A lot can happen in a month, and many things can wreak havoc on attempts to go to Las Vegas for 10 days, and drop 2K while there. I took my car into the shop planning on spending about $600 in repairs and maintenance in preparation for my trip. In the end I spent $1500, and have to spend another $1000 to get everything else fixed. At least the oil change was free, lol. Earlier this month I withdrew my online roll in order to have the money in time for my trip, but with the additional expenses, I was forced to dip into my bankroll. It helped as a nice cushion. But to poker.

Like I said I withdrew my online roll. I left about a hundred on both Stars and Tilt. Rush poker tournaments started, and I played in my fair share of them. I wasn't cashing in them, but they were so much fun I didn't care. I was also adjusting to the dynamic at the same time, and finally went deep in one. I was able to chop one heads up for a decent score. I decided at that point to withdraw all but ten bucks on Tilt. This was a few days after I took my car in, and an extra couple hundo sounded nice.

With the lack of funds online, beyond the Rush MTT's I haven't been playing online at all. It's a nice side effect to cashing out, I get to take a break from playing before Vegas. I've played live once since then, a friend was moving away, and he had a get together. It was a 1-2NL game, and was able to turn 120 into 625. Again, it helped to offset the cost of the repairs.

Without my recent success, my car repairs would have significantly crippled my ability to play in the WSOP this year. I had no success with the staking site online, but was able to sell a decent amount of action to fellow live players. I leave for Vegas a week from Monday, and I couldn't be more excited!!!

It's official. Well almost. I have firm plans to go to Vegas in June for about a week. With my continued progress online, and a little bit of live cash play, I can almost afford to play in 2K worth of tournaments in Vegas. Granted it is bad BR management to withdraw everything and take it all out there, which is why I am piecing off my action to reduce my overall risk. I've signed up for a staking site, but with my relative unknown status, I don't expect a sellout there. I'm also talking with fellow poker players in the area, and I've even sold the idea to a few non-poker friends. I think I will be able to get at least 1K of the buy-ins covered.

The tournaments I'll be playing in are Event #27 $1500 Stud Hi/Lo at the WSOP, and Binion's and the Nugget are hosting smaller ~$200 Stud Hi/Lo tournaments. I may play a few NLHE tournaments while in town, it's kind of hard not to. But one thing I will stay away from besides the table games, is no limit cash games. I don't have the roll for it, no matter how juicy the game. My focus while I am there is for tournament poker, and primarily three tournaments.

Ultimately this is still a bad move for the bankroll, but I want to play in the WSOP again. And I can do it, without spending any money not earned through poker. I ultimately don't mind going back to a $100 roll and starting again. My mindset has adjusted for playing poker. The poker money doesn't become real money until it goes into the wallet. My poker money is completely separate now. I've even paid myself through poker and even bought a Zune HD through playing poker. It's profitable for me again, not to mention enjoyable. This risk I'm taking this summer is for the same reason I went out the the WSOP in 2007. I want to prove to myself that I can play with the best.

In the meantime, I'll be grinding the WSOP steps on Tilt and Stars, hoping to bink bink bink my way to a free Main Event seat!

Oh yeah, the catalyst for this post was a culmination of events: I played live and made 530 at a 1-1 NL game. Next night I lost 300 (could have prevented most of it, bad game selection). I didn't tilt, as I am still up almost 700 in live sessions this year. I went back to playing online the next night. I played in a $4.40 2R1A, and during the first hour I was playing some 2-4 Stud 8 and won 100% of showdowns, making about 80 in the process. Then I started to focus on the tournament. The usual roller coaster, except for 6 hours later I have all the chips in play! I made $501 for taking the tournament down, which brought my 3-day net to just over $800 profit. When you are planning a trip to Vegas and need to get 2K together, having 800 bucks extra to work with really makes it easier... and official. Almost.

Well my run could last so long without losing too much in the cash games. I lost about 150 on Stars and another 150 on Tilt, on separate occasions. I was playing a little outside my roll, but I kept the losses manageable, especially given I made 700 in a week. I decided to withdraw the earnings from grinding cash. I have been working less hours, and pretty much could use the money. It sucks to take the hit to the roll, but then again, better than not having the money at all.

Well after I withdrew the money on Stars is when I lost the 150 on Tilt. I got coolered at a deep NL25 table for 200BB's and shot the rest off at a 3/6 Stud 8/b table. Suddenly down to 6 bucks, and 40 T$. Ummm, woops. So I took that money and have been playing the Stud 8/b tournaments each night. I played 3 10+1's the past few nights and just played in the 24+2 2K Guar (had a token). I cashed in all four, and now have 310 with 24 T$. I know I have been needing to play more Stud tournaments, but this is ridiculous. My stats have got me mind boggled, and I keep improving on them. A 300% ROI is somewhat difficult to maintain, but as long as I keep doing what I've been doing, I'm going to be freerolling in the 1500 WSOP Stud 8/b tournament.

Overall, I need to put more volume in, at least play in two or three stud tournaments daily. Not many run daily, but if I can find one with more than a 100 runners, I should have no problem getting my PLB score over 300 by mid year.