Thursday 24th

A quiet one.

Today I didn't get up to much of anything, i decided that i was going to take it easy i.e no poker as am planning to head into the strip for a full night on Friday. I got around to doing some shopping for some food stocks and i planned the trip into the strip. Ill leave late afternoon and return early Saturday morning !

That's all for now - there will be a big post tomorrow - hopefully regarding a good night out at the strip and maybe even some winnings to report !

Wednesday 23rd

Polo followed by Poker again :

Got to the pool tonight and didn't feel great - my left shoulder was clicking for some reason and feeling slightly stiff, the warm up loosened it a little bit but not completely. There were only 3 teams full for the scrimmages tonight - which is good as we got more pool time than normal then. Once play was i was un-happy about was went i made a very good steal - i was covering back over two of the quicker swimmers - once had the ball and i made a lunge for him as he picked up the ball. He 100% had the ball in the air yet the ref decided to send me out, was disgruntled that this as i think it was a very good play and i get ROBBED !

Afterwards i got dropped at Sunset again - sad news was that the NL game was just about to break as i got there - good news was a young lady wanted to play heads up when i asked if anyone did. She was sitting with about 80 dollers, so i sat with about 100, it was only a matter of 20 mins to take it off her, she should a few "bluffs" at the start and then tightened up a bit. The hand i took majority of her money was when i raise PF with KJ - she calls, flop = AT6, she check, i bet she calls, turn = Q, she checks i bet, she shoves for 50 into a 45 pot - i snap call with stright, she turns over 66 - sad for her - good for me.

So im up about 80$ on the night so far - as she didnt reload - i jusmped on one of the 4/8 limit games that was running, played for a coup[le of hours. Pretty standard limit game, i go down about 40-50 dollers - then win a pot to get back up , then down etc..... Towards the end of the night when i was running baout 40$ up, a "Texas Cowboy" comes and sits down at the table, instantly loses his JJ vs my AQ on A high flop - he just bets bets bets all the way, i call him down and win. He starts to lose badly and bleed money all over the table. I decided i play untill he leaves, which is about an hour later. I made an extra 80$ while he was there so im about 200$ on the night total ! Pretty happy with this result, looking forward to the poker tomorrow night !

Monday 22nd

This Monday was turned into a SUNday - as i decided to get out in the rays and put some proper tanning on the go. Hit up a couple of hours - being nice and safe with lots of sun cream and planned to hit up the casino that night, after training 7 - 9pm.

Polo went good, there was big numbers again - 27 total i think, so after the basic passing/shooting drills we went into matches for the last 75 mins. I was playing pretty well, getting quiet a few counters on the go. After the first pair of matches, which i was with the more un-skilled group, one of the better group had to leave earlier - so i got moved up to play with the "better" players. It was a good experience, once again i was able to counter them, so i got to work quiet hard. After the match though there was a space in the lesser group again, so i played with them, effectively all the rest of the matches that night, as a group would switch - i would stay in the water ! This was awesome as it did annoy me before - playing for 10mins then out for 10mins.

The best thing i feel was that i was still able to counter them all towards the end of the session even though i was playing alot more than everyone else. It was an enjoyable night in the pool, i still feel as if im not very fit so i plan, at the start of July, to get training properly - 2 swim set a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) 3 polo sets (Mondays & Wednesday & Saturdays) and a run in (either Fridays or Sundays) This should stand me in good stead for the season opener in September, in Sheffield.

Poker :

After training i went to Sunset Casino once again. Im loving this casino as they games there are SOOOO weak the average age is about 60 years old (when im not at the table) and majority of them are terrible :) I had a pretty good night - i sat in on the 1/2 NL game they had running and made $50 within about half an hour, nothing big but just raising PF and then taking down the pots on the flop with standard continuation bets. Sadly this game broke - so i pick up on the 4/8 limit game, i enjoy playing limit at Sunset as there is so much money to be made, i played for the next 2 hours and rolled the 150 i sat with up to about 275. Once again the game broke that i was on, there was space on the other tables of 4/8 but i decdied to call it a night - after taxi ride home i had made about 150$ so happy with the nights work.

Sunday 21st - A nice relaxing Sunday

Hey Y-all

Sunday was beautiful here in Vegas, temperature hitting 37 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. I had planned to have a relaxing Sunday, soak up the sun which has done me skin the world of good - not a trace of exzama anywhere !!

One thing i noticed is that i'm missing the good old Sunday Lunch, no where in Vegas does such a thing with is disappointing, but i guess when your exploring different cultures you'll always miss one of two home comforts.

Towards the end of the day i decided i would have a crack the the poker in the local Sunset Station Casino, i fully expected there to be not a No Limit game going, as they really struggle for players for NL games, but knew there would be a couple of tables of 4/8 limit happening and i definitely have a big edge in these games. So that was the plan - i would bus it down and taxi it back and play a good few hours of 4/8.

I rocked up about 8pm, jumped onto a table and started playing, these games tend to be a bit mental, you will quiet often get a raise and re-raise so its 10$ to see the flop, and then usually 5 - 7 players will be in , so you've got a 50-70$ pot before any serious action gets going. This is pretty good for my style, playing pretty tight-ish, my range including alot of suited connectors, one gap connectors and small pairs. When i hit - i hit big and usually take the pots down. I had a couple of big hands, most exciting was with KdQd, a flop of AdJd6d came down, giving me THE NUTS - with a draw to a royal flush, which gets paid $500 instantly. Three players call my bet on the flop - turn was a blank - all three called the turn, river was another diamond - either the 2 or 3, cant remember. 2 of the remaining players call me and turned over rubbish - one had J6 the other had A2. Pretty nice pot for me 112 - so pretty happy. One of the players said he had folded the T of Daimonds so sadly there was no chance of my first Royal Flush.

The night went pretty good - I was up about 70$ total for the night, pretty nice result.

Also another thing im happy about at the casino is the quality of their hot chocolates, they are lush :

Saturday 20th

FRAUD in the the big V

Got a call from Natwest this morning, they wished to check a few things with me, i thought this would be routine call seen as i've been using it a bit in the USA, but no, a payment had been requested from my card for $888 from the Carphone Warehouse in New York ! Im unsure where or how but this is not good, the card luckly declined the purchase and once they informed me the card was cancelled !! This is good as the it protects me from fraud, but bad as im in the USA and the new card will be delievered to my UK address - sad times.

Implications for me means i have about £350 on the card i cannot get to now which kindda sucks, means ill have to cut back a bit of living costs but shouldn't be a problem.

Plan today is to relax, and play some local poker tonight at the Sunset Station Casino and see how things go !

Friday 19th

Had a lovly nights sleep in my suite, i woke refreshed and ready for some more poker. I got down to the room at about 3pm, by this time there was already 8 2/5 tables running and about 12 1/2 tables running, Vegas is mental !! I sign up for a 2/5 game and get to work. There was no drunks at my table, but there were lots of players thinking they are very good at poker. I played pretty standard again, picking up pots now and then, mainly with basic continuation bets, or check raising orignal raisers off flops they were unlikly to hit. Im at about $600 from my starting of 400 when i get this hand:

UTG raises to 25, me 2 seats around raise to 70 with QsQc, all fold around to original raiser whom make the call - he has 300$ stack left, flops comes AsQd8h, he now bets out 165 into the 145 pot, i hollywood him for about 15 secs and then raise him, he snaps calls me with AdKd, no help for him and i pick up the pot. Sadly for this guy - he bought in for 500$, ends up 2 hands later getting it all in with JJ vs AA pre-flop, he wasnt too happy and left the table !!

After that good start to my day i took a lunch break at about 6:30, i decided to take the chips off the table (850 by that point) as i dont have the bankroll to be playing 2/5 properly, so i decided if i was to play 2/5 again id sit with 400$ again. After my lunch (at 7pm lol) i decided to give 1/2 another shot - over the last two night i had lost about around $350 at 1/2. Once again i really struggled, making lay downs when i was ahead and then picking up one or two beats from bad players. Although i was only buying in for $100 like normal i was down 300 in no time at all it seemed. I was sitting next to a nice young guy called Jeff, we were disscussing hands and how bad all the other players were at the table, was nice as majority are older - 30years plus, where as Jeff was only 23 so could relat to him better. In total i ended down about 325 from this 2 hours of 1/2 - a nap was in order i felt by this time - i cashed my chips and went for a snoozzzzzzzzzze.

Returning at 10pm i felt like playing a few more hours, ended up playing 3 hours at a 2/5 table, it was truly continental, Myself, a Canadian, an Iraqi, an Argintinian, a Austrialian and a couple of Americans. Once again there were no massive/crazy hands in this small session, i played pretty good - practiced putting people on what hand ranges i thoguht they had and trying to get tells of the other players actions and bet patterns. It was good as we had the same 9 of us for the whole 3 horus so i could study and apply different techniques to the different playing styles that were going on, but all in all only made 100$ on that table.

Up 225 in total roughly from the day, pretty happy with my play on 2/5, very unhappy on how ive been unable to get to grips with 1/2

On Saturday, as i had to be checked out by 11am i was up early, packed up all and checked out on time ! GO ME ! I had a choice, stay and play some poker - as there was plenty of tables running, ro head back out to the house to get some more sleep. As i only got about 6 horus worth i decided not to play and to go home, after all was said and done heres how the small stay broke down:

Poker

1/2 = $600 DOWN

2/5 = $975 UP

Hotel =$300 DOWN

So all in all it might look like i have waisted my time playing for 20 hours or so and make 75$ but i had a really good time and stayed in a very luxorious place for a couple of night so all worth the effort in my opinion !!

I will be iupdating daily from now on, or at least trying my hardest too !

Thursday 17th

I woke excited, after a nice 8 hours sleep i felt refeshed and ready to hit up some more poker, i packed up a little bag for my 2 nights (250$) stay over at The Venetian and off i went. Once i got there i check in and chill in my room for a bit :

Very posh ! :) !

Nice views outta my window ! :)

Come 6pm i was ready to take on the poker, so i wonder down stairs and decided to sit in the 2/5 game, after watching the 2/5s the day before i had come to the conclusion that it was a much easy game to beat, i was able to pretty much put the players on the hands they showed and was able to read them easyer than the 1/2 players.

Sitting with 400$ i felt good. I got onto a table with two quiet drunk players, as alchole is servered free to the players some take advantage of this. The table was quiet friendly so this help me to settle into the game, i picked up a few pots and rolled up to 500 with no problems, then got my most interesting hand of the evening : Drunk (very talkative) player raises from UTG+1 , we have one caller to his left, then i call in D with TT. flop come Q73, this gets checked around including me so we see a 8 turn. The original raiser now bets out , only 35 into a 80$ pot, the player to his left folds , i call him. 3 on the river and things look good for me i think. He then stops his friendly banter and bets out 105, he goes stiff and stars at the board. I imidetaly try to engage him in conversaion, he does not even blink, i think for another 30 seconds and decide he is bluffing and trying to take the pot away from me, so i call he mucks and i take down the pot. NICE

After about 3 horus playing 2/5 i had rolled up to $825, I decided to jump off of the table, the drunk guy had just got busted - and two seats were filled with full buy (1k dollars). It felt like the time was right to move on. So i took a small break - cashed up the chips, had a wonder around. I decided to sit myself down at a friendly looking 1/2 game, sat with $100 and played away. Once again like the night before i got smashed big time, getting my reads wrong at ever action of an opponant. One perticually bad read was as follows :

This hand occurs on my second buy in for 100$ - i had lost the first with a couple of bluffs in spots and getting called by top pairs without kickers and middle pair hands. I raise to 10$ from MP1, CO raises my raise up to 25$ D then re-raises up to 60$, this is the first hand i have seen the player sitting in D raise PF, and he has rarly even got to a flop. I think for a second and fold my JJ, CO then shoves in, D calls amost instantly (they both have around $250 stacks) they decied to show their hands, CO shows 88, D shows 77, I CRY !!!! :(

All in all a lost another stack on that table befroe calling it a night - ending being about $275 down from that 1/2 game - still up 175$ on the night.

Wednesday 16th

Hey, sorry i have not updatd this daily like i explaned in the post before, i stayed in a hotel for a few days and didnt take my laptop with me !

Had a relaxing day on Wednesday - my plan was to train in the evening - 7-9pm then hit up the casinos on the strip afterwards. Training went well, lots of scrimmaging again. There were less worse players so i was invloved with the "better" players lots more. There is a hungarian player who plays in Vegas, hes pretty good, i would say one of the best players so i picked him up most of the time during training. He is the only one that is as fast as me in the swim sets at the start of training so i thought it would be a good challegn for me to play against him. I ddi pretty well i feel - he was unable to get easy balls into the pit, and i always was pushing him hard i think.

After training it was time for poker !!! Ben dropped me off in the middle of the strip, i had a wonder up and down with all the bright neon lights lighting the pavement. I decided to go "The Venetian" its know for the largest and best poker room on the strip so i thought i would try it out. It was a good atmospher, i was overwhelmed by the volume of players, it has 120+ tables, and atlease 60 - 70 were full of cash games. All types of poker from Limit Hold'em to Omaha and Horse, ranging in limits from 1/2 all the way to 10/20.

I sat at a 1/2 No Limit game - bought in with 100$ and started to play, i really enjoyed the night, a huge mixture of charatures around the table from all parts of the world. I ended up getting beaten alot - people catching 2 pairs on the river, chasing down their flush draws with bad calls and hitting etc, although i pick up lots of beats i still managed to keep my head and play pretty well - i ended up buying in for 4 buy in worth by the end - and walked away with 325$, which i was pretty happy about given the amount of beats i have had. After playing for 8 hours i go some food and sat down to watch a 2/5 game to see how it was going. I watched for about an hour before heading home.

On the bus ride home i broke down the session i decided it was quiet a hard game in genral, as there is such a mixture of players ranging from really bad to kind of know what they are talking about ment i struggled to make right desisions againts the right players. There is also a high turn over on these tables - alot of players would move after winning a big pot - take their money stright off the table, and alot of the others would stay 2 - 3 hours maximum, this ment getting good reads on the way they play harder than normal. I also broke down the play of the 2/5 game i had watched, it looked tasty and made me hungry for some of that action.

When i got home (thursday morning 7am) i thoguht i would plan a little trip to stay at the Venetian for a couple of nights and play lots of poker. They have a deal on so im able to get there 400$ a night suite for 89$ if i play 6 hours of poker - i thought would be a nice oppotunity to play some big sets - 8 - 12 hours long so booked it up and went to sleep.

Another Disappointing Evening

Sadly waterpolo training was cancelled last night - im guessing it was because they had a weekend long tournament - my plan was to go to training and then hit up the strip for some poker into the weee hours of the morning, but seen as there was no training on, i decided to go to one of my local card rooms instead, Sunset Station Casino.

This idea did not work out so good, as there was not a No Limit Holdem game going, therefore i sat at a 4/8 limit table to play some poker. Over all it didn't go to badly, i lost about 20$ overall in the hour i sat while waiting for a No Limit game to start up, as one didn't i made an exit. It was interesting playing some limit, once again im pretty sure i had a big edge over the ;players that were playing. I had one awesome hand of the night - with Pocket AA i hit quads on the turn - sadly as it was only limit i was only able to extract the one bet out of my opponent.

Im planning a swim set today, probably got to my local 50m pool and hit up a 5 - 6km session !!

My plans to hit up the strip will happen tomorrow now, as hopefully there will be polo training on ! :)

Hey all

A report from last nights poker, very disappointing, not in the fact i lost money but due to the game. I rocked up to "Green Valley Spa and Hotel" at about 8pm - its about 30 min walk for me. Sat down and took one of the two open seats left at the table, so we were running it 8 handed. Not too much action happening. Then about 5 mins into my game one of the old ladies gets up and leaves, this starts a trend and we get down to 4 handed within 10 mins, we go on for a bit longer but 2 of the players said they wouldn't play for more than a few mins short handed. After 10 they also got up and left and the game broke.

I made about 30$ from the game but very sad to see it break - i went to have some food to see if it got started again but it did not. So i headed back to my place. All in all kindda annoying, but ill be heading out to the strip tonight so this should hopefully not happen in the big poker rooms there !

Hey all - i intend to update this bog daily from now on. Last 3 days have been nice change of pace, I played some more poker on Wednesday day time as there was a game going, that's described below. On Thursday i moved into my new accommodation - away from the Strip, into a house in Henderson (South East side of Vegas). Im renting a room of off Ben, hes really cool guy who plays waterpolo for the Vegas team, so it seems like a good choice for transport reasons, as well as being a massive 4 bedroom house ! Here are some pics :

Poker :

Time : 3pm - 6pm 9th June

Game : 1/2 holdem

Start : $100 total bought in : $500

Finish : $240

This is probably the worse poker session i have ever had in terms of luck - i seem to get out drawn ALL SESSION LONG. There's a couple of the worse hands below, it seemed that I would always get my money in while i was ahead - a long way ahead, and as soon as they hit a bigger hand they were unable to extract any value from me. Here are a couple of the hands :

I raise JT PF all 3 call (pot=32) - 789 flop BB bets out 20 - UTG CALLS I Raise all in ($88) SB folds - get a call from BB and UTG, turn was a A - but no bets - T river and BB turns over QJ I'm thinking WOW !!! sad times for me UTG MUCKS - she could have had bottom pair shes so bad. So i lose getting my flop straight all in Vs gutshot ! great start !!

Another : 3 limper's me in BB AT - raise to 12- two callers flop = 45T Canadian lady ( complete donk ) bets 10 into 38- I raise to 35, one fold - she calls. Turn = 9 - this is good for me - she now bets out 25 into , I just call - 4 river again I think this is pretty good card - she bets 35 I call she shows Q4 - I cry :-( pot = 230 so unreal ! Sad thing about this she thought she had the best hand all the time.

All in all ended up -$260 , this brings overall total down, -$140 so far on the trip on poker.

On the day after (Thursday) i moved into Ben's house, so was chilling Thurs & Friday nights - watching alot of sports on the cable package ! :)

I played poker again last night, which over all was pretty good, I went to "Sunset Station Casino" which is one of my local ones down in Henderson, the game got going about 8pm - i was destroying it for a couple of hours, all players were pretty bad as i expected, got talking to one younger guy "Dan", hes dealing the WSOP events so he said, we got into large hand i stacked up to about 450 - he was running at 300, i have KK raising PF, he calls - it comes AK6 with two hearts on the board, i bet out into him 20 into a 25 pot, he makes it 75 - i slow it down and about 20 secs later i push all in, he snap calls me with JQ - also having a flush draw which he hit on the turn, i couldn't re-draw him for a House on the river so i shipped over $300 of hard earned money. I ended up leaving the game when it broke at about 1am with $202, as i had bought in 2 x $100 i was $2 up WOOOHOOOO.

As i said at the top - ill be updating this blog daily now - so the posts will not be this long winded ! I look forward to playing tonight and hopefully reporting a big win this time out !

Thanks for reading :) - pass on the link to anyone whom might be interested !

last 5 days !

Traveling:

plane delayed 3 hours total - could catch up the time in the air though ! lovely views over top of Scotland and few pics :) hit the ice over Greenland, lots of huge chunks of ice floating away in the ocean. Hit north America, coming in over Canada. Nice pics of the rocky mountains - couldn't see the little village of South Park though :( Once landed was quick transition, i was one of the first off and so were my bags so was out with 15 mins - very happy !

Hooters hotel - bit old and cheapish - guess u get what you pay for. The air conditioning work good which i guess is important in this part of the world. Heat hitting 108-109F - which is some kindda record here for this time of the year ! LOVEING IT !

Poker :

Time : 1am - 6:30 7th June

Game : 1/2 holdem

Start : $100

Finish : $140

Only finished $40 up on the session. Rolled up from 100 to 330 at one point, playing pretty standard, no major bluffs, started to get attacked towards the end of the game - lots an all in PF vs $80 stack with my AK v 44. Lost the other chunk of my rolled up money on a flopped straight, me with 86 on 457 baord, got drawn out on by 89 for a higher stright when a 6 hit the river.

All in all happy with my play, so many weak players on the table - looking forward to next sit down !

Polo training :

First training last night, was mainly based around game play, as their masters have a large tournament this weekend. That also meant i didn't get to play with the better players, they were split into two teams to have match practice against each other, so i was lumped in with the other half of players, guys & girls not going to this tournament and the other players. Was fun to get in and splash about, it showed how un-fit i was, so things to improve on. I am looking forward to getting involved with the better players after this tournament.

Poker :

Time : 6pm - 1am 8th June

Game : 1/2 holdem

Start : $100 total bought in : $300

Finish : $380

My second run of poker was very enjoyable. Im loving the chance to meet people from US and chat to them, also loving how terrible everyone at the table seems to be. I was buying in with $100 in these games, had to reload a couple of times, was ending up losing 50 - 80 - 100 dollar pots regular. All times i was getting money in while i was winning and then no money in when they hit their cards, was playing pretty well i think.

One example of a hand that this happened to is me raising Td5d in cut off, small blind gives me action - As7sTs flops. Hes checks to me i bet out about 75% pot, get the call from him. 5h Turns, i don't think this changes the situation too much - as i feel my T was good from the flop. I once again bet - know he will pay off a flush Draw, hes makes the call, a Kd rivers, he checks and i check behind. Sadly he turns of Kh7c, but me getting money in while ahead and then checking when behind felt good - although i lost the pot.

The standard is shocking, i know I'm gonna make some huge stacks, just a matter of waiting for the right opportunity. Ive started to make friends with the few people that i played with for both the sessions, one of the "Mark" tells me hes a reg, grinding it out, telling me that the games are easy etc.... I see alto of his plays as pretty bad and am unimpressed with everyone's standard of play, hopefully ill be able to report some big wins soon enough !

Peace out !