Lack any sort of creative spark for writing, but I figure I should at least get down the basics of what occurred in Vegas and perhaps learn from the mere experience of putting it down on blog.
First: The trip was immensely solipsistic. Being alone in Vegas is a bit of a soul crushing experience. Everything in Vegas is opposed to the solo traveler. The drunken idiots stumbling about everywhere with their drunken friends, even the families, even the hookers, they all leave one with a sense of utterly irrevocable loneliness. The few times I stumbled home drunk myself, alone like an incredible idiot, I realized that the point of Vegas is not to be in Vegas, but to do silly things with your friends in Vegas. So, the city held basically nothing for me except poker.
As poker took hold as the only thing in my life, I began to lose hold of myself when I started to lose. I lost patience and played even worse. I always overthought live poker, but it got even worse as I started to lose more. Most importantly, I couldn't cope with the losses like I could with online play. In online play perhaps I would play for a few hours, lose some money, and then get my mind off of it by doing other things, relying on the support of my native city and friends and doing so quite easily and naturally. Unfortunately, in Vegas I had no such recourse. Thus I found myself constantly within myself...moping, analyzing, and losing the spirit that I had when I first embarked on this trip. I became negative towards myself and my game, and this had crippling effects on the rest of the trip.
Now I stand home, a poorer but wiser man. I'm not sure how I will cope with losing in live play while I am traveling, if I still end up going on my road trip that is. But I realize I need to take breaks, relax more, and do whatever I need to do to keep my head up high. All that said...I'm not sure if I actually can do that. Right now, I feel quite low. My hopes for the trip have diminished. My future looks a bit bleak. I worry happiness is not something I will aquire anytime soon.
Friends and Women are the two final pieces to this puzzle. I can be happy being alone and successful. Especially if I can successfully embark on creative endeavors alongside poker or whatever means for money making I can find. But it's certainly not the peak of my condition. I need friends, a strong group of friends that allows comraderie and allows me to escape outside of myself. I have no clue how I will find such a group, or how long it will take. What is certain is that on this trip, I will be without it, and that can be very hard to take. This trail of thought haunts me.
I have no prospects regarding women. I don't have any optimism for the future in that regard. This trail of thought haunts me the most. I will have to become incredibly self-realized and successful to be able to live a life without companionship and to be happy with my life at all. My hopes are dimmed signficiantly.
Finally, I lack money for the trip and I can't play poker at my parents house like I planned. This is bad news. I am almost seriously considering installing a separate connection, but that would rqeuire a much longer stay at my parents than I was previously considering. Unfortunately, money concerns might force the issue. I might also move to bountiful and play there, but it is likely my sister would not be incredibly pleased with that turn of events. It is certain that I would be not too pleased, as Park City has beautiful weather to offset the loneliness and boredom...bountiful has mandarin chinese food and that's it.
The future is a bit bleak, but, things change...both world and perception change.
Wednesday
Saturday
Vegas Thus Far
Now: At Tuscany. Recovering from a cold. Poker has been rough the last few days playing sick and mostly online.
The trip thus far: Every hand I get dealt is more experience of myself and the other. I have pretty much immunized myself to live play, for the most part, keeping my heart rate down and not really worrying about the outcome of events. I'm trying to get in the business of faking tells more than I actually have them. The games are not really easy per se, but the players are too loose and have a few fundamental flaws. They bet too often to see where they are at. Semi-bluff raising is very profitable post flop in 2/5 games. Overall I am certainly a winning player in these games.
I have played some PLO and have found that the basic strategy of draw to the nuts is incredibly powerful against the weak opposition. This is an easy, easy game to play profitably live from what I can tell. Of course, it still has that sick variance thing going on.
Getting sick really dampened the whole vegas experience. I was just getting into the groove, my live game becoming more powerful, more comfortable, and then all of the sudden I was struck by a cold and had to put things on the backburner for a while. This also involved me paying for the internet much more than I would have liked to. I am embarassed to admit how much I've spent on the internet thus far in vegas. Damn 14 dollar a day fees.
Psychologically I am dealing ok with the loneliness of being here. Holding up quite well in fact. Having a cell phone is very nice. Travelling will be a much different story. I wonder if it will be more taxing? Or maybe less so. I suppose I'll find out.
Unfortunately, when you have no friends it makes the emptiness of not having any sex or women in life even more apparent. Vegas is a strange place for that, a sort of surreal environment where I don't feel like the women around me exist as real human beings but rather as charactatures. So I guess I don't really feel any opportunities in that department. But I, as always, try my best to ignore that, as I simply do not have the game necessary to attract women successfully in any short-term environment. So I just try to exist and move day by day without concerning myself with this. But, that doesn't change the fact that every day I think about it, and every night I feel a sense of nihilism and wastefulness to my life. The genetics are torn. There's the intelligent/adapative side of me which pushes me away from women, and the fundamental basic side which of course pushes me towards them at all costs. The intelligent side reigns but not without severe costs to my happiness level and perhaps overall sanity.
This, I think, will get easier when I start travelling. If I can keep my brain occupied with different surroundings constantly I think I can keep it less occupied on women or my lack of them.
The trip thus far: Every hand I get dealt is more experience of myself and the other. I have pretty much immunized myself to live play, for the most part, keeping my heart rate down and not really worrying about the outcome of events. I'm trying to get in the business of faking tells more than I actually have them. The games are not really easy per se, but the players are too loose and have a few fundamental flaws. They bet too often to see where they are at. Semi-bluff raising is very profitable post flop in 2/5 games. Overall I am certainly a winning player in these games.
I have played some PLO and have found that the basic strategy of draw to the nuts is incredibly powerful against the weak opposition. This is an easy, easy game to play profitably live from what I can tell. Of course, it still has that sick variance thing going on.
Getting sick really dampened the whole vegas experience. I was just getting into the groove, my live game becoming more powerful, more comfortable, and then all of the sudden I was struck by a cold and had to put things on the backburner for a while. This also involved me paying for the internet much more than I would have liked to. I am embarassed to admit how much I've spent on the internet thus far in vegas. Damn 14 dollar a day fees.
Psychologically I am dealing ok with the loneliness of being here. Holding up quite well in fact. Having a cell phone is very nice. Travelling will be a much different story. I wonder if it will be more taxing? Or maybe less so. I suppose I'll find out.
Unfortunately, when you have no friends it makes the emptiness of not having any sex or women in life even more apparent. Vegas is a strange place for that, a sort of surreal environment where I don't feel like the women around me exist as real human beings but rather as charactatures. So I guess I don't really feel any opportunities in that department. But I, as always, try my best to ignore that, as I simply do not have the game necessary to attract women successfully in any short-term environment. So I just try to exist and move day by day without concerning myself with this. But, that doesn't change the fact that every day I think about it, and every night I feel a sense of nihilism and wastefulness to my life. The genetics are torn. There's the intelligent/adapative side of me which pushes me away from women, and the fundamental basic side which of course pushes me towards them at all costs. The intelligent side reigns but not without severe costs to my happiness level and perhaps overall sanity.
This, I think, will get easier when I start travelling. If I can keep my brain occupied with different surroundings constantly I think I can keep it less occupied on women or my lack of them.
Thursday
A Hand at the Rio
An interesting hand occurred last night playing 2/5 NL at the Rio last night.
I have 750 and everyone has me covered. Preflop there's a button straddle, a raise to 35, and 2 callers before me. I have 79 of clubs one off the button and call. Button straddle calls.
Flop comes 254 two clubs. Checked around to button, who bets 80 into a 180 dollar pot. All folds to me. I call out of position heads up with the button.
Turn comes the 3 of not clubs but presenting another flush draw. I check. Button checks.
At this point I feel like the possibility of him having a straight is fairly low.
River is a probable blank, a jack that completes no flushes. I think about betting for a moment, but decide that such a bet would likely be called very light, and I suppose it's possible he does have an ace, or possibly a set he simply won't fold. I check to him, and he bets 220. At this point my shit detector is ringing loud and clear.
Against a good player in a 400NL online game I would simply give up at this point. He knows everything that has transpired leads me to believe he's full of shit. He would likely call me down here with as a low two pair simply because there's no reason for him to believe that I have anything, and he knows I could be making a play on the river.
Against a below average player, a reshove over the top on the river might be mandatory. He's shown little strength over the course of the hand and he's not going to call a reshove without a straight. His thought process will likely not extend past the point of 'I'm not calling another 400 with a set on that board'.
However, in this live game to which I was fairly new, all I knew was that I was against a loose french player with a very large stack in front of him. And perhaps he was the type to call down very light simply because he was a fish (even worse than the below average player above!). So I reluctantly mucked my nothing hand in this spot due to a lack of a read on my opponent, even though it was very unlikely that he had a straight. An Ace straight is possible, but I also believe that given the two flush draws he would probably bet the ace on the turn.
He showed T8 no flush draw for absolutely nothing after he folded. I told him he had the best hand and that it was a nice value bet. He got up one orbit later and the whole table left with him. Damn.
I have 750 and everyone has me covered. Preflop there's a button straddle, a raise to 35, and 2 callers before me. I have 79 of clubs one off the button and call. Button straddle calls.
Flop comes 254 two clubs. Checked around to button, who bets 80 into a 180 dollar pot. All folds to me. I call out of position heads up with the button.
Turn comes the 3 of not clubs but presenting another flush draw. I check. Button checks.
At this point I feel like the possibility of him having a straight is fairly low.
River is a probable blank, a jack that completes no flushes. I think about betting for a moment, but decide that such a bet would likely be called very light, and I suppose it's possible he does have an ace, or possibly a set he simply won't fold. I check to him, and he bets 220. At this point my shit detector is ringing loud and clear.
Against a good player in a 400NL online game I would simply give up at this point. He knows everything that has transpired leads me to believe he's full of shit. He would likely call me down here with as a low two pair simply because there's no reason for him to believe that I have anything, and he knows I could be making a play on the river.
Against a below average player, a reshove over the top on the river might be mandatory. He's shown little strength over the course of the hand and he's not going to call a reshove without a straight. His thought process will likely not extend past the point of 'I'm not calling another 400 with a set on that board'.
However, in this live game to which I was fairly new, all I knew was that I was against a loose french player with a very large stack in front of him. And perhaps he was the type to call down very light simply because he was a fish (even worse than the below average player above!). So I reluctantly mucked my nothing hand in this spot due to a lack of a read on my opponent, even though it was very unlikely that he had a straight. An Ace straight is possible, but I also believe that given the two flush draws he would probably bet the ace on the turn.
He showed T8 no flush draw for absolutely nothing after he folded. I told him he had the best hand and that it was a nice value bet. He got up one orbit later and the whole table left with him. Damn.
Wednesday
Vegas and South Point
Hit Arizona just as the sun was about to set. The drive was even more awe-inspiring than usual. The 20 miles through Arizona earns a very good 4/5 rating when it comes to 'whoa' factor. Life is good when you come out of there. Not only have you just had a great experience driving through those buttes or whatever they are, you are all of the sudden only an hour away from your final destination. Cheers!
South Point Review:
South Point seems to be sort of an enigma. I'm not sure why it exists exactly, to be honest. Totally insulated from anything interesting whatsoever, its ridiculously reasonable room rates are certainly the prime reason to come down here. In fact, everything is very reasonably priced as far as I can tell. The buffet is a decent value at 15 bucks for dinner. There's a gift shop where you can buy liqour and other essentials (har har) for normal prices. Normal. Prices. Where the hell am I? The rooms are spacious and quite nice, although I'm pissed that there's no fridge.
As for the casino: There's 100% return 25 cent 6/9 jacks or better. That's all I know. Pretty cool. But the high stakes machines are 5/8. Meh. I was hoping for 6/8 at least. Other than that there are no jacks or better machines that I can find. And since that's all I do in casinos, that's that.
Poker is small and easily accessible. 1/2 NL and 2/5 limit are the only games offered. The atmosphere is subdued and almost boring. This is clearly more of a family establishment, and you'll get alot of dads who are doing their 'I'm being a man by playing poker even though I'm absolutely terrible at it' thing. Which I quite enjoy. But I do miss the younger and rowdier crowdes that you'll find at mandalay bay/planet hollywood/caesar's.
To finish off this brief review of South Point, I will have to Point out that it's very far South of the strip. 5 miles or something. There is no shuttle. Cab rides will eat you alive if you want to go to the strip every day. This place is for those with vehicles. Unfortunately, it's so fucking hot down here that there's no way I want to even get in my car until 10 at night. So this is very problematic. I think I'll pass on staying here during the summer from now on. But any other season, this is definitely up there in my prefered hotels in Vegas. 4/5 overall rating for the South Point. Cheers!
Next stop to play Poker? Well, I guess I'll have to check out the ridiculousness at the Rio. Wish me luck.
South Point Review:
South Point seems to be sort of an enigma. I'm not sure why it exists exactly, to be honest. Totally insulated from anything interesting whatsoever, its ridiculously reasonable room rates are certainly the prime reason to come down here. In fact, everything is very reasonably priced as far as I can tell. The buffet is a decent value at 15 bucks for dinner. There's a gift shop where you can buy liqour and other essentials (har har) for normal prices. Normal. Prices. Where the hell am I? The rooms are spacious and quite nice, although I'm pissed that there's no fridge.
As for the casino: There's 100% return 25 cent 6/9 jacks or better. That's all I know. Pretty cool. But the high stakes machines are 5/8. Meh. I was hoping for 6/8 at least. Other than that there are no jacks or better machines that I can find. And since that's all I do in casinos, that's that.
Poker is small and easily accessible. 1/2 NL and 2/5 limit are the only games offered. The atmosphere is subdued and almost boring. This is clearly more of a family establishment, and you'll get alot of dads who are doing their 'I'm being a man by playing poker even though I'm absolutely terrible at it' thing. Which I quite enjoy. But I do miss the younger and rowdier crowdes that you'll find at mandalay bay/planet hollywood/caesar's.
To finish off this brief review of South Point, I will have to Point out that it's very far South of the strip. 5 miles or something. There is no shuttle. Cab rides will eat you alive if you want to go to the strip every day. This place is for those with vehicles. Unfortunately, it's so fucking hot down here that there's no way I want to even get in my car until 10 at night. So this is very problematic. I think I'll pass on staying here during the summer from now on. But any other season, this is definitely up there in my prefered hotels in Vegas. 4/5 overall rating for the South Point. Cheers!
Next stop to play Poker? Well, I guess I'll have to check out the ridiculousness at the Rio. Wish me luck.
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