My trip to Vegas has now come and gone and in the aftermath I've had a little time to reflect on what happened. Throughout the course of the trip I found out some things I'm good at, some things I need work on, and noticed tendencies that I have that have a direct impact on my play at the tables. Did the trip turn out how I wanted, not at all. I didn't even catch a wiff of a cash in any MTTs let alone a FT or a score big enough to fund some WSOP shots. Even though I'm not rich and famous yet, there is still a lot to reflect on and learn from my trip to the mecca of the poker universe.

I'll start with the good. I learned a new sense of patients at the tables. I can't really explain how or why but out there something just seemed to click. Bad beats weren't bothering me as much, a couple of key instances came to mind where people were getting in my face about hands. It wasn't anything out of the norm for a poker game, just a few 1/2NL grinders who think they are the next Hellmuth and so they decide it's ok to act like a baby about every hand and tell people how "bad" we all play compared to them. I just had a calm about me that I haven't had in a long time at the tables. Maybe it was just the trip and the whole, "I'm in Vegas I must take this seriously" mentality but I just felt different at the tables. Also playing in mixed games out there was a nice change of pace from the normal NLHE grind it out session I have to play.

Now I heard somewhere when I was a kid that you don't learn much from success. It's only when you get something wrong that you really understand what is going on. There was plenty of that to go around during my trip. The tournaments went terribly and they all had a similar pattern. Early levels I had success and built up some chips, then after level 3 or so in each event people started reraising me a lot more, my steals were working less and less, and when I finally did have hands like TT or AK and the flop came out dry for me or with an overcard the action would be check/raised by the time it got back to me and I'd have to let my hands go. With one exception where I ran AQ into QT and lost a 32K pot on the river it just seemed like I couldn't get on the right side of things in the events I played. Cash games went well, MTTs went south in a hurry and I couldn't help but ponder what exactly went wrong in each case. I'm glad to see my cash game play finally elevating a bit but at the expense on MTTs wasn't exactly the formula I had in mind.

It has long been a problem of mine that I have been too tight at the tables and have given up a lot of chances to chip up in thinner spots. Now to this point in the MTT world that has worked but I wanted to try and get better at the game so I've been trying to add some more aggression into the mix. For some reason I can't seem to find the right balance or the right spots to get the money in. I'm at my best when I play a "reactive" style verses an "aggressive" style. Now I don't mean I play passively, what I mean is that my strength is to adjust on the fly to what my opponents are doing rather than what the mathematically correct play is. I like to let things come to me at the table rather than force the action, just from a personality perspective. If a player seems weak, raise. That's more or less how I like to play. What I've been attempting to do is find general spots where it makes more sense to bet and be the aggressor but I'm having some trouble figuring out when and where exactly that is and my game has suffered a bit for it. I think for now I'm going back to grinding things out a bit more and toning down the aggression until I have a better understanding of what I need to improve upon.

Not everything in Vegas was either good or bad. Some of the things that I learned out there are just pure fact. For example, while I had a lot of fun playing in the Mixed games out there, with my BR where it stands currently that's probably not the best way to build up. Playing in even a 10/20 HORSE game, where my return is something like $40/hour (at least that's the goal, 2BBs and hour) it just doesn't compare to potential earnings even at a lowly 1/2NLHE table. The biggest game I played in while in Vegas was a 1/2 PLO game at the Venetian where 3 separate people had $1K+ in front of them, and since it was PLO just sitting there for 4 hours I saw 8-12 $300+ pots (even scooped a few up myself). For me to make any serious money I'd need to sit up around a 50/100 limit or 75/150 limit game and I just don't have the BR for that type of buy in. Though it is definitely something to think about when I'm looking to take some shots.

All in all, I'm happy I made the trip and am now certainly a better player for it in the long run. Right now I'm probably going to take the next few days off, relax and recharge a bit before getting after it again. Mohegan Sun is running a summer series starting on July 16th and I plan on showing up for that so I've got to get myself ready to play. The journey never ends, only pauses for a stretch here and there.