So Vegas is coming to an end, I've definitely learned some about myself and some about vegas in general.
Starting personally, I had that big breakdown in the middle of the series that made me realise I struggle to mentally cope with busting in big tournaments, moving forward I will really try to focus on this and since realising this everything has been pretty ok. I busted in 22nd in a $1500 in day 4 KK<QQ and took it really well. In the $10k PLO I finished 13th when 1st was $1m and took it really well too. I think moving forward, I've identified a problem and now its no longer a problem.
I came into the WSOP with huge expectations, I was going to be POY, I was going to cash more times than anybody else and I was going to be the best player in all the tournaments. The first two things I quickly found out I couldn't manage. It is impossible to manage variance in tournament poker and it gave me a bit of a reality shock and realised that coming into the WSOP in the future or any live trip, having any expectation asides from striving to play my A game at all times is really dumb. Thats something that is so obvious, but took me a few weeks to really realise.
Vegas in general..
I've realised there's 2 different types of people who come to vegas and win money.
1- The players who come, rofl around and bink a tournament/go deep in a tournament
2- The players who focus on one thing and really specialise towards it and crush.
There's so many guys who are just playing 25/50 in bellagio, of 10/25 in the rio, or $50/point chinese, or all the mixed game tournaments or even SNG's. This year I played HSNL, HSPLO, MSNL, MSPLO, SNG's, Chinese.. I should really just have an action plan of exactly what I'm going to do. If its going to be a trip based around tournaments I think preparing and stopping burn out is important. If its a trip based around cash games, I should decide where and what stakes I'm going to focus on and really strive to be the big crusher in that game throughout the summer. There's so many people rofling around doing what I was doing (jumping into fun games when busting a tournament) that theres so much money to be made. I am 100% sure there is a lot of money to be made in Vegas you just have to have a good plan and stick to it, I'm also 100% sure its very easy to deviate from said plan and lose a lot of money doing it.
I'm fortunate I've learned all of this whilst having a marginally profitable summer, I'm sure it has taken some guys 2-3 summers of completely bricking before they potentially stop blaming variance and realise they are not approaching it correctly.
I went to bellagio tonight and there was a 1k/2k PLO game with straddles and one young reg was on his phone playing 10+ games of chinese and barely watching any of the action, by the time summer finishes theres hundreds and hundreds of players stuck a bunch.
I think most people think I'm pretty nerdy, pretty geeky. I know people will think I'm way too poker orientated and for some reason I let this delude me and make me think this was actually true. One night I was in the Rio, Corona in one hand, Vodka Cranberry in the other hand, coming off a chinese game and about to head out to a club. It was my 5th/6th night out in vegas and they had all been really heavy. I went past the SNG area and saw Wushu and Martin Finger grinding away. It made me feel so amateur. They were still going really strong, grinding away when the schedules were weak on certain days and its no surprise that these guys are the ones I should be trying to emulate. I'm obviously a very hard worker but I have been very degen this summer, I've probably wagered over $200,000 betting (don't worry Mum thats not as bad as it sounds
, I'm actually up in the trip from gambling!) I've been drunk probably 6/7 times and from being the guy who was in the gym every day for the first 3 weeks of the trip I slowly deteriorated and got a lot lazy.
I know I have played exceptionally well this trip when at the tables itself, but things around it or even taking days off when I perhaps shouldn't may have been a big leak.
I know I sound hard on myself, but I'm not sure how many summers I have left coming to the WSOP or how poker will be in the next years. I want to be the best tournament player in the world, I want to be the best player in every field I register too, but I don't just mean technically, I want to be the most studious, and I want to be the most professional too.
I'm not sure what my plans will be for next year, but I know I'll get it right and who knows maybe I run good and get a bracelet!
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