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I'm beginning to understand why even the most sensible of poker players can be seduced by the other gambling games in Las Vegas. You sit there, hour after hour, concentrating, and eventually the desire to have a gamble that is ruled solely by chance becomes very tempting. It must become even harder to resist when you see a donkey walk away with your money after hitting a three-outer on the river.
I saw some desperately awful plays last night -- none of which, thankfully, cost me any money. Other 'good' players were not so lucky.
After all that hard work and concentration gets you shafted by a 'gambler', you can see why the temptation to play some house games can become overwhelming.
I've resisted it, but I'm not sure that I could manage it if I lived here, or if I spent any serious length of time here. The good thing about house games is that you can switch off the brain. Poker, by contrast, is hard work. You don't get an edge in your favour by switching off your brain.
A fire alarm went off in the casino this evening. This has happened in the Flamingo before, but I noticed for the first time that the sound that the fire alarm makes is echoed, on a muted and in a slightly subtler fashion, by one of the slot machines. Talk about subliminally grabbing the attention.
I've definitely run bad for the past week. The difference between profit and loss is decided by whether you get paid off when you hit your sets, whether your 50-50s against the smaller stacks are winners, and a number of other factors in maybe just 25 hands in a week. That definitely doesn't mean that the other hands don't matter. These 'smaller' hands are your edge (covering the rake that you pay of about $15 an hour), while the 'bigger' hands are subject to strong volatility. I've not played as well as I would have liked on the smaller hands (much of this is due to me still getting a feel for the way that various types of bad players play), and I've not run well on the bigger hands. So I'm about $300 down over maybe 60 hours' play. A bit disappointing after being $650 up at my peak, but nothing heartbreaking. A couple of $200 losses could easily have been $200 wins, while KK under AA and top two pairs vs bottom set on the flop were two other guaranteed stack-offs in $1-$2 NL live.
While I've seen some horrible plays, I've also seen some surprisingly competent players, whom I would have expected to be beating $2-$5 NL. Clearly the end of online poker in the US has brought a number of good players back into the live game. It's not all donks queueing up to give you money. There are some nifty tricky players who are hard to beat. Making a living here at $1-$2 would be possible, but wouldn't be a cakewalk.
I'm quite looking forward to flying back home. Back out in the US in March and perhaps again for a week in June, although neither has LV on the agenda. The ESTA authorization system is definitely an improvement on the old Green form, although Delta Airlines got us to fill out a form which the immigration guy in Atlanta promptly tore up, stating that ESTA made it unnecessary.
I'm flying back to Heathrow via JFK, which makes for a couple of (relatively) short flights. A night and a day and a night to win back $300 to be even on trip, and $1,300 to be on target. Hmm, unlikely. But, hey, only pennies in the grand scheme of things.
PJ
I saw some desperately awful plays last night -- none of which, thankfully, cost me any money. Other 'good' players were not so lucky.
After all that hard work and concentration gets you shafted by a 'gambler', you can see why the temptation to play some house games can become overwhelming.
I've resisted it, but I'm not sure that I could manage it if I lived here, or if I spent any serious length of time here. The good thing about house games is that you can switch off the brain. Poker, by contrast, is hard work. You don't get an edge in your favour by switching off your brain.
A fire alarm went off in the casino this evening. This has happened in the Flamingo before, but I noticed for the first time that the sound that the fire alarm makes is echoed, on a muted and in a slightly subtler fashion, by one of the slot machines. Talk about subliminally grabbing the attention.
I've definitely run bad for the past week. The difference between profit and loss is decided by whether you get paid off when you hit your sets, whether your 50-50s against the smaller stacks are winners, and a number of other factors in maybe just 25 hands in a week. That definitely doesn't mean that the other hands don't matter. These 'smaller' hands are your edge (covering the rake that you pay of about $15 an hour), while the 'bigger' hands are subject to strong volatility. I've not played as well as I would have liked on the smaller hands (much of this is due to me still getting a feel for the way that various types of bad players play), and I've not run well on the bigger hands. So I'm about $300 down over maybe 60 hours' play. A bit disappointing after being $650 up at my peak, but nothing heartbreaking. A couple of $200 losses could easily have been $200 wins, while KK under AA and top two pairs vs bottom set on the flop were two other guaranteed stack-offs in $1-$2 NL live.
While I've seen some horrible plays, I've also seen some surprisingly competent players, whom I would have expected to be beating $2-$5 NL. Clearly the end of online poker in the US has brought a number of good players back into the live game. It's not all donks queueing up to give you money. There are some nifty tricky players who are hard to beat. Making a living here at $1-$2 would be possible, but wouldn't be a cakewalk.
I'm quite looking forward to flying back home. Back out in the US in March and perhaps again for a week in June, although neither has LV on the agenda. The ESTA authorization system is definitely an improvement on the old Green form, although Delta Airlines got us to fill out a form which the immigration guy in Atlanta promptly tore up, stating that ESTA made it unnecessary.
I'm flying back to Heathrow via JFK, which makes for a couple of (relatively) short flights. A night and a day and a night to win back $300 to be even on trip, and $1,300 to be on target. Hmm, unlikely. But, hey, only pennies in the grand scheme of things.
PJ
