Dreaming of Vegas

Its that time again. Suddenly without me being aware of it happening, I'm dreaming of Vegas. Not going and playing the WSoP - so I'll probably not be playing any satellites or anything daft, but I am aware that its coming up for a year since I went over there last time, and I want to go again.

As things stand though, its just not going to happen. I can't pay for it out of my poker bankroll, especially after withdrawing £1200 or so when the banks were looking really dodgy, and that money has now been sat in my bank account no so long that its no longer reasonable to consider it part of my bankroll.

I've got a bankroll of about $1100 now - and I need to have about $5k to be able to afford it. About 3k as a bankroll and about 1k for the flight+hotel, leaving (just) 1k as my roll back home.

Realistically I don't need that much - I'm very unlikely to come back entirely potless (in fact if I came back with less than 1k I'd be exceedingly annoyed), so that amount could come down a little.

Nevertheless though with the credit crunch so severe, and the risks for employment to all who work so high it would just be a stupid waste of money, at precisely the wrong time.

Doesn't stop me dreaming though. And hoping that I might find my way over there in 2010.

So Caesars, or the Imperial Palace.

Status Update

I've been doing a little better on the tables recently. I've been playing pretty well all in all (admittedly at stupidly low stakes). I'm still donking around at the $11/45s on Stars, which I'm actually quite liking. The play is generally really bad - and I'm sure I make mistakes early by folding too much. Evidence for this is one hand - one of the first played

9 handed.

Hero is in MP holding AQo
Blinds 10/20
2 folds, Hero(1500) raises to 60, CO calls, SB and BB call.
Flop Q52
Hero bets 140, CO raises to 320, 2 folds, Hero pushes ....

And CO calls with Q9o. I'm possibly walking into a set or a slow-played over
pair - but at these levels I'm not sure that its profitable to fold TPTK against
an unknown. Especially as most are re-raising AA and KK here, and calling behind with
a flopped set. Most, but not all.

Anyway, I ran really bad for a while (down 15 or so buy-ins), but I'm back in profit now having won a couple of tournaments in quick succession.

I downloaded the really quite good pokertracker add-on Tourney Luck (search in the 2+2 s/w forums) which confirmed I was running really badly, and generally getting it in ahead. My luck seems to have turned now - as my bankroll confirms.

I'm still a bit short-stacked, but I don't want to carry on playing at the $11s for much longer. I'd hope to be able to have a crack back at the $22 games fairly soon, but I'm not at all sure where. I'm not aware of a tournament at the right time, with the right number of runners in it.

Most obviously would be the $22/45s, but I'm not sure how often they run. Oddly there seem to be more 11/45s running on Full Tilt, so I could have a look over there. Otherwise I'll have to look at a regular tourny somewhere, rather than playing the SnG MTTs.

It is perhaps worth mentioning that my upswing has coincided with me playing just 1 table at a time. There is probably a lesson hidden in there somewhere. Not too well hidden.