May has been treating me pretty good thus far.  Had only a couple of rough sessions and overall I am up about 3000.  Did play in a real juicy 40-80 limit game which had a couple of huge negative swings for me early on but I grinded my way back to a nice score when all was said and done.  I have been on a real nice run at Bally's over the last 5 nights and hopefully will continue later this evening.

Been running at least a mile a day now for several days and feel like I am getting some wind back in my lungs.  Still got a lot of work to do though to get back to where I need to be.  Would be really nice to find some folks around here to play racquetball or basketball with.

Got my kitchen spices and other cooking stuff up to par now.  Going to be dabbling into some new Thai, Filipino and Indian dishes in the coming days.  

Well not a bad April but could have been much nicer with a different card here and there.  Put in 46 sessions since arriving April 10th with 38 winners and 8 losers.  The worse loss was a 1800.00 debacle at a wild, wild late night game at the Flamingo.  Total hours 157h20m over the 3 weeks for a net 3380.00 win.  I haven't ran exceptionally well so I am fairly happy with these results thus far.

Going to try and put in a 24 hours session at the Luxor over Saturday morning to Sunday morning for there 24K give away for the highest 24 hands.  Going to be grueling but one hell of an overlay as most of the quad payouts are at 599.00 as well.

Started my 6 month training to attempt to run a marathon on Nov. 3.  I figured it was now or never as I am not getting any younger and my knees are not in great shape as it is.  Two years of sitting on my ass while driving a truck for a living has put me in pretty poor form.

So far so good since my return to Vegas.  I have played 12 sessions (70.19 hours) with 11 winners (2220.00) for a nice hourly.  Got stuck at Mandalay Bay for around 700 after playing perfectly and trapping some folks for their stacks with minimal outs that got there but managed to turn it around for a 400 + win after a marathon session.  I had forgotten how fun it was to play a big stack  but with 1000+ in front of me I put on a clinic.

Last night something really weird happened at O'sheas.  A player early on in a session made a comment about going all in out of turn and I asked if verbal declarations were binding and was told yes.  I wasn't involved in the hand and nothing came of it but after losing about 200 at Mandalay Bay when a guy made a similar comment that the dealer didn't hear when I was involved in a hand so I just wanted to cover my bases if it happened again.  Well as fate would have it I limped in a 5-6 way pot with 56dd while the table lunatic shouted out as he had done before for what cards he wanted on the flop (never which he had).  Well he shouted out Queens and deuces this time and sure enough the flop brought Q 6 2 rainbow and he shouted out that he was going to go all in.  I was out of position and asked the dealer if that comment was binding.  She said it was and called the floor manager over to explain the situation.  He backed up the dealer and said that if no one bet in front of him that he would indeed have to go all-in (about 300 in front).  He then started making a big show and saying he wasn't going to do it and was just going to bet 10.00 which he put in the pot.  Security came over as well as the main poker manager and reaffirmed that he need to put the chips in which he refused.  I made the call with my pair of 6's and the dealer peeled off the turn and river.  The player then proceeded to start dumping his chips into his cupped up t-shirt and started heading out onto the strip.  I assumed that security would take action and apprehend him but they didn't.  He disappeared into the night and I was left without the 200 he owed to my pot.  I continued playing for another hour or so when the game was to break at 0030 and kept assuming that someone was going to make the pot right.  Well the game was stopping and no one as of yet had made that happen so I went to talk to the poker room manager who said that he couldn't authorize paying me the missing funds.  Now that is bullshit, which is what I told him.  Eventually he went to talk to some higher ups and a man came down and introduced himself and said he would take care of the problem. We walked over to a BJ table and he told the girl to pay me with chips to cover the loss.  I appreciate the casino taking care of this issue as it is their responsibility to insure the integrity of the game.

Got an old poker playing buddy rolling into Vegas tomorrow so looking forward to that.  Heading out to look at some more houses and hoping that my loan pre-approval gets taken care of soon.

Just finished calculating up by debt obligations for the remainder of the month and the beginning of April.  I should have about 8600 to play with after paying what is necessary, gas and living expenses for the first week in Vegas.  That should be more than enough to start out with.  My plan is to arrive the 6-7th of April.  I would like to start out playing at the TI on Sunday for their weekly payback of 599 for 60 hours of play.  Even if the games are shitty I reckon I can manage 20.00/hr while there plus the 2.00/hr food comps.  If the games are really bad I will reevaluate my plan and start playing in juicier games.

In the beginning

Decided I would start a poker blog detailing my day to day activity in hopes of providing some self motivation along with hopefully providing an outlet to meet fellow warriors of the felt for life outside of poker.

I am on the last week of my current job and hope to be in Vegas sometime at the beginning of April.  As a way of introduction I suppose I will put out a list of 25 things about me similar to the ones I have been enjoying reading the last day or so.

1. I have driven over 1,000,000 miles
2. I once beat Johnny Moss so bad in a session that he ripped up his cards (he was a real sore loser and I am sure that wasn't the first time he had done so)
3. I once won more than 5K in a 40-80 session at the Mirage, unfortunately I lost 22K in BJ the same day:(
4. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from my undergraduate college with a 4.0 GPA
5. I have a Ph.d
6. My best poker game is 7 Stud (very useful in Vegas:) I am pretty good at most forms albeit I could use some practice in PLO and Badugi/variants.
7. I once stayed awake for 5 days (naval nuclear power school).
8. My longest poker session was 50 hours (Belle of Baton Rouge)
9. One of my favorite travel spots is Big Bend National Park in Texas
10. I love a good bourbon and a mediocre one isn't that bad as well.
11. I voted for John Hagelin for president twice
12. I grew up on a chicken farm
13. Intelligent women rock and those that write well even more so (Anais Nin, Willa Cather, Ayn Rand, Ami Calistri)
14. My favorite car is a Pontiac GTO
15. My favorite writers are: Robert Heinlein, Edward Abbey, Farley Mowat, Walker Percy, Elmore Leonard and Herman Hesse
16. I was once chased across the Mexican border by the policia in Nogales
17. I have been held at gun point three times, all outside of the U.S.
18. I have spent several nights alone deep within the Amazon forest
19. My favorite movies: Kentucky Fried Movie, anything with Clint Eastwood and Dead Poet Society
20. I was never thrown our stealing a base during my baseball career (well over 300 attempts)
21. I am an atheist
22. If I had to listen/watch any Republican talk bullshit I would prefer it be Amy Holmes
23. Cusco, Addis Ababa, Las Vegas and Davao are my favorite "big cities"
24. My favorite musicians are Howling Wolf, Johnny Cash, Fleetwood Mac and Buena Vista Social Club
25. Boiled crawfish is my favorite food