Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[animalpoker]

Nice one mate , congratulations…..again 🥳

[tikay]

Busto 30th, $1,731

[animalpoker]

Meh, was hoping for a huge spin up .
Mr Rabb’s articles will be all about you soon for sure 💵

[Geo the Sarge]

Congrats again TK.

Bramley wakes me at 4 each morning, once I've had a brew and completed the early morning admin we are out the door by 4:30.

Last few typically cold wet Scottish mornings have been brightened by viewing your updates. Great to see you doing well, I presume due to you not having the added burden of your normal duties when in Vegas.

I think retirement is going to suit you, just stay active.

This mornings wander was around Roslin Glen and the Roslin Chapel, no sign of Tom Hanks though.

Well done again.

Geo

[Geo the Sarge]

How long do you have left in Vegas?

[booder]

Busto 30th, $1,731

Meh

[Karabiner]

Well done again Tony - you're becoming a veritable ATM this trip

[Kev B]

Great patience Tikay, well done on another cash. 👏👏👏

[Mohican]

I'mfeeling a certain amount of miffage at that fact I don't have a financial interest in your success this year due to a lacking of Tikay Staking action.
Good to see you doing well and perhaps the lack of pressure from a stake  is contributing to your play and fortune. Keep it up.

[tikay]

Good morning & thank you to all who commented. (With the exception of boo & Celtic, both of whom I'm ignoring).

I can barely believe how many messages & questions I'm getting so I'm struggling a bit to reply to everyone, but I'll do a sort of little round-up that addresses most of it. I'm on here, Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, plus e-Mails etc so I'm a bit overwhelmed.

I'll base it around the lovely post from Geo, plus some questions I received on non-blonde platforms.

[tikay]

How long do you have left in Vegas?

My flight home is end of next week, though it's not impossible that I could fly home earlier. So, at present, about 12 days left.

[tikay]

Congrats again TK.

Bramley wakes me at 4 each morning, once I've had a brew and completed the early morning admin we are out the door by 4:30.

Last few typically cold wet Scottish mornings have been brightened by viewing your updates. Great to see you doing well, I presume due to you not having the added burden of your normal duties when in Vegas.

I think retirement is going to suit you, just stay active.

This mornings wander was around Roslin Glen and the Roslin Chapel, no sign of Tom Hanks though.

Well done again.

Geo

Morning Geo, what a lovely post that is.

You know the best thing about the last few weeks? It's so many of the blondes from back in the day re-emerging. Great to see.

Please do keep up with the "Travelling Tales", & feature Bramley as often as possible please. I bet you two are inseparable.


I think retirement is going to suit you, just stay active.

Me too & at present I'm certainly staying active. Over here I seem to be pokering 12 hours a day, which is surprisingly tiring & mentally taxing. Next morning I feel proper shite.

At home it's golf most days, & I walk, I don't use a buggy. In truth, I could probably walk 36 holes in a day. My problem is the moment I stop, or sit down, I lock up & can barely move. And the next morning to get downstairs I have to hold on to both bannisters as I'm in such a state, legs barely working. But it soon passes & once I get moving it all eases up. 

More follows...

[tikay]

Someone asked what I'm doing differently to get all these cashes. Well first some context on "all those cashes", 7 official cashes so far, 8 if you include $600 in Bounties from a $800 Venetian Bounty Comp in which I never cashed as such.

The problem is I'm Mr Min Cash & despite those impressive-sounding stats, my current Vegas P & L has me at just $794 of profit. I'm chuffed to bits with that, but it's not exactly crushing, is it? That can disappear this afternoon.

And in potentially worse news, if I fulfil the rest of my proposed schedule, I'll be buying-in for another $11,000 in total, every penny of which I could lose. So I could still emerge $10,000 or so (£7,410) adrift.

And if you are surprised at the total cost of my schedule (varies according to 2nd bullets & Day 2's) which is in the region of £16,000, well so am I, but this is part of my Great Retirement Adventure, & I've worked hard for 61 years non-stop, so now it's time to party. End of this month Gill & I are off to Paris on Eurostar for the weekend with 2 nights in a posh hotel. In the Autumn (dates not finalised yet) we are off to Hawaii via Vegas. Hawaii is such a lengthy flight(s) from the UK, so we'll break it in Vegas. Fly to Vegas, 3 days to settle, fly to Hawaii for a week or so, then same thing coming back. And if Gill can get the holiday time from work, New York around Thanksgiving time would be nice.  

More follows...

[tikay]

Someone asked what I'm doing differently to get all these cashes.


Nothing, & it's almost certainly just variance.

But let's put some flesh on that. Over here, I've ONLY played PLO variants, & they are very much my game. In the UK I 've been playing a lot of Hold 'Em but I don't have any real ability at NLH, don't even enjoy it as such really, but there's almost no PLO variants available on a weekly/regular basis in the UK. So I just go for the social side & for the company of gambling folks. And at DTD when I bust a NLH comp I go play 6 Card PLO cash, which I'm addicted to, it's like riding a motorbike at 100mph without a crash helmet. Love that buzz.

As I think I explained before, I resumed playing "Live" Poker in late October as I needed to test myself for this Vegas trip. I've played around 60 NLH Comps at DTD since then, & cashed in 15 of them, so a 25% cash rate. (Mostly min cashes of course, though a few Top 3's and even a win).

But it's a different story in PLO variants. Since resuming in late October in the UK, I've played 6 PLO variant MTT's in the UK & cashed in all 6. Aided no doubt by healthy dollops of variance, but again, mostly min cashes.

Guess I "get" PLO (most especially Big O) but I'm just a nit. I'll take that.

The other difference since the start of the Vegas trip is retirement. My work in the last few years was very menial & very little responsibility, but it was an "eyes always on" thing & I took it very seriously, strained every sinew to give "my" Customers a good experience & support. So "work" was always in & on my mind.

On top of that, I was "working" 7 days a week (admittedly light work), pokering 5 nights a week, & golfing 4 or 5 days a week, so everything I did was rush rush rush. Get up at 5am to do my work, rush to golf just in time for an 11am tee-time, rush back home afterwards & grab an hour's nap, then off to DTD for a 7pm Comp.  

Now, I'm just Mr Chilled, with zero responsibilities or worries. That makes a huge difference, & it might just be the main difference.

More follows...


 

[tikay]

The subject of staking has been asked numerous times on different platforms by different friends.

As I have mentioned on here before I DO have a significant staker. I had no plans to sell any action as I can't cope with the very reasonable requirement to do Updates. I've no idea how Stu Rutter does it, & does it superbly, but I just can't manage it these days. Plus, with a high value (for most of us) but flexible schedule, the book-keeping becomes a right headache if there are a bunch of stakers all with varying %'s. Plus, I have very low self-confidence at poker & almost EXPECT to lose money, so it does not really sit comfortably with me to sell bits & bobs to friends who maybe will find losing a few hundo hurts a bit.  

However, one Gentleman asked to get involved as long as 9 months ago, he wanted to get involved & give me some financial & mental support from the very start when I was originally planning the GRA. He's a good friend of many years standing & has met Gill. So he has a significant stake & he's been such a great "mental coach".

Who? I'm not sure it's correct etiquette to name him, but if he wants to expose himself (ooh-er) I'm completely fine with that. There's no big secret or mystery, it just feels the correct etiquette to do it that way.