Running Bad Before Vegas

Fresh off of my most profitable month of poker to date, April 2005 started off just as well, as I ran the $145 that I had kept in my account up to $535.  Sadly, the last two weeks of April didn't go as well as the first two did.  I got greedy and paid the price when the $50 and $100 SnGs quickly caught up with me.  Before I knew it, I was tapping into my winnings from March to replenish my bankroll.  Bitterly, I pumped $150 back into PokerRoom and 2 days later, I ended up depositing another $100 after essentially lighting fire to the $150 I had just put in.  I shouldn't have been anywhere near the $30 SnG tables with a bankroll that low, but again, bankroll management was a concept I seemingly refused to acknowledge.

With the $100 in my account, I scaled back a bit and played mostly $5 and $10 tournaments, albeit my losing streak continued through mid-May.  Running bad couldn't have come at a worse time, as it was leading up to my first-ever trip to Las Vegas.  It was a family vacation (myself, Mom and Dad) and I had planned to play a ton of poker during our stay.  Fortunately, I wasn't too discouraged by my losing streak.  I was way too excited for Vegas and when we touched down at McCarren, I couldn't wait to hit the felt and explore Sin City.  I'll do my best to summarize the report and keep it short.  Keep in mind that we took this trip in May 2005.  Many of the resorts you see today (namely Aria, Planet Hollywood, Cosmopolitan, Encore, Palazzo) weren't even built yet, nor was the popular Venetian poker room open either (it opened a year later in 2006).

Anyway, my folks and I stayed at Imperial Palace because it was the cheapest hotel on the Strip.  The room sucked, but who really takes a Vegas vacation to spend most of their time in the room?  Since we were in the middle of the Strip, it was relatively easy to get to most of the casinos.  For some, I walked inside for a few minutes, looked around and left.  For others, I stayed a bit longer and gambled.  I probably spent most my time (and money) at The Mirage, as I not only loved the resort, but they had a preliminary event for the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown going on.  Despite being a preliminary event, the field was small (couldn't have been more than 200 runners) and was packed with poker professionals.  I ended up railing them for hours, standing only a couple of feet away from a table with Phil Ivey, Chris Bigler, Paul Darden, Amir Vahedi (RIP), Amnon Filippi and Gavin Smith (who would go on to win the 10k event a week later).  There were others pros in attendance that I'm forgetting, but this table obviously stood out for me given how close I was standing to it.  Needless to say, I was in awe of these professionals that I had seen on ESPN's WSOP coverage for the past 2 years.  Watching them play live really inspired me to hit the tables and fortunately, I did my homework prior to the trip and researched some of the cheapest buy-in tournaments in Vegas.

As such, I spent the next several days playing tournaments at Imperial Palace ($65, didn't cash), Binion's ($70, didn't cash), Sahara ($45, finished in 8th place for a small cash) and an O8 tournament at The Orleans ($75, finished 20th out of 70-some runners).  Despite failing to cash in 3 out of the 4 tournaments, it was a great experience playing poker live in Las Vegas.  In fact, it was great to play live poker in general, as I really didn't have much experience playing live games at home.  Sometimes I played in my buddy's basement, betting nickels, dimes and quarters with friends who weren't as serious about the game as I was.  I was also a regular winner playing 6-10 person tournaments at a different friend's house, but I think they got tired of me taking their money every time I showed up.  FYI - I was unaware that the Cleveland Poker Meetup Group (CPMG) even existed at the time.  Anyway, back to my experience in Vegas - I had a great time visiting Binion's Horseshoe casino in particular, considering the WSOP was held there for the final time the year prior.  I also had a blast playing the live O8 tournament at The Orleans since I was doing so well at it online.  Finally, I put in a few hours at The Mirage poker room and played cash - something I hadn't done online since losing my initial freeroll winnings.  I found that playing cash games was a different mindset than playing tournaments, thus I wasn't all that comfortable throughout the duration of the session.  I didn't stay long enough to remember what stakes I played or if I finished ahead or behind.

Aside from poker, I lost a lot of money playing slots at The Mirage and played pai gow poker for hours at Imperial Palace, getting stupidly drunk in the process.  The cocktail waitress brought me White Russians every 10 minutes it seemed, and I had quite the time trying to find my room afterwards.  I had a similar experience at the Wynn, which had literally just opened to the public a few weeks prior.  Strolling into the Wynn wearing a sleeveless basketball jersey and jeans with holes in the knees made for a good laugh considering most of the people in the casino were dressed in suits and fancy dresses.  I considered making a wager or two at a $25 pai gow table, but I chose to walk by the poker room (which wasn't all that impressive from what I can remember) instead before exiting.

Overall, I lost quite a bit of money during my first-ever trip to Sin City, but at least I had fun doing it.  I didn't want to leave and promised myself that I'd be back sooner rather than later.

I just didn't realize how soon that would actually be.

To be continued....