looked at each other. Regulars were trying to look like they didn't care. Older guys probably weren't sure who he was. At least the local guys seemed to share my excitement as I shouted a cheerful 'Hello!'. He instantly replied 'Tjenare!', already having a soul read on me, at least on the department of languages I understand. 

Level 2               100/200     25

Antes kick in. We were still deep. I got a nice image going and felt good about the possibilities in the tournament. Table was now full and I got some idea about everyone.

Seat 1:   Isildur1 - shirt wrinkled, phone screen cracked, poker mind like no one else

Seat 2:   Friendly Dane - plays poker for fun

Seat 3:   Sunglassed Dane - lots of friends also playing the tournament, probably for fun

Seat 4:   Serious Dane - middle-aged, pretty solid player

Seat 5:   Me - just happy to be here

Seat 6:   Older gentleman UK - pretty solid, tight player

Seat 7:   Older gentleman not UK - solid, very aggressive player

Seat 8:   Young Scandinavian - headphones, red cheecks, very good (probably online) player

Seat 9:   Romanian guy - live mtt reg, very sharp dude, makes sure dealers won't be making mistakes

Not really a table that would allow me to get too much out of line. I was mainly looking for spots to play with the Danes to my right. 

               #4

               everyone folds to SB, Serious Dane min-raises, I 3-bet to 1200 from BB with AQo, he folds

               #5

               Friendly Dane opens to 425 from CO, I call from BB with Td9d

               flop Ad9h7d - I check, he bets 800, I call 

               turn 6c - check, check

               river 3d - I bet 2100, he tank-folds

"A Finnish flush??"

I just smiled back

               #6

               Friendly Dane opens to 425 from MP1, I 3-bet to 1200 from CO with AdQs, MP1 calls

               flop Tc7s6c - check, I bet 1800, call

               turn Qd - bet 4600, I fold

Had to think this one through, but I felt pretty good about the fold. 

Last hand before the first break Isildur1 attacks my big blind for the first time.

               #7

               Isildur1 opens to 500 from HJ, Sunglassed Dane flats from BTN, I fold 32o from BB

I had an exciting thought process about how I'm defending before I had looked at my cards. But 32o was not in those ranges and I didn't get the story for the grand children.

I went to the first break with 29k.

Level 3               150/300     50

               #8

              Sunglassed Dane opens to 700 from UTG+1, I 3-bet to 2100 from MP with AQo

               everyone folds

Next hand Sunglassed Dane opened again. This time 800 from UTG. I stalled a second with KTs, really wanting to go for another 3-bet. But I just felt like I shouldn't. He showed AA after everyone folded. 

Skills.

No, I was scared about the guys behind me.

                #9

               Friendy Dane opens to 675 from CO, I defend my BB with Kc4c

               flop AcJs7c - I check, bet 900, I call

               turn 8c - check, check

               river 3c - I bet 2300, raise to 5000, I put him all-in for 15k, he folds

I was shaking my head right after the snap-fold. I got too excited and shoved the river pretty quickly, just thinking that tank-shoving looks way too strong. But with little thinking I would have realized not to 100% deny him from putting anymore chips in the pot.  

Level 4               200/400     50

Not much happening for me. I opened a couple of times, defended my big blind a few times, and gave up on the flop or turn. My stack was falling back under the starting stack. 

We got the notice from the tournament staff that we would be the next feature table on the stream. Isildur1 said it's been many many years since his last TV-table appearance. Two hands later he check-shoved the flop with a flush draw and got called by top pair.  Before the tournament I wasn't sure if the feature table would suit me and if I could play my own game there. But in that moment I believe everyone at the table (expect the guy with top pair, not sure about Isildur1) was rooting for a flush turn or river.

Top pair holds. No one was surprised when the move to feature table got cancelled. Empty seat was filled by Jasper, a very nice Dutch guy, also the last ever EPT winner.

Level 5               300/600     75

I felt like I straight up folded every hand. My image turned into a complete nit, but I couldn't even find spots to really leverage that. 

Level 6              400/800     100

Game was getting pretty shortstacked as they hadn't broken our table and all the new players to the table were also shortstacks. Jasper and Romanian Guy showed what happens when there's two EPT regs in the blinds and it folds to them.

                #10

                Romanian Guy (20k) limps from SB with 44, Jasper (26k) shoves from BB with K3o, SB calls

                Jasper wins the flip

Just before the dinner break Romanian Guy's seat was filled by another boss from Romania. I introduced myself to NMPfan and the very next hand he was the big blind and I found a long-lost shovable hand.

                #11

                I shove 12k from HJ with ATo, everyone folds

Happy to get it throught but made me feel like a d*ck.

I made it to dinner break with about 12k. After a great dinner I checked the upcoming blind levels and made sure I knew my 12bb-8bb shoving chart by heart. Next level antes were going to be 10% and after that they went up to 16,6%, so I really wanted to hang in there for an hour and then start shipping very light. 

Level 7              500/1000     100

Pretty quickly after the dinner NMPfan found a pair to shove and someone found a bigger pair to call. GG. 

Shortly after I got it in.

                #12 

                Sunglassed Dane shoves 8k from UTG+1, I shove 11k from MP with AQo, others fold

                Sunglassed Dane holds with KK

Down to 3 big blinds. J5o in UTG+2, I fold. J4o in UTG+1, I fold.

                #13

                99 in UTG, I shove 2.8k, player who took NMPfan's seat calls from MP, others fold

                MP shows AA and holds

GG. I went back to my room. I opened my laptop and realized the PLO side event had just begun. First I sent the bad news to friends back home waiting for a big victory party, and I was headed back to the casino.

 Turbo Pot Limit Omaha

There was a long line at the registration so my late reg went little deeper than I wanted. But I was happy to see there still was some playability left when I got to the table. Starting stack 10k.

First hand I got dealt:

                #1                75/150

                I open to 400 with KdKs6d5s from UTG, 5 players call

                flop 2c4d8s - I check, check, check, check, bet 2000, I fold and everyone else folds

Overpair, double-gutter and two backdoor flushdraws. I could have easily just stacked there. But I just had got there to have a beer and play the great game, and hadn't even ordered my beer yet, so it would have been pretty annoying to get busted there by a random two pair. 

I'm happy I stayed there, because the atmosphere in the PLO event was just awesome. It was held in the dark corner of the poker room. Everyone was drinking, talking, having fun. There weren't the same excitement and tension in the air as in the Main Event, but this was just much more enjoyable for me. Of course I was way more comfortable with four cards than two. Also the table was soft. I got playable cards and managed to get my stack growing pretty quickly.

                #2                150/300

                UTG limps and 5 players limp behind him, I'm check my BB with QJ93

                flop QQ6r - check, I bet 950, UTG calls, others fold

                turn J - I bet 1800, UTG pots close to all-in, I raise him all-in

Before announcing call, he slammed the table with 66xx for a flopped full house. The dearer goes "Ooh, that won't be enough."  and I showed my boat and held. Villain grabbed his beer and stormed off talking languages.

Otherwise it was just steady grind without big pots until my bustout hand. We were down to twenty-something from about eighty players. I think only final table got paid. My new buddy with a French name and a Russian accent opened from UTG and I found three aces in my hand:

                #3                500/1000

               UTG opens to 2500, I pot 9000 (left 12k behind) from UTG+1 with AhAsAd9d, just UTG calls

                flop Jd9h3d - UTG puts me all-in, I call

                UTG shows Jc7c7h6s and wins the flip

And a pretty exciting day of poker was done for me.

[whereisrivaldo]

Copenhagen Trip Report - Part III

Saturday

Day 2 of the Main would have been nice, but it was also nice to wake up without plans or obligations in the morning. After a long breakfast I had to get outside. The weather was great and I hadn't been out in the daylight yet on this trip. I walked and explored the city and on the way back I went around the little lakes by the hotel. Very recharging walk, but why does it feel like the whole Copenhagen goes up and down like you're on a boat? 

Then it was F1 Qualification time, perfectly served from hotel room bed with hotel room coffee. Then again downstairs to see what's going on at the casino. Railing live poker isn't really that exciting so I pretty quickly headed back to my room to watch the stream instead while waiting for dinner. 

At dinner I already had the Community Freeroll and the player's party in mind, and chose the drinks accordingly. 

Community Freeroll

At pre-registration it seemed the Freeroll would be played by Marco, ReCorph, DaVitsche and a few community members. But as the word got out it looked like every random Unibet staff member regged in. First round of drinks was ordered and the game was on. ReCorph started strong by picking up aces every other hand. Otherwise it was Robin and the French ambassador Quentin who tried to keep our table's VPIP high. 

Suddenly all the eSports guys decided to late reg and were seated all at one new table, making the experience level of the three tables rather unbalanced. Quentin was the lucky one to get a move to their table, but interestingly no one from that table made it to the final table.

Neither did I. I won one 3-way all-in with QQ against JTs and TT. But blinds went up quickly and soon I was shoving 83s from SB with 7bb stack and got called blindly by BB's 5bb stack. BB turned over J9o and I was crippled. Rest of my chips went in when NMPfan joined the table with under 1bb stack and announced he's got a bounty on his head and he's going to be blindly all-in. We got it 3-way all-in between community members and Von Grundal's JTs beat my 97o and NMPfan's Q3o.   

Focus back to the open bar. The final table offered actually good entertainment for the live rail birds as blinds were high and some were trying to fold into the money, some were playing their first poker tournament and some were trying to knock themselves out from the tournament to go watch boxing. Very fun tournament overall.

Player's Party

We had a plan to meet at the hotel lobby to get taxis together and the eSports guys happened to have the same plan. The wait for taxis took some time but I think no one minded. Hotted got shots for everybody. I railed Swifty getting coached at HeartStone by Thijs. Really fun and welcoming guys, and I ended up sharing the taxi to the club with them.

I got no details from the club, but I remember having an excellent time. Just imagine a club full of people, but literally everyone shares your love for poker. 

After the club we took the long way home with Uhlen and ReCorph. We wanted to find another club and followed random drunken people to a shady looking alley to find very shady looking night club. We hung outside the club greeting Uhlen's fans and when we decided to go in the bouncer suggested we shoud first get some fresh air outside. We finally realized it's probably better to just get back to the hotel. And at around 6 or 7 in the morning we just managed to do that.

[MathrimC]

Great blog! 😃

[whereisrivaldo]

Copenhagen Trip Report - Part IV

Sunday

Without alarm clock, I magically woke up 15 minutes before breakfast buffet closes. I guess there was still appropriate amount of alcohol in my blood, because I was feeling great. A very quick shower and I just made it to breakfast. Just as I took my seat I heard Uhlen's laugh at the breakfast entrance also squeezing in on the last minute. A long breakfast with fresh-looking Robin and not-as-fresh Uhlen and I was back in my room to continue my sleep. 

I woke up to watch the F1 Grand Prix and I wasn't feeling too great anymore. NLHE Progressive Knock-Out side event was starting downstairs at the same time. I really wanted to play that but it was Monano Grand Prix and Kimi Räikkönen was on the pole position. Couldn't miss that.

Well, I watched Formulas for an hour, Kimi lost the lead, and the temptation for some bounties was too much.

No Limit Hold'em Progressive Knock-Out

I regged deep in the late reg and then I had to wait until someone busts as there were no empty seats in the tournament. 5 minutes, and I see some one stand up looking a bit dissapointed. Seat availabe! And I got a seat at a pretty fun table with Lappin, Simpson, Swifty and dBergie. 

The first hand I got dealt, I realized my brain definitely wasn't working properly. I couldn't handle my chips at all, let alone do good poker decisions. I just had play tight and enjoy the best seat to watch Lappin vs Simpson live battle. And thanks to late regging I was quickly in the push/fold mode. 

Soon Baltic Blonde was also moved to the same table and I was just enjoying the table too much.

               #1               400/800  ante 100

               Lappin shoves 11bb from UTG+2, everyone folds, I  (13bb) fold JTs from BB  

I folded slowly and bit reluctantly, but that should have definitely been a call. It's close to nash equilibrium call, so with the bounty equity it's a very +EV call. Plus Lappin was the shortstack and I was the second shortest, and by folding I became the shortstack, losing all my future bounty EV. If I ran the numbers correctly, I should have called there even with 65s. 

After the table broke, I shipped my short stack in with K2s, got five callers, made a flush, but someone made the nut flush. GG.

Later on I had dinner with Marco and NMPfan. Then just watched the final table stream from my room. And my first Unibet Open experince was about done.

Monday

I flew back home. My mom picked me up from the airport. She just knew I had bricked a lot of tournaments on this 'free' trip so she asked if I had at least learned something? I said I learned how fun poker trips can be and that I should do a lot more of these. :Happy:

               

 

[whereisrivaldo]

Why I suddenly have had a lot of time to write blog posts, is because I've been sitting on airports and airplanes for over 40 hours. Last night I finally got into a shower and could rest my head on an actual bed. In viva la f*cking Las Vegas!

I won a 3.5k Las Vegas package from another site a week after UO Copenhagen. I thought about selling the package, because it was pretty short notice to get affordable plane tickets and all my friends were too busy (being broke) to go with me. But then I thought about the 18 year old high roller kid who couldn't wait to turn 21 and go to Vegas. Now at 26, he can finally stop shaking his head. I made it here. 

The package includes $1111 buy-in to WSOP Event #74 The Little One for One Drop and seven nights at Aria. If I continue my habit of never cashing or even making day twos in live tournaments, there will be a lot of time to spend money and gamble. But the plan is to put enough volume on cash games and side tournaments to at least get some of the spendings back. Hopefully all. 

Playing at WSOP is of course a dream-come-true but the big dream is take a shot at Bobby's Room. That's probably the main reason I study mixed games one day per week without ever playing them. So if I bink a bracelet and $500k I'll do my best to make also that dream come true. And because of tax-reasons I think it's not even as stupid idea as it sounds. But then there's also the possibility that I break even on this trip even if I get my one time at the WSOP. :laugh:

Oh well. 

I'll try to make short daily updates this time. Keeping count how much I'm spending and winning/losing.

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 1

I came here a day early. I had first night booked at The Orleans, a 3-star casino resort little off the Strip. I knew there runs a lot of Omaha variations and it got good ratings online. 

I got there at 9 in the evening after my last flight got cancelled and I flew here four hours later than planned. The first room they gave had a very loudly dripping bathtub faucet. I was almost too tired to go complain about, but I was afraid I couldn't sleep there. I'm happy I went to back to the frond desk because they gave me a better room and waived off my resort fee. The hotel is a bit dated, but in a classy old school Vegas style. But overall I thought it's closer to the actual 3 stars than the 4.1 that customer have rated it on Hotels.com.

-$30 taxi from airport to the Orleans (the driver did not take the shortest way to destination)

-$10 two water bottles and salted nuts from the gift shop

All I did was sleep.

[Rushbie]

Awesome report, man  :laugh:

[Rushbie]

" That's probably the main reason I study mixed games one day per week without ever playing them."
Well that's one way to go. You can't really blame anyone but yourself. Even fishes have a lateral-line sense.
If you can't feel it, don't play it.

[whereisrivaldo]

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 2

I checked out at the Orleans and went to explore the casino. 

-$15 Grilled chicken salad + coffee + water for breakfast at Fuddruckers

I wandered to the poker room. Average age was close to the retirement at 1pm. Stud and O8 tournaments were running. Some cash games too, but not really favourable Omaha variations for me. 

+$18 3 hours of $1/$3 No Limit Hold'em at the Orleans

Pretty fun table, until a middle-aged guy on steroids joined it and complained about everything (to justify not tipping?). Then I just grabbed something to eat before the move to Aria

-$12 Two filled croissants + coffee + water for lunch at Java Vegas

-$14 Taxi from the Orleans to Aria

And oh boy Aria is sweet. I finished the Copenhagen Trip Report, watched some WSOP ME from PokerGo and then went to explore the Aria neighborhoods and grabbed some essentials from a drug store.

-$34 Food + water + essentials from CVS

Trip total: -$97

[whereisrivaldo]

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 3

Went looking for some breakfast from the Strip.

-$14 breakfast from Subway

Afterwards I walked around the Strip and visited a few casinos. I would say the Strip is a lot more walkable than they say and you definitely don't need to take taxi/uber everywhere.

-$4 coffee from Starbucks at Excalibur

Also happened to catch the Bellagio fountain show.

And it was pretty amazing. Gotta revisit at night time some day.

-$4 water + coke from CVS

Then back to Aria to do some prep for the tournament and clean up for dinner. Our host took all the package winners to CUT at the Venetian for some steak. We had a very fun dinner and it was the best steak of my life for sure. 

At night we took uber to Rio to pre-register for the next day's tournament just avoid the queues and to make sure we don't keep drinking and postpone the start to Day 1C.

 

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 4

Game day! 

-$58 breakfast from room service

The morning I spent doing the whole mental, physical & strategical preparation. And just before 3pm I took a taxi to Rio.

-$16 taxi from Aria to Rio

A looong day at the Rio. We started with 10k, I peaked at 25k, but bagged just 13k for 11bbs on Friday's Day 2. I'm happy to finally make a day 2 at something, even happier that it's the WSOP. My starting table was pretty serious one with Chris Ferguson in it. The second table for the rest of the night was amazing, though good players, but a very fun bunch of guys and we agreed to go play some volley ball together on our day-off. :Rofl:

-$9 snacks at Rio

-$6 taxi from Rio to Aria (shared with another player)

The trip total: -$208

[whereisrivaldo]

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 5

After a long day at the Rio, I just wanted to chill for a day. At 3pm I got out of bed, went to get some breakfast, and just then hanged out at the pools in Aria.

-$32 breakfast at Rock & Reilly's on the Stirp

-$21 mojito at the pool bar in Aria

At 8.45pm I noticed I had gotten a 9pm dinner invitation. I quickly headed to Red8 at Wynn to meet the head of poker, their ambassador and a couple of package winners for some Asian food. They were just finishing a poker session so I started a slot session while waiting for them. Luckily not for long.

-$18 taxi from Aria to Wynn

-$5 slots at Wynn 

Mongolian beef, my new favourite food, good Asian beers and suddenly I was coming along with the plan to go out despite tomorrow's Day 2 of the Little One Drop. We took a limo from the Wynn, stopped at the liqour store, and then just blasted around Vegas for an hour before arriving to Cosmopolitan. 

-$75 my cut of the limo

-$115 round of drinks at the Chandelier in Cosmopolitan (lost a flip)

 

 

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 6

I felt pretty okay. The morning I spent doing the whole go get a subway, gatorade & new underwear (cheaper than laundry at Aria) preparation.  Just before 2pm I got an uber with another player to Rio.

-$12 subway at Monte Carlo

-$18 gatorade + water + underwear from CVS

We started the Day 2 with about 750 left and 659 got paid. I shoved the very first hand KQo for 11bbs from UTG. No calls. Then I folded down to 6bbs and shoved ATs from SB over a raise and won a flip against KK. The next hand after that I shoved 13bbs with J8o from BTN and lost to SB's AJs. 27 places from the money. F*ck.

I had only heard dealers shout 'Seat open!' a couple of times and wasn't close to an info TV so I didn't know we were that close to the money. Antes were 16% but I'm not sure J8o is actually a shove there even without the bubble approaching. The blinds were good pros with big stacks who aren't over-folding. Watching the hand-for-hand start pretty soon after my bustout, I wasn't feeling too good about my shove. 

I took a cab with the site's head of poker to Wynn to play some PLO.

-$8 taxi (shared) from Rio to Wynn

-$205 5 hours of $1/$2 PLO at Wynn

Then we took an uber back to Aria to have dinner with one of the package winners who had just cashed $2.3k in the Little One Drop.

-$75 dinner at Bardot in Aria

We got a great idea to put $60 each into combined roulette bankroll and try to spin it up. We did good, cocktails were arriving non-stop, and of course eventually we lost all and more.

-$120 roulette at Aria

-$8 beers at Todd English P.U.B. in Aria (happy hour)

It was 1am. One departed to bed but two of us took an uber to the Venetian for cash games.

+$630 3 hours of $1/$2 PLO at the Venetian

Trip total: -$290

[Rushbie]

lol

[whereisrivaldo]

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 7

I finally got a good night of sleep and woke up at 2pm. 

-$26 breakfast at Burger Lounge in Aria

The only plan for the day was to go see a Cirque du Soleil show. My expectations were very high, and Mystére at Treasure Island definitely delivered. After the show we had dinner at an Italian place at the Venetian. Then some might say it got out of line.

Came back to Aria the next day and woke up with about $300 cash gone. Hopefully I didn't also use my credit card.:happyshy:

-$300 a night out

Trip total: -$616 

[whereisrivaldo]

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 8

Hangover. 

-$38 a ton of takeout from Burger Lounge in Aria

At night I wanted to go for one more round of tourism on the Strip.

-$4 iced tea from Jean Philippe's in Aria

I also checked the Bellagio from the inside, just to see the poker room.  Crazy waiting lines, no small PLOs, so I didn't even think about playing. But someday..

-$17 snacks + drinks from Walgreens

Trip total: -$675

[whereisrivaldo]

Breaking even in Las Vegas - Day 9

I checked out from Aria, left the luggage to the bell desk and went to get some breakfast from the Strip before heading to the airport.

-$25 breakfast at Rock & Reilly's on the Strip

-$14 uber from Aria to the airport

Making the trip total: -$714. That does not include random tips, cash withdrawal expenses and the money I spent while traveling. Not quite 'breaking even' but I feel like that's very reasonable damage on what I got in return and experienced on this trip. Of course it helped a lot that there were under 10 package winners and just few of us hung out with the site's head of poker who had a big budget to spend with us. 

I thought I would be playing more poker on this trip, but most days I just didn't feel like playing. It's kinda tough to get into a good routine of food, sleep and exercise that would be optimal for grinding, while trying to get the most out of Vegas. But I don't really mind it, the PLO games I did play weren't even that good.

♠️

It's now been a week since I got home. I've had crazy dreams every night and I've been waking up without having any idea where I am. I actually had to google if these are symptoms of Legionnaire's, but luckily it just might be the Jet-Lag's.

I'm very thankful for this trip. But most of all I'm just so happy and amazed that I survived from this trip. I mean I survived:  

          - sleeping with the bums at Heathrow Airport
          - bubbling my first WSOP event
          - calling Johnny Lodden's son as 'she'
          - out from the table games with money left in my pocket
          - out from the strip clubs with money left in my pocket
          - drinking Las Vegas tap water one very hangoverish morning
          - without getting married
          - without going broke
          - without dying. 

I survived Vegas.

And I didn't even bother changing my cash back to Euros. I'm going back someday.