Vegas Baby!

Is that the most original title for a blog post or what? Sometimes my creative talent amazes even myself.

A friend IMed me the other day, commenting on how impressed he was that I had actually written two posts this month. This is really going to blow his mind. I'm going to put a third, that's right third post out this month. Enjoy it while you can folks. Marvel at it. This doesn't happen very often and could very well be the last time its ever seen in this section of the blogosphere.

I suppose I should write something with actual substance for this momentous occasion, now what was I going to write about? Ah that's right. Vegas Baby. I'm going to Vegas.

I haven't been to Las Vegas in many years. My wife has little interest in it so it makes it hard to get that at the list of vacation destinations. The only reason she really wants to go is to see O. I want to go to play poker for 48 hours straight.

My wife's brother lives in LA. We went out to visit him a couple years ago, and my wife has gone a few times with her parents, but I really didn't care for LA all that much. I do however really want to go to Vegas. Since LA is reasonable close we decided that we'd fly out there, and he could meet us for the weekend. Its a win-win. She gets to see her brother and the Cirque du Solei show, and I get to go to Vegas.

As I mentioned before, I haven't been in many years. In fact, I've only been there once, about eight years ago, before I even played poker. So I want to get in some low limit poker, and possible a decent sized tournament while I'm there. Anyone have any thoughts on the best poker rooms and/or tournaments on the weekend for someone like me? Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. We're going in late February/early March if that matters.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Poker on the Colbert Report

If you get a chance to see a rerun of the Colbert Report from tonight you should check it out. Charles Nesson was the guest and he had about a ten minute interview advocating the promotion and legalization of poker. He is a professor at Harvard and uses poker as a teaching tool for strategic thinking. So check it out.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

2007 Review

Pathetic.

That basically describes my poker play for the past year. Not so much the quality, which was actually pretty good, in fact I think I was playing some of my best poker last year, but the quantity wasn't there. I spent months at a time with out playing so much as a single hand.

I don't know what it is. I'm not burnt out, I don't think. I still love to play, I just don't. Where I used to play a few sit 'n goes a night almost every night, now I almost never play. And I don't know why.

Its not just online play that is lacking. Our "Monthly" tournaments got off to a good start, meeting three of the first four months of the year, but then we didn't play again until December. I found a new monthly game, thanks to one of the guys I work with, but still only make it out there once every three months or so.

I'm just not motivated to play. When I did play I did rather well. I was near the top of the leaderboard in our monthly game, cashed two of three times in the tournaments at the new game, finished in the money almost 50% of the time in online SNG's, plus had a 11/1000+ finish in the Stars blogger freeroll. I should be playing now, but instead I'm watching football. I don't know why. I was planning on playing some poker tonight.

I should probably go back and look at my goals for last year and see how I did, but I'm not going to. I'm fairly certain that I didn't meet any of them. I probably had something like "play 50 SNG a month", which is the sum total that I played all last year.

The good news is, our monthly game is back on, with our first scheduled game of the year set for the week after the Superbowl. There's also likely to be a few more spontaneous side games with people at work. We had one early in December where we played a bunch of games that we don't normally play. Everyone had a great time, and
we kept trying to do it again to no avail. I have a feeling that now that the holidays are over we'll be able to fit in a game or two.

Lastly, there is a decent chance that I may play in one of the WSOP events this year. A number of friends have offered to purchase partial stakes in my entry, so that would cover the monetary side of it. Travel/vacation wise, my wife's brother lives in LA, and she has suggested that instead of visiting him there, we meet in Las Vegas. Works for me. I'm seriously thinking about doing it. We'll see.

I'm not going to set any goals for 2008. I'd like to say I'm going to play more this year, but I don't know if that will happen or not.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com