Las Vegas: Day 6

Today was the day I thought I was leaving but didn't realize I had time for another big session, yay!

I had to check out by 11am, so I packed my bags and went out for breakfast at caesar's again. My flight leaves at 9:45 so I had nearly a full day to do whatever I wanted (that means poker), and headed over to the MGM where so far I'd seen the softest play. The room's also pretty nice and service is good, so off I went. Surprisingly, I actually run into Debi again randomly in the casino, she says she's going to go get something to eat and then come sit with me for my last session.

Ended up having a pretty good session overall; I think I made almost a buyin without any big pots so I was pretty happy. Table was pretty juicy, lots of limping and calling pf opens.

Some hands from the session:

Early on I iso with AQd, get only one caller and he checks what I thought was a 997 or 998 flop. Turns out it was something much more coordinated like 986 or something. I only realize this after I cbet and he calls, so I check down two bricks and he shows something like A5. I start to get excited.

Shortly after, maybe even next hand, I open JJ and get two $50-80ish stacked callers. Flop comes J85ss, I cbet, both call. Turn comes an offsuit ace, both have less than a pot bet so I shove when checked to. First calls with A9, second folds. Cha-ching.

A while later I make the mistake of not checking stack sizes. UTG fish limps, folds to me in the BB and I bump to $10 with QJs. I didn't notice he only had like $30 or $40 left, and when he jammed I was committed. I end up flipping with 66 and winning, lucky me!

UTG fish limps (same guy I think), UTG+1 lag-ish player who hates to fold opens to $12 slightly deep (effective), and it`s folded to me. I decide to call with 67s, dont really like it but meh. Fish calls too. Flop comes 754ss, no flush draw for me. I check-call the flop, the fish folds. Turn comes an offsuit 7 and I donk big. UTG hates it but eventually calls. River comes an offuit 9 and I decide to donk out again, but I think I prefer c/r or c/c instead. He ended up folding which shifts my decision, a little results oriented but I think if I check river he`ll bluff missed draws and will value bet strong overpairs whereas if I donk he folds a good chunk of that range.

I end up dwindling about $40 in smaller silly pots later on (pair+FD played passively and missed, two AJ hands where I iso`ed but couldn`t continue, etc), but overall I made almost a buyin.

I only realized now that I left the casino WAY too early, and am now stuck for like 3 more hours at the airport. At least I`m on time. Excited to get home and see my lil lady and treat this sunburn!

Had a ton of fun with all the guys and girls on this trip and will %100 be coming out next year if I can afford it then. As long as I`m still with my lady I`ll be dragging her out next time too. I`m definitely disappointed I didn`t end up actually making money in what is easily the softest player pool relative to the stakes, but I had a great time and after not playing for weaks before the trip, I`m motivated to grind my online bankroll out and get myself back on track. It was awesome meeting all of you guys and I guess Ill see you around the forums!

Las Vegas: Day 5

Another interesting day. I woke up late to a call from Sean who wanted to go hit up the pool and meet up with Debi, Fredrik and Lori later. Pool was nice, but looked like a puddle in an alleyway compared to other places. I only just realized I got completely fried; my chest is burnt and will hurt like fuck tomorrow. Will have to pick up something to help out with that...

So we finish up at the pool, then head over to meet up with Debi at the MGM, then over to the Monte Carlo to have lunch with Fredrik and Lori. Had a nice time, couldn't help but gawk at little Ben's cuteness, and the meal filled us all up great.

Next, it's back to the MGM for some poker, with Fredrik for the first time.

He unfortunately had a horrible time in terms of running well, but we had fun nonetheless.

Some hands...let's see if I can remember more than 3 considering all the booze they fed me.

For the first hour or so I can't really recall any big hands, but there were a few iso spots where I either took it down pf or cbet the flop successfully. After that I moved seats to the other side of the table so I could get the bigger fish to my right, and less importantly the tight Debi and Fredrik to my left.

The big difference today was that I actually played tight and stayed away from bluffing, at least for the most part. One instance where I definitely could have slowed down was where I iso'ed with J9d or something, one of the blinds called the limpers folded. Flop came K77ss, and the blind player donked into me. He was unknown at this point, but had a slightly smaller stack and seemed kinda bad (I think he may have limped or something a few times). He donked out for like 1/2 pot and while I tried to raise it up I accidentally string bet (put in amount for call without verbal announcement of a raise, then put in the raise amount after). He got a little scared of that, and checked to me on the turn. I bet small, basically to fold out his bluffs which either had me beat or had some kind of equity against me, and he called. I gave up on a blank riv and he showed KQ which was never folding. Considering his whole range though, he either had a flush draw, Qx, 7x (none of which are folding), or a very rare bluff. So I don't like messing around there at all really.

Tag to my right opened in MP, I call IP on him with 22. Flop comes pretty good: 26Qss, and I just hope he caught a piece. We end up getting it in, not sure what he had but I took down a full stack in what seemed like the first time all trip.

Orbit or two later I limp in EP with 55, get several calls behind and we see a 456ss flop. Fishy player to my right check-raises me, and while it's not a fantastic spot to stack generally, I thought he'd felt any overpair, 67 and other pair+draw hand, some flush draws, any two pair, maybe 6x once in a blue moon. So I got it in, turns out he had 44 and I held. Looks like I'm finally winning!

Our session is winding down, everyone's kinda playing tight, and then Mr. AJ sits down directly to my right. He's about 14 drinks deep, loud as fuck, correct in his ways in every way possible, ignorant as can be, and he's sitting with a full stack. Nom nom.

Early on he raises A8 like utg or something, gets a call from tattooed, 9 1/2-fingered biker guy who busted Fredrik twice, and bets an AQJ flop. Biker calls. Q comes on the turn, AJ starts freaking out about how he must have just drawn out, checks it to the biker who drops a stack in the middle, and AJ check-raises all in. Biker had KQ and called, and AJ loses it, becoming even more of an asshole than he was before. I'd have minded if he wasn't so horrible at poker, directly to my right, and sitting with a full stack - he rebought right after that hand too.

Unfortunately I don't get any piece of him by the time he leaves, but he was definitely entertaining.

Next was the most interesting hand of the trip by far for me. Llater on, I'm sitting comfortably on 300 or 350bbs, and have Debi behind me who has me covered.

I limp-call 22 utg against her, and flop comes 2TJ. As much as I like Debi, I was pretty excited about winning a big pot at this point. I check, she cbets large, and I check-raise. She thinks for a bit and repops to $145 total. Remember we have about $600 behind. At this point I'm completely 'wow'ed, and am seriously considering folding a set. She raises pf with AK, JJ+, maybe TT, and only repops the flop with TT, JJ, AA and maybe KK, and both overpairs are pretty likely to call as well instead of repopping.

I decide to call to induce more from AA/KK, plus I can't fold a set yet because I'm a fish. Turn comes beautiful, an offsuit A. I think this card saved me, actually. I have about a pot bet left, check it to her, and she thinks after a while. She's actually a little off-put by that A. Or at least she's acting like it. She ends up shoving, and I hate life just a lil bit. I really think it saved me though; she's now tripped up with AA, KK is slowing down, and AJ/AT/KQ doesn't reraise the flop and may not even be in her range at all, so it made the turn a much easier lay down than had it come a 5 or something.

I fold, she shows JJ, and I pat myself on the back. Turn fold is actually probably standard, but I think I can even fold the flop.

That was that, I actually feel good about losing nearly a full stack, and we decide to call it a night.

Las Vegas: Day 4

Played at the Mirage earlier in the day with Sean. Had a decent table of nitty players, a few fish on the other side of the table to my right-ish.

While Sean is railing me waiting for a spot to open, I get AA with a raiser in front, bump it up, get folds all around back to him. He asks how much I have, I say a little over 200, he sort of reluctantly calls. Flop comes nice, J42ss, he checks, I cbet 2/3 pot, he calls fairly fast. Turn comes an offsuit 8, he checks, I bet a committing amount, he CRAI, I call, he shows 8s. Fun stuff.

Short while later I've won back nearly my entire stack with iso pots and stuff like that.

Later on one of the fishy players limps along with several others, and I bump up AA again. Villain has been playing really loose, calling a not-so-shortstacked player's shove with T6s for example. Flop comes J89, he checks, I bet nearly pot, he calls. Turn is a brick, same thing: he checks, I bet big, he calls. I'm putting him on a lot of pair+draw hands and even single pair no draw hands here and am pretty excited about a decent pot. River comes an A, I shove my less than pot bet when checked to, he folds. Poo.

Next was a hand I'm not happy about, again. UTG is a loose-passive fish who I've seen call down light and stuff, and doesn't open very wide pf. He opens $8 utg, gets a caller or two, I squeeze to $30 with AK. I think this is a %100 standard squeeze/fold since he's calling all his marginal hands that either have beat or have good fold equity against (AQ,AJ,pairs up to TT,JJ), and shoving all his monsters. He ended up raising all but $25 of his stack and I jammed, losing the flip to QQ. I think his range is pretty much AK, QQ+ there though, so I hate jamming.

And that's it for the Mirage. Sean took off while I was in the crapper, and I decided to take a nice long walk and potentially play some other juicy place. The bigger the room, the more prone it is to attract the WSOP guys who are all pretty much decent, so hunting for the small rooms with drunks and old farts is probably the +est EV. I end up not playing anywhere since all the games look kinda dry, and head back to my hotel for a dip in the pool which I hadn't even done yet (and I bought a pair of swimshorts just for the trip!). Pool ends up being closed, and I when I go back to my room I get a call from Sean who wants to meet up with Jason and Debi over at the Venetian. Jason was playing the $550 deepstack and was doing fairly well in like his 8th or 9th hour. Sean, Debi and I have a nice meal while Jason grinds away, then we decide to hit up the Mandalay Bay which I hadn't been to yet.

Pretty fishy play, and unfortunately I think I end up $100 down or something with some annoying plays. Some hands I can remember off the top of my head:

AK I open, get loose fish to call, nitty tag reraises to basically min. Cold caller behind, one of the limpers I iso'ed calls, and I decide to flat as a weird play instead of reraising. Probably the AK hand from earlier had me a little afraid of stacking it pf, especially with the "please call me" minraise. I end up check-calling a K98ss flop and have to fold after some heavy action, and fish beats the tag with a suckout, KJ vs AK.

Soon a new guy sits down who is awesomely bad. Doesn`t know what the hell he's doing, but is obviously here for fun and looking to 'get lucky', so we chat it up and stuff and I try to keep him seated at the table. He soon busts with some random crap, thinking he has a straight when he's one card short or something, and heads out. About 20 seconds after leaving, he comes back with an "I can't leave on a bad note" attitude which gives the table a little smile and I start licking my chops. Long story short, he ends up actually leaving with a few stacks and I don't get a chance to make anything off him.

Can't remember anything else; I delayed writing the second half of this post until later in the day so I apologize. I do know I dropped a little bit but started to feel a lot better compared to the day I went to the Venetian.

Las Vegas: Day 3

I promised myself that I'd play a long session yesterday, and while I reached that goal, unfortunately it was with the caveat of losing like 3-4 buyins.

I can sum up the answer to my problems with one sentence: stop bluffing and start value betting thinner. I made what I think would be very effective bluffs in a typical 1/2 online game where people can hand read and potentially fold marginal and weak hands, but live is a different story.

Zach, Sean and I started the day by heading over to caesar's for breakfast again, and decided to meet Jason at Binion's. The card room turned out to be pretty dead. We checked out the Golden Nugget across the street, but it was just as bad. So Zach and I headed back to the strip to hit up the Venetian while Sean and Jason went to Treasure Island I think?

Zach and I went to our separate tables and managed not to find each other by the end of the day. I sat down at a table with like 5 hilarious danish guys who seemed to have pretty good knowledge of the game but were just there for fun; straddling and chasing and goofing around. Unfortunately I ended up OOP against the loosest of the bunch who was also sitting with the shortest stack at like $100. He foiled several hands of mine where he donked into me, leaving half his stack left and stuff like that. I thought about leaving for another table, but the rest of the players were bad enough that I thought it was a pretty +EV table.

Yesterday saw me lose quite a bit, and while I'll review some hands here, the solution was simply to play tighter and value bet the hell out of these guys.

I opened J2s (mistake one) in MP and got a call from one of the Danes who had position on me. Flop came QQ5ss, no flush draw for me, and he flatted my cbet. Could be Qx, a flush draw, but more likely I thought 22-44 and 66-99. Really hate my turn/river play here, but I double barreled a offsuit 6 turn, he called, then I check-folded a 5 river. What I really like in spots like those is betting really small, especially if you weight his range more heavily towards draws. We get an insane price on our bluff and these guys think well enough to realize it looks like I'm going for thin value. Anyways I really hated my play because he's rarely slowplaying a Q there unless he's boated up (live players are terrified of FDs because most other live players love to play suited cards), so he's more likely to be on a draw, and since the only real draws he can call with are Axss and 6xss, I feel like I get tons of folds with even like a 1/4 pot or 1/3 pot bet.

A short-ish player sat down behind me and there were a couple hands I played against him. He seemed tight but ended up being really weak.

One hand I opened 77, he flatted. Flop is 874 and I bet big, he flats. Turn is a Q and I bet huge, trying to rep a double barrel, he thinks and calls. River is a T and I stick him in for less than pot, he folds. I ask if he had 9s, he doesn't answer but asks if I had AQ (so he must have had 8x/99/9T/some other crappy pair).

Another hand I open 97 in LP, he flats from the blinds, and we end up stacking his ~$60 stack on a T97 board. I improve to a FH, he says I sucked out. Yay!

Only goes downhill from there though.

Another one of the Danes opens in EP, gets two loose callers, and it's on me in the BB with JJ. EP Dane at first seemed like a nit, but opened up like crazy later on and at this point I thought he would call any pocket pair to a squeeze, and tons of big card hands like KQ/AJ/other random shit, and obviously jam some better hands. I squeeze his $10 open to $37, he gives the stare and asks how much I have, and shoves. He either outleveled me or is one level below what I expected him to be (just showing strength when he's strong), but he did win the pot with QQ. Thought my read was right, didn't mind the stack, but it was disappointing.

Few hands later, a bunch of limpers in EP, LP tag bumps it up to like $14, I call with 33 from the blinds to get calls behind, everyone calls. Flop comes A35 with a flush draw, I end up check-raising the preflop raiser who folded. HATED my check-raise. It was pretty much a textbook spot for a lead to trap all the weak limper's calls in between, hope the tag raises AJ+, then get in a big reraise. Hate hate hate my c/r there. Lesson on that hand is to slow down with your decisions. As soon as I checked I regretted it.

A couple more hands here, both of which I played horribly, and both of which I got punished for.

Old fart sits down across the table from me and has been doing weird shit like baluga'ing Q9 on T965 and rivering trips (not against me). He limps utg, I iso J6s, everyone else folds. Flop comes 854ss, no FD for me, I cbet, he c/c. I raised enough pf and on the flop that the pot was pretty big on the turn. K drops on the turn, perfect barrel card even though he's still chasing some draws, and I double barrel fairly big. He thinks a bit and calls. River comes a 6, and I end up checking back. I reeeally thought about betting river, but I thought "I'm actually beating most busted FDs (except Kxss/bigger 6xss), he's never folding two pairs (56/86/K6/etc), and a 7 is a pretty big part of his range as well". He flips over A8o and takes it down. Getting frustrated at this point and decide to leave fairly soon.

A few hands later I get my cue. New guy to my left who I remember flatting QJ pf, calling a cbet on AK2, and checking it down calls my LP raise with A7o (which I hated too btw; tilt showing). I cbet T85, he calls after some thought. I put him on any pair, some random overs, most straight draws, and the rare monster. Turn comes a J putting a flush draw on board. I double barrel big, he thinks long then calls again. River comes a Q and I decide to jam for nearly pot. He thinks forever and ends up calling with AQ. "Good luck guys", and I stand up and leave.

So like I said, in summary: value bet more thinly, and stop bluffing with air.

I grab my beer and head out to the strip (oh yeah, drink anywhere outside in Vegas btw :). I take a nice walk, cool off and decide to head back to my hotel after getting disconnected from Zach and not knowing where everyone is. I end up getting a couple messages that everyone's at the MGM having drinks and that they're about to play poker on Joe's last night in town, so I head on over there. I can't find them or get a hold of Debi (she never picks up her phone :p), and start to head over to the food court area to grab some eats, but bump right into her and Joe. Looks like everyone headed over to the Sahara to play some tourney at 11pm, but it's already started and I'm pooped, so I say goodbye to Joe (very nice, classy guy and it was a pleasure meeting you Joe :), grab some food, some more cash for the next few days and head back to my hotel to pass out.

I feel pretty rested today and ready for more poker, but dammit yesterday was dissapointing. I think my goals for the next while will be to make sure I've got good position at the table and to quit or find a new table if I don't like it. There was definitely an element of chasing losses yesterday and I'm really not happy with myself. I think the thing with live poker is that you're usually at some really loose table, and considering it's full, 10-handed, ring, you simply have to play super tight and get it in good. I mean isolating a single limper with any broadway is fine, but usually there are like 3-4 limpers, or a raise and a couple callers, and you just can't get carried away with trying to push them off a flopped top pair or something.

I'll be back at it today. Took out some more cash last night and will be hitting up the tables once more. Maybe back to the MGM, but the Venetian was pretty juicy. Just have to play more sensibly.

Las Vegas: Day 2

Day 2 started with breakfast at Caesar's Palace with Zach and Sean and it was awesome. Will no doubt be going back today.

Then we headed out to meet up with everyone at the Rio to watch Fredrik play (he's in the WSOP ME remember). His registration ended up getting delayed through some fuck-up in the system, and he didn't play until we all left the casino. Last update I heard was he dropped to 20k (30k starting). All the luck in the world to ya Fredrik! (minus a little for myself this trip..)

Then Zach, Sean and I headed over to the MGM to grind for an hour before heading up to the cardschat party in Nick's suite. I came out a little more than a buyin up with a nice card rush. Some memorable hands:

Literally the first four hands I get dealt, I pick up preflop monsters and win about half a stack. I purposely show a couple of them to see if I could lay down an image and start running some bluffs later.

Very next hand (yes, 5th hand), I pick up KK, open, get a caller or two, and a young internet(?) player squeezed to like $35. We're both about $300 deep, so I 4bet to $90 or $85 or something. He folds, and I show again.

A little while later, a fishy player to my right who's friend says he's playing in the ME opens. His friend to his left calls in the SB, and I squeeze QQ to like $25 I guess, and cbet a 994ss flop. He folds.

Next I open AK in EP and get 3bet by a $40-60 shortstack from Toronto who's tilting like crazy. I ship obviously, and win the flip against 99.

Last, and definitely most interesting hand: UTG (guy who squeezed and folded to my 4bet) limps, a couple limp behind, and I iso to $15 or so with AK. Folds back to UTG who 4bets. I have serious doubts he does this with worse hands for value or bluffs often enough to get it in good. Not really sure about it though; on the one hand I'd been pushing the table around pretty bad, but on the other hand I had been showing lots of legit hands. Pretty sure a taggy utg limper doesn't just decide to turn JTs into a bluff there, but I could be wrong.

Not sure there were many other hands that session, but I do remember leaving an hour later to some grumbles. Probably felt I was hit and running.

Next, it's Nick's party. He has a ridiculously awesome suite up on the 357th floor of the MGM hotel, and catered with drinks and everything. It was tons of fun and nice to meet more people and get to know others better.

We all agreed to play a STT downstairs, and ended up playing two $60 games. Structure was horrible, starting with 20bbs and the blinds doubling every 12 mins. Was still fun; I busted in both getting my money in bad, and was left itching to play some 1-2. The game also featured some hilarious play and commentary by Jason, aka Alien Genius, including a hand where he lost an all-in, and fell backwards to the ground from his chair to the disapproval of the rest of the room. Had us all in stitches.

I don't know what was going through our sick little heads, but we decided to play each other with 1-2 instead of playing the fishy casino regulars. Obviously it's fun to have an all-CC game going, but I have to say I'm going to be avoiding these guys so I can actually play a significantly profitable game.

Some hands from the session (don't remember all that much after like 10 beers though...):

I open AJd in EP, get a flat from Zach in the SB. Flop is something like 2d6s8d, and he leads for like 1/2 pot. I bump it up, happy to get it in, and he 3bets me. Had Zach been anyone else at the table I'd have seriously considered folding there as the worst they have is a combo draw and monster made hands, but he'd been playing pretty aggro so I shipped it in. He later told me he had A3s or something for a gutter with a backdoor.

Later, Zach opens, I think Joe (Debi, aka Dakota-xx's husband) called the SB, and I squeeze AA to $26. Both Zach and I were like $250 deep and in retrospect I like a bigger squeeze pf, to like $30. Zach says he has AA, then when the flop comes Kh9xQh, he says he actually has JT. I cbet like $30, he raises to like $70 or something.

I can't see him stacking any one pair hand here; he doesn't flat PF then raise that flop with AK, and doesn't stack worse kings or other pairs obv. If he had a flush draw I don't really expect him to raise an inducing amount there; I expect him to jam or flat it. I mean if he has 67h there, raising and calling it off is just going to kill his equity since my hand range will be so strong that he'll only be drawing to a flush. Also, I really don't see him bluff-raising a wet board like this since it hits my range so hard. So I don't like my play of not raising more pf, since it gives him some room to call and make pain in the ass moves on boards like this, and gives him better odds on a set mine. I also don't like my play of jamming here, since basically he only calls with huge combo draws (like GS+NFD or 9x+FD) and hands that have me crushed. He snapped my shove and my heart sank: he had JTs.

Reload!

A few isolations later and a couple small pots lost, I'm too lazy to reload and I have like $160. I open QQ in EP, get a call from Tammy, and JD gets a little shaky-handed as he squeezes to like $35. I'm genuinely worried at this point; although JD had been a little aggressive today, in general he's a fairly tag player, and I put him on a very strong range. That said, I think the fact that we were shorter stacked, there was some dead money in there, and a significant chance he was squeezing AQs or TT/JJ and calling it off, I don't really see a fold here. I end up getting it in against aces and kick myself for not reloading when I suck out on the river. Sorry Brian!

Not too many hands after that. We all were playing fairly seriously until Zach started getting minraising wars going which was hilarious. He also posted an interesting hand in HA with minbetting involved, funny but interesting stuff.

Last hand was against JD. I open AK, he calls in the SB, we're heads up. Flop comes QQ2, he weak leads for like $12 into $16 or something. I put him on 33-99 pretty much exclusively, and figure raising definitely doesn't get folds on the flop, and gets too expensive on the turn if I decide to fire again. So I flat with the intention of getting aggressive on scary turn cards, and baluga'ing some blank ones because I strongly feel he has to fold 33-99 at that point. He bets like $30 on a blank turn, I raise to $80, he folds. At least I actually thought about one hand well and executed.

Don't remember many other hands; got to bed crazy late last night and somehow woke up early this morning, ready for more. Think I'm going to the venetian today which supposedly has an awesome card room. GL me!

Las Vegas: Day 1

Figured I'd give you guys a bit of a rundown of how each day is for me and how the trip is going. It's been fun so far.

Wake up time is 3:30AM EST, but I'm completely on edge, excited about the trip. I'm freaking out a bit about whether or not I packed everything and have the proper paperwork for tickets etc.

Get to the airport, am completely lost, but end up finding my way to my first flight by 7:46AM. Lucky me, I'm sitting behind 3 skull-candy-sporting, fluorescent pink wayfarer-wearing loudmouth 15 year olds. End up wanting to reach over and slap each one in the face, but restrain myself. Flight is something like 3hrs.

Next is a 2.5hr stopoff in Denver. Didn't do much there, just tried to get some sleep, watch a dogisheadsUP video, and hopped on my next flight to LV.

Second flight is much better, everyone's quiet and I get about an hour of sleep before waking up over I guess what was the grand canyon. It was a little hard to gauge how big the canyons were since we were so high up. Got some nice pictures.

Finally I arrive in LV, get on a shuttle bus, check in to the Imperial Palace, and get a phone call literally within 30 seconds of opening my hotel room door. It's Debi, she's at the MGM, and apparently everyone's already there and having drinks.

I can't tell you how surreal it was to meet everyone. It reminds me of meeting a celebrity: you've seen tons of pictures of everyone, but when you meet them in person there's just this weird surreal feeling. Anyways everyone was super nice and friendly, and made me comfortable as soon as I sat down. We knock back a few, then we all get the itch to play some cards (we are in Vegas after all...). We sit down at a 1-2 game at MGM, and almost have a table full of CCers. There was one aggressive but fishy shortstacking lady with $40, and a couple of decent but slightly weak-tight Swedish guys who were nice, and later on a weird weak-tight player sat down (who did stuff like donk 1/3 pot with 88 on KT9r).

First hand, I toss in (literally) a raise, and as Sean (Icemonkey9) put it, "he nearly took someone's eye out". "I'm used to a mouse", I reply...

Anyways I calm my nerves a little bit and settle down. Not too many interesting hands to post, but I played aggressively for a FR table and took down a few isolation-spot pots, some bigger than others. I was held back a little bit by the aggro shorstacker behind me who loved to get in on every pot and spoiled some of my iso attempts.

We end up heading out for dinner a couple hours later and have some really good mexican food which was nice.

After that, I head back to my hotel while everyone else decides to play some more cards. I'm exhausted, my eyes feel like they're melting from the 40C (100+F?) heat and decide I really need some rest.

So the first day was awesome. Met everyone from CC, some of which I've known for like 5 years!??! Had a nice intro to live poker as well, a nice dinner, and finally got some rest to overcome the jetlag.

Speaking of which, my internal clock is still a little off. I woke up at 8am today LV time, looks like I'll have time to wander a bit before railing Fredrik's first day at the WSOP ME.

More to come tomorrow morning about the day ahead, hopefully more poker to talk about!